The Obs of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu has urged both Federal and state government to enforce the enrolment of every Nigerian on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to ensure every citizen benefits from it.
Oba Akiolu, who is also the permanent Chairman of Lagos Council of Obas, spoke on Thursday when he received the newly appointed Managing Director of General Hospital, Odan, Lagos Island, Dr. Sola Pitan and his team at his palace, Idunganran, Lagos Island, on a courtesy visit.
Akiolu commended the government for the scheme and said while the Lagos State government has made it compulsory for every Lagosian to enroll into it, the government should go further by ensuring its enforcement.
‘NHIS should be made compulsory for all Nigerians. What the Lagos State and federal governments need is enforcement and sanctions. While enrollment has been made into law, the government can go further by ensuring that at the point of registration of students in school or when they are about to collect their certificates, they will ask the students to provide their certificates of health insurance.
They can also enforce it when people want to renew their driver licenses. With that every Nigerian will be able to benefit from it’, said Akiolu.
‘After the local government election, I will organize a program to speak on how we can make local government more effective because the enforcement of the health scheme starts from the grassroots’, he added.
He urged Dr. Pitan to bring his wealth of experience to bear in his new assignment. He also urged him to ensure his staff members are civil to patients, adding that he has appealed to the state government to look into the welfare of medical practitioners.
He appealed to Nigerians to cooperate with President Bola Tinubu’s administration to deliver dividends of democracy.
In his response, Dr. Pitan thanked the monarch for his fatherly advice, adding that his tenure will be people oriented by providing effective and quality service delivery that will serve the community.
He urged the state government to make the hospital a specialist hospital to reduce the burden on the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).
