EXACTLY a year ago in a Facebook post, I had written on the traumatic experiences of members of the community one resides on health challenge! The post is entitled: “When Death Becomes Expensively Agonising in a Capitalist-Oriented Society that Lacks Compassion for Humanity and the Community Sense of Duty.”
In that post, I had narrated how some elders in the community went round to raise the sum of N260,000 to get the corpse of a neighbour, who had died the previous day, released from the Hospital. The man had been rushed to a hospital and died while neighbours were still busy raising funds for his treatment and drugs.
The contradictions of raising fund to get his corpse released for burial and his immediate family – wife and children – being unsure of their next meals and their continuing survival led one to the narration by a long standing Comrade KK (Kayode Komolafe) of his life experiences on why healthcare should be free.
“In the coup broadcast of December 31, 1983 that brought in the Buhari-Idiagbon military junta, Brigadier Sani Abacha then, had announced that “all the federal hospitals have become consulting clinics without drugs, etc”. And few months after, when the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) raised its voice against the poor state of the hospitals and the healthcare delivery system, as it is also doing currently, the regime banned and hunted the medical body and other dissented voices, who said we need a system that cares!”
KK was that poor teacher then who was involved in a fatal accident in 1981 in which seven out of nine persons died instantly, and he and another person were on danger list. According to him, he was later to learn that the case of the other person (another poor person) was worse than his and the person was flown abroad for treatment by the then Lagos State government under the administration of Alhaji Lateef Jakande.
KK disclosed that he was at the Gbagada General Hospital for about four months; on admission, treated and properly fed. He said that the greatest shock of his life was when he was discharged at which point he had asked the Medical Director who was responsible for his (KK) medical bill. The Medical Director, he said, had replied that he was under the Free Health program of the Lagos State government.
He concluded the story by saying that even as a top journalist, he had until that day he narrated his experience to me, never met Jakande one on one. “Biodun, if a system of government works, in which you don’t need to know anybody before being taken care of, then, that system is worthy of trust and my conviction and commitment to Socialist ideals was then further reinforced by that personal life saving experience,” KK had told me.
At least on record, that state of free health system was the practice in then 5 states – Lagos, Ogun, Oyo (now Oyo and Osun), Ondo and Bendel (now Edo and Delta) between 1979 and December 1983.
In the coup broadcast of December 31, 1983 that brought in the Buhari-Idiagbon military junta, Brigadier Sani Abacha then, had announced that “all the federal hospitals have become consulting clinics without drugs, etc”. And few months after, when the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) raised its voice against the poor state of the hospitals and the healthcare delivery system, as it is also doing currently, the regime banned and hunted the medical body and other dissented voices, who said we need a system that cares!
The chickens have now come home to roost! Now a micro-organism known as COVID-19 has become so omnipresent in every corner of the world and is so life-threatening that the rich class and the ruling cabals in Nigeria who neglected the public health institutions and healthcare personnel (doctors, pharmacists, nurses, laboratory technologists and auxiliary workers), underfunded, distrusted and despised the sector are now held hostage in the country by the coronavirus pandemic from junketing abroad on medical tourism.
The sweetest irony is that the same Buhari, now the civilian president caught in the web of a merciless and invidious coronavirus, is being forced to swallow the bitter pill, and even at that, he is still making pitiable allocation of fund to a health sector that requires heavy investment – upgrading existing facilities and building new ones!
The reality of the neglect of public health sector has been captured by two public statements of admission.
The first, by the Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, who was reported to have said that he didn’t know that the country’s teaching hospitals have degenerated so badly! He must be regretting making such impulsive outburst because we now have to ask him just a couple of questions – now that he knows; could the government in which he is a key figure explain the underfunding of the health sector and why public resources shouldn’t be committed to a ‘Free Healthcare For All Program? Why should medical tourism not be banned for all, including Mr. President?
“The chickens have now come home to roost! Now a micro-organism known as COVID-19 has become so omnipresent in every corner of the world and is so life-threatening that the rich class and the ruling cabals in Nigeria who neglected the public health institutions and healthcare personnel (doctors, pharmacists, nurses, laboratory technologists and auxiliary workers), underfunded, distrusted and despised the sector are now held hostage in the country by the coronavirus pandemic from junketing abroad on medical tourism.“
The second statement was by the son of the former governor of Borno State (1979– 1983), who died recently. His son, Umar Goni, was reported to have said: “Our dad was sick around 9-10pm, we rushed him to the Teaching Hospital, to my surprise, we couldn’t find a single doctor. None of the consultants was around, once they tell them a patient is around, they run thinking he’s a Covid-19 patient. We couldn’t get a bed; we couldn’t get even first aid. We had to rush him to a private hospital, when we got there, there were no facilities; we could only get a glucose drip to revive him. We couldn’t get oxygen and he needed oxygen. We went to another hospital where we got oxygen but the cylinder was leaking.”
His narrative continued: “We had to watch him, the next day we called someone in government who called for a primary health care ambulance, brand new ambulance, but no paramedic inside even for first aid, the second one came, there was oxygen cylinder but the top wasn’t there, the bed was broken, they then referred us again to University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital with a referral note to admit him, for them to admit him, they refused. The state commissioner for health had to intervene; they were scared because they don’t have protective equipment. They didn’t have face masks. One of them even asked me if I had facemask. There is a problem, if somebody of my father’s status cannot access primary health for first aid, then I pity the common man …”
It should be clear from the foregoing that we cannot continue with a system that cannot care, that cannot save lives and that leaves the majority of the people with no option but avoidable mass death.
We have to wage a struggle that can ensure free healthcare system because beyond COVID-19 lies other more dangerous micro-organisms that would regenerate as a result of the exploitative mode of production that cares less about environmental impacts on human existence!
A post COVID-19 Nigeria must be made uncomfortable for the President, Ministers, Governors, Parliamentarians and other top ‘Vagabonds in Power (VIP)’ (aka Fela Abami Anikulapo) who would want to continue the junketing with public wealth for medical treatment and attention abroad. If public wealth is not directed towards public good – for free healthcare, for adequate health facilities and well remunerated personnel, for free education at all levels for all, jobs for all, etc.
Comrade Aremu, Co-collaborator, Amilcar Cabral Ideological School (ACIS-M) Movement, is our columnist on Tuesday
