Recent report has unfolded that plans by the Federal Government to curtail the deadly coronavirus disease is suffering a setback as a result of some sharp practices by the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari.
The Federal Government recently released N386m for the procurement of medical materials to combat the disease. However, the Federal Ministry of Health is unable to access the fund due to a procurement embargo placed on the ministry by Kyari since the time of Prof. Isaac Adewole as Health minister.
Recall that all was not well between the Chief of Staff and Adewole with one of the apples of their discord, the ex-minister’s suspension of the then Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Prof. Usman Yusuf, an abeyance that was overruled by Kyari.
In a show of power, Kyari went on to strip health ministry of powers of procurement and transferred it to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, a decision that according to report subsists in spite Adewole’s removal from office and replaced by Dr Osagie Ehanire.
“We need to improve our capacity for quarantine and surveillance and monitor those coming (to Nigeria) especially where we have a basis for suspicion. Logistics cost more money. We need to set up more labs, we need reagents. There is no way the suspension of our procurement powers will not affect our capacity.
“Even when we have money, we cannot activate procurement because we have been stripped of our powers of procurement,” Punchng.com quoted a top official in the health ministry as saying.
