MEDICAL TOURISM: Pressure Mounts On Tinubu, Shettima To Use N21bn State House Clinic

Public pressure is intensifying on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima , to lead by example by using the N21 billion State House Presidential/VIP Wing Medical Centre for their healthcare needs.

This is sequel to the fact that the facility, built to curb medical tourism among top goverment officials, has remained underutilised more than a year after its commissioning, prompting growing calls for accountability and domestic confidence in the country’s healthcare infrastructure.

Over a year after its grand commissioning, the State House Presidential/VIP Wing Medical Centre constructed at a staggering cost of N21 billion, now sits largely idle, raising concerns about neglect and fresh moves toward privatisation under the President Bola Tinubu administration.

Findings by LEADERSHIP Sunday reveal that since they assumed office in May 2023, neither President Bola Ahmed Tinubu nor Vice President Kashim Shettima has made use of the hospital specifically built to cater to their medical needs and those of their families, and other high-ranking government officials.

Commissioned just days before former President Muhammadu Buhari left office, the Presidential/VIP Wing medical facility was touted as a signature project aimed at reducing medical tourism and providing elite healthcare services within Nigeria.

The facility, spread across 2,485 square metres, includes five specialist consultation rooms – for cardiology, ENT (ear, nose and throat), ophthalmology, respiratory, and general medicine – as well as cutting-edge diagnostic equipment such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) scan, digital X-ray, and endoscopy suites.

The hospital also features two fully equipped operating theatres, a catheterisation laboratory, and a healing garden designed to promote recovery and well-being.

According to the former State House permanent secretary, Tijjani Umar, it was a “legacy and transformative project” meant to leave a lasting mark on Nigeria’s healthcare landscape.

Yet, 14 months later, the facility remains practically abandoned. LEADERSHIP Sunday’s checks revealed minimal activity at the hospital and an absence of any known usage by the country’s top officials.

N21bn State House Clinic For Privatisation

Worryingly, sources within the State House confirmed that proposals to privatise the N21bn facility are at an advanced stage. While details remain sketchy, the discussions suggest the Tinubu administration may be looking to hand over control of the clinic to a private operator, citing poor utilisation and cost concerns.

This shift in direction has triggered criticism from observers who see the move as a contradiction of the project’s original purpose, especially in a country where public officials frequently seek treatment abroad at great public expense.

Despite multiple efforts to seek clarification, the Presidency has remained silent. Messages sent to Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga were not replied to as of the time of filing this report.

At the time of the commissioning in May 2023, Tijjani Umar had proudly announced that the VIP Wing was part of a broader infrastructure overhaul of State House medical services, including a Biosafety Level 2 Molecular Laboratory (certified by the NCDC), a Dental Wing Extension, a Special Care Centre, and a multi-purpose 54-seater training auditorium.

“We are excited that Mr. President has kindly consented to inaugurate this legacy and transformative project,” Umar said then, adding that several related projects were also nearing completion.

But with the hospital now lying dormant and no official word on its status, concerns are mounting over the fate of yet another expensive government initiative.

As Nigerians demand accountability, the question remains: will the N21bn presidential clinic be revived as a working symbol of domestic medical excellence or written off as another white elephant?

LEADERSHIP Sunday recalls that a former first lady, Aisha Buhari, had in 2017 openly criticised the chief medical director of the State House Clinic, Dr. Husain Munir, over the poor state of the health facility meant to serve the president, vice president, their families, and staff of the Presidential Villa.

Mrs. Buhari expressed disappointment over the clinic’s condition, stating that she was sick and was advised to travel abroad, but she insisted on being treated in Nigeria because there was a budget for a State House Clinic.

She revealed that she eventually had to visit a private hospital run entirely by foreigners after discovering that the clinic’s X-ray machine was not functional.

 

Invest In Nigeria’s Healthcare, Nigerians Beg Leaders

The death of former President Muhammadu Buhari in a London hospital has sparked renewed public outrage in Nigeria as citizens intensify calls on the government to fix the country’s failing healthcare system instead of relying on foreign medical facilities, a practice many describe as “medical tourism in the face of national shame.”

The anger deepened following a controversial comment by a former special adviser on media and publicity to the late president, Femi Adesina.

Speaking during a funeral broadcast aired Tuesday on Channels Television, Adesina claimed that Buhari might have died much earlier if he had depended on Nigerian hospitals.

