I shoot straight. The essay submits that ‘’Operation
Quality Healthcare’’ for Nigerians is as imperative as ‘’Operation
Python Dance’’ or ‘’Operation
Crocodile Smile’’. It is trite to
say that the healthcare system in Nigeria is to say the least, comatose and not
fit for purpose. Scores of Nigerians die incessantly from preventable, curable
diseases while political leaders and affluent Nigerians embark on ‘’medical
tourism’’ to treat mundane health challenges that can be treated in Nigeria.
It
is safe to conclude that these well-off Nigerians have no iota of confidence in
Nigeria’s healthcare system and medical professionals. The quest for greener
pastures and improved wellbeing is the reason scores of Nigerian are traded as
slaves in Libya. It accounts for why 26 Nigerian girls perished in the
Mediterranean Sea en route Europe recently. It is profoundly hypocritical
hearing privileged Nigerians in corridors of power press Nigerians in abroad to
return to home whereas they journey abroad for quality medical treatment.
Pathetic Aso Rock Clinic:
Benchmark of Nigeria’s Pathetic Health System
The Aso Rock Clinic domiciled in Nigeria’s presidential villa,
provides health care treatment for Mr. President, Vice-President, their
families, top civil servants working in the Presidency and other notable
dignitaries. Punch Newspaper reports that, ‘’despite the N3.87bn allocated to Aso Rock Clinic in the
2016 federal budget, lack of drugs and other essential medical items have
crippled operations at the State House Medical Centre’’. President Buhari’s wife, Mrs. Aisha Buhari recently narrated how she rang Aso Clinic when she was sick to find out if the
medical facility has an X-Ray machine but was told that the equipment was not
functional. Mrs. Buhari says she had to go
to a ‘’hospital owned and operated by foreigners 100 per cent to receive
medical treatment’’. If Nigeria’s presidential clinic lacks X-ray machine and
basic drugs, imagine the situation in medical facilities in remote parts of Nigeria.
Troubling Medical Statistics In
Nigeria
During the
commemoration of the 2017 World Heart Day, the National Coordinator of Non-Communicable Diseases, Dr. Nnenna
Ezeigwe
asserts that 150,000 Nigerians die annually as a
result of heart-related
diseases. She says the number is expected to
increase to 23 million by the year 2030 if adequate measures are not taken. The
United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, estimates that Nigeria loses about $1.5bn in productivity to maternal mortality every year. Nigeria’s Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu,
opined during a news conference to commemorate the 2017 Global Handwashing Day,
that ‘’59,000
children in Nigeria die yearly of water-related diseases ‘’. Over 100 million clinical cases of Malaria are recorded in
Nigeria; the disease kills
300,000 children annually. The Executive Director,
Centre for Healthy Star Initiative and Global Burden of Disease Collaborator,
Dr. Bolajoko Olusanya says Malaria is the leading cause of death in Nigeria
followed by HIV/AIDS with 143, 689 deaths, while diarrhea became the third top cause
of death with 131,873 deaths. Also, Dr. Biodun Ogungbo, neurosurgeon with the
group, Stroke Assembly asserts that, ‘’ as
much as 200,000 Nigerians are killed or disabled by stroke each year’’. He says
half of stroke patients in Nigeria die each year while the rest become
disabled. Speaking during a screening/awareness exercise organized by St.
Nicholas Hospital for schools in Lagos in 2016, erstwhile President of the
Nigerian Association of Nephrology, NAN, Dr. Ebun Bamgboye, asserted that
Nigeria has one of the largest burdens of kidney disease in the world.
About 17,000
kidney failure cases diagnosed annually in Nigeria and
less than 2,000 have access to dialysis.
Nigeria is said to have a ratio of 1 Nephrologist to
1 million persons. In 2015, the former United States Ambassador to Nigeria,
James Entwistle, opined, ‘’no fewer than 40,000
maternal deaths are recorded in Nigeria yearly’’. Mr.
