Nigerian Leaders Flee Decaying Health System While Citizens Dle at Home

As Nigeria’s public healthcare system continues to deteriorate, political leaders persist in seeking medical care overseas—spending billions while countless Nigerians die from treatable diseases at home.

Nigeria loses over $1 billion annually to medical tourism, channeling funds to overseas care while local hospitals collapse. Millions suffer from malaria, cholera, typhoid, and maternal complications due to neglected infrastructure and medicine shortages.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari spent more than 200 days in London between 2015 and 2023 for treatment, often at the infamous “£3,000-a-night” London hospital. His prolonged absences, coupled with the under-equipped Aso Rock Clinic in Abuja—devoid of basic power and diagnostic capabilities—highlight the elite’s reluctance to trust local health facilities.

Current President Bola Tinubu has traveled for medical care to Paris since 2023, bypassing the Aso Rock Clinic entirely. This has fueled public scrutiny over the government’s failure to bolster domestic healthcare, even as the national budget remained stagnant at around 5–6%, far below the Abuja Declaration’s 15% target.

Despite rising allocations—from ₦237 billion in 2015 to ₦1.17 trillion in 2023—health spending has remained conspicuously low as a share of the national budget (peaking at just 5.75%). In 2025, President Tinubu proposed a record ₦2.48 trillion, including a ₦300 billion emergency fund, yet it represented only 5.18% of the overall budget. Over 70% of these funds are consumed by recurrent expenditures, leaving capital projects, diagnostics, and drug procurement chronically underfunded.

In Nigeria’s towns and villages, struggling families battle cholera and typhoid outbreaks without access to clean water or antibiotics. Women in labor perish due to absent specialists and failing power supplies. Chronic disease medications for hypertension and diabetes have soared over 300% since 2023, pushing treatment out of reach for many.

Demanding Accountability: Voices of Reform

Health sector leaders and civil activists are sounding alarms:

Dr. Ifeanyi Casmier, AMLSN National President: “Leaders jump on jets when they have headaches… it sends a message that the rest of us are expendable.” He called medical tourism a moral and governance failure, urging the government to “fly experts in, not patients out,” fostering local capacity and transparency.

Femi Falana SAN proposes legislation to compel public servants to be treated in Nigeria—a move he deems “shameful and unsustainable” if ignored.

Dr. Babajide Saheed, Lagos NMA Chairman: Describes the status quo as “a national disgrace” and warns that no real reform will occur until medical tourism is legally barred and funds are transparently managed.

Experts advocate for a suite of reforms:

Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) and better pay to reverse healthcare worker brain drain.

Strengthened local manufacturing of diagnostics and medicines.

Investment in telemedicine and leveraging diaspora expertise.

Establishment of six Centers of Medical Excellence, one per geopolitical zone, equipped with 3T MRIs, PET-CT scanners, and linear accelerators.

Launch of a flagship $300-million African Medical Centre of Excellence in Abuja—backed by Afreximbank, King’s College London, and The Christie NHS Centre—aimed at reducing outbound treatment for cancer and nephrology.

Nigeria’s health crisis is not due to a lack of talent or resources—it stems from governance failures and misplaced priorities. The elite’s reliance on foreign care has drained billions and eroded public confidence. Reversing this trend demands bold action: enforce accountability, invest significantly in local facilities, enact anti-medical-tourism laws, and place public health above political expediency.

Until political leaders entrust their own well-being to Nigeria’s health system, ordinary citizens will continue to bear the cost—dying of diseases that are preventable and treatable.