Atiku to FG: Snakes, monkeys shouldn’t swallow $1bn healthcare loan

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar says snakes and monkeys should not be allowed to swallow the $1 billion loan obtained from the International Development Association (IDA) for healthcare funding.

ANIMAL FARM

In February 2018, a clerk of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in Benue, alleged that a mystery snake had swallowed the examination body’s N36 million from her office vault.

Shortly after, Shehu Sani, then senator representing Kaduna central, said Abdullahi Adamu was removed as chairman of the Northern Senators Forum after claiming that about N70 million belonging to the group was carted away by monkeys from a farmhouse.

In 2019, a gorilla was accused of swallowing N6.8 million in the Kano Zoological Gardens.

ENHANCING PRIMARY HEALTHCARE

Last Monday, the federal executive council (FEC) approved $1.07 billion to finance the healthcare sector reforms under the human capital opportunities for prosperity and equity (HOPE) programme.

Speaking at the end of the FEC meeting, Wale Edun, minister of finance, said IDA provided two $500 million concessional loans each, alongside $70 million in grant funding from other international bodies.

Ali Pate, minister of health, said the funding allocates $500 million for governance improvements and another $500 million to enhance primary healthcare.

The minister noted that the governance component will incentivise states to recruit and train teachers and healthcare workers, while the healthcare portion will expand primary healthcare services, improve quality, and boost resilience.

FEC had also approved an allocation of N4.5 billion for the procurement of HIV treatment packs to support Nigerians living with HIV/AIDS.

‘NIGERIANS SHOULD KNOW DETAILS OF LOAN’

In a statement released on Sunday, Abubakar said “claims of animals such as snakes, termites, gorillas and monkeys swallowing public funds must never be the fate of the funds budgeted for the critical sector of health”.

The former vice-president said it is “immoral” for the government not to provide extensive details of how the $1 billion loan would be spent.

“We have read that the Federal Government has a plan to expend a whopping sum of $1.07 billion in the primary health sector,” the statement reads.

“This amount is in addition to the N2.48 trillion, which had earlier been proposed for the health sector in the initial draft of the budget.

“This development gets even more troubling when the government equally announced that the $1.07 billion it is adding to the health sector at the sub-national level was mainly sourced through foreign loans and a fraction of it being provided through an international donor agency.

“In other words, Nigeria is expected to pay these loans back and it is required that the Nigerian people know the details of these loans and that its expenditure must be conveyed in a policy envelop that will explain how it will be spent.

“For an administration that has been known to have a deficiency of trust in the administration of its humanitarian services, Nigerians cannot take the risk of accepting a shoddy explanation on a budgetary provision that lacks a mechanism of tracking how the money is to be expended.”