The National Human Rights Commission has “condemned senior lawyers and
others in public service using human rights to shield corrupt people from
prosecution and justice.”
Prof. Bem Angwe, Executive Secretary of the Commission said this at the
launch of a report today at the Westown Hotels, Ikeja, Lagos. The report
titled Health in decline: Human Rights Impacts of Corruption in Nigeria’s
Health Sector was launched by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability
Project in collaboration with the Ford Foundation.
Prof. Angwe who was represented by Mr Wahab Oyedokun said that “The
National Human Rights Commission believes that corruption is the biggest
impediment to respect for human rights in Nigeria. We recognize that we
have to fight corruption to ensure human rights. There is a problem in the
human rights community. That problem is that we have pretenders in the
human rights and legal communities using the platform of human rights to
advance corruption and to shield corrupt elements in our society.”
“It is our responsibility to expose and delegitimise these pretenders and
to make sure that our citizens recognize that fight against corruption and
impunity of perpetrators is really the cause to promote human rights.
This is the right course to take as a human rights advocate,” Prof Angwe
said.
According to him, “The constitutional guarantee of presumption of
innocence is a shield and not a sword, and corrupt officials cannot claim
not to be tried because they have human rights, especially given the
massive stealing of our commonwealth. A shield to protect citizens from
sponsored state power and doesn’t have to become a sword by which corrupt
people will say because they have human rights they are entitled to steal
our commonwealth with impunity and subject our people to suffering.”
“You can’t steal so much and subject people to suffering and claim him
human rights. This is not the way to go. Human rights are for the
advancement of the greatest majority of the greatest number. So, when we
see our senior citizens at the Bar, or public service trying to
delegitimize the work of SERAP, National Human Rights Commission and other
human rights bodies we have to make sure that we shout them down,” Prof
Angwe also said.
Others who attended the report launch included: “Mr M. H Bello for
National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC);
Morayo Adebayo of Amnesty International; Dr Ezeogun Joseph and Dr R.O.
Ayorinde the representatives of the President Nigerian Medical Association
and the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, respectively.
SERAP’s report is calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to “urgently
instruct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to
promptly refer to appropriate anticorruption agencies for prosecution
several unresolved cases of corruption involving the Ministry of Health,
including the $29 million Vaccine Grants Scam; N1.9 billion Special
Intervention Fund Ebola Fund Scandal; and Nigeria Pharmaceutical Institute
Ghost Workers and Illegal Recruitment Scam.”
The report is calling for “suspected perpetrators of corruption in the
Ministry of Health to be brought to justice and for stolen public funds to
be fully recovered to pursue the developmental agenda of the government
and lift the country out of recession.”
The report also asks Buhari to “encourage anticorruption commissions and
agencies to proactively launch and follow through investigations into
credible allegations of corruption in the Ministry of Health including by
investigating other pervasive allegations of corruption in the health
sector in greater depth and promptly and satisfactorily concluding any
pending investigations on corruption in the spending of budget allocations
and international aids to the ministry.”
According to the report, “President Buhari should require the Ministry of
Health to make public quarterly budget execution reports, and expenditure
reports. It is also important for the government to fully implement the
Freedom of Information Act, including by enforcing the judgment of the
Federal High Court ordering the government to publish information on the
spending of recovered stolen public funds since the return of democracy in
1999.”
SERAP is also calling on “the Attorney General of the Federation and
Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, SAN to refer other pervasive
allegations of corruption in the health sector for investigation by the
EFCC and the ICPC and instruct appropriate anticorruption commissions and
agencies to promptly conclude any pending investigations on corruption in
the spending of budget allocations and international aids to the ministry
of health.”
“Mr Malami should proactively launch and follow through investigations
into credible allegations of corruption in the Ministry of Health. He
should investigate other pervasive allegations of corruption in the health
sector in greater depth and promptly and satisfactorily conclude any
pending investigations on corruption in the spending of budget allocations
and international aids to the ministry.”
“The government should also move to recognize the right to health as
legally enforceable human right and ratify the optional protocol to the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that would
allow individual victims access to international accountability mechanism
for effective remedies; and to incorporate the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the domestic legal order to enable
court adjudicate cases of violations of the right to health.”
The report also calls for the “Comprehensive review and reform of the
operation of the NHIS in practice to remove the risks of corruption and to
allow it to achieve its intended purposes.”