Entwistle went further to say that, “The excessively
high maternal, neonatal and under-five death rates are reflections of
inadequate availability and access to quality health services’’. To appreciate the terrible state of healthcare in
Nigeria, find time to peruse parts one and two of a Premium Times research by Ebuka Onyeji titled: ‘’INVESTIGATION:
The terrible state of Nigeria’s Primary Healthcare Centres’’.
Nigeria’s Poor Life
Expectancy, A Function Of Deplorable Health System
The poor life expectancy in Nigeria is inter-alia, a function of
the abysmal healthcare system in Nigeria. A 2017 United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report pegged life expectancy in Nigeria at approximately 53 years.
Prior to now, life expectancy in Nigeria was 46
years. The marginal ‘progress’ does not call for celebration given that
war-torn countries such as South Sudan, Burundi respectively boast of 57.3 and
59.6 years. Bring to mind that the life expectancy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cameroon are
respectively 59.8 and 57.3 years while Japan is (83.7), Switzerland (83.4),
Singapore (83.1), Australia (82.8), South Korea (82.3), Canada (82.2) years. Monaco (89.42
years) boasts the highest
life expectancy while Syria has the lowest in
the world in 2017.
The Booming Medical
Tourism Drain
It is immensely embarrassing that the self-acclaimed giant of
Africa – Nigeria cannot boast of quality, accessible healthcare for its
citizens hence the penchant for well-to-do Nigerians to travel abroad for
quality Medicare. Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire
says Nigeria spends over $1bn annually on medical
tourism. Ehanire
believes that ‘’spending such a huge amount of money for treatment abroad was
not good for the nation’s economy’’. Sometime in October 2017, Nigeria’s
Minister of Education, Professor Anthony Anwukah was flown to the United States for medical treatment. November 2017,
Nigeria’s second Republic Vice-President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, was also airlifted abroad for medical treatment but unfortunately he didn’t make it.
Perhaps this is also a pointer that being flown abroad for medical treatment is
not necessarily a hedge against death when death is imminent. Recall that President Buhari left Nigeria on May 7 and
returned to Nigeria on August 19, 2017 after spending 103
days receiving medical treatment in London. On December 1, 2016, the Chief of
Staff to President Buhari, Abba
Kyari, was reportedly rushed to London’s
Wellington Hospital on a British Airway flight for medical treatment. Former
military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd) returned to
Nigeria on December 18, 2016 after a seven-week
medical vacation in Switzerland. The list is endless! South Africa’s Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi mocked African leaders who seek medical treatment outside the continent.
While we don’t begrudge private citizens who opt for foreign medical care from
their purse, I think it smacks of arrant hypocrisy, insensitivity and
inequality that our elected officials embark on medical tourism abroad at the
expense of tax payers while preventable, curable diseases snuff out life out of
hapless Nigerians.
Foreign Medicare
Epitomizes Entrenched Inequality In Nigeria
Speaking recently during the launching of a book titled:
‘Financing Universal Health Coverage in Nigeria’, legal luminary, Mr. Femi
Falana posited that ‘’President Muhammadu Buhari’s medical treatment abroad
constituted a gross abuse of the rights of the less-privileged and underscored
the pervasive inequality among Nigerian citizens’’. In Falana’s words, ‘’it
is unfathomable that the president and other top
Nigerians like the late Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme could be hurriedly
flown abroad for medical treatments while Nigerian hospitals were being
ill-equipped thereby causing death of poor Nigerians who suffer lesser
afflictions’’. Mr. Falana further reminds us that, ‘’Section 42 of the
Constitution guaranteed the fundamental right of every Nigerian citizen to
freedom from discrimination in a manner that no citizen shall be accorded any
special advantage over and above others’’.
Conclusion:
It is not only issues that impinge on security that calls for
urgent attention, a military offensive or declaration of a state of emergency.
It is a truism that poor medical care kill more Nigerians than insecurity.
Similar to the plethora military operations launched by this administration, we
beseech the Buhari administration to declare a state of emergency on Nigeria’s
moribund healthcare system.
Written By:
© Don Okereke, a
security analyst, consultant, trainer, writer, social reformer
Holistic
Security Background Checks Limited
Twitter:
@DonOkereke
December
18, 2017
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