Mr. Lai Mohammed, the information minister of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, which says it is fighting corruption, on Wednesday scandalously claimed that revealing the president’s medical bill will harm national security.
The Minister said this while answering reporters’ questions at the end of the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Buhari’s government had been under pressure to disclose the amount spent on his 49-day medical treatment in London, saying it is still important for the citizens to know the cost of the President’s medical treatment abroad.
But in Mohammed’s assessment, request for such disclosure should be considered on the basis of national security and morals. He said, without caring whether it is true or not, that he was not aware of anywhere in the world where the President was forced to divulge his medical bills.
FOI Act excluded issues bothering on national security, he argued.
Mohammed said, “This matter (the President’s medical bill) has come several times and our position on the matter is quite straight forward.
“What are the President’s conditions of service? What are his entitlements in terms of his well-being and health care? The state is supposed to take responsibility for these.
“We believe that asking for how much has been spent on the health of the President is an issue that we should weigh very well both for national security and also for moral issues. I don’t know why we must divulge such very sensitive information.
“I might be wrong but I don’t have experience else where that the President of any country will be ill and be forced to disclose how much the state has spent on his health.
“Yes, there is Freedom of Information Act but it is also carved in such a way that when such information is likely to endanger national security, I think it is an area that is not covered.”
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), and the Campaign for Democracy, among others, had said it had become imperative to release the President’s medical bill in the UK since his administration came to power on the promise of transparency, anti-corruption and change.
Nigerians fail to understand how a government that claims it is fighting corruption be so scared of submitting itself to public scrutiny.
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