Missing N3.8bn must be accounted for, SERAP insists
By Onyebuchi Ezigbo
Former President of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Francis Adebayo Faduyile, yesterday condemned what he described as the terrible situation of the Nigerian health sector.
He also stated that a large number of trained medical doctors and other health workers are steadily leaving the country in droves for greener pastures abroad, “thereby depleting our manpower assets.”
Faduyile’s outrage came just as the Socioeconomic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) disclosed that it would pursue the issue of alleged missing N3.8 billion budgeted for the health sector to its logical conclusion and ensure that the culprits are prosecuted.
The ex-NMA president, who was one of the personalities at the yesterday’s edition of Arise News channel Morning Show programme, said the country’s health sector is suffering many years of neglect.
In his assessment of the challenges facing Nigeria and other African countries with regards to the COVID-19 vaccination, Faduyile said there was no way the continent could compete with the developed economies.
He said while the economic powers should understand the peculiar situation of things in the developing countries’ health sectors, it is incumbent on African countries to fashion out ways of resolving the problems rather than continuing to lament.
Faduyile said: “The answer to the problems of the health sector is obvious; it is the premium you put on what you have that will determine the output. Take for example, in the 2001, Nigeria as well as other African countries came out saying that for you to have a fairly good health system, you need to invest 20 percent of the annual budget to be allocated to the health sector every year. But I can tell you that Nigeria has never had beyond five percent.
“At a time, Nigeria was manufacturing vaccines, and the hospitals were manufacturing hospital kits. We were able to have a lot of pharmaceutical products that were being manufactured in our hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. Today, what do we have? Everything is in comatose because the government has not placed premium on those important things.”
He lamented that at a period when the government was talking about universal health coverage, “the country is still toying with sustaining service delivery at the hospitals.
“The resident doctors just went on strike recently over things that could be at best put at the pedestal level. These are things that need to be strategically planned. But we have a government which has not shown seriousness in getting the health of Nigerians right. And if we cannot get these things right, we will continue to depend on those that are doing things well in terms of the health of their citizens. I can tell you that the problems are in tens of hundreds by the time you start enumerating them. And until everyone, including the government and the populace, come together to end these anomalies, the country will not be able to help Nigerians.”
While stressing on the need for Nigeria and other African countries to look inwards for solutions to their health needs, Faduyile said most drugs in the market presently have their roots in herbal medicine.
He said the development of indigenous herbal medicine is not a bad idea, but that the challenge had always been lack of proper funding to fully actualise the target.
According to him, Nigeria and most countries in Africa are not strategic enough in their investment plan, adding that not many efforts are directed at developing the alternative medicine sector.
In terms of looking forward for ideas to develop the health sector, the former NMA boss said there are examples in Africa such as Ghana and Rwanda.
He stated that Ghana and Rwanda, which have invested a sizeable amount of fund to develop the health sector, now witnessed a dramatic improvement in their health indices.
Faduyile further assessed the present situation of things in the country’s health sector, saying: “From what I have seen of our hospitals, things were better in the past 10 to 20 years.”
He added that the issue of brain drain in the medical profession has become worsened recently.
Faduyile said the welfare of the doctors and health workers has been so neglected that none of them can tell you that their take home pay will actually take them home.
Faduyile said the last strike by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) had exposed the rot in the country’s health sector which hitherto was unknown to the public.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the SERAP, Adetokumbo Mumuni, who also featured on the Arise News Morning Show programme, spoke about the move by his organisation to compel the federal government to further probe the report of the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF) on alleged missing N3.8 billion meant for projects in the health sector.
He said it was surprising that the federal government has not shown sufficient interest in various reports by the auditor-general’s office indicting ministries and agencies of government, adding that the case of the missing funds in the health sector is one example.
“It is unserious of our government over the years not to answer to our health needs sincerely. If all the money that has been missing; that have been pilfered and mismanaged all these while has been put to good and effective use, at least our president would not be going outside the country for medical treatment,” he said.
SERAP noted that Nigeria has qualified health experts and should be able to boost of sufficient equipment and material to deal with our health needs.
