Mixed reactions have trailed the attempt by the Federal Government to bar political office holders and their family members from leaving the shores of the nation in the quest for educational pursuits and medical care.
Speaking on the move by the members of the House of Representatives to pass the ‘Private institutions and Healthcare Providers Prohibition bill 2025’, which has passed first reading, aimed at disallowing public office holders and their family members from seeking educational advancement and medical care from private institutions, both at home and abroad.
The former member of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Friday Nkee, described the efforts of the lawmakers as an infringement on the rights of Nigerians, irrespective of their status.
“So passing such a bill will be discriminatory in a democratic setting. It is not allowed or acceptable to deprive certain people of their movement and choice.
It is against the right of human beings,” he lamented.
He went further to say the proposed legislation would not be the right step to upgrade the decayed infrastructure in the nation.
A medical physician, Dr. Chukwuma Egeonu, who criticized the bill, advised the relevant authority to make the public health institutions attractive to the people by providing modern facilities and top–notch management as obtained in the private sector and overseas.
“If somebody needs a bone marrow transplant for hematological malignancy and there is no place where such can be done here in the country, and the individual has his money to travel abroad, and someone is telling the individual not to travel, that is wickedness; it does not make sense.
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Before anything, the government should ask itself what it put in place in the public hospitals to discourage people from going abroad or patronizing the privately owned hospital”, he noted.
However, an academic, Prof. Chikwe Agbakwuru, saw the action of the federal legislators as a bold step in the right direction, stating that it would be a strategy to develop the ailing educational institutions in the nation.
“Every Nigerian should sensitise the public and mount pressure for this move to become a law.
For the public office holders to assert that it is an infringement on their right. But since they feel that education is well funded in the country, let them join us to enjoy the good education they have provided,” he stressed.
The bill was sponsored by Hon. Amobi Godwin Ogah, representing Isikwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency of Abia State.
