Nigerian Public Officials Healthcare Guidelines Bill 2021

Ayo Akinfe

(1) Elected officials and the members of their immediate families are barred from going overseas for medical treatment

(2) Exceptions may be made in the cases of rare specialist care. In such cases, affected officials need to write to the National Assembly seeking permission for such trips

(3) Any public official who needs specialist overseas care more than once during a four year tenure must vacate their office

(4) Any public official who spends more than 20 days abroad receiving healthcare must forfeit their office

(5) The health minister will be responsible for the treatment of any public official who has had to vacate office as a result of health challenges

(6) The health minister will ask any overseas hospital treating Nigerian public officials to train local doctors and nurses so such treatment can be offered in Nigeria

(7) Hospital bills for all specialist overseas treatment will be made public and must be approved by the National Assembly

(8) To cut down on overseas medical trips, all state governments must spend at least 20% of their annual budget on healthcare

(9) The federal government will build six specialist hospitals in Nigeria. They will cover renal failure, oncology, optometry, cardiology, brain surgery and orthopaedic surgery

(10) All public officials must undergo a thorough medical examination once a year to ascertain their fitness. Anyone who scores below 50% will be asked to vacate their office. In the run-up to elections, any candidate who scores less than 50% will be disqualified from running