Since we started out sharing our views on health in the Nigerian polity, one issue has bothered and challenged us….Why does health, so important to all of us …have so little political capital in Nigeria?
A bit of lip service is paid here and there…but not more than that. Can you imagine what the outrage would be if the banking sector is paralysed? if the telecommunications systems went off? if all the roads in the country were blocked? the airports were closed… I suspect there would be an uproar…
So when almost the entire public health care delivery system in Nigeria is paralysed by strikes…why is there no reaction? How can we normalise so much? Medical care is the most essential of all the essential services…so how can we as a society tolerate so much?
Why do health care professionals find it so easy to strike…
Why does it take a strike to force the government to engage…
Why do the people find it so easy to look away…
THESE QUESTIONS CHALLENGE US DAILY…
Find below a few reports…but maybe our problems are too many and too large to bother with “health”and in the wake of the bombing of the Atlas Cove, the release of Henry Okah and Obama’s speech…you would hardly notice…until it is your own child that you need to take to hospital!
1. Daily Trust: The Federal Medical Center (FMC)Gombe has been forced to discharge all patients on admission following the industrial action embarked upon by the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Mid-wife and National Association of Medical and Health Workers.
2. Daily Trust: The House of Representatives yesterday mandated its committees on Health and Legislative Compliance to investigate the death of many Nigerians at the National Hospital, Abuja due to the strike being embarked upon by the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives.
3. Thisday: Following the multiple industrial unrest that has gripped three key sectors of the Nigerian economy namely, education, health and information, the House of Representatives yesterday summoned the ministers in charge of education, health and information and communication, Dr. Sam Egwu, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin and Professor Dora Akunyili.
4. Next: The University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan on Friday July 10 rejected new patients and is hurriedly discharging in-patients, as its nurses and non-academic staff embark on strike.
5. The Sun: Daily Sun visit to the hospital on Friday and Saturday revealed that virtually all the wards at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex (OAUTHC), Ile Ife were empty while the hospital was unable to admit new patients who came to the hospital oblivious that the strike persisted.
6. The Guardian: Minister of Health, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, is pleading with the doctors not to go on strike because there will be needless loss of lives.
My final thesis on this is that NIGERIANS are willing to tighten their belts and sacrifice for our country; our doctors will work for peanuts and our teachers will teach for less….
BUT BUT…they will NO LONGER DO THIS if our “LEADERS” do not do the same!
Our representatives in parliament take home millions of dollars and drive around in jeeps with tinted screens, local government chairmen move around with a retinue of aides that will make the Mayor of London jealous and while Universities are closed, OUR Minister for Education is alleged to have spent 120 Million Niara on a 25th Wedding Party…
Me says…pay the teachers and doctors…
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has…Margaret Mead