said, “Poverty tends to increase the need for healthcare whilst simultaneously reducing the ability of African countries to pay for it.” It’s a startling dilemma. Those who need healthcare the most can’t have it.
Healthcare workers’ welfare in Nigeria is appalling. Doctors and other healthcare workers are grossly underpaid and go unpaid for months in dire cases. In a 2001 Declaration, African heads of state unanimously agreed to allocate 15 percent of their national budgets to healthcare. Over 20 years later, the Nigerian Government has successively allocated only 10 percent of its annual budget to healthcare.
Per the report, health workers barely get the promised hazard allowances, and if at all, it suffers terrible delays. This, among other factors, has sent our healthcare professionals into a frantic escape from the country at the slightest opportunity. Today, a sizeable percentage of doctors and nurses in the United Kingdom and the United States are directly Nigerians or have Nigerian origins.
According to a famous quote often misattributed to George Orwell, “A people who elect corrupt politicians are not victims…but accomplices.” We are part of the problem just as much as our leaders are. In his words, “Very soon politicians will soon start campaigning to be President or Governor. Nigerians must ask them: ‘What are your plans for Universal Health Coverage?’ and ‘How do you intend to achieve it?’ When the time comes, the answers to these questions must be considered by the electorate.”