- By Halimah Olamide
Minister of State for Health, Dr. Tunji Alausa, on Tuesday told Nigerians that the country’s health system has improved to the point that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu now gets some of his medical needs in the country.
Alausa said that even foreigners now come to seek medical attention in Nigeria boasting that the improvements that have occurred since Tinubu assumed office is tremendous.
Speaking on a live interview on Channels TV on Tuesday, Alausa was persistently asked if the improvements he touted in the health sector has reached a point where the President is confident enough to submit himself for health care treatment in the country.
Alausa insisted that the President now gets some of his medical needs in the country.
The question came amidst hushed discussions over the present whereabout of the Nigerian President.
NPO Reported on Monday that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had demanded for the whereabouts of Tinubu saying it is unhealthy for the President and his vice Kashim Shettima to be out of the country at the same time.
Alausa, while speaking on the Television programme said the Nigerian health system is undergoing improvement in the area of funding, research, trainings and foreign collaborations.
He said Nigerians in the Diaspora are now confident of the health system at home that they want to be part of the efforts to change the narratives.
According to Alausa, the President is not the sole target of the overhaul project in the health system adding that the health system is being developed for the generality of Nigerians.
He said it is wrong to focus on Tinubu as the main target of an improved health system adding that the country is lucky enough to have a president who is working at least 16 hours of a day.
“We are not developing the Nigerian health system for the President. We are doing for Nigerians,” Alausa to his interviewers.
Asked about the whereabout of Tinubu, Alausa said it is unfair to press further on questions of where the President because he has been out of the country for a short period of time.
The interviewer had told the Minister that Nigerians are already asking what is keeping Tinubu out of the country since the conclusion of the event he attended in Riyahd, Saudi Arabia.
Alausa, who said he is not the personal physician of the president, said that it is only the personal doctor of the president who could speak better on the health records of his patient.