A bill seeking to prescribe a jail term of seven years and/or a fine of N500m for officials who spend public funds on foreign medical trips passed second reading at the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
The Bill, sponsored by Hon. Sergius Ogun (PDP, Edo), is titled, ‘A Bill for an Act to amend the National Health Act, 2014; and for related matters’.
The section reads, “Without prejudice to the right of any Nigerian to seek medical check-up, investigation or treatment anywhere within and outside Nigeria, no public officer of the government of the federation or any part thereof shall be sponsored for medical check-up, investigation or treatment abroad at public expense, except in exceptional cases on the recommendation and referral by the medical board and which recommendation and referral shall be duly approved by the minister or commissioner of Health of the state as the case may be.”
Leading the debate on the bill, Mr. Ogun said the objective of the proposal law was to amend the Act “so as to make provision for sanctions against any public officer, who violates the provisions of the Act, especially Section 46 of the Act.”
He said, “It is no news that Nigeria’s health care system is in a deplorable state and needs urgent attention. There is paucity of infrastructure, dearth of medical personnel, poor standards and many other challenges that need to be addressed. The intent of this bill is to spur public officers to pay more attention to our health care sector and take drastic steps to develop and improve on the sector.
“If this House passes this bill into law, it will curtail the excessive medical trips of public officers abroad and direct their attention to fixing the poor state of the country’s health sector. This will in turn lead to the development of the health sector and improved remuneration for medical doctors, thus attracting Nigerian doctors abroad to come back home.”
Ogun also cited reduction of capital flight abroad, saying, “This bill, as has been stressed above, will stop the export of cash abroad and redirect the same to the development of our economy.
“All of this cash, which flies abroad in the disguise of one medical trip or the other, will be retained here in our country and be used to develop our nation,” he added.