THE Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, is a smart politician with a history of progressivism and an enviable capacity for straight talk. Many northern politicians, not excluding from his native Adamawa State, tend to trust him implicitly.
He demonstrated his admirable traits a few days ago when he told a disbelieving public that his appointment as chair of the 12-member presidential task force on COVID-19 had afforded him the opportunity to make a more sensible but disturbing assessment of Nigeria’s health sector.
The sector, he told a bemused National Assembly leadership which had invited him to meet minds with them last Thursday, was undoubtedly deplorable and incapable of meeting any national health emergency such as the coronavirus pandemic.
“I can tell you for sure, I never knew that our entire healthcare infrastructure was in the state in which it is. Until I was appointed to do this work,” he declared gravely.
He has been roundly condemned by sceptics who wondered where he was all these years as the health sector took a pounding. They also accused him of exemplifying the executive branch’s criminal disconnect from the sordid reality of everyday life and living in Nigeria.
Should he have known just how broken the Nigerian health sector was as the SGF? Perhaps. But he was appointed only in November 2017 as the SGF, probably enough time to acquaint himself with the frightening realities of Nigerian life and the health sector.
In any case, as a lawyer and management consultant, one who had taken a number of public office appointments in the past, and as someone who has lived and schooled in Nigeria for decades, it would be strange to plead ignorance.
He could not argue that he had enjoyed privileged treatment all his life to the point of being insulated from the manifestations of Nigeria’s broken systems.
Indeed, Mr Mustapha’s exposure as a progressive politician, especially one who has appeared all his life as a genuine progressive, demands that he should have acquired first-hand knowledge of aspects of Nigeria’s broken infrastructure, whether they be roads, hospitals or schools.
Those who condemn the SGF for just waking up to the horrid reality of the health sector may, therefore, be justified, regardless of his argument that he was misquoted. But perhaps what the SGF is really saying is that he was unaware of the depth of the brokenness.
Having now come to the knowledge of how broken this critical sector is, though belatedly, he will be more amenable to discussions geared towards reforming it.
He really can’t and must not be excused. But he does not share as huge a part of the blame as the presidency he works for or the health minister, Osagie Ehanire, a doctor himself, who has really never given the impression that he is sickened by the infrastructural collapse in the sector.
The health sector has consistently been poorly funded partly because the leadership class has always had the alternative of seeking medical attention elsewhere, often at public expense. For years, capital expenditure in the health sector had been often less than half of recurrent spending, if basic healthcare provision fund is deducted.
In 2014, it was N49.52bn; 2015, N22.68bn; 2016, N28.65bn; 2017, N55.61bn; and 2018, N71.11bn. Of course basic healthcare provision fund also declined from a little over N51bn to a little over N44bn between 2019 and 2020. Worse, these are just budgetary provisions, not even actual releases.
With such an atrocious state of affairs, it is a miracle that the system can even withstand Lassa fever, not to talk forestalling the ravages of a pandemic like COVID-19.
Mr Mustapha has done well to speak contritely with the National Assembly leadership on the need to reverse the horrid condition of the health sector. But he was preaching to the converted. He should take his proselytising efforts to his direct employers, the executive arm.
They are the ones who need preaching and conversion, precisely because they are the ones who travel abroad at public expense to look after themselves.
If they won’t listen to him, it is not because no one has ministered to them in the past; it is because they are hard of hearing. After all, even the State House clinic has been left decrepit.
The SGF also made some sound suggestions concerning what could be done to prudently prosecute the COVID-19 war, his new primary concern.
Said he: “I believe that we face one critical challenge today in our fight against COVID-19. We have donations made by various organisations, corporate bodies and so on but it is my candid opinion that there is no coordination.
The Corporate Nigeria, as I was told as at yesterday (Wednesday), has gathered N22 billion, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC), I was told had $28 million, CBN and the banks, I don’t know how much they have.
The National Assembly, the ministers and so many individuals and institutions have also made donations. I believe we must have a central body and not the PTF nor the corporate groups should receive and manage the funds but based on what the constitution provides for.
Where everybody is just collecting and spending, I think it will lead us in a very bad shape. When people contribute their funds, they want to see such funds properly utilised.
They want to see efficiency. They want to see transparency. They want to see accountability and of course, probity in what the funds are used for.”
In other words, even apart from the broken health sector, the coronavirus war is, as many fear, not being prosecuted coherently, indicating the absence of central or national control.
He is absolutely right. No Nigerian can say that a yawning gap has not been noticed in the fight against the disease.
Would the executive arm do something about his suggestions, apart from what it urgently needs to do to adequately fund the health sector? It is hard to guess.
But if no remedial actions are taken, the country could be staring into an abyss. The crisis, not to say its dreadful accompaniments, won’t wait for the country. It marches on remorselessly.