EXODUS OF NIGERIA'S MEDICAL DOCTORS: TO WHOM SHALL WE GO?

 EXODUS OF NIGERIA'S MEDICAL DOCTORS: TO WHOM SHALL WE GO?

President Muhammadu Buhari frequent visits to London for medical checks and treatments is a signpost to the world that there is a defect in his country's healthcare system. Since assuming office, Premium Times recently, reported that the country's number one citizen has spent 200 days for treatment outside Nigeria.  If all was well in the Nation's healthcare system, a treatment for only an "ear infection"should not have been enough reason to fly the President out of the country at the expense of the tax payers and at a time the country's economy is bleeding. Even the Aso Rock's Clinic could not cater for the President's health needs over the years. 

One of his predecessors and Katsina kinsman, Late Musa Yara'Adua, also enjoyed medical tourisms very often because of his health defects at the time, before his death. King Fasai Specialist Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was one of his favourites port of call for his medical treatments.

A chieftain of the ruling All Progressive Congress and former Governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is currently out of the country for medical tourism. Initially, rumours had it that he was in France. Recently,  a viral photo showed Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu in London, where the former had visited the latter. Wherever, like Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu, a lot of Nigeria's politicians and other topshots seek medical tourism abroad. This is an indication that all is not well with the country's healthcare system.

Few weeks ago and until now, resident doctors in the country have been on strike. Under the aegis of National Association of Resident Doctors, the striking doctors are asking for increase in pay allowance, an improved welfare system, among other things. Rather than negotiate with them, they were dragged to court by their employers. It is appalling to note that the Ministers of Health have not showed any serious commitment to negotiate with the physicians on the "Memorandum of Action." The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige, who has been negotiating with the Association on behalf of the Federal Government is yet to be seen as being successful in getting the Doctors back to work. 

"Health" they say; "is wealth." An unhealthy body can neither walk nor work. Anyone who desires wealth must first, be healthy.  With the Medical Doctors on strike, a lot of patients in critical conditions have been left to suffer. Some have even died. If the doctors go by public sympathy and resume at work, will they have equipment to work with at the service of the patients? 

Public hospitals and health care centres within and around the country are ill-equipped.  This is the reason why the topshots seek medical attention and treatment abroad. Besides, the health personnel are poorly paid.  Report has it that a Nigerian Doctor gets 5,000 naira only for hazard allowance, while Senators are paid 1.24 million naira to buy newspapers monthly. Where is the motivation?

Recently, Many Nigerian Doctors stormed the Ladi Kwali Hall of the Sheraton Hotels, Abuja for Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health recruitment exercise. A research by Africa Check showed that at least 12 Doctors leave Nigeria for United Kingdom every week.  There are also those who live, work and are doing well in other countries of the world. For instance,  Dr. Oluyemi Badero who lives and works in New York, was officially named one of the top interventional cardiologists in the United States of America by Castle Connolly Organisation.  There is also one Dr. Bankole Johnson, who is famous across United States of America and Europe as a psychiatrist and physician. This clearly proves that if given the right atmosphere, good working conditions, motivation and sizable pay, Nigerian Medical Doctors can deliver maximum health care to their compatriots at home.

If the exodus of Nigerian Doctors to other countries of the world is allowed to continue, to whom shall the poor man go to seek medical attention? 

JOS MASSACRE: ARE WE A NATION AT WAR?

 JOS MASSACRE: ARE WE A NATION AT WAR?

Even a Nation at war does not experience the kind of massive killings that characterise different parts of our country in past and recent times. The Jos massacre, typify a nation at war.

 Human lives have been reduced to nothingness. There is no sanctity, no substance, no seriousness, attached to human lives anymore. Now, cows are considered more important than humans. They have a place and more places are being advocated for them in the present Nigeria.  What a time to become and live as a cow in Nigeria.

Back to the Jos massacre. We were told that over 35 persons were killed. Many houses were burnt. Several other properties were destroyed. A lot of residents of the area were wounded. Many were left in disabled forms; the type that would make them become incapacitated for life. 

Who were the killers and destroyers? Where did they come from? Where did they return to after the massacre? How did they escape the security personnel & many checkpoints on our roads? Did they fly? Which air route(s) and where were the boarding and alighting points? The killings, destructions and all havocs which we sum up in a word- 'massacre' all happened last Tuesday, at Yelwan zangam village in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau state, Nigeria.

In that village, there is a head. In that Local Government Area, there is a Chairman. In that state, there is a Governor. In that country, there is a President. He is not only a President but the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the country. Who dares attack a land with a living Commander of an Army and leaves unhurt? A Ghanaian, once said that; "Nigeria, is a country, where anything can happen and nothing will happen." Can we falsify that statement?

Weeks earlier, we were told that about twenty-two Muslim faithful were killed on Rukuba road, in the outskirts of Jos, Plateau state. It has been a season of killings and kidnappings in different parts of our country. What really do the killers and kidnappers want?  There were times, abductees were reportedly, killed even after ransom were paid in millions of naira, by their families.

What wrong did we do? Where did we go wrong? To make matters worse, the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces keeps mum. A few times, his media aides release lean statements that neither condemns the killings nor console those left behind to mourn the losses of their loved ones.

The presidency seems to be preoccupied with going after those who criticise the President or speak ill about policies and programme that does not impact any good on the life of the common man. This is a democracy. Even the best leaders of countries in liberalised parts of the world are criticised. Need one think more or less than the poorly performed ones with unpopular policies and programme that count for nothing other than nepotism and undue favouritism to a certain section of the country?

Let it be told to us that this country belong to no one man but all. 

We are not a nation at war. Let there be an end to the killings in Nigeria.