This Damning Media Coverage of NHIS Boss’s Suspension -By Gimba Kakanda

Prof. Usman Yusuf

It’s hard to be a fighter in this country, especially when you’re a part of a government or political establishment that does not give a true damn about your lone commitment to accountability and transparency.

I’ve followed the vindictive media coverage of Professor Usman Yusuf, who until a few days ago was calling shots as the Executive Secretary of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), and it’s quite disturbing that our media seem to have conspired against him, as if sponsored by the Minister of Health, Professor Issac Adewole, and the irredeemably corrupt Health Management Organizations.

I had to call The Cable out today on Twitter for its inexplicably skewed coverage of NHIS scandal, seeing the rate it pursues this attempt to declare Yusuf already guilty even before any formal investigation. All the reports I’ve read, like those by the Cable, seem like a PR stunt for the Health Minister. He was portrayed as the vigilant watchdog and thus tactically exonerated.

None of our media hubs cited that the NHIS boss was relentless in his whistleblowing shows to draw our attention to the corruption at the HMOs, and even at an event the Health Minister attended he described an organized Cabal that frustrates reforms and public health policies designed for the public good.

I feel sorry for him not because I believe he’s innocent but because there’s no fairness in this presentation of his case, especially because his suspension came only AFTER blowing the whistle against the interests of his principals.

And to add salt to injury, the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osibanjo, instead of tasking a neutral intervener to address this scandal, asks the same Health Minister to probe Yusuf’s suspension. This is like asking a criminal to be the judge at his own trial. To say I’m disappointed in Osibanjo right now is a mild expression of my state of mine.