President Muhammadu Buhari’s trip to the United Kingdom for medical check-up and treatment has once again brought to the fore, in forceful relief, the need not only to have the requisite medical facilities in the country but to also have the qualified personnel to man them.
Down the ages, Nigerian leaders have routinely travelled abroad for treatments; it is not a recent phenomenon, so the fact of the president’s trip is not surprising.
But what still confounds observers of the nation’s trajectory is that over 56 years after Independence, this predilection is not showing signs of abating rather it is getting even more pronounced. Not long ago, a former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, returned home after seven weeks on medical vacation. It bears recalling that the retired general was in power for eight years. What are the issues?
Why is it that Nigerian leaders have always found it convenient to go for medical trips overseas even at the slightest tingle?
The inability or deliberate refusal of government over the years to build world-class hospitals, provide corresponding facilities and funding have been at the root of these frequent jaunts abroad. It cannot be convincingly argued that the problem has been lack of money, because even when funds were available, priority was never placed on building and maintaining hospi tals that could compete with the best in the world.
The political will to do this has been seriously lacking clearly due to the fact that these government officials and their families have a ready-made recourse: access to the best hospitals abroad and so don’t particularly see the compelling need to reproduce same at home. Just to buttress this point.
In the 2016 Appropriation Bill, a total of N3.87 billion was allocated for capital projects at the State House Clinic. The State House Medical Centre is a facility that provides healthcare for President Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, their families and other employees of the Presidency. Put together, the number may just be less than a thousand.
In contrast, the country’s 16 federal government-owned teaching hospitals individually only got a fraction of the allocation earmarked for the presidential clinic. Interestingly, it is these federal hospitals that cater for the health needs of millions of Nigerians, train medical doctors and other health professionals while also serving as top medical research centres.
According to the 2016 Budget, N212,539,245 was allocated for capital projects at the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital, one of the nation’s most populous states, while the capital allocation for the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Kaduna, was N230,904,795.
In the same vein, the capital allocation for the University College Hospital, Ibadan, was N230,904,795; University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu (N218,335,908); University of Benin Teaching Hospital (N212,886,502); Obafemi Awolowo Teaching Hospital, Ile Ife (N162,622,221); University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (N166,802,164); University of Jos Teaching Hospital (N228,717,880); and University of Port Harcourt (N169,498,392).
The implication of these figures in that proposal is that the State House Clinic got N787 million more in capital allocation than all the 16 teaching hospitals combined. The fact that such figures could even be contemplated is also telling.
Quite clearly, this has been the bane of having solid medical infrastructure in the country. What makes the situation even more disheartening is the fact that after such huge disparity in the allocation of funds, top government officials still refuse to make use of the State House Clinic, preferring to go to the UK and the United States for medical tests and treatment.
Only recently, it transpired that the State House Clinic was facing acute shortage of drugs as most essential services at the medical centre had been crippled due to the complete absence of drugs and other vital medical consumables.
This unconscionable remiss also explains why some of the best brains in the medical field find it more convenient to emigrate overseas where they are guaranteed top-class facilities to practice their profession. Not long ago, a Nigerian performed a most complex medical operation for which he got global acclamation.
Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye, a co-Director of the Texas Children’s Fetal Center and a general paediatric surgeon, successfully removed a tumour from a baby in her mother’s womb. This is just one example in so many.
So it is safe to say that the problem is not one of qualified personnel because even in the ‘mere consulting clinics’ that Nigerian hospitals have been reduced to, there are still doctors who are managing to ‘squeeze water out of stone.’
We insist that government must make the effort to build world-class hospitals and fund them adequately top priority. We also aver that leadership is by example, so the leaders themselves must show the way by patronising local hospitals and the only way they can do this is to ensure that the medical facilities therein are of high standard.
