Subsidize health, not petroleum — Obi

Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi has taken a swipe at the federal government, stating that the country has no business subsidizing petrol when the health sector is in need of funding.

Obi said this on Sunday during the Town Hall series organized by Arise TV.

The former Anambra state governor said that the budget for the health sector is unacceptable, and must be increased to at least 10 per cent if the country wants to stop experiencing the brain drain currently marring the health sector.

“Do massive training of doctors who can live, who can stay here but the most important thing is the investment in the health sector. It is too low, it is unacceptable. You need to have at least 10 per cent of your budget,” Obi said.

He emphasized that as opposed to investing in petroleum consumption, the government needs to focus on more critical areas such as health, education and fighting poverty.

His words, “These are areas where you have to do subsidy not in petroleum consumption. There are areas where government do subsidies and it is productive and development areas that are critical like health, education, fighting poverty; these areas are where you need to invest. So there is a need to be a physical package to support the insurance which will allow them to treat high to low,

“it’s being done in Indonesia, in India, I will show you big nations that are practising it. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, we just need to learn what is being practiced somewhere and do the same.”