ABUJA – Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN) has called on President Mohammadu Buhari to beam his search light on the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) so as to ascertain how budgets being released for drugs were managed.
This call was made by the National Coordinator of the Network, Mr Abdulkadir Ibrahim, recently in Abuja. He said the NETWORK was interested in knowing how the N400 million disbursed for drugs in the 2018 budget was managed.
The coordinator, who condemned any form of corruption at the detriment of people living with HIV, said that lack of accountability of budgets for drugs was a recurring issue in 2018 and 2019.
“There is shortage of drugs for the survival of those living with HIV, and attributed it to negligence to procure the drugs by those in authorities
“It is the responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Health to provide Anti-retroviral Drugs (ARVs) for the survival of those living with HIV but they have failed in that regards.
“Currently, we are having crises of shortage of second line drugs and stock out of third line drugs all over the country”, he said.
Ibrahim said that the Network would not accept excuses again from the Federal Ministry of Health over the non-procurement of drugs because people’s lives were being endangered.
He also raised alarm over the administration of expired third line ARVs to people living with HIV in Kano which he blamed on the failure of government to provide drugs.
Ibrahim, however, advocated direct involvement of NEPWHAN in matters of HIV/AIDS treatment interventions in the country to avert mismanagement and misappropriation.
