NHIS crisis: What Buhari’s minister, Isaac Adewole should have done – Sobowale

Renowned management consultant, Dele Sobowale, has said the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, should have resigned from the government of President Muhammadu Buhari because of the way the Presidency humiliated him over the crisis in the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS.

Sobowale said this in a statement obtained by DAILY POST on Sunday in Abuja.

According to him, the government ought not to have humiliated a superior officer (the Minister) just to please his subordinate (Prof. Yusuf) because it would create chaos in the system.

Recall that the NHIS Executive Secretary, Prof. Usman Yusuf, was suspended twice over a litany of allegations bordering on corruption which were levelled against him by staff of the health agency.

The first suspension was by Adewole himself while the second was by the agency’s governing board but with the Minister’s approval.

However, the Presidency on both occasions defended Yusuf and reinstated him to Adewole’s embarrassment.

Consequently, the management consultant said: “Right there and then, a Minister with any modicum of self-respect and one without inferiority complex should have resigned and gone home.

“One might ask that apart from the huge financial benefits accruing to Ministers, what held Professor Adewole back?

“As a Professor of Medicine, and a former Vice-Chancellor, he is already more than comfortable by Nigerian standards. He could have gone abroad and continued teaching, earning dollars in several advanced countries, or more modestly, become an Emeritus Professor here at home.

“Why, was he accepting the disgrace brought about by nepotism and ethnic champions? Where was the sense of self-worth?

“He was insulted with his own consent. Unfortunately, once a person allows others to abuse him without raising objections, he almost always invites another attack.”