I never knew Nigeria’s healthcare infrastructure was in such bad state – SGF, Boss Mustapha (video)

The Secretary General to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha has bemoaned the poor state of the Nigerian healthcare infrastructure. 

Speaking at a meeting with national assembly leaders on Thursday April 9, Boss Mustapha said he only realized that Nigeria’s healthcare infrastructure was in a bad state after being made the Chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19. 

He said; 

“I can tell you for sure, I never knew that our entire healthcare infrastructure was in the state in which it is. Until I was appointed to do this work.”

Boss Mustapha stated that they now have plans of laying a legacy foundation for the immediate, medium and long-term development of the health system, following the emergence of Coronavirus in the country. 

The SGF revealed that the pandemic has provided the opportunity to examine the state of the national health care systems which is in dire need of reforms and funding, as he also pointed that the more established health systems in Europe and America collapsed under pressure after being struck by the virus. 

Boss also urged the legislature to deepen its oversight function by coming up with legislation that will make it easier for the executive to cushion the effect of COVID-19 on the citizenry. On transparency and accountability, he said the task force would not be directly involved in the collection and disbursement of cash donations for COVID-19.

He further said; 

“The Accountant General of the Federation has already published the account details for collection through some commercial banks and also provided the modalities for its utilisation.

“All the main COVID-19 accounts shall be domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). However, all non-cash donations shall be duly received by the PTF, acknowledged, documented and appropriately deployed.”