That Nigeria’s leader who has reportedly spent one year, 39 days abroad in three years, 10 months he has been in office has also been the one lamenting the country’s loss of over N400 billion yearly to medical tourism is curious and unfortunate.
Doubtless, this is a national embarrassment because if the President who has a responsibility to address the anomaly is lamenting, who will address the challenges? If the President is helpless on the issue of access to health care, who has more powers to help him? Lamentation is not a strategy anywhere.
Even the State House Clinic established to take care of the President, Vice-President, their families as well as members of Staff of the Presidential Villa, Abuja joined the league of hospitals that cannot deliver quality healthcare services. This came to the public glare when Mrs. Aisha Buhari took ill in 2017 and was advised to travel abroad because of the poor state of the clinic.
A recent example is Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye, who had his medical degree from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in 1988, and in collaboration with a colleague successfully removed tumour from a baby in her mother’s womb. The duo removed the baby from her mother’s womb, operated on it, and returned it to the womb. The baby got healed and continued to grow until she was finally delivered at 36 weeks. This we are all proud of as Nigerians. Olutoye, now a professor of medicine in the U.
So, as a country in need of more medics, Nigeria should develop plans on how to retain trained medics. Against the backdrop that Nigeria’s poor healthcare infrastructure in particular is partly responsible for the mass migration of Nigeria’s best hands in health care, the situation can be reversed by making the National Insurance Scheme compulsory for all citizens, which we hope will provide enough funds to improve the conditions of service and working environment for health professionals.
Specifically, he should make healthcare his personal agenda, and contribution to the growth of the Nigerian health sector. He should see his health challenge and experience in a London hospital as a wake-up call by revamping to the health sector. This should be pursued so that Nigerians would stop going through this embarrassment for the good of the people and the protection of our national image.