A few days ago an Indian hospital, Krishna Shalby in Ahmedabad, released a promotional film. It called the footage “A milestone in international care” and “Clinical Excellence Beyond Borders.” Had the title been written by poor Nigerian children, it might as well have read: Shame on Nigeria!
The milestone, it seems, is that the hospital has begun handling African presidents and former heads of state who built no hospitals worthy of their own knees. More African politicians are welcome to spend scarce nationsl resources in India for medical care they could , with a little purposefulness and enlightened self interest, have received at home .
It is doubtful the Indian hospital did this with Abdulsalami’s consent. The man handed democracy back to the country and has spent the years since championing peaceful elections. He was in power for eleven months. He could not have built a hospital in that time. He delivered on his core mandate. However shame that Nigeria still has no first-class military hospital able to replace a general’s knee sit squarely on him. But even if the surgery was done free of charge, why did no one around him notice that a former head of state turned into an advert for the hospital’s next African patient would rub off negatively on his country? Perhaps every member of the leadership class deserves the disgrace that follows from the amenities they failed to build.
Abdulsalami was well within his rights to seek help anywhere for a knee replacement. But it’s unfortunate that he had to travel to India, despite the oil billions this country has earned and the thousands of surgeons it has trained. It’s a screaming national embarrassment. Do our leaders still have the capacity to feel shame?
The hospital filmed him through treatment and recovery and published the footage, identifying him clearly as Nigeria’s former head of state. They spared nothing . In the clip is Vice-President Shettima, who travelled to India to wish him well. It didnt also occur to the younger and poetry loving Shettima that the picture will not renew the hope of the young people who are itching to flee the country. In the hospital register, Shettima thanked the doctor for taking good care of the former leader and restoring his vitality. Kind words. Do our leaders have any moment left for sober reflection? Are they still sensitive to compunctions of conscience .
It is not clear that Shettima or Abubakar agreed to the footage being used as an advertisement. But they were aware they were being recorded. The footage has gone viral all the same. Will it now bruise their ego and push them down something .
In the 1960s, the University College Hospital, Ibadan, was a centre of medical excellence in Africa. A few months ago, patients in that same hospital protested. They had lain in the wards for weeks without electricity. The generator had no diesel. Today Nigerian leaders go to Egypt, India, the United Kingdom and France for treatment. This is not even a conversation about primary healthcare. Why will the ruling class not act in its own self-interest and build first-grade hospitals, and staff them with foreign doctors if that is the species it prefers?
Some states do not have a functioning MRI. We have a State House clinic in Abuja that swallows billions and which the president and his family do not use. Most teaching hospitals are so poorly equipped they would lose accreditation if inspections were done rigidly. To protect their political masters, senior doctors who manage these hospitals cut corners and doctor documents for the inspectors , to retain accreditation. The senior doctors who manage these hospitals lack the courage to confront the authorities and tell the public the unvarnished truth
Most of our leaders end their lives in foreign hospitals. Umaru Yar’Adua literally died in Saudi Arabia . He returned only to be buried at home . Muhammadu Buhari died in London. Sani Abacha died suddenly in Abuja; had death given him a few more hours, the plane would already have been fuelled. Obasanjo’s wife died in Spain.
After COVID and the lockdowns, it became obvious that access to foreign hospitals could not be taken for granted. The Federal Government through the NNPC promised zonal hospitals. Five years on, nothing has happened. And the president still casually travels abroad for medical care.
If Tinubu were denied access to foreign hospitals during these his many working vacations, he would have built a world-class hospital for his own health. But France is six hours away. His new jet is comfy. He is received with pomp, dined, and left behind to rest. On that arrangement, the planned modern hospitals will not come soon.
If our leaders had a sense of dignity, if they had any sense of shame, LUTH, UBTH, UNTH and ABUTH would have been raised to a European standard by now. The manpower is here. The money has been here. What they do not seem to grasp is that a fall on a staircase may need immediate local intervention if they are to have any chance of reaching France or the United Kingdom at all. They do not grasp that treatment abroad sends a message to investors and tourists. They do not grasp that foreign governments struggle to respect a leader who presides over a country that earns what Nigeria earns, and that has exported as many doctors as Nigeria has, and who still flies out for ailments a competent local hospital should handle.
Primary healthcare, which has all but disappeared, matters most. It caters for the majority. I have dwelt on the tertiary hospitals only to show the rot and the hopelessness. But the wholesomeness of the tertiary institutions is important for the entire system . The tertiary institutions train the next generation of doctors. They set the standard. If they decay, everything else falls apart: not only training, but culture. If medical training in Nigeria means cutting corners because the facilities are not there, the breeding is defective in every respect, including ethics.
So we must raise the quality of the tertiary institutions urgently to avoid an imminent total collapse.
Two Nigerians, in one Indian hospital advert. If the president can spend a month abroad, ostensibly on vacation, and return to a fanfare at the airport, then the problem is larger than healthcare.
But we can revolutionalise healthcare if it becones mandatory for political leaders to attend local hospitals only . To obtain a waiver to seek medicare abroad they must obtain and publish a medical justification . The public must know the illness and know why it cant be treated here. That law will lift the healthcare system .
This country needs a transformative leadership with vision, urgency, and a sense of shame.
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