A friend recently said “A sick country cannot deal with a sick president” Nigeria is a delicate country to analyze or criticize, how does one become a critic when the situation on ground itself is critical. And the citizens are constantly on life support with no system.
In a country that has sense, the president’s illness would be a point of departure in formulating or championing medical reforms. But heaven NO, in Nigeria, we are all busy praying for Mr President, now what remains for us is to download the “prayer warriors APP”
While Millions of either naira/pounds/dollars has been spent on the health of Mr President, imagine the fate of thousands, if not millions of Nigerians who can’t afford health, talkless of care. An excursion to the numerous General Hospitals across the country will testify to this. People die from or for anything…inability to pay for hospital card, lack of money for drugs and treatment, the list is endless. There was once a time when it was reported in the news that the only functioning Cancer treatment machine in LUTH (Lagos University Teaching Hospital) was faulty. If you are sick in this country, you are really sick.
Some years back I followed a friend of mine to LUTH and we decided to do HIV test, I had never done the test before though so we both went in. After waiting for a long while, we were called in to receive our results, they first took our addresses and so on…I saw in the file the doctor was holding reports in blue and red colours (I was then getting a little uneasy at this point) The doctor then opened his drawer and pulled up 4 rows of condoms and handed them to us. He then said, “Guys please leave so we can attend to our people” As I stepped out of the room, my eyes was piercing the minds of the other people waiting in the hallway as I knew HIV people were there and I wondered what fate will befall them.
Nigerian hospitals are places where prayers supersedes medical attention, and the poor become spectators in the eyes of the nurses and doctors. Don’t even be unfortunate to be sick when Nigerian doctors are on strike, chei! That one na serious issue. We once needed blood for someone in an emergency but had to wait extra days as the blood bank people were on strike. Examples plenty but let me talk this last one. A friend’s wife was rushed to the General Hospital in Gbagada as she was due to deliver. My friend was dashing to his wife’s room when he noticed a heavily pregnant woman in serious pain unattended to, he quickly reversed (leg reversing) and asked one of the nurses what the problem was, and they replied that she hadn’t paid, the fee was 3k naira, he dipped his hands into his wallet and paid the money for her and the nurses started attending to her, he continued his journey to his wife’s ward.
Hmmm, Plagiarizing the words of the musician D’Banj “We are on a long thing” in Nigeria.
As Mr President is being taken to the U.K. for another rounds of treatment, I wish him well as a citizen, it’s now obvious that this administration, just like the Late President Yar’adua missed a crucial thing, the opportunity to initiate nation wide health reforms which the citizens will support overwhelmingly.
And now as Mr President will be in the same country with the current World Heavyweight Champion, Anthony Joshua who is of “Nigerian origin” maybe Joshua will help him in his fight against corruption and help us KnockOut the people who are appropriating Nigeria’s resources to themselves and Plagiarizing the future of innocent citizens.
PS: As I “Lai” down on my bed, I cannot but say just like Reuben Abati before him, Femi Adesina has an interesting job. One which it seems has been ceded to the South-West, who are good town criers.
God bless Nigeria and the Federal Republic.
#Foodforthought