The association said it is non-partisan and has not endorsed any presidential candidate in the forthcoming election.

The PUNCH reports that the Nigerian Medical Association has clarified that it has not endorsed the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, for president in 2023.

The NMA made the clarification against social media reports that it has endorsed Obi.

The association said it is non-partisan and has not endorsed any presidential candidate in the forthcoming election.

Speaking in an interview with The PUNCH, the President of the NMA, Dr Uche Ojinmah, said “We are not against any candidate. We’re a non-partisan association. We wish all the candidates well and we hope Nigerians make a wise choice for a better nation in 2023.”

On the agenda for the next president in the country, the NMA boss said importance must be placed on implementing the annual 15 per cent budget allocation to the health sector agreed in 2001 by African Heads of States in Abuja.

“Nigerians are hungry and a hungry person cannot be a healthy person.

“Nigerians are jobless, there’s nothing to do. A man that has nowhere to go in the morning cannot sleep well and obviously cannot have a good mental balance and, therefore, cannot be healthy.

“A man that will go out and he’s not sure of coming back alive cannot have enough courage to go fend for himself and his family, and he cannot be healthy. So if there’s no good economy, security, jobs, and food security, there will be ill-health and mental instability.

“(The) NMA is interested in the health of this country and its citizens.

“We are tired of them not fulfilling the 2001 Abuja Declaration of allocating 15 per cent to the health sector but they end up giving us 4 per cent.

“Every day people are blaming the Chief Medical Directors for the woes in the health sector but have you bothered to ask how much they’re allocating to the health system?

“We are tired of medical tourism; we are tired of brain drain, so we need the next president to focus.

“The next president should know that the economy is bad. The next president must understand the system before coming in and they should hit the ground running,” he said.