Nigerians spent nearly $30b on foreign medical tourism in 8 years, nearly $4b a year
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
At least $29.29 billion was spent on foreign medical treatment by Nigerians during the Muhammadu Buhari years in the Villa, translating to a yearly spend of about $3.6 billion in the eight-year tenure of the late President.
Buhari himself spearheaded the waste with his frequent medical trips abroad for even the slightest ailment. And he is being emulated on a grander scale by his successor Bola Tinubu with is ritual quarterly travels to France for medical treatments he fails to acknowledge publicly.
Data from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) quarterly statistical bulletins in the “Health-Related and Social Services” category shows cumulative outflows of foreign exchange (forex) from June 2015 to May 2023.
The period covered Buhari’s two-term presidency from 29 May 29 to 28 May 2023.
According to reporting by The PUNCH, the figures show the depth of Nigeria’s dependence on foreign healthcare, with the CBN recording year-on-year movements of funds abroad for medical purposes amid economic downturn or dollar shortages at home.
It also highlights the irony that, despite repeated declarations by the Buhari administration to revamp the health sector and reduce capital flight, health-related forex outflows remained significant and even spiked dramatically in the latter years of his presidency.
The first year of his tenure recorded the single highest amount spent on medical tourism. Between June 2015 and May 2016, Nigeria spent $7.81 billion on health-related services abroad.
This figure alone accounted for over a quarter of the total medical tourism expenditure under his administration.
September 2015 stood out as a month of exceptional outflow, with $3.20 billion disbursed – the highest for any single month throughout the eight-year period.
That spike occurred during Buhari’s first few months in office and was followed by elevated monthly figures in October, November, and December of 2015, which further raised questions about whether the expenditure reflected a backlog of deferred medical bills or a broader trend among elites seeking healthcare abroad immediately after Buhari took office.
Between June 2016 and May 2017, the figure dipped to $2.76 billion, although substantial sums were still recorded in months such as March 2016 ($0.96 billion) and April 2016 ($0.67 billion).
Spending on medical tourism continued to decline in Buhari’s third year in office, falling to $1.72 billion between June 2017 and May 2018.
By the fourth year of his first term – June 2018 to May 2019 – Nigeria’s overseas medical bill dropped to just $0.44 billion, the lowest across all eight years.
In Buhari’s second term, after a relatively low fifth year, when Nigerians spent $0.92 billion on foreign medical services between June 2019 and May 2020, there was a slight increase in the sixth year, with forex outflows reaching $1.57 billion.
This modest recovery coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, which imposed global travel restrictions and temporarily subdued international medical travel.
Data during the lockdown period between April 2020 and June 2021 reflected lower figures, but it also hinted at pent-up demand that would soon be unleashed.
Medical tourism surged once again from June 2021.
The seventh year of Buhari’s administration – between June 2021 and May 2022 – saw $6.96 billion health-related forex disbursements.
June 2021 alone accounted for $3.02 billion, almost matching the record set back in 2015.
April 2022 saw another massive jump with $1.28 billion spent, suggesting that Nigerians, particularly the affluent class and public officials, resumed international travel en masse to seek healthcare that remained underdeveloped at home.
The eighth and final year of the Buhari regime recorded the second-highest annual expenditure, with $7.12 billion spent between June 2022 and May 2023.
January 2023 was a costly month, accounting for $2.30 billion in medical outflows, the third highest monthly figure in the Buhari years.
With this late surge in medical tourism spending, the second term of Buhari’s government, which initially appeared more conservative in terms of health-related forex usage, ended up outpacing his first term.
A total $16.56 billion was spent in his second term, compared to $12.73 billion in his first.
This shift suggests that, despite earlier constraints, the underlying drivers of medical tourism – including poor local healthcare infrastructure, lack of trust in domestic medical services, and the preference of the elite for foreign treatment – remained unaddressed and worsened.
Throughout his presidency, Buhari was frequently criticised for seeking medical care abroad. He made multiple trips to the United Kingdom for undisclosed treatments, sometimes staying for extended periods.
Buhari’s penchant for foreign medical treatment
Buhari, in his eight years in Aso Rock, spent at least 225 days outside the country on medical trips. For them and other purposes, he visited a total of about 40 countries from 2015.
Eight months after assuming office, he embarked on his first medical trip to London, on 5 February 2016, spending six days.
His second medical trip followed four months later, on 6 June 2016, during which he spent 10 days treating an undisclosed ear infection.
On 19 January 2017, Buhari embarked on his second-longest medical trip to London, spending 50 days.
In May of the same year, barely two months after his last trip, he returned to London for what became his longest medical stay, lasting 104 days.
He did not return to the UK for medical purposes again until May 2018, when he spent four days on a follow-up review.
In March 2021, Buhari departed for London once again, on what the Presidency described as a “routine medical check-up,” which lasted 15 days.
Failure to develop local healthcare infrastructure
Buhari’s departure for London in March 2021 came amid a labour crisis in the health sector, during which members of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) commenced an indefinite strike over unpaid allowances.
Almost a year later, on 6 March 2022, he travelled to London again for medical reasons, spending 12 days.
On 31 October 2022, Buhari departed from Owerri to London for another medical check-up, which lasted two weeks, and returned to Abuja on 13 November 2022.
His then-spokesperson Femi Adesina, consistently defended Buhari’s foreign medical trips, insisting that he “has used the same medical team for about 40 years.”
Buhari eventually died in a London hospital on July 13 and buried in his Daura hometown in Katsina on July15.
After his death, Adesina argued that “If he had said I’d do my medicals in Nigeria just for show off or something, he could have long been dead.”
In total, Buhari undertook 84 trips to 40 countries during his tenure in office.
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), and Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) always criticise political leaders for consistently seeking medical care abroad while neglecting Nigeria’s healthcare system.
NARD President Tope Osundara described the trend as disheartening and an indictment of Nigerian leaders’ lack of investment in the sector they are expected to strengthen.
Osundara expressed disappointment that Nigerian leaders patronise foreign hospitals despite annual budget allocations to domestic medical facilities like the State House Clinic.
Said he: “It’s more like building a company, investing resources in it, then refusing to use the product and telling others to trust it. It tells you that something is fundamentally wrong with the system, with the people entrusted with managing it.
“There was a time when the former President, Muhammad Buhari, made some utterances that they should abolish this medical tourism. But unfortunately, before he died, he was even at the forefront of going abroad for treatment.
“Even a former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, disclosed that he and Buhari were admitted to the same hospital in London shortly before Buhari passed away. This tells you that Nigeria’s healthcare system is in bad shape.”
NMA President Bala Audu, a Professor, stressed that while individuals are free to seek care wherever they choose, the consistent reliance of public office holders on foreign hospitals despite Nigeria’s budgetary allocations to domestic healthcare speaks volumes about misplaced priorities.
Besides, Afreximbank disclosed recently that it intentionally built a $450 million state-of-the-art hospital in Abuja to help the Nigerian elite stop medical tourism, a facility they ignore.
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