Tag: health care

Nigeria was virtually on the verge of caving in to the vile effects of corruption when President Muhammadu Buhari emerged as the President.

Seeing the danger of allowing corruption one more step, the President made the now popular statement: “Nigeria must  kill corruption, otherwise corruption will kill Nigeria.” The President did not just mouth the battle cry; he has continued to walk – the – talk, since inception to date.

Before the advent of the Buhari administration, the footprints of corruption were everywhere in the country, poignantly indicating that the nation’s growth was destined to be arrested.

The ill wind of corruption, freely blowing across the land was so pervasive that no segment of the society, institution or sector was immune, and hardly was any left with a semblance of sanity.

Admittedly, all corruption is evil but corruption in the health sector is the worst form of evil, as it claims many innocent lives within a short space of time. Only a government that does not have respect for the sanctity of human lives would allow corruption to thrive, especially in its health sector.

While Nigeria’s major obstacle to development was the hydra – headed cankerworm, the entire heath space could not be absolved, and so was business at the PHC sub sector transacted without due recourse to the highest standard of transparency. This was especially so, in the years preceding President Buhari’s rescue administration. In those years of anomie, a big chunk of the nation’s budget at the national, state and local government levels went to the health sector only on paper. In reality, however, huge health funds were systematically drained into private pockets, with the attendant dire consequences on the citizenry.

In that era, Nigeria accepted, unashamedly, its status as one out of the four countries in the world with the worst cases of maternal mortality and child morbidity,  and scandalously the only African country in that hall of infamy. The implication of this statistical report was that about 300,000 children died avoidable deaths every single day in Nigeria.

Corruption scandal in the health sector hit an all time high when the international partners supporting the country to overcome its health challenges began to cry out against corruption in the system and followed that up by initiating the process to pull out. One of them, the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization (GAVI) went public, accusing Nigeria of mismanaging $500m of health funds.

Following the malfeasant activities of the old regimes, most development partners had lost confidence in our health system.

Across the states and local government areas, there existed unacceptable health manpower gaps. Meanwhile, thousands of trained health workers were daily roaming the streets without jobs. The absence of political will in those tiers of government, especially in the northern part was a veritable cog in the wheel of progress. It was so bad a situation that in some remote Primary Health Care centres (PHCs), including those of the FCT, babies were being delivered using candle light. In others, environmental officers were made to perform the duties of midwives, delivering babies.

Over two decades ago, polio transmission was prevalent in no less than198 countries of the world. A few years back it was massively reduced to only four countries, namely; India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. Today, only three countries are yet to become polio – free. Nigeria is the only country in Africa, among the three still suffering the scourge in the world. It’s such a shame because Nigeria has all the resources to have fought back the virus and reversed the situation many years earlier but owing to underhand deals and an acute lack of commitment, the country is still in the net of the virus.

It was in the face of these bleak statistics that Muhammadu Buhari stepped in to do the badly needed caesarean section with the view to repositioning the health sector.

And his subsequent actions did show he really meant his words.

To get it right, he brought in the right hands to man the Ministry of Health. Prof. Isaac Adewole, a man of proven integrity and great vision for the nation’s health system was appointed the Minister.

With Adewole, in office, driving Mr. President’s vision down the line was not such a tasking job, especially with the subsequent appointment of Dr. Faisal Shuaib as the Executive Director / Chief Executive Officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency.

For a start, the agency undertook a genuine survey to establish the real immunization coverage in Nigeria. In the past, spurious statistics were cooked up, putting it at 98% while another even put it at 100%. However, the latest 2016/2017 mix survey came out with an authentic report which put a lie to all the fake reports earlier churned out by the agency.

Already, the chickens have begun to come home to roost for those who had the opportunity but failed to deliver on their mandate. As the new management’s efforts have begun to bear fruits, they are also beginning to see their own follies and perhaps now regretting their self -inflicted failure.

A situation in which all manner of partners pursued divergent programmes thereby wastefully duplicating activities and leaving state priority needs unattended to, is no longer allowed. Now, the agency and all its partners sit to harmonize budgets and work plans. Together, they are working to ensure that their plans agree with the current Nigerian priorities and are in tandem with the new management’s 4-Point Agenda on PHC.

It’s pertinent to note that President Buhari’s unwavering commitment to changing the dwindling fortunes of the entire nation and indeed, the pitiable conditions of its health system, for the better, is richly supported by the Health Minister, Professor Adewole, working in close concert with his Minister of State, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, in a manner that can best be described as robust and enviable. So also is Dr. Faisal Shuaib, who was part of the team that successfully navigated the country out of trouble waters, by pushing out Ebola Virus Disease, in record short time, to head the National Primary Health Care Development Agency.

• Hussein Mohammad

Abuja

husseinmohammad@gmail.com