The super eagles boycotted training the other day and demanded for their allowances both agreed and new demands. Nigerians over the moon that they had qualified for the second round of the world cup since 1998 raised their voices and lambasted the NFF for withholding the funds meant to pay the players who by the way had made fresh demands based on the fact that they made the second round. The Nigerian government also went out of their way to ensure the average players were appeased with the hope that the Brazilian jamboree would continue into the quarters.
Now to the small matter of a nationwide NMA strike which is into the second week now. The doctors who have been saving lives despite the absence of the much needed financial backing commanded by the super eagles have downed tools in demand for better provisions for the millions of super eagles fans who cannot readily jet out to India and the Americas for a quick blood work and liposuction on the one hand and clarification of the relationship between the quarter backs of the health practitioners and the other players (might sound supremacist but that's the truth). The media have sadly not put forward well informed journalists to really investigate all the pressing issues involved and some have volunteered their platforms to greedy stakeholders who readily misinform Nigerians on the real issues of the struggles. These people make purulent statements ranging from calling house officers "baby doctors" to questioning why doctors should even demand for "over sees" (like one of them spelt it in his publication) training instead of despising what we have at home. They do in fact have some valid points which become decimated in the midst of sheer ignorance that they exhibit.
I get to see fellow Nigerians on national TV from time to time begging for financial aid to get renal transplants in India or very critical brain surgeries overseas. Where are the experts and facilities that the JOHESU are misinforming Nigerians about? We see pregnant women who can afford to travel to foreign lands haul their fetus enhanced frames over oceans and mountains to deliver where they think their babies and themselves have a better chance, if not 100% chance of surviving. This in a way drains Nigerian trained and based doctors of credibility but it in fact does not tell the true story of the exploits of Nigerian doctors who endure so much hardship and inconvenience to still save lives and put smiles on the faces of impoverished Nigerians. This does not tell the story of Dr Frank who is ferried on a motor bike in the middle of the night across the desert of Yobe to perform a cesarean section to deliver a baby whose lungs may never inflate until Dr Kemi stays awake all night to manually ventilate due to the absence of basic ventilators and incubators that is basic in those countries where Nigerian mothers flee to.
They tell Nigerians that the doctors are selfish but these people did not call Mikel selfish for his laboured display in Brazil and audacity to shame the country for a mere 15000 USD. No one is saying that there is no money issue involved but I do not think doctors should go on public forums to start discussing what medical officers, NYSC doctors, resident doctors and those who work in private hospitals earn. They only concentrate on what mega sums they assume hospital consultants earn and "enjoy" and never talk about the responsibilities of such appointments. There is this public assumption that doctors are earning bumper packages, if only the Nigerian people can take time out to ask doctors they know how much they indeed earn. They keep shouting that doctors working in government establishments own or also work in private practices where they divert patients to. There is no law that says doctors cannot own such practices, the truth is that only a small proportion of doctors actually do private practice. The shortfall in the number of available specialists requires a high demand placed on certain experts and the need for younger doctors to earn a decent living requires them to apportion their time to more than one or two practices that require necessary cover. Would a Neurosurgeon whose expertise is scarce be deemed selfish and greedy if he offered service to another centre that may not have one? This duplication of roles can only last a while as it takes its toll on the bodies of those concerned. A doctor's body is not firewood, there is a limit to the bending over that one can indulge in.
Nigerians keep ranting that the doctors' strike is killing Nigerians like Nigerians were not already dying in droves strike or no strike. A quick survey of autopsy cases would cause one's heart to bleed when you read of babies that could have been saved if only just one appropriate ventilator was available to aid their weak lungs. One would read of cases of people who died from gunshot wounds inflicted by robbers or police men, cases of young women that committed unsafe abortions because of the fear of not being able to provide for another child and the five year old who died from tetanus acquired from a broom stick pricking his hand and the ignorance of his parents to seek medical care early enough.
Nigerians seem to have mortgaged their existence for the pleasure of a world cup mediocre showing and have been manipulated to bark up the wrong tree when demanding for better health care. The doctors available in Nigeria are grossly insufficient, so are the nurses and other professionals. The policy drivers are only concerned about self preservation and glorification. They place their stooges over health establishments who although are doctors, spend their time intimidating and blackmailing younger colleagues and reinforcing despicable health care delivery to their fellow citizens; that is if they truly regard them as such.
The elite corrupt organization FIFA has now in fact suspended Nigeria due to government interference. How I wish the government interferes positively in health matters on a regular basis. Subsidizing sports, I mean super eagles football is more important to the government than the health and welfare of Nigerians; even the missing children. Like the chief medical director of a certain hospital said recently; "there is nowhere in the constitution where it states that the government shall be responsible for the health of Nigerian citizens, the closest thing to that is that the government shall be responsible for the welfare of her citizens". If welfare of Nigerians translates to funding the super eagles and ensuring Keshi retains his job with better pay, so be it.
God save the federal republic of Nigeria.
Jide akeju
10/07/2014
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