Co-Founder of the ONE Campaign, lead-singer of the Irish multi-award
\nwinning rock-band, and philanthropist, Mr. Paul David Hewson, also known
\nas Bono (U2), on Tuesday, thanked the 8th National Assembly for including
\na clause in the 2018 budget that guarantees the use of 1% of the
\nConsolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation for primary healthcare.<\/p>\n
In a statement signed by Olu Onemola, the special assistant on New Media
\nto the President of the Senate, Bono gave the commendation when he paid a
\ncourtesy visit to the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki,
\nin Abuja.<\/p>\n
He stated that he was in the National Assembly to commend the legislators
\nfor being the first National Assembly in the history of Nigeria to get the
\n1% clause passed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou made it happen,\u201d Bono said to the President of the Senate, \u201cPeople
\nwere, and have been talking about it for many years, but nobody was doing
\nanything about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you made the 1% for healthcare happen. Nobody wants earmarks, but you
\nmade it happen. Its going to be really important for people\u2019s lives. The
\ndecisions made in this building are decisions of life and death in this
\ncase, so, we thank you for making the decision for people that we may
\nnever even meet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Responding, Saraki, who received the visitors in the company of Senate
\nMinority Leader, Senator Biodun Olujimi and Senator Dino Melaye, stated
\nthat he had his colleagues from both the Senate and the House of
\nRepresentatives to thank for the passage of the 1% appropriation for
\nhealthcare in the 2018 budget.<\/p>\n
Saraki also told his visitors that as a medical doctor, he saw the
\nimprovement of primary healthcare across Nigeria as a necessity and hoped
\nthat moving forward, the efficient implementation of the 1% for Primary
\nHealthcare would be addressed.<\/p>\n
The President of the Senate said: \u201cThe issue now is to get the 1%
\nallocation out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) operational, so that
\nwe can begin to improve our primary healthcare system across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we need to consider now is to see how that fund can be seed capital
\nfor the private sector to come in and expand the system. Depending on
\ngovernment to build these healthcare centres and make them functional on a
\nlong-term basis is not going to work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have had the opportunity to be a Governor for eight years, where I
\npushed the health insurance scheme in partnership with the private sector,
\nso I have seen it work.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet the private sector be responsible for sustaining this because they
\ncan do it better than government. Let\u2019s say the 1% out of the CRF adds up
\nto a N1 trillion for example, government should make that their
\ncontribution, then, we should get the private sector to come in, make
\ntheir own contributions and manage it.<\/p>\n
\u201cOtherwise, we will find out that every year, we will have the same
\nbudgetary provisions for this 1% Clause for Healthcare and that we have
\nnot moved forward in improving our primary healthcare system,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
The U2 lead singer was accompanied on the visit by Gayle Smith, the
\npresident and CEO of the ONE Campaign; Tom Freston, chairman of the ONE
\nCampaign; Kathy McKeirnan, director of Communications; Innocent Edache,
\nCommunications and Advocacy Manager of the ONE Campaign; Douglas
\nAlexander, chairman of the Board of UNICEF UK; John Spears, chief of staff
\nto the President of the ONE Campaign; and Serah Makka, the Nigeria Country
\nDirector for the ONE Campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Co-Founder of the ONE Campaign, lead-singer of the Irish multi-award winning rock-band, and philanthropist, Mr. Paul David Hewson, also known as Bono (U2), on Tuesday, thanked the 8th National Assembly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n