Lack of political will contributes to health care failure in Nigeria, says medical expert

A seasoned medical practitioner, Dr Adewunmi Alayaki has identified lack of political will as one of the major factors responsible for dwindling of health sector in Nigeria, stressing that the country healthcare has suffered several down falls

Penpushing reports that, Alayaki made this known while presenting a paper with the topic, ’Nigeria’s Healthcare Delivery Transition: A time to Change the Narrative’ at the Physicians’ Week of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Ogun State, held in Abeokuta

The former General Secretary of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) lamented that, despite the indices of poor health services in the country, the Nigerian Government at all levels budget less than 5% on health, despite being a signatory to the 2000 Abuja declaration to increase the health budget to 15% of the total budgetary allocation for the country. Inequitable distribution of resources:

‘The number of health facilities, personnel, equipment, drugs and other resources needed to deliver healthcare services are distributed to favour urban communities, in some other cases, the location of health facilities in the rural areas are far off from where they are actually needed due to political influence. This sometimes results in neglect and complete abandonment of such facilities’, he noted.

Penpushing further reports that, Alayaki added that despite Nigeria’s strategic position in Africa, the country is greatly underserved in the health care sphere, stressing that health facilities, personnel and medical equipment are inadequate in the country, especially in rural areas

The Medical Director of Hope Hospital in Abeokuta said corruption is also a key factor in the poor delivery of health services in Nigeria, adding that, evidence from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports shows that corruption has devastating negative effects on health indicators like infant and child mortality, female education, health budget and spending.

‘Corruption, therefore, lowers the immunization rate of children, and also thwarts the delivery of essential treatment, especially for the poor; and as well dampens the use of public health facilities. It is usually discovered that health workers in public health facilities are demotivated based on their remuneration package and the stress inherent in filling the gaps for the shortage in manpower’, Alayaki emphasised.

The one time Chairman of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Ogun State pointed out that the current state of Primary Health Care (PHC) system in Nigeria appalling with only about 20% of the 30,000 PHC facilities across Nigeria working.

Penpushing further reports that, he said the problems can be resolved until medical practitioners rise up and hold  leaders accountable even when the association  face intimidation and persecution, in as much as what they are saying in the truth and not playing politics.

‘All the political parties are showing the rots they are made up of. Despite non-performance of political parties at the helms of affairs, they still have the gut to lie to us, make us look like fools. High scale corruption; how will anybody explain the quantum of money being deployed to buy the conscience of the delegates who went to Abuja to vote for the highest bidder for the post  of  the president irrespective of whether they are competent psychologically, mentally or medically fit for the job?’

‘The down trodden who suffer the rot and incompetence the more and who are supposed to know better would because of 1,000-5,000 Naira, fez cap, T-shirt distributed to them would go hay wire to defend these politicians, may even kill themselves in the process out of ignorance and are blindfolded to their right’.

‘The political system does not allow best candidate to emerge, rather, candidates are forced on the electorate to be voted for; we worship money, eulogized corruption, sing the praises of those who are supposed to be in jail due to their previous records’.

‘Everybody is involved in promoting the rot, our security agencies (police, DSS etc.) are compromised, the journalist will because of brown envelopes look away, our lawyers will go ahead to defend them in courts, some judges will grant them injunctions to let them off the hook.Good examples abound in the land. Some of the corrupt politicians who were left off the hook in Nigeria were indicted and convicted abroad’.

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