The failure of our rulers cannot be measured only by the visible decay of infrastructure and the dwindling quality of our lives but also by the way they prefer to die. While ordinary citizens live their miserable lives unsung in the country, our leaders, or rather, rulers on whose shoulders rest the responsibility of taking us beyond the miserable 47 years life expectancy live theirs in foreign lands and/or die there. It has become fashionable to hear those who should fix our health care delivery system say they travelled abroad for medical check-up or that they had their medical cases treated in India or London. When our presidents, governors or their amiable and not so amiable spouses, or lucky children fall sick with the flu, the nearest medical facility is the one in London or Germany. It is the people that are sentenced to attend the panadol-dispensing clinics they call teaching or specialist hospitals here in our country. In our culture, the dead is treated with so much respect that we are told that it is more dignifying to die and be buried at home than in a foreign land. Now, it appears fashionable to travel in the luxury of a business-class for medical treatment abroad and be brought back here for burial in the baggage compartment of an airliner. What a shame. Dying far away from home like they do is an indictment on the poor, unfeeling, insensitive and profligate governance which our rulers have provided and continually provide us ordinary citizens of Nigeria. If our general, specialist or teaching hospitals were working, our rulers would not need to travel to foreign lands for answers to their medical problems. And it is ironic that it is those who should make our hospitals work to serve our needs who actually lead the way to foreign hospitals. It is even more ironic that many of the medical consultants and other health care providers they rush to patronize abroad are actually Nigerians driven away from home by lack of basic equipment and conducive working environment at home. You still want to know why our rulers are dying far away from home? The answer is not far- fetched: there are no facilities here for the proper diagnosis and treatment of “the afflictions of the wicked” rich and mighty in our country. When shall we begin to think seriously about a health care delivery system which guarantees all Nigerians adequate, accessible and affordable diagnostic and management facilities such that no one needs to travel abroad for specialised or general medical care? When will our teaching, specialist and general hospitals be transformed from death centres to truly teaching and specialist hospitals good enough to attract the patronage of all of us, including our rulers? • Blessing Yakubu,
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 06:51:18 +0000
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