\u2026Considers bill to address exodus of doctors, nurses\u00a0
The Senate, on Thursday, moved to block revenue leakages from medical tourism with the consideration of a bill that would see to reduced number of Nigerians traveling to other countries for medical care.\u00a0
The Senate, on Thursday, also confirmed the nomination of Barr. Victor Chinemerem Muruako as Chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission.\u00a0\u00a0
The confirmation of the nominee followed consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Finance, Chaired by Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (APC, Lagos-West).\u00a0
Immediately after presentation of the report by the Chairman of Committee, the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, objected to the confirmation of the nominee on the basis that full nominations to the Commission was yet to be forwarded to the Upper Chamber by President Muhammadu Buhari, adding that the Chairman cannot be confirmed alone without the compliment of full membership of the Commission.\u00a0
He, therefore, moved a motion for the confirmation to be stepped down pending when the President constitutes the Commission\u2019s Board and sends the nominations to the upper chamber for screening and confirmation.\u00a0
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, in his response, however, prevailed on his colleagues for the Senate to confirm the nominee pending when the full list of nominees was sent to the Senate by the President.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\u201cIf we don\u2019t confirm, this person would still be acting, so it makes little or no difference really.
\u201cI suggest we do the confirmation and insist\u00a0\u00a0that the Chairman does not constitute the board of the Commission, because the Commission is supposed to have the full compliment of what the law says.\u00a0
\u201cSo, we do the confirmation and write to the Executive to nominate the remaining people to form the Commission.
\u201cBut let me also remark here, that the man has acted for over seven years, and yet this commission, I personally don\u2019t know what they are doing. What are they doing?
\u201cSo, the Chairman, when he is confirmed, has a huge responsibility to turn around this Commission for it to perform efficiently and effectively.\u00a0
\u201cOtherwise, for him to be there seven years acting, and then fours years \u2013 that is eleven years \u2013 running that Commission, probably he did it as a Sole Administrator over the years, and is simply not acceptable because the Fiscal Responsibility Commission is such an important Commission that we need to have everybody who is supposed to be there, and they have to sit up, especially the man who would lead this,\u201d Lawan said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
Meanwhile, the bill titled: Federal Medical Centres (Establishment) Bill, 2021, was sponsored by Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed (APC, Adamawa Central).
Leading debate on the bill, Senator Ahmed said the absence of a legal framework for the regulation, development and management of Federal Medical Centers to set standards for rendering health services was responsible for hindering the provision of intensive, effective and efficient health care services to the people of Nigeria.\u00a0
According to the lawmaker, \u201cthis has led to a number of challenges in the health sector including but not limited to under-funding, weak facilities and infrastructure, poor motivation of health workers, low budget, weak accountability, conflicts with the political structure of the states and industrial strikes which has led to inadequacies, shortcomings and weaknesses which hinder effective health care delivery services.\u201d
She noted that the passage of the bill will \u201creduce the number of Nigerians who have to go to other countries for medical care.\u201d
The lawmaker lamented that, \u201can average of 20,000 Nigerians travel to India each year for medical assistance due to the absence of a solid healthcare system at home.\u201d
Senator Ahmed further noted that the piece of legislation would also sufficiently address remuneration of the employees of the Medical Centers which in turn would check the exodus of doctors and nurses to other countries.
\u201cSeventy-seven percent of black doctors in the US are Nigerians and there is rarely any top medical institution in the US or Europe where you don\u2019t find Nigerians managing at the top level.
\u201cHardly a year passes without a major national strike by nurses, doctors, or health consultants. The major reasons for these strikes are poor salaries and lack of government investment in the health sector,\u201d she said.\u00a0
Citing a report of the United Nations International Children\u2019s Emergency Fund, Ahmed stressed that the bill would \u201cimprove on the persistent rate of avoidable deaths of all Nigerians.\u201d
\u201cA recent UNICEF report has it that \u201cpreventable or treatable diseases such as malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea, measles and HIV\/AIDS account for more than 70 percent of the estimated one million under-five deaths in Nigeria,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0
She added that with the right data, Nigeria would witness improvements to the health information system, regular and sustainable population and health-facility-based surveys; as well as have a centralized management of the many challenges of the 23 Federal Medical Centers in the country.\u00a0
Contributing to the debate, Senator Yahaya Oloriegbe (APC, Kwara Central) said Federal Medical Centres were incapacitated as a result of the absence of legal backing establishing them and insufficient funding.\u00a0\u00a0
\u201cWe have about twenty-three Federal Medical Centres that were established across the country, but without legal backing.
