by Bilal Hamza

Professor Usman Yusuf’s expertise in the field of paediatrics and exposure in healthcare delivery is not in doubt. The issue at stake is whether he is corrupt and therefore not a reflection of integrity and sincerity personified by President Muhammadu Buhari who appointed him.

Corruption is one of the burning issues in Nigeria; it cuts across various strata of governance. Our focus is NHIS, under the leadership of Professor Usman Yusuf. Not many are against corruption these days and you never know who is capable of taking bribes.

NHIS, as it stands today, is riddled with a mess and monumental corruption institutionalised by the current head of the scheme. Where there’s “corruption in government somebody or everybody is making a lot of money, that makes it dangerous.
We also know ” accepting fraud from our leaders means accepting fraud in our personal lives.

A quick run down of the grey areas as it affects the operations and orientation of NHIS.

~It is a known fact in the inner cycle of the SCHEME that MAHDI owner of Dialogues Group of Companies welcomed your appointment with a gift of 50M Naira and bought you a house in Kaduna, this is said to be the foundation that laid the groundwork for his power and authority by acting as the De-facto Executive Secretary of NHIS.

~That on 24th of this month, a Tender Board meeting was held without its members because you deliberately sent them on official assignments to give room for the perfection of your ill intended deceit against procurement acts.

~That you have at several times given out contracts above 2.5M Naira against procurement acts.

~That you have 15 people on secondment against the directives of the Minister, that people on secondment should return back to their various ministries and parastatals.

~That you’re lying that the ICT department has uncovered 23,000 fake enrollees from the database. Please, who are they? Name the HMO involved, name the staff involved and we assure you, if this true, we will expose more.

~GM Fatika your trusted ally and confidant, without portfolio, who can barely raise a memo is usually in attendance of Tender Board meeting, of which he is not a.member

~That you’re interfering with the procurement processes by hobnobbing with the Scheme’s Union members, store and procurement department.

~That you encouraged the supply of fake products and substandard goods to the store, with a warning to the GM Finance and Accounts of the consequences of turning them down, Instead of encouraging him to deliver good quality on the job.

~That most of the contracts given during your time are inflated by over 100%

~That you tried using Naziru of BPP to get BPE approve 100M Naira to Consultants in a shady way so that they are fouled to issue certificate of no objection this outrightly turned down

~That Bulus Maiyaki, the Head of Procurement with corruption cases from his time as commissioner of works and later Finance in Taraba State, is the single and most dangerous enemy of NHIS.

~That you brought Abba Zayyan from FRCN, who stopped the airing of Buhari campaign slogans during the run up to 2015 presidential elections is Head of Media. He has a criminal case hanging around him from his days in FRCN where they issue fake and duplicate receipts to unsuspecting clients and therefore short-changing the government by diverting the income to his pocket.

~That you have bragged repeatedly, that you have the backing of Mr President in disobedience of your supervising ministry Mister, Minister of Labour, TUC and NLC with your continued non-obedience of the aforementioned, the question begging for an answer now, is the President is aware as you claimed, we doubt this very much, is our President encouraging corruption or what?

~We urged you as a Muslim to swear on the Holy Quran that all these we said about you are not true, as you have always threatened to do.

~Finally, corruption has become so common in NHIS, that people are averse to thinking of NHIS without this phenomenon. NHIS is on downward slope, destruction and collapse, the Nigerian NASS must rise to the occasion and face the glaring truth, courage and foresight to pull the trigger. The path to greatness has been handicapped by institutionalised corruption spearheaded by Professor Usman Yusuf, to this end your invitation by the Senate won’t have come at a most appropriate time.

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Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Bilal Hamza writes from Abuja