NewStats: 3,265,004 , 8,185,309 topics. Date: Friday, 13 June 2025 at 06:43 AM 6l3j6l

A three-member of the appellate court delivered the unanimous judgment on January 30.
Polycarp Terna Kwahar, who read the lead judgment on behalf of the said:

“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.”

Falana, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and human rights lawyer, filed a suit against the federal government before the trial court, seeking, among other things, a declaration that Nigerians are entitled to the best attainable state of physical and mental health as guaranteed by law.

He argued that the failure of the government to repair and equip public hospitals and medical centres in Nigeria constitutes a violation of the right to protect the health of Nigerians and to ensure that they receive medical attention when they are sick.

He sought a court order directing the government to repair and equip the hospitals and another restraining public officers from accessing medical checkups in any foreign hospital and being treated at public expense in such hospitals.

However, the trial court struck out the suit on the ground that the provision of adequate medical and health facilities is “not justiciable” by virtue of section 6 (6) (C) of the 199 Constitution.

Dissatisfied with the judgment, Falana appealed the ruling in 2021.

But the appellate court agreed with the verdict of the federal high court.

The judgment reads in part, “…how would the matter of public officers’ treatment outside Nigeria be an issue that is linked with the fundamental right of the appellant? The question to ask is, what does fundamental right mean?”

“A fundamental right is a right guaranteed in the Constitution. Fundamental rights mean any of the fundamental rights provided for in Chapter IV of the Constitution and include any of the rights stipulated in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act 2004.

“Merely entrenching a right in the 1999 Constitution does not automatically make such a right a ‘fundamental right’.

“Of all the cases referred to by the appellant, none of them has any link with our jurisprudence. They are all from India, and this court is not bound to follow them. Persuasive as they are, I refuse to follow those cases as highlighted below:

“(a) Paschin Banga Kher Mazdouer Samity V. State of West Bengal (1996) 4 SCL.
“(b) Pt Parmanand Katara V. Union of India & Ors (1989) CS 2039.
“(c) Consumer Education and Research Centres & Ors V. Union of India.

“On the contrary, 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; this court will therefore be draconian to grant the prayers.

“Although the averments of the applicant/appellant were not controverted at the trial court by the respondent, this court, being a court of justice, looked at the affidavit of the appellant at the lower court, and the facts therein do not fly with the extant laws on fundamental rights,

so they cannot be swept under the carpet, since doing otherwise will be going against judicial precedent and against the settled principle of stare decisis.

“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.

The lower court did a very perfect constitutional law analysis and rightly too, by explaining the difference between economic, social, and cultural rights since these human rights fall under Chapter II of the 1999 Constitution and not under Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution.

” I find no merit in this appeal; I dismiss the appeal and affirm the ruling delivered by the Federal High Court, Ikeja, on the 10th of January, 2011.”

Reacting to the judgment in a statement on Sunday, 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 the millions of poor citizens are allowed to die in ill-equipped local hospitals.”

“The court equally failed to realise that the fundamental right to life is incomplete without the protection of the right to health by the federal, state, and local governments in Nigeria,” he added.

“I will certainly challenge the erroneous judgment of the court of appeal at the supreme court on of the constitutional guarantee of the right to life and equality before the law.”

https://www.thecable.ng/appeal-court-dismisses-falanas-suit-to-ban-public-officers-from-medical-tourism/

With all due respect, Mr Falana is getting it wrong lately, he was also in the media misinterpreting Supreme Court Judgement on Rivers crisis. Since VDM made that allegations against him, he has been hitting the wrong spot but it is never too late for the respected senior lawyer to do a quick turnaround.
Every Nigerian, whether public officers or not, has the fundamental human right to seek medical treatment from anywhere as he deems fit. His son Falz was flown abroad for a knee surgery, he chose where best fit for his treatment. Do you have an idea how many lawmakers we lost in the last three years due to lack of adequate medical facilities?. The need to equip our public health facilities should be the appropriate issue at the front burner and not stopping anyone from seeking treatments abroad.



