There was a time when leaders served their own people in action and in words crystallized by stubbornly positive principles. Was there really such a time in Nigeria though? That’s the question I found myself asking a senior citizen. It is in fact extremely difficult to prove that any former head of state was genuinely interested in, and dedicated to the betterment of the Nigerian nation. To put it bluntly, what we have had so far is a dozen square pegs in the round hole of leadership.
Over 60 years after “independence”, the country is yet to find its bearing and we see more decay than development. It would seem that elected officials spend so much time doing little to improve the previous state of affairs. Famously, the current presidency has insisted that it is not to take the blame for the failing institutions left by the previous administrations. It has now become a cliché that “what has been destroyed in 16 years cannot be repaired in 4 years”. But this poor attitude towards change and blatant refusal to take up responsibility is disgraceful. The president has exhibited a cold indifference to a number of pressing issues in the past; his most recent is going ahead to have a “routine medical checkup” in the United Kingdom despite the declaration of impending industrial strike action by resident doctors nationwide.
General Muhammadu Buhari rtd. has been travelling out of Nigeria to see doctors even before he became president in 2015, his spokespersons have rang into our ears repeatedly, and it is important that the health of the number one citizen is safeguarded. However, the problem with Buhari’s actions is tied to his position. Buhari had assumed leadership of the country by taking power from the civilian Shehu Shagari administration with the 1983 military coup. He ruled for two years before Ibrahim Babangida did unto him what he did to Shagari. Nigerians like to say that this was where we went downhill as a nation. However, Buhari was not outside power for too long as he was a member of Sani Abacha’s cabinet. For someone who oversaw the whole country for two years, several years in the military council and vigorously planning to steer us in the right direction as presidential candidate for over a decade, it is really surprising to see that the president has failed to upgrade a single healthcare centre to international standards.
Photo Credit: Anadolu Agency
While Nigerians suffered for decades due to a poorly funded healthcare sector, Buhari was comfortable travelling to the UK all these years without planning to make our hospitals less squalid and health care workers well compensated. The brain drain experienced in the health sector alone is worrying, maybe not so for Buhari’s Minister of Labour though. With so many doctors travelling out of the country to work in better health care environments and far fewer medical practitioners to care for our enormous population, managing the health sector has become more difficult than ever.
According to the Nigerian Medical Association, we have a ratio of one (1) doctor for every 5,000 people in Nigeria —and this is a modest estimation. We have reached the point where the prestigious University College Hospital is struggling to secure a steady supply of water for patient use and health care centres such that Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital keeps postponing surgeries because of an unreliable generator. On top of all this, medical interns have not been paid for months. The National Association of Resident Doctors also complained about the meagre amount paid to them as COVID-19 incentives in a statement released March 29, 2021.
Our president who should be very concerned about the current situation of the health sector, and even more so because he is to benefit from it annually himself, went ahead with his London travel plans leaving us with our malfunctioning hospitals two days before the resident doctors were to go on strike. It appears our septuagenarian leader just couldn’t wait any longer to make his first medical trip to the UK since the pandemic forced travel restrictions to many parts of Europe. It is worthy of note that Muhammadu Buhari criticized Nigeria’s failure to equip its hospitals well enough to prevent the elite from flying out of the country to India or France. He berated the former presidents and asked why he would ever have to travel for health needs if he was president of Nigeria.
Today, 6 years as president, he is singing a different tune —or no tune at all. It is clear to us now, as with several other things, that those words were to be forgotten on the papers of his campaign.
.png;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)
