From Juliana Taiwo
-Obalonye, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari’s daughter, Zahra has raised concerns over the poor state of State House Medical Center, otherwise referred to as Aso Rock Medical Center. The centre provides medical services to the President, Vice-President and their families, aides, members of staff of the State House and other entitled public servants. It is also a training facility for house officers and other medical personnel. On her post on her Instagram handle @mrs_zmbi, which has gone viral, Zahra, raised concerns over the poor state of the hospital despite the N3 billion budgetary allocation in the 2017 budget.
She specifically called out the Permanent Secretary in the State House, Jalal Arabi to provide answers as to why simple drugs as paracetamol, syringes and gloves were not available, leaving patients and staff to individually source for those items. Using the hashtag #statehousepermsecplsanswer, she asked: “why isn’t there simple paracetamol, gloves, syringes why do the patients/staff have to buy what they need in state house clinic?
“More than N3 billion budgeted for state house clinic and the workers there don’t have equipment to work with? Why?
#statehousepermsecplsanswer
“Where is the money going to? Medication only stock once since the beginning of the year? Why?”
The Permanent Secretary, who is the chief accounting officer for the State House, could not be reached for his reactions as his phone was switched off.