-Kiss the truth!

Falana we've not heard u and Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere own version of supreme Court verdict on Rivers matter.....

Falana na badt guy. mugu fall guy man chop am.

chiiraq802:
Falana we've not heard u and Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere own version of supreme Court verdict on Rivers matter.....

Falana na badt guy. mugu fall guy man chop am.

Falana goofed but Ugochinyere is on Fubara's payroll.


-Kiss the truth!

Falana is now a big time joke

vdm don open your yansh you no get level again

I falana on this one. Public office holders should patronize our public health care so that they can experience their failures firsthand.

Imagine this useless people.

I'm not public official to disagree with Falana on this, reason being that we're not developed to ban the medical tourism, apart from public officials being public servants if they have money let them exercise their right of chopping those wealth.
It makes sense to implement that, if we're an educationally sound country, when we can develop our own healthcare systems with no intervention of foreign countries.

What should Falana supposed to do was to sue them for sending their children abroad while abandoning what we have in mess.

hmm

Public officials embarking on medical tourism is the reason they don't pay attention to the detoriating health facilities in Nigeria

Ok

TimeManager:
With all due respect, Mr Falana is getting it wrong lately, he was also in the media misinterpreting Supreme Court Judgement on Rivers crisis. Since VDM made that allegations against him, he has been hitting the wrong spot but it is never too late for the respected senior lawyer to do a quick turnaround.
Every Nigerian, whether public officers or not, has the fundamental human right to seek medical treatment from anywhere as he deems fit. His son Falz was flown abroad for a knee surgery, he chose where best fit for his treatment. Do you have an idea how many lawmakers we lost in the last three years due to lack of adequate medical facilities?. The need to equip our public health facilities should be the appropriate issue at the front burner and not stopping anyone from seeking treatments abroad.

Dear Timemanager,

form all indications what Falana SAN wants is for the court to stop public office holders form using public funds and tax payers money for treatment abroad, when the majority of tax payers themselves dont get medical treatment abroad.


-Kiss the truth!

Sir you have done your best,

Heaven and earth has witnessed your efforts in your fight to restore sanity to the healthcare system.

Weldone 👍🏼🙏🏼

Falana should rest Tinubu's agents have hijacked all the three organs of government.

See how this nation has been bastardised that even the judiciary is now openly legalising illegalities.

Since they are part of the game, are you surprised they dismissed the case?
Judiciary in Nigeria is in favour of who is who.
Poor people are lesser Nigerian in the eyes of law.
As a poor man, try and take care of your health in a little way you can. No functional public health services on sight.

TimeManager:
With all due respect, Mr Falana is getting it wrong lately, he was also in the media misinterpreting Supreme Court Judgement on Rivers crisis. Since VDM made that allegations against him, he has been hitting the wrong spot but it is never too late for the respected senior lawyer to do a quick turnaround.
Every Nigerian, whether public officers or not, has the fundamental human right to seek medical treatment from anywhere as he deems fit. His son Falz was flown abroad for a knee surgery, he chose where best fit for his treatment. Do you have an idea how many lawmakers we lost in the last three years due to lack of adequate medical facilities?. The need to equip our public health facilities should be the appropriate issue at the front burner and not stopping anyone from seeking treatments abroad.



-Kiss the truth!

The law should be specific to public office holders! Our hospitals are in poor states due to negligence by these public offiçe holders!

If such laws being pursued by Mr Falana are there, public office holders would take their jobs more seriously and ensure that our hospitals are up to standards both in of human and material resources.

Our judicial system has become so corrupt and compromised that they now dance to the tunes of the massively corrupt government officials. So, I'm not surprised at this court judgement

79lauya:
Dear Timemanager,

form all indications what Falana SAN wants is for the court to stop public office holders form using public funds and tax payers money for treatment abroad, when the majority of tax payers themselves dont get medical treatment abroad.

