By Political Animal
WE NEED A GOVERNMENT THAT DOES NOT THINK WE ARE COMPLAINING, EVEN WHEN WE ARE EXPLAINING.
You must be careful with people who are always on defensive mode .Before you open your mouth to explain,they have already concluded that you are complaining.
Reducing cost of governance requires strict adherence to due process and extant public procurement policies.
When public policies are transaction driven,cost will surely over-run ,
and bloated estimates become a normal thing.
A patriotic Nigerian says that nation needs only about N150 billion to procure COVID-19 vaccines.
But the Government is saying it cannot be.The man said He can help Nigeria procure vaccines for less even mentioned his source,but the Government says that they prefer it for more.
Dr. Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, said in December 2020 that the federal government needs about N400 billion for COVID-19 vaccines.
According to Ehanire, about the sum would be required to vaccinate 70 percent of Nigeria’s over 200 million population, at $8 per person.
Here comes the issues of transparency regarding the procurement of vaccines.
Looking for N400bn, puts many of us at a loss, our budget this year for health is N547bn.
I don’t know if they are going to take this vaccine procurement from it, because if they do, we are left with N147bn.
Many people are dying ,yet ,for vaccine procurement we need to beg for transparency in the procurement.
Vaccine in India costs between $2 25 cents to $3. That is an average of $2.75 ,
and if you say you are going to use N400 billion that is about $1bn.
If you divide $1bn by $2.75cents each, that is about 350 million doses which is far in excess of what we need.
“WHO”said if you can inject 70 percent of your population, that’s it.
70 percent of Nigeria is about 140 million so we are actually looking for 140 million doses.
Considering that some other people are going to give us some free, we actually don’t need more than 120 million.
But even if we’re buying 140 million, we just need about three hundred and eighty-something million dollars which is about N150bn to buy it.
Now listen to the man:
“If they have a N400bn budget to buy the vaccine, my suggestion is that they don’t need to award contracts in this vaccine, let them just call Serum institute in India and plead with them. I am sure they will even give us discount. If they want I can go for the negotiation. It won’t cost more than $2 each.”
If we can get it for N150bn ,why N400bn.
Why should somebody want to pocket N250bn blood money.
Knowing our country for what it is,even before delivery,
they would have unilaterally reviewed the amount upwards to accommodate other political interests.
What a Nation!!.Nawaooo.
The Political Animal 