•It is sad that we abandoned People Living With HIV/AIDS to their own devices
It is bad enough that in Nigeria over 3.5 million individuals are reportedly members of the Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (NEPWHAN). It is doubly terrible that in the country only 649,000 HIV-positive persons, out of 1.8 million who are in need of antiretroviral drugs, allegedly have access to the care.
Against this disturbing backdrop, it was perhaps understandable, though equally worrying, that no fewer than 300 NEPWHAN protesters disrupted official activities at the Abuja headquarters of the National Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS (NACA), in an expression of bitterness over alleged neglect of the group’s members. It is a sad reflection of the depth of the group’s grievances that its spokesman, Mr. Sumaila Garba, was quoted as saying that the protesters would ensure that the NACA office was not functional for 25 days.
It is instructive to note that NEPWHAN National Secretary, Mr. Victor Omosahon, shed light on its confrontational approach. He said: “We are concerned about the miserable conditions of the people living with the virus in Nigeria, as well as the high number of people dying daily from AIDS-related complications due to the lack of access to antiretroviral drugs and the on-going withdrawal of funding support for HIV/AIDS to Nigeria by external funding partners.”
Further unsettling is the group’s more specific accusation that NACA has failed in the implementation of the Presidential Comprehensive Response Plan (PCRP) introduced by President Goodluck Jonathan to tackle the treatment access problems, among others. This particular allegation is of scary significance, considering Jonathan’s intention announced at the launch of the initiative last year. He said: “This programme will help us bridge existing service gaps, address key financial, system and coordination challenges in current HIV/AIDS response systems.” It goes without saying that failure in this regard will have unimaginably negative consequences for the affected people, and those who are in charge must not allow a debacle.
It should be said and stressed that, from the state of things, it would appear that the authorities are, consciously or not, creating an enabling environment for a disaster. Or how else should the insight, provided by the Director-General of NACA, Prof. John Idoko, be interpreted? A defensive Idoko not only pointed out that the Federal Government’s programme “is starting now, after about 10 years of waiting”. He was quoted as saying: “But it is very far from where we should be. The fund for this today should be like N140bn, but only N8bn has been appropriated.”
This represents a damning picture of the level of commitment of the powers that be when it comes to addressing public health issues, among which the HIV/AIDS burden ranks high. Nigeria has the second-largest number of people living with HIV, according to the 2012 CIA World Factbook, which is a gloomy piece of information indeed. Apart from this, approximately 170,000 people died from AIDS in 2007 alone, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS).
Almost three decades after HIV/AIDS was first reported in Nigeria, as the NEPWHAN demonstration has shown, the country is still a long way from overcoming what critical observers have identified as roadblocks, namely, “lack of sincerity, poor funds administration, unclear motives and lax attitude of government officials.” The ugly incident should be probed. Furthermore, it should be seen as an opportunity for the government to seriously review what President Jonathan himself described as “the framework for sustainable financing of health to meet the targeted objectives.”
The reality of a large HIV-challenged population, which cannot be wished away, should reasonably galvanise the government into action. This constitutes a vulnerable ring and the importance of proper governmental attention to the welfare of those who are living with the virus must be considered non-negotiable.
