How I escaped air crash — Aisha Buhari

The first lady, Aisha Buhari, has narrated how she escaped aircrash while returning from the United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Mrs Buhari said she travelled to the middle east country for medical treatment, and returned aboard a Nigerian Airforce plane.

“On our way back, the Nigerian Airforce Flight encountered a violent clear air turbulence which was navigated safely and professionally by the Captain and crew of the Flight,” she tweeted Friday evening.

It is not clear what Mrs Buhari was treated for, but she said in her posts on Twitter that she “was well now and fully recovered” and had since returned to the country.

She praised the courage and professionalism of the captain and his crew, and spoke of the quality of maintenance of the Airforce’s fleet.

“I want to commend and appreciate the courage and professionalism of the Captain and his crew, the wonderful gallant service men and women of the entire Nigerian Airforce for their dedication to duty and the quality of maintainance of its Fleet,” she wrote.

Members of the first family, including President Muhammadu Buhari, and their close relatives regularly travel outside the country for medical reasons.

In his first term in office, Mr Buhari spent several months in London where he received medical treatment.

The trips, often paid for by the government, are usually met with criticisms, with many Nigerians urging the country’s political leaders to fix the nation’s broken health system and save cost by patronising them.

In her tweets, Mrs Buhari urged healthcare providers in the country to apply for the federal government’s credit support.

“I recall hosting the private healthcare Providers earlier in the year and we had a very productive engagement where the issue of building the capacity of Nigeria health sector was the major focus, and funding was discovered to be the major challenge,” she wrote.

“I therefore call on the healthcare providers to take the advantage of the Federal Government’s initiative through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) guidelines for the operation of NGN100 Billion Credit Support for the Healthcare Sector as was released recently contained in a circular dated March 25, 2020 to the Commercial Banks.

“This will no doubt help in building and expanding the capacity of the Nigerian health sector and ultimately reduce medical trips and tourism outside the Country.”