\u201cThe consequence of such is that there are, what I will call policy somersault as regards the operations of these centres.
\u201cYou see some of the centres that have enough facilities and manpower to even be termed a Teaching Hospital, but because the legal framework did not state the standard, in terms of infrastructures, manpower and services, they remain like that, and it becomes at the whims and caprices of the policy makers in the Federal Ministry of\u00a0\u00a0Health.\u00a0
\u201cThe consequences in terms of funding allocation, Federal Medical Centres receive less fund compared to Teaching Hospitals, the lawmaker said.\u00a0
On his part, Senator Ibn Na\u2019Allah said the bill was timely as it seeks \u201cto ensure that all institutions of government are governed by law.\u201d
\u201cWe cannot continue to operate a democracy where public funds are disbursed to institutions that are not recognize by law. That is not right,\u201d Na\u2019Allah added.
The bill after scaling Second Reading was referred by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to the Committee on Health for further legislative work.
The Committee which is Chaired by Senator Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe is expected to report back in four weeks.
The Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege (APC, Delta Central), on his part, observed that going ahead with the confirmation of the nominee without the compliment of full membership of the Board was not the intent of President Buhari.\u00a0\u00a0
On Muruako, Omo-Agege suggested that the nominee\u2019s confirmation be put on hold.
\u201cI don\u2019t believe it is the intent of Mr. President to nominate a sole administrator. Clearly, that cannot be his intention.\u00a0
\u201cThe Commission is entitled to the full compliment of members, and my view without prejudice to the ruling you just gave and the man\u2019s qualifications, would have been for this to be put on hold while we await Mr. President to bring the other members,\u201d the Deputy Senate President said.\u00a0
According to him, \u201cgoing ahead to do this (confirm nominee) right now, is validating the sole administrator-ship that he has enjoyed for the past seven years, and it is wrong, Mr. President.\u201d
Lending his voice in support of the nominee\u2019s confirmation, Senator James Manager (PDP, Delta South), said, \u201cli\nstening to both sides of the arguments, the man has been there in acting capacity for seven years.
\u201cNow, only his name has been submitted to us to sc\nreen and clear without his members. It is an ugly story. However, I would suggest not stepping down, we clear the man, but you have the responsibility to convey \u2013 not in writing \u2013 but talking to Mr. President that this is the situation. Somebody, somewhere is clearly playing a game which is not correct, that is why we are here.\u201d
Senator Ibn Na\u2019Allah, on his part, cautioned the lawmakers not to act against the provisions of the law by refusing to confirm the nominee, as the Fiscal Responsibility Act does not make it mandatory for the President to submit the complete names of nominees for appointment to the Board at once.\u00a0
\u201cMr. President, I always wants us to err on the side of law. The ruling and the running of Senate is not left to our whims and caprices. We are guided by law and the Constitution.
\u201cI have had the privilege of reading the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Bill. When we made that law, there was no where we specifically said that the appointment must be done at once.
\u201cAll we said is that the Commission should have the Chairman, and then members from the six groups-political zones to constitute the body. That is the position of the law.\u00a0
\u201cAnd, I remind each and everyone of us here, that the rules of engagement between us and those who elected us into this office is the oath that we took on that very day, that we would uphold, defend and protect the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the law.
\u201cSo, if the Fiscal Responsibility Bill does not say that the President must make this appointment at once, I\u2019m unable to find the wisdom of not confirming the name submitted to the Senate if he has meet the legal requirement to be confirmed as the Chairman.
\u201cAgain, don\u2019t forget that we are running a democracy, the principle of which is guided by the separation of\u00a0\u00a0on powers. We cannot do our work and do that of Mr. President,\u201d Na\u2019Allah advised.
The nominee was, thereafter, confirmed by Upper Chamber as Chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission.\u00a0
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\u2026Considers bill to address exodus of doctors, nurses\u00a0 The Senate, on Thursday, moved to block revenue leakages from medical tourism with the consideration of a bill that would see to reduced number of Nigerians traveling to other countries for medical care.\u00a0 The Senate, on Thursday, also confirmed the nomination of Barr. Victor Chinemerem Muruako as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":15072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5773,15,7],"tags":[2936,2937,2582],"class_list":["post-31410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","category-jobs","category-news","tag-frc","tag-muruako","tag-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}