“Those criticising the fact that he died in a London hospital forget that he had used that hospital for decades,” Adesina said. “Even before he became president in 2015, he was already using that hospital. The doctors were familiar with his medical history. If he had subjected himself to some of our hospitals, maybe he would have been long gone,” he added.

His comments have since drawn sharp criticism, fuelling debate about the state of Nigeria’s healthcare sector and the persistent trend of top political figures seeking medical care abroad, often at public expense.

Buhari, who served two terms as president from 2015 to 2023, was frequently criticised for his prolonged medical stays in the United Kingdom, especially during the early years of his presidency when he battled an undisclosed illness.

In 2016, Buhari flew to London for treatment of an ear infection, despite Nigeria having over 250 ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialists and a National Ear Centre.

At the time, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, then vice president of the Commonwealth Medical Association, condemned the trip, accusing the president of reneging on his promise to end medical tourism.

Ironically, just two months before Buhari’s 2016 medical trip, he had, through then Health Minister Prof. Isaac Adewole, assured the Nigerian Medical Association that his administration would discourage government officials from seeking medical treatment abroad.

“While this administration will not deny anyone their fundamental rights, we will certainly not encourage expending Nigeria’s hard-earned resources on any official seeking care overseas when such can be handled locally,” he had said.

Despite such promises, Buhari continued to patronise foreign hospitals throughout his presidency, a practice that many Nigerians, including healthcare professionals, described as a lack of confidence in the healthcare services they oversee.

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) and Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) have all condemned the growing trend of political leaders seeking medical treatment abroad, describing it as a damning reflection of the country’s deteriorating healthcare system.

 

$7bn Lost To Medical Tourism Every year – NMA

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and other civic voices  have joined other concerned Nigerians, to charge  the country’s top leaders to end the long-standing tradition of seeking medical care abroad.

According to them, continuing medical tourism undermines public trust in local health institutions and contradicts the government’s own investment in elite healthcare infrastructure like the State House Clinic.

NMA first vice president Dr. Benjamin Olowojebutu voiced the association’s concerns during an interview on Arise Television on Tuesday night.

According to Olowojebutu, the government’s chronic neglect of the health sector has not only eroded public confidence but has also led to a massive annual loss of funds due to medical tourism.

“Right now, we have about $7 billion leaving the country every year on medical tourism because we don’t trust our system. The government has failed Nigeria’s health space. Now, we have one doctor to about 10,000 patients,” he said.

He criticised the hypocrisy of leaders who, despite overseeing poorly equipped and underfunded hospitals, choose to fly abroad for medical care, often funded by public resources.

“How many of the presidents of those countries died outside their country? In America, we just lost Jimmy Carter a few months ago. He died in America. That’s what you talk about – loving your country. Why would you go and die outside your country? You don’t trust the health professionals?” he asked. “No value for healthcare, no passion for the country?

“I will keep saying, think about Nigeria first. The leaders are not thinking about Nigeria first.

 

Health is supposed to be the right of every patient in this country, but right now, health looks like it’s very, very secluded, only for leaders that can afford to travel abroad at the twinkling of an eye,” he lamented.

Corroborating this, a former president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, described the practice as deceitful and a clear indication of failed leadership.

Ohuabunwa told LEADERSHIP Sunday that successive administrations have made lofty promises about improving healthcare infrastructure but failed to deliver on them.

“We are long in promises and short in delivery. We budget so much but spend so little. It’s all talk,” he said.

 

Govt officials have no faith in local hospitals

According to him, the preference of top government officials for foreign hospitals stems from their lack of confidence in the very institutions they were elected to build and maintain.

“If you have confidence in what is set up, you use it. But they don’t. From the time of late President Umaru Yar’Adua, after the embarrassment that followed his medical saga, Buhari came and we thought he would make a change, having gone through the same experience. Now Tinubu is often in France. It’s a pattern, a failure to build or trust our own system,” he stated.

Ohuabunwa lamented that because these leaders can afford treatment abroad, they are indifferent to the welfare of healthcare workers at home.

“They don’t care if our doctors or pharmacists are well paid, trained, or even properly equipped. They have abandoned the system. It’s all deceit,” he said.

He recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo made efforts to establish six healthcare centres of excellence, equipping facilities in ABU Zaria, Enugu, and Lagos, but there was no political will to follow through and sustain the initiative.