The report also “calls on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to
thoroughly and transparently investigate the $29 million Vaccine Grants
Scam; N1.9 billion Special Intervention Fund Ebola Fund Scandal; and
Nigeria Pharmaceutical Institute Ghost Workers and Illegal Recruitment
Scam, prosecute suspected perpetrators of corruption and recover stolen
public funds.”
“SERAP is also calling for foreign governments and donor agencies to
insist on transparency and accountability and prosecution of suspected
perpetrators of corruption and recovery of stolen public funds as
conditions for providing aids and support to the ministry of health. They
should also insist upon the timely publication and wide dissemination of
budgets, expenditure reports, and audits when providing aid and other
forms of cooperation to the ministry.”
According to the report, “Pregnant women who are poor are
disproportionately affected during both prenatal and postnatal periods.
Large scale official corruption in the health sector exacerbates
inequality in already unequal and unfair political, social, and economic
environments, and it produces a ‘cash and carry’ health care system based
on one’s ability to pay for care.”
The report reads in part: “The country is bedeviled with proliferation of
private hospitals without any successful attempt to close down illegal and
substandard ones. Most of those that were closed down by the government
later re-opened while some resumed operations underground. This
continuously exposes the Nigerian population to great danger and no
concrete hope of quality healthcare is in sight.”
“Nigerians were elated with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS),
which posed as an initiative to alleviate the burden of user fees (i.e.
out-of-pocket payment for health) through the prepayment schemes. The
corrupt practices on-going with the scheme however, has restricted current
beneficiaries to only workers in the private sector and a little fraction
of public servants.”
“The recent allegations of malpractices and fraud against the Nigerian
Federal Ministry of Health and the National Primary Health Care
Development Agency (NPHCDA) by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and
Immunization (GAVI), is one in many of foreign aids that got walloped by
corruption.”
“In October 2014, GAVI audit report of $29 million USD in funding given to
Nigeria between 2011-2013 found that the Ministry of Health (FMH) and the
National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) were guilty of
extreme procurement malpractices and financial fraud.”
According to the report, “Only an approximated 40 per cent of the total
expenditure of N4.5bn (US$29m) in the period 2011-2013 was spent on
procurement with the main categories being; printing N919m (US $5.8m);
incinerators N184m (US $1.2m); drugs N243m (US $1.6m); rehabilitation and
equipping of medical facilities N437m (US $2.8m); other procurement N90m
(US $397k), motor vehicles N17.8 (US 113k).”
“The Vaccine Alliance’s allegations forced the Federal Government to agree
to repay funds deemed to have been misused, quantified as US$ 2.2 million.
Even though the Federal Government agreed to pay, there was no attempt by
the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration to probe or
institute any committee to investigate the matter and bring to justice
suspected perpetrators, thereby exacerbating impunity for corruption and
adding to the bad image of Nigeria at the international level.”
“The main corruption allegations associated with the Ebola fund have been
gross diversion of funds for other purposes outside the intended. The
Ebola fund became the reason behind recent arrest of top officials of the
Ministry of Health (FMH). It was reported that the arrest was in relation
to a 15-page document obtained by the police, which showed that top
officials of the Ministry of Health (FMH) and National Centre for Disease
Control (NCDC) were involved in the mismanagement of the N1.9 billion
funds.”
“Also the scandal continued as with the diversion of N63.6 million meant
for pre-departure training of Nigerian volunteers who left the country on
December 5, 2014, for Liberia and Sierra Leone to assist in the fight
against Ebola. It was revealed that the said amount withdrawn by the
Ministry’s official was actually bankrolled by the African Union
Commission in Addis Ababa who paid for all the expenses relating to this
activity. Further allegations arose of a whooping sum of N14.4 million was
allegedly spent to organise a meeting for just 15 people!”
“Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) goals 4 (reducing child mortality), 5
(Improving maternal health), and 6 (Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other
diseases) of the MDGs are particular to the health sector. So various
funding towards MDGs 4, 5 and 6 were directly and indirectly channeled
through the Ministry of Health, its departments and agencies.”
“The investigation beamed a searchlight on a particular case of fraud
involving the procurement of benzyl benzoate for the treatment of people
living with HIV/AIDS. According to the investigation, “the Ministry
claimed a total cost of N5.4 billion for all procurement of Benzly
Benzoate used in treating scabies and other skin ailments. It was however
found that the Ministry quoted an extremely outrageous amount that was
59,400 per cent higher than the amount same was sold in the retail market.
The investigation recounted an instance where the Ministry claimed it paid
N64.7 million to buy 544 cartons and further revealed that the same amount
could only have cost a maximum N2.6 million.”