Ex-NMA President Asks FG to Declare Attack on Healthcare Workers as National Emergency

 Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City

 A former President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Osahon Enabulele, has warned that if the future of Nigeria’s healthcare system is to be secured, the acts of violence against healthcare workers must be declared a national emergency.

Enabulele, who is also the immediate past president of the World Medical Association (WMA), argued that the state of emergency to be declared must be backed by prioritised investments in the health system, as well as the well-being, working conditions, safety, and security of healthcare workers.

Speaking as a guest lecturer at the Second Induction/Oath-taking ceremony of medical graduates of the Edo State University, Uzairue, he lamented that despite their frontline roles in the management of injured victims of conflicts/war, physicians and other health professionals are most times the primary victims and are subjected to acts of violence in all regions of the world.

“Despite their critical roles and importance in society, physicians and other members of the health workforce are still subjected to acts of violence which undermine the healthcare delivery system, especially in Nigeria.

“It has indeed become one of the major drivers of brain drain of these professionals from Nigeria’s health sector,” he further observed.

Enabulele continued: “More and more conflict parties violate, with complete impunity, humanitarian law and attack health facilities and health personnel who are usually at the frontline treating victims of conflicts or abuse signs of protection by storing weapons or troops in hospitals or using ambulances for combat purposes.”

While calling for an investigation into all forms of attacks against health workers and consequent punishment, the immediate past WMA President opined that violence against healthcare workers can be stemmed if various stakeholders, including medical doctors and other health professionals, and their associations, effectively play their roles.

According to him, “all attacks against healthcare, in peace or armed conflicts contexts, must be properly investigated and those responsible must be brought to justice.”

He further called for improved security of Nigerians and the provision of decent pay decent working conditions, secured and safe workplace.