To address the issue, he called for legislation that would restrict government-funded foreign medical trips, except on referral by a Nigerian doctor, and only when the required treatment is unavailable locally.

“Medicine is a global field, and international referrals are sometimes necessary. But in Nigeria, our leaders don’t even attempt local care. They simply fly out, with government money, parked planes, and accruing airport charges. It’s senseless. It’s a shame. A national castigation of our leadership and misplaced priorities,” he said.

 

Our leaders are unpatriotic, says AMLS President

The AMLSN also condemned the persistent reliance on foreign medical care by the country’ political class, saying it reflects deep-seated failures in governance, corruption, and disregard for the country’s healthcare system.

AMLSN national president Dr. Casmir Ifeanyi told LEADERSHIP Sunday that Nigerian leaders’ refusal to develop or use local medical facilities has led to the collapse of confidence in the health system, both at home and abroad.

Citing past events, he recalled how during President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the State House Medical Centre in Abuja was reportedly so under-resourced that it lacked basic items like syringes.

“Yet after public backlash, they claimed to have invested billions to upgrade the facility to world-class standard. But I challenge anyone to visit and compare its services to even some private clinics in Abuja,” he said.

According to him, the problem is rooted in a deliberate lack of political will.

“Our leaders are unpatriotic when it comes to healthcare. They never intended to build or sustain any meaningful system. They are comfortable flying themselves, their families, and their cronies abroad at the slightest medical need, at the expense of the Nigerian taxpayer,” he stated.

He described so-called “world-class” hospitals built by some state governors as glorified buildings with no functional healthcare delivery.

“One governor, now in national leadership, claimed to have built a world-class hospital in Akwa Ibom. I visited; it was inaccessible due to a flooded gutter. The same governor flew abroad after a minor accident,” he said.

Another former governor, he said, built a hospital in his village but sought a court order to retrieve his passport so he could travel abroad for hypertension treatment. It’s clear, they don’t trust the very institutions they build,” said Ifeanyi.

He called for decisive legislative action to ban medical tourism for government officials and public office holders for at least the next 10 to 15 years.

“Let us shut that door and focus on building our system. We have the money. We have the manpower. What we lack is

Ifeanyi recalled that the State House Medical Clinic used to be a hub for elite healthcare in the 1990s, drawing patients from across the country.

“Now, it’s a shell of its former self. If the presidency cannot trust its own clinic, how can ordinary Nigerians trust the system?” he asked.

 

Leaders’ medical tourism, a national shame – CISLAC

Reacting to the growing trend of Nigerian leaders seeking medical treatment abroad, the executive director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, described the trend as a national embarrassment and a damning reflection of the country’s failing healthcare system.

Rafsanjani told LEADERSHIP Sunday that it is unacceptable that Nigeria, despite its wealth and pool of skilled health professionals, cannot provide quality medical services to its citizens, especially its top political office holders.

“Nigeria’s image is badly damaged when its presidents and top officials must be flown abroad for medical treatment. It compromises our national security and shows we are failing in all sectors, from healthcare to education,” he said.

“If leaders had built just one national hospital in each of the six area councils of Abuja and replicated that across the 36 states, we wouldn’t be talking about medical tourism. But today, billions of naira leave our economy annually to pay for healthcare abroad,” he said.

He called on the National Assembly and the executive to take urgent steps to reform and strengthen the country’s public hospitals, starting with those in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, where some general hospitals still face shortages of beds and medical staff.

 

Nigeria under-investing in health – CSJ

Lead director, Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Eze Onyekpere, remarked that the National Health Act prescribes rigorous provisions  to be fulfilled before a public officer embarks on medical tourism, but this is ignored in practice.

Onyekpere said Nigeria has underinvested in health and even the little provided in budgets is hardly released as health is not prioritised.

“It is a clear case of governance failure, mismanagement of resources  and grand corruption because every sector in Nigeria suffers the same fate despite available resources which should have been more prudently managed.

 

Leadership Failure, Cause Of Health Institutions’ Decay – Peter Obi

Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate during the 2023 general election, Mr. Peter Obi, has blamed political leaders for the decay in health institutions across the country.

He said the when he paid an unscheduled visit to the students of the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Ituku-Ozala, Enugu State, after receiving a letter from the faculty’s re-accreditation fundraising committee requesting his financial support.

