A Challenge To Yar`Adua On Healthcare

[Robot]

As president Yar'adua receives treatment in Saudi Arabia, I pray for his quick recovery. On his return however,I urge him to set up a commission to contact all Nigerian doctors practicing abroad and offer them irrevocable interest free loans (of at least half a million dollars) if they are willing to return to Nigeria to set up practice so that the average Nigerian can also enjoy the services that president Yar'daua receives abroad...Read the full article.

[Man in the mirror]

What a poignant and apt comment. My respect for Mr. Utomi is due. If only Yar'adua will listen.............

[nijalaw]

Yaradua will not listen.
It is a shame that when someone dies due to lack of health care it's usually the "Will of Allah" & it's the same will our corrupticians are still alive due oveseas healthcare.

[Boko-Haram]

Yar Adua is deaf. We have to cure that ailment first before we proceed.

This article is less than 500 words...though it makes sense, I still think it should be developed to address more issues bothering on the health of Nigerians.

For example, malaria kills 1 child in sub-saharan african most likely in Nigeria every 12 seconds. Compare this to the negligible people that have died from swine flu globally with all the noise about swine flu. What about HIV-AIDS in Nigeria?

Many children in Nigeria die from preventable gastro-intestinal infections. People die from cholera and amazingly polio is still present in Northern Nigeria.

Our hospitals have become mortuary and so on and so forth.

What is the state of our teaching hospitals and other types of hospitals?


Yar' Adua should bury his head in shame for not going to Katsina State for treatment afterall he was the state governor for 8 years. What did he do for 8 years? Was he multiplying Bokoharamism and almajirism?


Utomi should expand this topic and hammer some sense into the diminishing brain of Umaru Yar' Adua.

[Harmonious]

This article is less than 500 words...though it makes sense, I still think it should be developed to address more issues bothering on the health of Nigerians.

@Boko Haram-This is not an article, it is a press statement issued by Pat to the Nigerian media and placed here by NVS as if it were an article. You can see more of Pat's writings on his blog http://www.patitospost.com/

[Elemosho]

I wonder how this guys can sleep at night knowing fully well they are responsbile (Directly) for the death of millions of Nigerian........ Deaths that are avoidable

[Felix]

On his return however,I urge him to set up a commission to contact all Nigerian doctors practicing abroad and offer them irrevocable interest free loans (of at least half a million dollars) if they are willing to return to Nigeria to set up practice so that the average Nigerian can also enjoy the services that president Yar'daua receives abroad. Life should not be a thing money can buy.

He will rather die than do this!

[Lapalapa]

What really worries me here is that people on this site are taking Nigeria and its evil "leaders" too seriously! Why would anyone expect the current crop of Nigerian leaders to do something as dignifying as opening a proper hospital where they would willingly be treated if sick? If we continue like this, I am very afraid there will be special psychiatric hospitals in the US or UK for keeping crazy Nigerians in diaspora in the near future. Or how would anyone expect a country that produced a billionaire who had no qualifications whatsoever, other than being a politician's son, to have leaders that care about the citizenry. I think we're all living in denial at best, it could well be that we're all stoned zombies. Whatever it is we are, we will not be the same when we become normal again. Thinking about these things is dangerous to our physical and mental health, people!

[Dapxin]

who are this people ?

Yaradua ? challenge? I coudnt even imagine he spreads stupidity around that cheaply. Pffffffffffffff!

[ajede]

This is not the first time that Yar Adua went abroad for medical treatment, and it will not be the last time either. One reason amongst a multitude of others is personal preservation; in a Nigerian hospital, he would be afraid of being poisoned. Even in Saudi Arabia where many Nigerian medical specialists work, I am almost certain Yar Adua will not allow any Nigerian doctor near him. He would rather die at the hands of anybody but Nigerians.

For us as a nation, this is very shameful; that we do not have any medical facility that our leaders deem capable of treating our president. The national security implications are even more far-reaching, as the state of the health of our president is well-known to foreigners but is a black box for us Nigerians. We seem not more than a banana republic.

[Iyke]

Attracting Nigerian doctors and professionals abroad is not just a matter of finance or wages but a question of infrastructure too. even if you are offered a million dollars per month and you find out that the infrastructure does not support or maximize your potential, you will not be fulfilled. the logical decision will be to back your bags and head where the infastructure is. so yaradua must not only convoke a commission but should also mandate the ministry of health to revamp the infrastructure of Nigerian medical system.

[Tochukwu]

Yar'Adua will never listen. Mr Utomi should reserve his energy for Yar'Adua's funeral oration, if he should die.

