Success Nwanedo
In a country that prides itself as the ‘Giant of Africa’ lies the decay of a healthcare system, charged with the responsibility of caring for ailing citizens. Nigeria, since its independence 61 years ago, has been on reverse gear in development. The health care system in Nigeria is ravaged by a lack of coordination, decaying infrastructure, inadequate supply of resources, deplorable access to care, and extreme negligence by health professionals.
The health care system in Nigeria has been poorly managed over the years. This is evident in the budgetary provisions made for the sector annually, which is not more than 6 percent of the annual budget. Most primary health care centers and state hospitals nationwide are on the verge of collapse.
Some days ago, the Senate halted a proposal by the Federal Ministry of Health to borrow $200 million under the Malaria Programme to buy mosquito nets in the 2022 budget.
In justification to the proposal, the Permanent Secretary in the Health Ministry, Mahmuda Mamman, said, “The loan, if approved by the National Assembly and accessed, will be used to medically fight malaria in the 13 orphan states which cover 208 local government Councils and 3,536 primary health care centres.”
The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, said the $200 million was for importation and local production of mosquito nets.
According to the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), over 90,000 malaria-related deaths are recorded in Nigeria every year, with nine to ten persons dying of malaria or malaria-related causes every hour.
The question remains, what plans and measures have been put in place by the government to curb health-related deaths and restore the failing health infrastructure? The answer is not far-fetched; the government has shown less or no concern to the health sector that caters to the health needs of its citizens. They have dedicated deaf ears to fixing critical parts of the economy. President Muhammadu Buhari and his league of elites have become medical tourists to hospitals in functioning countries.
In a speech at the launch of a privately-owned new 100-suit health facility in Lagos, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, said that medical tourism is straining Nigeria’s foreign reserves.
According to him, “Medical tourism puts a huge strain on our foreign reserves, and more importantly, for every $1bn allocated to medical treatment abroad, there is less than $1bn that could be available to other critical sectors of our economy.
Recall that in 2015, President Buhari, during his campaign, had promised to stop medical tourism to save the nation’s scarce foreign exchange. He had also promised to ban elected government officials from embarking on foreign medical trips after lamenting the millions wasted on medical tourism.
He had said, “I will increase the number of physicians from 19 per 1000 population to 50 per 1000 through deliberate medication education as epitomized by nations such as Ghana. I will increase national health expenditure per person per annum to about N50,000 (from the less than N10,000 currently); Increase the quality of all federal government-owned hospitals to world-class standards by 2019; Ban medical tourism by our politicians from May 29, 2015.”
However, since 2015, Buhari has led the department of medical tourists, in full reverse of his own words. Doctors and other health workers have resolved to strike as a way out to liaise with the government while citizens suffer the consequences. Most citizens pay through their noses to offset health bills. Hundreds of health workers have bid farewell to motherland in a search for greener pastures, where they feel would appreciate the years spent to train as professionals.
Statistics have shown that at least 5000 medical doctors have left the country to work abroad. In March 2021, Nigerian doctors gathered in numbers at a hotel in Abuja, the nation’s capital, to take a test conducted by the Saudi Arabian health ministry, while those at home have continued with threats of strike actions. The incessant migration and strike actions by doctors have also encouraged the degradation of the sector, which has led to losses of lives.
In 2017, a Chief Medical Director had said that over 90 percent of deaths in Nigerian hospitals are due to the poor attitude of health workers. The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) recently called off its 63-day old strike over poor remuneration, among other grievances. Grievances must be aired but not at the detriment of the lives of citizens.
It is evident that the Nigerian Health care industry requires a complete overhaul. The government must fulfill its obligations to provide adequate funding, improved healthcare facilities, improved medical research, good salaries, adequate training, and other benefits to motivate healthcare workers.
At the same time, the government must instill an immediate ban on government-sponsored medical trips abroad, enforcement of legal action against medical negligence, and encourage foreign investment.
Doctors and health workers must live up to their oaths to care for and preserve human lives
