My Heart Goes Out To Senator Ekweremadu and His Family. I pray for Godly intervention in the medical state of their ailing daughter and wish her a miraculous recovery. For now, money has lost its luster, and the situation has gone beyond what money can or cannot buy.
As a nation-state, circumstances have forced us to evolve blindly, believing that political leaders are above the law in Nigeria. That culture invariably imbued on the leadership an aura of infallibility and a false sense of invincibility. You can call it immunity or a permanent injunction from criminal prosecution, and you'd be right.
That immunity, illusory as it can be, is not exportable. It is simply a Nigerian thing, finding expression only in the Nigerian geopolitical space. You cannot acquire it with a load of cash and take it with you as a carryon luggage whenever you are traveling overseas.
Unfortunately, our political leaders have yet to grapple with those limitations, to wit, the vulnerabilities associated with our homegrown idiosyncrasies (thievery and embezzlement of public funds) are difficult to enumerate when cruising around overseas.
In a similar vein, the much-celebrated feeling of self-assured supremacy (we are not subjects of the rules of law) is simply an illusion. When their downfall comes, it is usually catastrophic and, most often, comes unannounced. Ask Mr. Peter Odili and Mr. Deprieye Peter Alamieyeseigha.
What is conventional and acceptable in Nigeria might be an aberration overseas. Absurdity? Absolutely. The Ekweremadu family members will not be the last casualties of the money talks mentality gone wrong. And they won't be the last to run afoul of globally accepted norms.
I hope and look forward to hearing from our incoming administration and the members of the National Assembly, a vehement declaration of a state of emergency in our health sector. It calls for an unequivocal commitment to making Nigeria a center for medical excellence where the rich and the poor enjoy non-discriminatory access to the first-class medical care reputed of the nation of Cuba.
In 2018, a Texas-based Nigerian pediatric surgeon, Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye, working with his medical team, successfully removed a fetus (an unborn baby) from the mother's womb, operated on it, and restored it to the mother's womb after the surgery. No other medical doctor has performed that feat. Yes, he is Nigerian-born.
The crisis is not about brain work per se. We are very comfortable producing doctors, nurses, and software engineers. However, in the maintenance and compensation categories, the leadership has consistently shown no enthusiasm. The wisdom of sustainability is foreign to us, thus complicating our ability to eradicate the corrosive drain on our intellectual capital.
“Who said we don’t have enough doctors? We have more than enough. You can quote me. There is nothing wrong in them travelling out.” Dr. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour, TheCable, April 19, 2019.
“That is an unfortunate statement which shows that he has done nothing in medical practice. The World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that, for optimal healthcare to be achieved, we need doctor/patient ratio of one to 600. In Nigeria, we have 40,000 doctors taking care of 200 million people. We have the maternal mortality that is about the highest in the world. To correct it, we need health professionals around.” Dr. Adedayo Faduyile, NMA President. THISDAYLIVE April 25, 2019.
The brain drain epidemic is a culmination of the disconnect between the Senator Ekweremadus and Dr. Ngiges of Nigerian politics and the ugly reality of our medical system. To them, that reality is not an issue. It doesn't apply to them. They can fly abroad anytime for a checkup.
We have the funds, but we don't have the men, the managers - competent managers - to escalate the wishes and blueprints of a supposedly caring leadership. And we cannot surmount the temptations of nepotism and favoritism, either. That explains the burdens of lower expectations and the absence of accountability in every facet of our economy.
That's the Nigerian tragedy. There are no accountability mechanisms in place. In practice, the National Assembly usually abdicates its oversight responsibilities, but derives pleasure in chasing after the President's wishes. What must have happened to the principle of separation of powers and checks and balances? No one cares - it's all about sharing the national cake and not how to bake it.
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When the First Lady cried out loud about her experience at the supposed number one medical center in Nigeria, the Aso Rock Medical Center, we trivialized the story as a Buhari's domestic problem. It wasn't. That was a national scandal, pleading for immediate attention and reversal.
We did not consider it prudent to do some arithmetic of the yearly Budgetary allocations to Aso Rock Clinic and ask why the X-Ray machine did not work or why there was no ordinary bandage or paracetamol available during the unscheduled visit by our First Lady.
That's who we are as a nation-state. We suffer continuous ruin due to the absence of accountability, resulting from unchecked nepotism and favoritism - the "who you know" idiosyncrasy. It is the same reason that a highly placed government official in the present administration boldly and unequivocally told Nigerians that her office expended Billions of Naira in feeding elementary school children during the COVID-19 scourge when school children were at home. Only in Nigeria.
How can a nation experience real growth, be it in a sporting event or real economy, when the Third Eleven Team is on the field playing, but the First and the Second Eleven Teams are warming the bench? It won't happen. Real growth will remain a disappearing act.
To check the brain, drain scourge, we must first check ourselves and the caliber of the personnel managing our healthcare institutions.
So, let the UK trial and conviction of Senator Ekweremadu be a timely warning to all our political leaders.
You may have all the money to bail out of the country to do a checkup that you could have done at home, but there is no longer any assurance that you will return home intact or as planned. All eyes are on you and the contents of your wallet.
If Papa Awo and his Action Group disciples could provide free and affordable healthcare to the people in the old Western Region in the late 50s and early 60s, and the members of the Saudi Arabia royal family were reported to be regular visitors/patients at the University of Ibadan Teaching Hospital, we sure can do it again.
With accountability, non-discriminatory oversight, and a creditable hiring process in place, we should be able to replicate Chief Obafemi Awolowo's managerial sophistication in our Healthcare and Educational sectors and be comfortably positioned to perform heart surgery and kidney transplants at home without the urgency of traveling abroad. Yes, we can.
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