Dr. Akinola Akinmade, the Chief Medical Director of Afe Babalola University Multi-System Hospital (AMSH), has declared that former President Muhammadu Buhari might still be alive if he had been treated at their cutting-edge medical facility in Ado-Ekiti.
Speaking over the weekend, Akinmade expressed absolute confidence in the hospital’s technology and clinical expertise, emphasizing that AMSH had the capacity to manage complex health issues such as the late president’s condition.
Buhari, 82, died on July 13, 2025, in a London hospital following a prolonged undisclosed illness.
“We fight for every life. If we had been the one attending to the former president, we would have done everything possible to keep him alive and functional,” Akinmade stated.
His comments followed a revelation by Femi Adesina, former Special Adviser to President Buhari, who implied the ex-president would not have survived had he remained in Nigeria for treatment.
Akinmade used the opportunity to criticize the persistent trend of medical tourism among Nigeria’s political elite, lamenting that despite the availability of world-class facilities like AMSH, leaders continue to seek care abroad.He pointed to AMSH’s formal partnership with India’s Marengo Asia Hospitals as a milestone in improving local care.
Through this collaboration, the hospital has completed nine successful kidney transplants, performed by both Indian and Nigerian surgeons. AMSH also boasts a Renal Centre with 27 modern dialysis machines, including dedicated units for patients with infectious diseases.
Over 400 dialysis sessions are conducted monthly.For its medical achievements, AMSH recently received national recognition for excellence in hospital management, clinical delivery, and innovation.
Dr. Akinmade attributed these milestones to the vision of the hospital’s founder, legal icon Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), whose goal is to make high-quality healthcare accessible to every Nigerian, regardless of social class.
“Our hospitals must be able to care for our people. We can’t keep running outside the country for healthcare,” he stressed.
“We need to build capacity, and these things don’t happen overnight.”He also called on the government to urgently rehabilitate the Ado–Ijan road, citing its importance to patient transport, emergency response, and hospital logistics.
Dr. Akinmade’s remarks serve as both a critique of Nigeria’s dependence on foreign healthcare and a rallying call to invest in and trust domestic medical institutions like AMSH.
