Opinion: BUHARI’S MEDICAL VACATION AND THE NEED TO ADDRESS THE CHALLENGES OF NIGERIA’S HEALTH SECTOR – By SUNDAY EZE

Before the return of President Muhammadu Buhari after more than three months on medical vacation in the United Kingdom, some Nigerians took to the streets of Abuja and UK demanding for his immediate return or resignation. That protest led by Charles (Charley Boy) Oputa under the aegis of #OurMumuDonDo# and other civil society groups could best be described as the usual uncanny gymnastics of the Area fada.  President Buhari like every other human being is not immuned from sickness(s). Moreover, patients are discharged from hospitals at the instance of their physicians not protesters. In Africa, the sick and old are handled with tenderness, care and love. To stage a protest demanding for the compulsory return or resignation of a sick man when his physician did not give the nod is un-African and tantamount to wishing him dead. Therefore, prayer for speedy recovery of the ailing president would have been the most honourable path to take.

Charley Boy is an odd creature and weird specie whose antecedents are well known. However, behind the creepy-deviant nature of this man and the boldness to engage in civil disobedience as a way of drawing the attention of government to pressing national issues rests the urgent need to address frontally the nagging problems bedeviling Nigeria’s health and other sectors. The deplorable state of Nigeria’s health sector which falls below the standard of treating the ailing president before he took medical refuge in a foreign land should be a great source of concern to Nigerians. Moreso, the flawed attitude of political leaders to deliver on campaign promises and the docility of citizens to compel them to do so was the problem with Nigeria not the long absence of the president. Before the death of former President Umaru Yar’adua, he ran to Saudi Arabia on medical vacation too. Stories had it that in the early 1960s, the royal family of the Saud visit University Collage Hospital Ibadan, for sundry health related problems. Today, the reverse has become the case. Billions of Naira spent on medical tourism of both presidents alone and the well to do in our society is big enough to upgrade two tertiary health institutions into world class hospitals. In sane climes, the President’s medical trip and the attendant brouhaha is enough reason for leaders at all levels of government to commence immediate transformation of not only the health but other sectors of the economy.

In Nigeria, elections have been won on failed promises of improving the health indices while military juntas had hidden behind the same precarious health situation as reason for their adventure into politics. All Progressive Congress (APC) rode on the shoulders of also providing improved medical services to Nigerians to win 2015 elections. After two years on the saddle, has the health sector improved? Little seems to be working as the situation has sadly degenerated. Many Nigerians had lost their lives for lack of basic health care services while leaders treat even headache abroad. The sorry state of Nigerian health sector was vividly captured by Thisday Newspaper thus:  “on specifics, the federal government will spend N 304 billion on health of over 180 million Nigerians in 2017 amounting to N 1,688 per citizen for the whole year. Meanwhile, United States of America will expend at least $ 7 million per a prisoner in Guantanamo Bay in the same year. Also, on the health care alone, the United States of America this year will spend at least $ 7,000 per citizen which is about N 3.5 million using a forex rate of N 495 to a dollar. Switzerland will spend this year $6000 which is about N 3 million. This, when compared to Nigeria’s N 1,688 per head for a whole year, suggests why the country still grapple with poor health indices and poor mortality rates for a country that prices itself as the giant of Africa. No wonder various statistics show that Nigeria has one of the worst health records in the world. The country’s average mortality rate is put at 52 years whereas in some  less economically strong nations, even in Africa, their mortality rate rank way better than Nigeria’s. For instance,  while the number of deaths of infants under one year per 1000 live births in Nigeria is about 72 according to 2015 report from world fact book, that of Rwanda is 58 deaths per 1000 children under five . That of Malawi is 42 deaths per 1000. Gabon is 46, Togo 45. Kenya 39 while Libya is just 11.”

It is startling that a country which hosted a special health summit of the Organisation of African Unity (African Union) in year 2001- where member states pledged to commit at least 15% of their annual budget to health will gallingly fail to redeem such a pledge 16 years on. There is no gain saying the fact that the problem with Nigeria’s health sector is patently endemic. Our leaders must be held accountable for failing woefully to add value to human existence. Africa is unfortunately branded a dark continent owing to failure of successive governments to take advantage of the opportunities and rare privileges governance offered them to uplift the lives of their people. That was why African migrants prefer to die on the Mediterranean and possibly turn into willing modern day slaves in Europe and America instead of living in Africa. Nigeria is not left out in these missed and misplaced opportunities. The beauty of democracy is anchored on the life transforming promises it offer the people as they confidently cast their votes for elected office holders. However, these promises are hardly fulfilled.

In his address to Nigerians on his return from medical vacation, the president gave away the import of the obvious nagging health issues in the country and gaps which forced him to seek medical attention abroad and ways of tackling it head long. Instead, he was preoccupied with dealing with those who want to change the narrative of his two days in dept discussion with Ojukwu and their conclusion that the country must remain united and those he called “irresponsible elements” who start trouble and when things get bad they run away and saddle others with the responsibility of bringing back order, if necessary with their blood. It took a lot of sacrifice, consistency, persistence, patriotism and genuine intentions of nation-building to put in place the state of the art health facilities available abroad. It is hoped that the president’s medical vacation will spur this current administration and open a new vista of hope for the immediate commencement of a solid foundation for the deplorable health sector in Nigeria.

Sunday Onyemaechi Eze, a Media and Communications Specialist is the publisher of thenewinsightng.blogspot.com. He wrote via [email protected] and can be reached on 08060901201