Frontline civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA) on Sunday, applauded Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo over his full disclosure on his surgery at a Lagos-based hospital and advised politicians including the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and other junketing politicians who frequent overseas on medical tourism to learn from the Professor of Law.
HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Conrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, also wished the Vice President quick recovery and urged him to continue to show faith in Nigeria. HURIWA said those whom we the people of Nigeria pay their bills for the mere fact that we elected them and clothed them with the legitimacy to exercise authority for a limited time, must play the game by the rule and must never expect the people who own the sovereignty of Nigeria to worship them as if they are deities but they must see themselves as servants of the people and not masters and emperors. This is the symbolic gesture that what Professor Yemi Osinbajo has done has conveyed and we owe him a great deal of appreciation.
Recall that Osinbajo was admitted to the Duchess International Hospital GRA, Lagos, on Saturday on account of a fracture of his right femur possibly related to a longstanding injury associated with a game of squash and undergone a successful surgical procedure.
The VP in a statement by his spokesman, Laolu Akande, had chronicled the names of the doctors that operated on him at the Lagos-based hospital.
Reacting, HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “The action of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), is worthy of been profoundly applauded. The number two citizen should be saluted over his full disclosure about his condition as opposed to the secrecy that has surrounded President Muhammadu Buhari’s frequent foreign medical tours on our public costs. Without any controversy Osinbajo’s full disclosure model should be emulated by all leaders in Nigeria. In the case of his boss the President, the opaque and secretive nature of his frequent overseas medical trips at great costs to Nigeria even made some groups to circulate the tales by moonlight that the real Muhammadu Buhari was not the one in the Presidential mansion but that a certain Jibrin from Sudan was supplanted to mask as the real President Muhammadu Buhari that some 12 million voters elected twice in 2015 and 2019. This fake and fabricated story about President Muhammadu Buhari was given life by the unnecessary secrecy surrounding the health conditions of President Muhammadu Buhari. But this refreshing attitudes of full disclosure shown by the Vice President is indeed heart-warming and should be commended by all and sundry.
“Politicians including the President and governors should also start showing faith in Nigerian health infrastructure and doctors. This is how to grow the nation.
“It is a shameful thing that by the end of 2021, Buhari had spent over 200 days on medical leave in the United Kingdom since 2015, despite the fact that the Federal Ministry of Health has been allocated over N2.3 trillion from 2016 to date, while the State House Medical Centre has received over N6.2 billion, as stated on the website of the Budget Office of the Federation.”
“HURIWA wishes the Vice-President quick recovery and tasks him on responsible leadership by example. By this conduct of Professor Yemi Osinbajo, he has henceforth entered the National HUMAN RIGHTS HALL OF FAME of the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA as a HUMAN RIGHTS ICON.”
COMRADE Emmanuel Onwubiko
National Coordinator – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA)
July 17, 2022