It’s time Nigerians stand with one voice and pray. Not to avert the imminent break-up of the country as some naysayers will have us believe but for divine help to avoid a re-currence of a dangerous past.
In the past week, Nigerians were further divided as news of President Muhammadu Buhari’s health filtered into mainstream media. Mr. President was confirmed ill. But hey, he’s human like the rest of us.
Except for his handlers who would have us think Oga is a demigod who never gets catarrh, talk more of a headache. And so they set out to tell the rest of us lesser humans that our president is hale and hearty. Even after the man himself confirmed he is sick.
This is the second time Mr. President is embarking on a holiday to the United Kingdom where many believe these trips are more for medical tourism than a vacation. He hasn’t denied it. President Buhari had in February taken a five-day leave. This time, a 10-day medical vacation.
He is expected to be examined by Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialists in London.
There is nothing wrong with anyone taking ill, especially in Nigeria, where, even, our economy is sick. Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele warned last month the economy is facing “imminent recession” after first quarter growth contracted 0.8 percent, the first negative growth since 2004. But aren’t we a country sick on all sides? The resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta, the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast, rampaging herdsmen in the Middlebelt and Southeast and a general deterioration of the security situation. The power situation has gone worse and worsening even more daily.
What do I say? It is not just a sick president that needs medical attention; it is the entire country.
I need not remind you that our president is 73 years old and at that age sometimes they go in and out of the hospital. We signed him on with our votes knowing his age, so why does that surprise anyone? It is the fact that some part of history that dragged us through this path may be repeating itself and it scares me to think of it that way.
Thinking back to the days of late President Musa Yar’ Adua, at first he was flown out just for a medical checkup then a diagnosis showed he had acute pericarditis while Nigerians had already begun to speculate he was dead. Then followed the deceit because the kitchen cabinet had to continue to convince Nigerians that the President was in a good shape to continue running the country.
But this is really not the whole idea of this write-up today. First, we need to keep a positive mindset and pray that the President get’s well and return to complete what he has started.
Meanwhile, why is there always a need for government officials to be flown abroad for medical attention? Call it a coincidence but the President and a member of his cabinet are receiving treatment outside the shores of this country. Will our healthcare system ever get better this way? If it is not good enough for you to use, then fix it up to standard and restore the confidence of the people by using it.
In September last year, the National Medical Association (NMA) at the end of its National Economic Council meeting disclosed that Nigeria loses a whopping N250 billion annually to medical tourism.
At last week’s Federal Executive Council, a simple prayer by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir Lawal had drawn the attention of journalists who were inside the council chambers.
As is the culture to start the meeting, between the President or Vice President whoever chairs the meeting of the day, nominates two ministers, a Muslim and Christian to pray. The Vice President nominated the minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to pray.
Lawal’s prayer was clearer obviously because he prayed in English. He prayed for the President and three ministers who are currently ill.
While he prayed our minds ticked with the question of who and who had taken ill again.
Then he was specific, mentioning their names and conditions. The minister of women affairs Aisha Alhassan is said to be recuperating in a United States hospital after a surgery, while the minister of Education Adamu Adamu is recuperating from back pains. The minister of state for environment, Ibrahim Jibril is also said to be ill.
The attraction was different for some. Some argued that some strange wind seemed to be blowing in the President’s cabinet, but for me, the strongest point of thought was why coincidentally they were receiving treatment in one country or the other outside Nigeria. This signals to why the health system in Nigeria has refused to grow or rather is not growing. It is one thing to be well fed and refuse to grow and it is something else to be starved yet be expected to grow.
If our officials who are meant to make the system work cannot get the best of treatment here, where lies the hope of ordinary Nigerians?
I wait to see the day David Cameron or President Barack Obama will be treated outside their own countries. Don’t get me wrong, there are doctors who specialise in different fields, but the point remains that in a country of over 170 million people with other countries celebrating Nigerians in top medical spots we are still crawling far behind.
Some of Nigeria’s tertiary health institutions play home to specialised equipment with no one to man them, on the other hand, the secondary and primary health care centres are far from well-managed not to talk of being well equipped.
Even as the Federal Government has said it is planning to build 100 primary health care centres, it doesn’t excite me because a few months or years down the line and we will be back where we started because the officials themselves do not take the system seriously. In other climes, the primary health care system basically takes care of most medical needs because they are well equipped.
As a child, I watched my mother, a nurse, treat people in the hospital using the traditional kerosene lamp she had to bring from home alongside her other equipment. She worked at a community health centre, ill-equipped. I have had the cause to visit some primary healthcare centres and the story pathetically is almost the same decades later. When is our health system going to grow? Yes, we have read reports of new improvements here and there especially the open heart surgery done in some of the tertiary institutions in the country, but the feeling is that we still don’t trust the system.
Enough said for today.
On the other hand, I have noticed how tough a job it is, to be the spokesman of the President of Nigeria in this 21st Century. It is like trying to churn white out of black.
Femi Adesina, I am sure is battling with keeping his boss looking good before Nigerians but he seems to be kept aloof from the main plan. Not knowing he was dealing with Nigerians who seem to somehow know everything before it happens, he had continued to sing that the president is not sick. I think anyone who watched the president’s democracy day address would have understood that something was wrong somewhere. It was funny to see the spokesman speaking on a television programme in Abuja, denying that the President was sick, only to issue a statement a couple of hours later stating that he was going a vacation and would need to get his ears checked. Is it that he truly had no idea?
Elizabeth Archibong
