<\/p>\n
By Our Correspondent<\/p>\n
The House of Representatives has passed for first reading the passage of the Bill seeking to prohibit public and civil servants from patronizing private educational institutions and private hospitals and other health institutions.<\/p>\n
The Bill sponsored by Hon.Amobi Godwin Ogar representing Isukwuato\/Ummunnneochi Federal Constituency of Abia State in the House is titled Private Institutions and Health Care Service Providers (Prohibition) Bill, 2025.<\/p>\n
This Bill he said intends to prohibit all public and civil servants, including their immediate family members from patronizing private schools and health care services in order to avoid conflict of interest, maintain public trust and ensure high uncompromised standards and integrity of these public institutions.<\/p>\n
According to the Abia born lawmaker, before Nigeria attained independence and became a republic, our foremost statesmen all had their education in government schools.<\/p>\n
Sir Ahmadu Bello went to Sokoto Provincial school and Katsina Training College, now Barewa College, while Nnamdi Azikiwe went to a mission school, Holy Trinity College and Christ Church school all in Onitsha. Likewise Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Alhaji Tafawa Balewa.<\/p>\n
The penchant for patronizing private educational institutions and health care services were he stated is alien to our democrats of old but today, it has become an unwholesome trend for both public and civil servants to seek private educational institutions and medical care for themselves and their family members to the detriment of the economy of our country.<\/p>\n
He pointed out that in 2024 Nigeria allocated a total of N1.336 trillion Naira to health care in the 2024 budget, which is a far cry from the estimated N1.6 trillion Naira or over $1 billion dollars, Nigerians spend annually on medical treatments abroad.<\/p>\n
Nigerians also spent at least $29.29 billion dollars on foreign medical expenses during the 8 years of late former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.<\/p>\n
In education he said that Nigeria spent $38.17 million on foreign education expenses between January and March, 2024 while in 2023 she spent a whopping $218.87 million dollars.<\/p>\n
The Labour Party LP lawmaker had argued that it is time for us all to tell ourselves the truth is now adding that we can no longer continue to inflict serious damage to the psyche of Nigerians.<\/p>\n
The House member said that the time to be patriotic is now noting that if we have started the removal of petroleum subsidy, we must also enforce this bill to prohibit the patronizing of private schools and health care services by public and civil servants.<\/p>\n
He argued that because of the patronage of private schools and health care facilities, our institutions of leaning and medical care have become a shadow of themselves, with little or no infrastructural development and fallen standards of services.<\/p>\n
He noted that the bill when passed will cure so many defects in our nation’s economy including the huge funds spent on medical treatment our ailing Presidents and other government officials.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Our Correspondent The House of Representatives has passed for first reading the passage of the Bill seeking to prohibit public and civil servants from patronizing private educational institutions and private hospitals and other health institutions. The Bill sponsored by Hon.Amobi Godwin Ogar representing Isukwuato\/Ummunnneochi Federal Constituency of Abia State in the House is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[160,3700,1943,3701,3118,3699,1757],"class_list":["post-5686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","tag-development","tag-educational","tag-infrastructural","tag-infrastructural-development","tag-institutions","tag-patronizing","tag-private"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5687,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5686\/revisions\/5687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}