Atiku aims a dig at Buhari over corps member’s assistance

FOLLOWING the offer by President Muhammadu Buhari to assist a visually-impaired National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, currently deployed to Daura, Katsina State, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has observed that the gesture would have been unnecessary if the president had invested the funds he spends on medical vacations on the nation’s health sector.

According to a statement issued by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity), in Abuja on Wednesday, 28-year old Okenala Ahmed, a graduate of Insurance from the Federal Polytechnic Offa, Kwara State, was among the Corps members who paid Sallah homage to President Buhari Tuesday in Daura, as part of activities to mark the Eid-El-Kabir celebrations.

The Presidency had pointed out that in the course of the President’s interaction with the Corps members, the Corps Liaison Officer (CLO), Jibrin Ishak, had appealed for assistance for their physically challenged member.

The CLO had informed the President that the indigent Corps member, who is from Offa, Kwara State, had earlier contemplated redeployment from Katsina State due to his health condition.

The President, therefore, pledged to offset the cost of medical care and treatment of Ahmed, who is an Economics NYSC teacher at Government Day Senior Secondary School, Daura.

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But in a response to the gesture on his verified Twitter handle @atiku, the former Vice President commended Buhari for his assistance but pointed out that the situation could have been prevented if he had invested his medical funds on the nation’s health care system.

Atiku tweeted: “I commend @NGRPresident @MBuhari for paying medical bills of a blind corps member 5 months to the 2019 election, but I remind him that if he had invested the public funds he spends on his London medicals on public health care, he wouldn’t need to do this.”