Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for pledging to assist a visually-impaired National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, Okenala Ahmed.
Mr Atiku gave the commendation in a tweet on Thursday, two days after Ahmed and some other corps members visited President Buhari in Daura, Katsina State.
The former Vice President who has been criticising the present administration noted that the President’s gesture comes less than six months to the general elections.
He, however, said making the promise would have been unnecessary if the Federal Government had invested more in the health sector.
The presidential aspirant said, “I commend President Muhammadu Buhari for paying medical bills of a blind corps member 5 months to the 2019 election, but I remind him that if he had invested the public funds he spends on his London medicals on public healthcare, he wouldn’t need to do this.”
Atiku’s reaction comes one day after the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, revealed the gesture in a statement.
Shehu had said that 28-year-old Ahmed, a graduate of Insurance from the Federal Polytechnic Offa, Kwara State, was among the corps members who paid Sallah homage to President Buhari as part of activities to mark the Eid-El-Kabir celebrations.
President Muhammadu Buhari with some corps members at his home in Daura, Katsina State on August 21, 2018.
In the course of the President’s interaction with the corps members, he revealed that the Corps Liaison Officer, Jibrin Ishak, appealed for assistance for their physically challenged member.
The presidential aide said President Buhari promised to undertake the cost of medical care and treatment of Ahmed, who is an Economics NYSC teacher at the Government Day Senior Secondary School, Daura.