[eire]

If Nigerians want to enjoy a reasonable quality of life it should be a collective effort of both the citizens and government!

No government (good or bad) can provide a decent quality of a life and adequate healthcare if the citizens do not employ decent family planning. The way Nigeria is no government anywhere in the world can provide reasonable services while the citizens continue to abuse their own quality of life by over producing children they and government cannot adequately provide for.

Nigeria is over populated, over congested by the primitive culture of producing off strings to feed some cultural and religious dogma! Why should so many unemployed (or even employed) Nigerians have such number of starving kids who they claim was provided by God! And God will provide! People are living on top of each other, roads are congested, services are over stretched, food is not enough, there are not enough jobs or housing to go round, even if there were should they be built on the heads of people! ? Yet Nigerians are still over populating the place with hungry looking kids...


Millions of Nigerians go through what they go through daily due to their own fault and a lack of leadership which they themselves refuse to struggle and fight for.

The culture whereby the inteligentsia of this nation continue to use their education (or mis-education) to absolve the citizens of Nigeria of any blame in their plight must be stopped!

Articles like these never captures the essence of the core issues facing Nigeria and simple puts them down as "leadership problem", it's very disturbing as it is sending the wrong signals to the population not to look inward for majority of their problems!

[Dapxin]

Articles like these never captures the essence of the core issues facing Nigeria and simple puts them down as "leadership problem" is very disturbing as it is sending the wrong signals to the population not to look inward for majority of their problems!

Yes.
The idea of the article, with respects, given the existential realities of 9ija and its people, us: is hugely disappointing. The idea that Yaradua is within debate is just, desperately laughable.

But, the examples you cite, true as they seem, doesnt begin to describe the full picture even if I agree with you that there is little excuse for the docility, and complicity of us in our madness too. We couldnt even run a refinery for own good...

We are down, deeper than this author, or this article suggests we are @ grips with..

[Ofunwa Villager]

Before advicing yar'adua to turn 'gworo' into bread Utomi should first of all find out who is in charge of Nigeria. Is this roguish slow poison truly the ruler of Nigeria? Am asking because sometimes in circumstances like this you could be advising the wrong fellow without knowing. Just an advice.

[M. Akosa]

Ah.... small, small we are getting there.

Nigeria, ever like the developmentaly retarded child, slow to crawl, slow to walk, talk, not capable of full independence or self determination.

How else can you identify a failed nation???

By all indication we are slowly getting there, gradually, the Nigerian style, not just only large refugees and disapora population, but a massive influx of the political class, including the President, trooping into other countries as health tourists and all sorts.

[pronatura]

The state of medical practice is grossly primitive in some specialist clinics in Nigeria.and a patient has no place of recourse for professional gross misconduct. I know of a case where a patient with an acute eye ailment was misdiagnosed several times and advised to wait for some time for the infection to "mature." Afterwards, they realized it was glaucoma and not cataract as they had maintained previously. What is more, she was scheduled for surgery in a reputable hospital in Lagos by a supposedly top doctor in that field, but the result of the surgery was less than favorable. I don't think the situation should continue this way. So many people are suffering untold hardships and it pains my heart.

[Nkutikut]

UMYA is a dead man walking. We shouldn't expect any thing from a cadaver.

[Araba]

Utomi has not offered anything concrete. So if you pay $500,000 to a doctor to come and work in Nigeria, what does that do? Some of these doctors have homes worth about twice that. Which they are paying mortgage on. So they will now leave the relative uncertainty of the Health Sector in (say) the United States, to the chaos, planlessness, directionlessness,confusion,retardation,insecurity of an existence in Nigeria. People should be serious if they want to be taken serious. Please......

[Harmonious]

Utomi has not offered anything concrete. So if you pay $500,000 to a doctor to come and work in Nigeria, what does that do? Some of these doctors have homes worth about twice that. Which they are paying mortgage on. So they will now leave the relative uncertainty of the Health Sector in (say) the United States, to the chaos, planlessness, directionlessness,confusion,retardation,insecurity of an existence in Nigeria. People should be serious if they want to be taken serious. Please......

And you are to be taken seriously?

Dr. Utomi thank you for your consistently positive ideas.

[ikechukwu]

May be we need another visit by hilary clinton to tell us how rotten our health care is. You know Hilary came and said something about corruption, and pronto the following week UMYA latched on sanusi's disdain for the robbers in bank not because he(UMYA) liked it but because he wanted to deflect Hilary's charges. He is really 'doing a good work' in that but he must finish it.