Are you the counsel to Mr Falana
His prayer was asking the court to stop them from medical treatment abroad, he didn't say they should be stopped from using tax payers money Don't add your own case to it.

Racoon:
See how this nation has been bastardised that even the judiciary is now legalising illegalities.

Can you show us any part of the constitution stating public officers seeking medical treatments abroad is illegal?. Can you people stop coming on public fora and talking like Illiterates, your emotions does not work with the law.

“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.”

You would think a human rights lawyer would know this.

Jman06:
The law should be specific to public office holders! Our hospitals are in poor states due to negligence by these public offiçe holders!

If such laws being pursued by Mr Falana are there, public office holders would take their jobs more seriously and ensure that our hospitals are up to standards both in of human and material resources.

Our judicial system has become so corrupt and compromised that they now dance to the tunes of the massively corrupt government officials. So, I'm not surprised at this court judgement

Are the public officers the ones responsible for the state of your hospitals?. Don't you have budgets for health?, don't you have a minister for health?, are there no civil servants working there?, are there no medical directors?. Do states not have yearly budgets for health?, are there no commissioners for health?. Why can't you hold the appointees who are assigned to fix the hospitals able for the failure to do their job?. Why must a lawmaker who approved the budget for health be punished for the failure of those who received the funds but did nothing. Why must a judge who has no business in health affairs be punished for the failures of a health minister?

Falana is wasting his time

You cannot use one wrongdoing to cure another wrongdoing

How does a Special Adviser to the President on Agric or a Minister of Trade or a Commissioner in an Agency breach your right to life, just because he or she went for surgery abroad or some other medical treatment

No Court on this planet will grant his request to block Public Officers from medical treatment abroad

I knew that suit was dead on arrival..

Cos even our Lordships majority of them with very frail health seek medical attention abroad.

These should just be a simple moral issue.. but sadly our socalled leaders don't possess conscience.

Publicly calling the judgment of a court erroneous, has Falana lost his mind? Unprofessional and unethical. Goes against the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners in Nigeria.

zero8zero:

Are the public officers the ones responsible for the state of your hospitals?. Don't you have budgets for health?, don't you have a minister for health?, are there no civil servants working there?, are there no medical directors?. Do states not have yearly budgets for health?, are there no commissioners for health?. Why can't you hold the appointees who are assigned to fix the hospitals able for the failure to do their job?. Why must a lawmaker who approved the budget for health be punished for the failure of those who received the funds but did nothing. Why must a judge who has no business in health affairs be punished for the failures of a health minister?

Government agencies and appointees don't work in isolation! The health minister can't deliver quality healthcare if the president doesn't release funds through the office of the ant general of the federation. The national assembly is not meant to only approve budgetary allocations to the ministry of health, they also have a duty to carry out oversight functions on the ministry, that is why they have committees on health. The judge who takes bribes to coverup cases of fraud in the ministry of health would desist from such if he/she knows that he/she can't go outside the country to seek quality healthcare.

zero8zero:

Can you show us any part of the constitution stating public officers seeking medical treatments abroad is illegal?. Can you people stop coming on public fora and talking like Illiterates, your emotions does not work with the law.

I don't blame you at all. I put my blame on those bastards and nonentity both myopic civilians and bloody thirsty military,dead or alive that draft that shit called constitution.

So I don't blame you at all, let them enjoy the loopholes in the constitution.

helinues:
Falana is now a big time joke

He's a joke ?? Becos he wants our public office holders to be more sensitive to public health service at home??

Yet u are among those saying law makers should make Nigerian trained doctors stay in Nigeria

TimeManager:
With all due respect, Mr Falana is getting it wrong lately, he was also in the media misinterpreting Supreme Court Judgement on Rivers crisis.

Wicked, and greedy old men. That's what I call them - still struggling to eat the food kept for children (if you know what I mean).

Unserious country

Old age don dey worry Falana. Dementia!