The Court of Appeal in Lagos has rejected Femi Falana’s request to ban public officials from seeking medical care overseas.
“It will be an infringement or breach on the Fundamental Right of Nigerians, be they Public Officers or not, to prevent them from seeking medical attention outside Nigeria when the need arises, and it will therefore be draconian to grant the request,” ruled Justice Polycarp Terna Kwahar on behalf of the three-man panel.
Justices Mohammed Mustapha and Paul Bassi concurred, upholding the Federal High Court’s 2021 decision that adequate healthcare is a directive principle of state policy and not a justiciable right under the Nigerian Constitution.
Falana had argued that failing to equip public hospitals violated Nigerians’ rights and sought a court order compelling the government to improve healthcare while barring officials from using state funds for foreign treatment. The appeal court ruled that “the right to adequate medical facilities does not come under Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution [as amended], so it will therefore be anachronistic to leapfrog this human right into fundamental right.”
Rejecting Falana’s reliance on Indian case law, the court stated that banning officials from overseas treatment would violate fundamental rights. “This application brought by the appellant seeks to import into Chapter IV what was not and is not provided for. Granting the prayers in this appeal will be a travesty of justice.”
Reacting to the verdict, Falana said, “The Court of Appeal failed to appreciate that it is discriminatory to allow a few public officers to seek medical treatment abroad while millions of poor citizens are allowed to die in ill-equipped local hospitals.”
He vowed to challenge the ruling at the Supreme Court, arguing, “The fundamental right to life is incomplete without the protection of the right to health by the federal, state, and local governments in Nigeria.”
