Nigeria presidents may not need to travel frequently for medical attention following the impending inauguration of the state-of-the-art Presidential Medical Centre, in the Aso Villa.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, while inspecting the medical facility in company with the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed and Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba said visiting presidents , ageing ex-presidents, as well as other top government officials, can also access medical care at the facility.a, while inspecting the medical facility in company with the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed and Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in November 2021 approved a site for the construction of the VIP wing of the State House clinic within the precinct of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Although Mustapha declined to disclose how much the government has expended on the project, he said the facility would address the frequency of the country’s presidents travelling abroad to seek medical treatment.
“It would to a large extent deal with it. This is a clinic, I believe that all procedures can be conducted here, if need be through modern sciences. Telemedicine now is very common, somebody can be sitting in his office in Germany, or in the US directing diagnosis and prescriptions, and also even procedures on a patient in this place.
“The other thing that this facility will do for us is that we receive visiting heads of state heads of government, peradventure there is an emergency, we need a facility that will provide the kind of care that is internationally acknowledged and recognised and a standard kind of care before even that particular head of state or government is evacuated out of the country. And this facility provides for that.
“We have ageing former presidents, I believe that they will have access to this facility, the sitting President will have access to it, and other top government functionaries as may be prescribed by the administrative structure that will be put in place. I believe that this is money well spent.”
The presidency had also vowed to inaugurate the state-of-the-art clinic, designed to offer medicare for the country’s President, Vice President, visiting Heads of State and other high-ranking officials of government before the end of the Buhari-led government.
