TheCable

The National Association of Resident Doctors in Nigeria (NARD) has blamed the high rate of medical tourism in the country on the political elite.

The association said politicians who stand as role models for other citizens have over the years contributed to the high rate of medical tourism in the country.

Olusegun Olaopa, NARD president, said this on Thursday during a courtesy visit to Asishana Okauru, director-general of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), in Abuja.

Olaopa said the lack of development in the nation’s health sector is as a result of 30 percent lack of technical initiative and 70 percent lack of political will.

He urged the political elite in the country to always seek medical help at home so as to encourage the rest of the populace to do same.

He said: “Our political elite must make a bold statement by seeking medical attention in the country because we are never short of the required expertise in Nigeria.

“What our hospitals lack are equipment and only by having our very important people in our hospitals would the standards of these hospitals rise to the same level as those abroad.”

Okauru said the NGF secretariat has always stood for the need for the governors to fulfil fundamental obligations.

“Our stand at the secretariat is that governors should be ready to deliver on their mandate,” he said.

“But their people have turned them into rock stars and with ‘star-power’ some of them become inaccessible or difficult for the ordinary people to deal with.”