As protest by some workers under the aegis of Association of Civil Servants of Nigeria and Medical and Health Workers Union of National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIIS prevented Prof. Usman Yusuf, their Executive Secretary from resuming duty entered day two, the Presidency and House of Representatives have waded in to restore peace and order to the crisis-ridden scheme.
On Monday, the workers had blocked Yusuf from gaining entrance to the office on what they perceived as double standard by the Federal Government while their colleagues of the Nigeria Civil Service Union in support of Yusuf, mobilised themselves and countered the protest.
The situation which almost degenerated into a security breach was, however, contained with the intervention of a combined team of police, civil defence and state security operatives.
The House of Representatives, Tuesday, resolved to set up a committee to probe the leadership of National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIIS under Prof. Usman Yusuf, the Executive Secretary.
This is even as the Presidency has stepped into the crisis rocking the NHIS, following purported suspension of Yusuf.
Recall that the Governing Council of the NHIS had on October 18 suspended Yusuf over alleged gross misconduct.
But, Yusuf resumed work last Friday, a day after his fresh suspension by the council.
However, Mallam Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, who stated the Presidency’s intervention on Channels TV Sunrise Daily Tuesday in Abuja, said Mr Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Prof. Isaac Adewole, the Minister of Health, had intervened in the NHIS crisis, with a view to finding lasting solutions.
Shehu, who is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, noted with regret that the NHIS crisis had been ethnicised and politicised by some interest groups within and outside the agency.
“Did the board follow due process in suspending this gentleman? There are opinions that said `no they haven’t’.
“Again we all have to do the right thing all of the times. I don’t deny the fact that there is a lot of work to do – (the crisis) is complicated by the fact that the whole thing about the NHIS has been ethnicised and politicised.
“Even a political party was issuing a statement on matters that are unknown to it. I’ll tell you one thing, as we speak now, you know that no matter whatever mistakes this gentleman may have made, and that is to be proven because I don’t have the records to say yes or no, he has launched a major reform in that institution which had blocked access to public resources.
“Money from the NHIS is not money belonging to government, is money taken from your salary, from my salary.
“If we have been enlisted, we are supposed to get treatments when we fall ill then you should ask the question in 13 years of the NHIS how many Nigerians have received the treatments.
“Yet you have HMOs, these vendors, taking N5 billion every month, money that is just being shared and somebody came and said, `look, this can’t go on’ and with strong support from this administration the N5 billion has been reduced to N1.3 billion.
“Even at then, the administration is not satisfied. We want to see healthcare delivered to the citizens of this country. So there is a lot of work to do,’’ he said.
The presidential aide stated that he was not in the position to challenge the allegations of wrong doings levelled against the executive secretary in some quarters.
Shehu, however, maintained that the two chambers of the National Assembly had previously cleared the Executive Secretary of the allegations against him.
He also dismissed the accusation of `double standard’ by the Buhari administration while dealing with cases of corruption being levelled against public servants or political office holders in the country.
He said it was wrong to compare the case of Mr Babachir Lawal, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and that of the NHIS scribe.
“Well, there is no double standard there either than to say that the pictures that the government is looking at many Nigerians perhaps may not be seeing those pictures,’’ he added.
NAN also recalls that the Minister of Health (Adewole) had earlier suspended Yusuf over similar allegations on July 6, 2017.
But the Federal Government reinstated him on February 6, 2018, after an administrative panel found him not guilty of the allegations of abuse of office and maladministration.
Yusuf officially resumed work on February 8, 2018, after he was given a clean bill.
Shehu, who also spoke extensively on the security efforts of the federal government in combating the menace of Boko Haram insurgency, said Nigeria had earned international commendations for suppressing the terrorist group.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has set up an adhoc committee to probe the leadership and operations of the NHIS
This came after the adoption of a motion of national urgent importance on the urgent need to prevent the NHIS from degenerating into a crisis-ridden agency by Diri Duoye, PPP, Bayelsa.
Duoye, in his submission, noted that the Governing Council of NHIS on October 18, 2018, announced the suspension of the Executive Secretary of the agency, Prof. Usman Yusuf, over alleged fraudulent activities and infractions.
The Bayelsa lawmaker explained that prior to that, the council had also issued the Executive Secretary series of queries demanding explanations on the alleged infractions which he didn’t respond to.
He recalled that the latest crisis was coming months after the Executive Secretary was controversially reinstated by President Muhammadu Buhari, following his suspension by the Ministry of Health over similar allegations.
“This takes cognizance that the Governing Council of the National Health Insurance Scheme announced the suspension of Prof. Usman Yusuf over allegations of fraud and severe infractions, including but not limited to public procurement infringements, unlawful staff posting, defiance of council’s directives, violation of Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account policy and superfluous arrogation of projects;
“The House is aware that the council had issued the Executive Secretary queries dated May 25, 2018 and another June 4, 2018, prior to the suspension.
“Again it is aware that the latest pandemonium is coming barely five months after the NHIS Executive Secretary was controversially reinstated by President Buhari from an indefinite suspension slammed on him by his supervising Ministry of Health, in July 2017 over similar alleged gross misconduct, corruption and nepotism.”
He also noted that Prof. Yusuf defied the authorities of the council to suspend him by violently breaking into the Abuja Head office of the scheme, aided by heavily armed police who indiscriminately tear-gassed and manhandled staff.
He expressed concern that the agency on which the hope of the nation’s universal health delivery was hinged, had generated into a theatre of war.
In his contribution, Toby Okechukwu, PDP, Enugu, bemoaned the circumstances surrounding the crisis which, according to him, bothers on issues of leadership, lack of capacity and corruption which is the major platform on which the APC government was voted in.
“The major platform which the government came to power is to fight corruption and it is sad that this agency is embroiled in controversy over issues of procurement and travel cost running into N17 million, something is really wrong.
”If the council and the head of the agency can’t find it necessary to provide services to Nigerians, then they shouldn’t be there”.
Contributing, Edward Pwajok, APC, Plateau,, cautioned the House to wait for the outcome of the investigation before arriving at a position, pointing out that the Act establishing the scheme was unclear, as to whether the council had the powers to suspend the Executive Secretary.
Adopting the motion, the House resolved to constitute an ad hoc committee to probe the crisis as well as the scheme’s operations.
