Presidency defends embattled NHIS boss Yusuf

The Presidency has risen to the defence of the suspended Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Professor Usman Yusuf, stating, that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Mr. Boss Mustapha and the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole have stepped into the crisis to find a lasting solution.

The Presidency, which spoke through the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, also alleged that the crisis at the NHIS has been politicised and given ethnic colouration by some interest groups within and outside the agency.

Shehu said: “Did the board follow due process in suspending this gentleman? There are opinions that said, ‘No, they haven’t.’

“Again, we all have to do the right thing all of the times. I don’t deny the fact that there is a lot of work to do, but the crisis has been complicated by the fact that the whole thing about the NHIS has been ethnicised and politicised.

“Even a political party was issuing a statement on matters that are unknown to it!

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“I’ll tell you one thing. You know that no matter whatever mistakes this gentleman may have made, it is to be proved. He has launched a major reform in that institution which had blocked access to public resources.

“Money from the NHIS is not money belonging to government, it is money taken from your salary, from my salary.

“If we have been enlisted, we are supposed to get treatment when we fall ill. You should ask the question in 13 years of the NHIS how many Nigerians have received treatment.

“Yet, you have HMOs, these vendors, taking N5bn every month, money that is just being shared and somebody came and said, ‘Look, this can’t go on;’ and with strong support from this administration, the N5bn has been reduced to N1.3bn.

“And even then, the administration is not satisfied. We want to see healthcare delivered to the citizens of this country. So, there is a lot of work to do,’’ he said.

Shehu also said he was not in the position to challenge the allegations of wrongdoings levelled against the executive secretary in some quarters, adding that the two chambers of the National Assembly had previously cleared the Executive Secretary of the allegations against him.

 

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