A bill seeking to prescribe a jail term of seven years and/or a fine of N500m for officials who spend public funds on foreign medical trips narrowly passed second reading at the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
Sponsored by Sergius Ogun (PDP, Edo), the proposed legislation is titled, ‘A Bill for an Act to amend the National Health Act, 2014; and for related matters’.
Leading the debate on the bill, Ogun noted that the objective of the proposal law was to amend the Act “so as to make provision for sanctions against any public officer, who violates the provisions of the Act, especially Section 46 of the Act.”
The section reads, “Without prejudice to the right of any Nigerian to seek medical check-up, investigation or treatment anywhere within and outside Nigeria, no public officer of the government of the federation or any part thereof shall be sponsored for medical check-up, investigation or treatment abroad at public expense, except in exceptional cases on the recommendation and referral by the medical board and which recommendation and referral shall be duly approved by the minister or commissioner of Health of the state as the case may be.”
Ogun said, “This bill, which seeks to amend the National Health Act, is borne out of a desire to discourage medical treatment abroad at the detriment of our indigenous health institutions. The need to revamp the poor state of the health care sector in Nigeria, among other things, is the reason for introducing this bill.
