LAST week, the legislators expunged certain allocations from the 2016 Federal Budget. Among the expunged funds are allocations for polio eradication and essential drugs for HIV/AIDS. In his response to this development, President of the Nigeria Academy of Science, Prof. Oyewole Tomori, speaks to Chioma Obinna about the implications of the move.
Excerpts:
Prof Oyewale Tomori Let me talk about the section of the budget I am familiar with – that dealing with expunging polio eradication and essential drugs for HIV/AIDS. I want to believe that the legislators are unaware, ignorant is too strong a word, so I say they are totally unaware of the current situation of polio eradication and HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. I am sure if they are aware, they will even add more money to see the end of polio and significant reduction in the sufferings of Nigerians suffering from HIV/AIDS. Polio eradication
Nigeria attained the dubious distinction of being the last country in Africa to be declared a polio-non endemic country. The journey is not yet over. Nigeria has to remain polio free until 2017 before she is declared Polio free. So expunging the allocation for polio is a sure way to bring back polio to Nigeria and for our country to set the hand of the clock back and ensure that Nigeria will indeed be the last country in the world to eradicate polio. Perhaps one cannot blame the legislators for this decision that will make Nigeria snatch polio defeat on the long and hard road to success. Very prematurely, the last administration used the incomplete polio success as a campaign issue, touting it as one of the successes of the government.
We shouted out loud and clear then, that we were claiming victory before the final whistle, (remember Nigeria versus Egypt?)…..but the government bent on claiming success at all cost, ignored our plea to set the record straight. Now we are paying for our penchant to deceive and lie to each other.
Perhaps now that the Honourable legislators are aware of the disaster they will create by expunging funds for polio eradication from the budget, they will make the necessary amendments
HIV/AIDS
It is inconceivable that distinguished legislators who should know their country well, will ever ever think of not providing funds for essential drugs for HIV/AIDS. Let me share with them some of these wakeup data about HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. It is estimated by UNAIDS that 3.4 million Nigerians are living with HIV. We have a prevalence rate among adults aged 15-49 of 3.2 percent. There are 380,000 children (0-14 years) living with HIV. In 2014, 170,000 Nigerians died from the disease. We have 1.6 million orphans due to AIDS aged 0-17. With these figures, how can anyone with conscience expunge funds for essential drugs for HIV/AIDS? Expunging funds does not expunge the disease, it only makes the disease to sponge away more lives.
I am happy to note that the legislators are aware of the increased number of people dying in the absence of essential drugs, that is why they have shifted the money for contractors to buy ambulances to carry the dead bodies to the mortuary.
Health budgets
I have just had a look at the budgets for the last two or three years. One thing common with each of these budgets is that there is always a huge difference between what the executive submits and what the legislators remit.
While the recurrent expenditure comes out unchanged, the capital expenditure gets “ballooned” by between N1.5 billion and N2.0 billion per ministry. Some wicked people say that this deliberate “oversight” is reserved for legislative oversight activities.
Something tells me that this set of legislators is a different breed from the past and that when provided with information, will take the appropriate and reasonable action! 41 0 1
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