What Nigeria needs is a world-class healthcare not enlarged federal cabinet

On Saturday October 28, 2017, I lost two members of my extended family. They were my senior cousins who were in their mid 60’s and late 70’s respectively. They died of sickness in their respective locations and not through any form of accident. Losing the two of them same day was a shock to my extended family members and of course, painful.

But the one that was more painful was that of the younger one – the Late Chief Bashiru Funsho Awodele who was a Clearing and Forwarding company Chief Executive and a Community leader in my hometown in Oyo state. Chief Awodele’s demise was more painful because of the circumstances that surrounded it.

Here was a man who took ill briefly and as a result decided to go to a tertiary hospital in Lagos which has been declared as one of the Centres of Excellence in the country for a medical check – up. He was not carried there on a stretcher or in an ambulance.

He walked into the healthcare facility himself. When the deceased noticed my call on the Thursday evening October 26 which he missed, he decided to return it early in the morning of Friday October 27. I spoke with him briefly and promised to call back later in the evening which I decided to defer to the following day so as to give him enough time to rest. Unknown to me, I thought he was having a bed rest in his house, not knowing that he was speaking from an hospital room. I could no longer make the intended phone call of the Saturday morning again. Rather it was a call that I received from another caller that announced his obituary to me. I thought I was in a dream land, until one of my nephews called from my home town and confirmed the sad news to me.

According to the logo of the hospital where this late senior cousin of mine passed on – “we care, God heals”. But when the facilities in our public health institutions are not up to standard for our Medical Doctors, Nurses and other Health workers to really care enough for their patients before the Great Physician comes to their rescue, they may be lost in the process. And it is this kind of facilities that is lacking in the country which made many Nigerians to embark on frequent Medical Tourism abroad. And the President of the country – His Excellency Muhammed Buhari is not left out. In fact he puts politics aside seems to be the champion of those seeking proper Medicare abroad.

At the last count, the President reportedly spent about 103 days in London enjoying the best of health care services from his doctors who were using high – technology in the medical practice to care for the President before God had mercy on him and healed him, as a result of intercessory prayers which some cross – sections of the country offered to God on his behalf.

And the healing /transformation was so dramatic to the extent that some doubting Thomases are still of the opinion that the President occupying the Presidential Villa now is a fake – one and not the one they used to know.

The miracle was an outstanding one and the President himself acknowledged it. If he had listened to some of his handlers who were gambling and trying to play politics with his health by urging him to stay back in the Villa for his treatment, he would have been a goner by now. As long as the President is healthy after his several medical sojourns abroad, no one bothers to know how much the nation has spent on the medical tours of its President.

And that was why the Nigerian Medical Doctors urged the President to declare a state of emergency in the health care sector of the nation so as to checkmate the exodus of Nigerians travelling to Europe, America and India for their medical needs. Of recent, a former Chief of Army Staff – General – Victor Malu reportedly passed on in an hospital in Egypt.

Ironically, there are statistics to show that most of the experts and consultants that are running these world – class hospitals especially in the United Kingdom and the United States of America are Nigerians. In fact, the immediate past President of America – President Barack Obama once testified to this fact.

In a related development, a veteran Journalist and President of Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE)- Mrs. Funke Egbemode was obviously livid with anger when she learnt that a group of investors were about to establish a world – class standard hospital in Ghana. According to her, Ghanaian authorities must have noticed how much in terms of foreign exchange many Nigerians are spending to seek for treatment in the Europe, America and India. And they must thought it better to corner a sizable chunk of these millions of dollars just like they are doing in the Educational sector in spite of the fact that some Nigerian students are attending glorified secondary schools in Ghana in the name of schooling abroad. Earlier in the week in one of the offices in Abuja, I overheard a passerby lamenting how some children are dying like fowls in an hospital. They were strangers and so I couldn’t poke – nose into their discussion and inquire of the identity of the hospital. But that enquiry did not matter because we are all living witnesses of the state of our public health institutions including the Aso Villa Clinic.
And in this era of change mantra, the change we deservedly need in this nation is the total overhauling of our Healthcare Delivery System and not an expanded membership of the Federal Executive Council with the attendant humongous burden on the nation’s Treasury. In order to curb Medical Tourism, Funke Egbemode, among other things have recommended in one of her recent articles last month that the nation should designate some Teaching Hospitals in the country as Centers of Excellency for the treatment of Hearts, Kidney issues, Eyes, Orthopedic related treatments, among others.

Nigeria is the only country that pays the least minimum wage to her workers while paying the highest package of salaries/allowances to her political office holders to the extent that a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria earns more than the President of the United States of America. It is still on record that a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the current Emir of Kano – HRM Sanusi Muhammed once alleged that one – quarter of the nation’s annual budget is used to maintain National Assembly Members (NASS) of less than 500 members in a population of about 170,000,000 people.

Is it not a paradox that the nation is spending almost 70% of her annual budgets on Recurrent Expenditures at the expense of her Capital Expenditures? The change we want is for the government to spend more money to improve critical infrastructures, the standards of our Healthcare Delivery Systems and the Educational sectors which have been constituted into the drain – pipes of our foreign exchange earnings.

The change we are also clamouring for is for the State Governors to pay the salaries and allowances of their verifiable workers as at when due and not to embark on White Elephant projects like Osun State is doing now where the Governor of the state – Rauf Aregbesola has reportedly jacked up the cost of its proposed airport from N11billion to N 69 billion! Incidentally this is one of the states of the Federation that has been having running battles for non – payment of its workers, especially the Medical Doctors and the teachers. Imo State government is in the same shoes with its Osun state counterpart.

This is a state that made the headlines where the governor – Rochas Okorocha reportedly used public funds to erect a bronze statue that cost almost N500million in “honour” of a visiting President who was facing corruption and other related charges in his own country. The perennial problem that Nigerians have with their leaders is misplacement of priorities as narrated above; and if our leaders can change their mindsets of greed /avarice and allow the citizens to enjoy the dividends of good governance, the better for all of us and the generations that are yet unborn. More lives, including that of my late cousin mentioned above, could have been saved if our health care facilities c

ould be improved to the kind of standard that the President used to travel out to enjoy. It is doable and we can attain that level of infrastructural development in our health institutions provided our leaders are ready to embark on restructuring of their minds and love their fellow Nigerians as themselves.

For now Governor Rauf Aregbesola should be advised to stop his White Elephant project of building an outrageously over quoted airport that is not commensurate with the economy of his state while the President should reconsider his reported intention to expand the composition of the membership of Federal Executive Council.

Furthermore, the Federal Government should mandate its Agency in charge of fixing wages and salaries of Public officials/political office holders- Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission to review the Template in line with the best practices all over the world and to reflect the state of our economy which is suffering under the burden of Jumbo salaries/allowances that are being received by the NASS members and other public office holders.

That is the kind of the change that the Nigerian electorate risked their lives and voted for. A change to improve their standards of living and not to compound the sufferings they thought they have exited and put behind them after they have shown red – card to the last Administration and booted it out.

Meanwhile, I am also using this medium to bid a final farewell to my two senior cousins the- Late Pa Olawore Mokere Olatoki and the Late Chief Bashiru Funsho Awodele , may their souls rest in perfect peace.

Olakunle, JP is General Secretary, National Prayer Movementgbemigaolakunle@yahoo.co.uk, Abuja and Aande, Ph.D. is Professor of Agricultural Economics and Development Policy, former Director-General, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Email: stunjiakande@gmail.com +2348057740789