He said that upon verifying the genuineness of the letter, he decided to visit to see the situation on the ground. There, he promised the students that in addition to his personal donation, he would also solicit other good-spirited individuals to support the faculty.

 

Doctors Cite Poor Facilities, Lust For Foreign Medicare

Meanwhile, Nigerian doctors have attributed the leaders’ preference for foreign medical treatment to inadequate medical facilities and lust for foreign medical attention.

Speaking with LEADERSHIP Sunday in Osogbo, Dr. Tayo Adekola said doctors and other medical personnel in Nigeria are professionals who are capable of handling any ailments. He, however, noted that the country’s leaders had preference for foreign medical care for reasons best known to them.

He noted that Nigerian medical personnel are making waves all over the world, even as he disclosed that the lack of incentives and equipment to work were responsible for the mass exodus of medical hands abroad, thereby creating unprecedented stress for the few working in the country.

For her part, the Osun State commissioner for health Mr. Jola Akintola said the state was doing everything possible to upgrade medical equipment in state-owned medical facilities across the state.

 

Poor Emoluments, Collapsing Infrastructure – A/Ibom NMA

The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) In Akwa Ibom State has expressed dismay that the federal government has become insensitive to the vital health sector, with collapsing medical consumables and infrastructure not capable of taking care of patients.

Chairman of the state NMA Branch, Dr. Aniekan Peter, expressed dismay that while the leaders left the public hospitals to become death traps for the ordinary citizens to go and die, they flee to seek medical refuge abroad.

He lamented that President Tinubu, even with the poor welfare of medical professionals in Nigeria, he had to send Nigerian doctors (some of whom earn N300,00 monthly)  to St. Lucia for further enslavement on N3million monthly salary in a small country where the salary of medical doctors hovers between N13 million to N15 million monthly.

 

Govt Needs To Fix The System — Doctor

‎In Abia State, Dr. Philip Ijendu declared that reviving Nigeria’s health system could easily be dome.

‎He said, “Fixing the system is not rocket science. Over the years the NMA has been telling the government all that are required to do it.

“It is a matter of retrofitting and regularly upgrading the equipment, paying the doctors their commensurate salaries and allowances, and offering other incentives.”

‎Similarly, a gynaecologist in a medical facility in Umuahia, the state capital, who pleaded anonymity, blamed the situation on the leaders’ selfish interest and lack of political will.

‎”This is part of the exploitation of the led by the leaders. They want us to remain poor, hungry, sick, uneducated, malnourished, and weakened to challenge them,” she said.

 

Medical City planned for Abia

The commissioner for Health, Ogbonnaya Uche, said the government proposed building a medical city in the state to correct the anomaly.

He also said that while its specific focus areas are still emerging, it is planned to focus on advanced medical care and specialised healthcare services.

 

Senate Mum, NMA Blasts FG Over Medical Tourism

The Senate has declined to make comments following strong criticism from the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) directed at the Bola Tinubu-led federal government over the persistent trend of political leaders seeking medical treatment abroad.

Reacting to the recent death of former President Buhari in a London hospital, NMA’s First Vice President Dr. Benjamin Olowojebutu, described the situation as disgraceful.

He noted that it highlights the failure of Nigeria’s healthcare system and the government’s negligence in addressing it.

Appearing on an Arise TV programme, Olowojebutu said the continued reliance on foreign medical care by Nigerian leaders is a damning reflection of their lack of faith in the country’s health infrastructure.

“It’s a shame that our leaders not only travel abroad for medical treatment, but some have even died there,” he said. “The government has failed Nigeria’s health sector. Today, we have just one doctor for every 10,000 patients.”

Olowojebutu underlined the financial toll of this trend, pointing out that Nigeria loses an estimated $7 billion annually to medical tourism.

“You can’t preach patriotism to ordinary Nigerians while leaders abandon the healthcare system they’re meant to fix, only to jet abroad using public funds for treatment. It’s unjust and deeply troubling.

“Healthcare should be a basic right for every Nigerian, not a luxury for a privileged few who can afford international treatment at the drop of a hat,” he said.

Efforts to get reactions from the senators responsible for appropriating funds for health and other sectors were unsuccessful.

Inquiries sent to Senate Spokesperson Yemi Adaramodu and the chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ipalibo Banigo (Rivers West), were unanswered as of press time.