Posted by By INKA FABOWALE on
Lagos lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), has described as a national shame and embarrassment the inability of government to get medicare for two of the surviving victims of last week's plane crash in the country.
Lagos lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), has described as a national shame and embarrassment the inability of government to get medicare for two of the surviving victims of last week's plane crash in the country.
He blamed this on the poor health system in the country, which he ascribed to corruption by leaders he described as "a curse on the people."
The two survivors, Lt. Col. Abraham Dusu and Lt. Col. NE Angbazo, said to be in critical condition, had been on admission at the intensive care unit of the National Hospital, Abuja until they were flown to South Africa on Sunday in a chartered air ambulance aircraft.
Reacting to the news, Fawehinmi noted that it has again brought to the fore the deplorable state of the national health system, which he remarked has forced Nigerians and top government functionaries to seek medical succour abroad.
"Every Nigerian knows that our medical services are in a mess. Our military hospitals which should be relevant in this respect are not equipped to treat those who survived the unfortunate air crash. The civil hospitals are worse. They have become ‘mere consulting clinics.' All over the country most of our medical experts in virtually every field have sought fulfillment abroad.
"Foreign hospitals have become recipients of our trained medical personnel. One wonders what has become of our so-called buoyant economy with billions of dollars ‘raining' into the coffers of government from our oil sales that we cannot modernise all our teaching hospitals and all our general hospitals with state of the art medical facilities with attendant encouraging conditions of service for all our medical personnel."
The lawyer said it was ironic that Cuba and Israel, outside the noted big powers like the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany possessed the medical expertise, facilities and will to treat their citizens, thus standing as exemplary medical pillars for developing world, despite not having the benefit of easy money from oil resources like Nigeria.
"Our country, Nigeria is an odd country. It has the money. It has the population and it has the resources. But it does not have the will and the leadership to apply all the resources to promote a sound medical system, a sound educational system, a sound infrastructure. In fact, it cannot even generate power to service industrial growth," Fawehinmi said.
The rights activist blamed the squalid state of medical system in Nigeria on pervasive and high level of corruption particularly within the national leadership. "As we have seen recently in the feud between the president and the vice president, it is not a dispute based on how to allocate resources for the welfare of the people. It is on how to use the resources of the nation for the betterment of selfish personal interests of both of them - the president and the vice.
"Until we fight corruption to a standstill and until we get the crop of leaders whose sole mission is to cater for the welfare of the people, we will continue to send our sick citizens to seek medical succour in Europe, America and South Africa.
"It is clear now to all and sundry that Nigerians are their own enemies and their leaders are not different. They the leaders are a curse on the people," he said.