Florence Udoh
4 October 2007
Lagos — NIGERIA with a population of about 140 million people, life expectancy which was hitherto 65 years as at 20 years ago, now hovers between 45 and 50 years and maternal mortality having grown to as high as 800 deaths per 100,000 life births, experts point out has one of the poorest health indices globally.
Although the country is rated as the sixth largest oil producer in the world, the highly unequal distribution of wealth in which almost 70 per cent of the population is said to be living below the poverty line of less than $1 (One dollar) per day has put the nation among the 20 poorest countries in the world.
At independence, the country could boast of considerably good health care delivery for her citizens because as Dr. Wole Atoyebi, former president of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) puts it, "there was strong base for primary health care delivering and the state and tieriary hospitals were very efficient complimentary the primary health care system".
"But things began to go down in the early eighties when the power for oil wealth grew so much and the military rulers chose to travel outside the country for medical check-ups as a way to boost estacode", lamented Dr. Atoyebi.
"Rather than spend money to continue to service and improve the healthcare system, the rulers preferred to jettison the health of the people for their own selfish gains and now for over 45 years of our independence, Nigerians have been allowed to wallow in the wilderness of poor health".
"Hence this, frequent trips abroad for medical check-ups along with economic mis-management and corruption, has contributed greatly to the nations rising poverty and consequently general poor state of health of almost every citizenry", Atoyebi pointed out.
Even the few successes recorded in terms of breathroughs in the early eighties, were soon to be eroded by dilapidated equipment, which hindered continuity in the successes.
Take the case of yellow fever vaccine, which was developed and produced in the country in 1986 for the West African sub-region, it could no longer be produced due to lack of funds. Consequently, the vaccine laboratory at Yaba, Lagos was shut down during the Babangida regime.
The gross effect of the gradual decay was also noticeable in the health institutions in which many of the facilities became either obsolete or remained uninstalled even years after they were brought in, subsequently they became outdated. Such facilities abound at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) among others.
Besides the issue of decay in the health structures and equipment, the problem of incessant strikes has been a recurring decimal in the annals of the health sector.
Beginning from 1984 when the nation witnessed the first nationwide total strike by resident doctors over lack of payment of salaries as at when due, strikes has become very frequent. The result, many Nigerians who are on admission in many government hospitals have died due to these strikes.
For now (year 2007) there appears to be a light in the dark tunnel even as the present administration embarks on health reforms to revitalised the health sector.
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