by Nduka Odo
Dear President Buhari, your return from medical vacation in London has calmed nerves, shocked many and even thrown much more into jubilations. It is not unheard of to be wished negatives by some; it is also expected to be loved and wished well by some. I thank God for your life and for making it possible for you to return to Nigeria in health. Religious, ethnic, class, and political divides are useless and inconsiderable in matters of life. Life is worthier.
It was about 4:38 pm on Saturday, I was walking down the popular Ogbete main market – Holy Ghost road in Enugu that I received a call from a friend that the presidential jet had landed in Abuja. I wasn’t fully shocked – being that I already read an earlier announcement on Femi Adesina’s Facebook page. I knew I would see photo and video later on social media. I continued walking down the road. Lined up by the fence of the Holy Ghost Cathedral were beggars of all kinds: Some nursing mothers with their babies; some were amputees or paralyzed; others with different forms of deformities. Among these, there was a group most striking: people with tumours on different parts of the body: head, chins, legs, tummies and private parts. The truth, as it is, without euphemism, it was disgusting to look at them. Even persons that gave them money did that while looking away. As I thanked God for saving the life of the President of Nigeria in London hospital, there and then, I realized that I could not say thank God for the health of these Nigerians.
Sincerely, this is not a spoiler to the jubilations and celebrations following your return from medical vacation. Yes, it is not. I genuinely thank God for your return, alive and healthier. By the jubilations, (and even the uncalled for public holiday declared by Governor Yahya Bello of Kogi), you can feel that a good number of Nigerians wanted you back, alive and healthier. A good number, as well, may not have been happy that you returned, alive and healthier.
I’m happy you returned alive and healthier, but I’m not happy you had to go to London for medication in the first place. Morally, no human being should wish you never returned. Morality demands that we wish well to all, especially in matters of life. Even though it seems that Nigerian leaders are used to not wishing Nigerians well, anger should be directed to the fact that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria had to travel to London, stayed 103 days, to receive medications.
Dear president Buhari, use your God-given head to reason it, isn’t it wrong for Nigerian leaders to travel abroad for medication? What about the fate of Nigerians who cannot afford food to eat, money for paracetamol, not to talk of local hospital bills? What about those with tumours and other serious sicknesses who, instead of getting medications, local or abroad, end up aggravating their conditions by exposing themselves to the sun and the rain begging for food to eat? Is the president more Nigerian than the woman with a tumour begging for food, or the child dying of starvation in the IDPs camp? I am not suggesting the president shouldn’t be treated when sick or be subjected to begging.
But, isn’t it sinful, immoral, uncalled for, stupid, unreasonable, hypocritical, evil, dysfunctional, chaotic, insensitive, and unwarranted for the same persons that should provide healthcare for all Nigerians spend the funds in seeking medications in functional societies like London, Germany, Saudi Arabia, India, the U.S., Israel, Singapore, South Africa, and so on? Who makes up the group of Nigerians responsible for the dysfunctionality of health and other systems in Nigeria? You’re not solely responsible; but you’re one of those that have messed up Nigeria’s health system, and indeed, Nigeria. This is your second time of heading Nigeria government, your second time of having the opportunity to change Nigeria for good. But what do you do? Join other elite to enjoy the evil system that treats Nigeria citizenry as little above reptiles.
You have always known that medical vacations abroad by public office holders is evil, wrong, insensitive, and unpatriotic. That is why you used it in your campaign of change. Buhari, you promised in your campaign manifesto that you would stop medical tourism by public office holders if Nigerians voted you in. Nigerians voted you in with the hope that you’d fulfil that promise and others, change the evil status quo enshrined in Nigeria system. But you and your officials flout that promise back to back without remorse. In the broadcast after your return, you and your handlers never thought it wise to apologize to Nigerians for failing woefully to keep your promise on stamping out foreign medical tourism by public officials, if elected. This kind of promise-and-fail without apologies is the major reason many of us condemn past administrations, and it shouldn’t be condoned simply because it’s Sai Baba.
For you to embark on medication in London for about three months and a half plus earlier two months, you tell the world that successive governments of Nigeria (including your two regimes) have failed to provide healthcare in Nigeria. For every cold and catarrh, you and your officials ( like past administrations) run to hospitals in countries governed by reasonable and morally upright human beings with functional brains and sensitive hearts for the common good for all the citizens. Have they informed you that there is a scarcity of paracetamol in the almighty Aso Rock clinic that gulp billions annually from our budget?
Traveling to London for medication is a sarcasm that President Buhari and other leaders failed Nigerians shamelessly. Nigeria ought to have come of age treating its citizenry including the President of any ailment. But that isn’t. Nigeria is still like a child bathing only its tummy leaving other parts dirty and paralyzed; feeding leaders fat while the rest of the citizenry starve and die of curable medical conditions. How would Nigeria be able to treat ailment of the president when university lecturers that should train medical experts are always on strike actions?. Government officials do not care because of their children – the real future leaders, those that get NNPC and CBN jobs, not N-POWER – graduate from the best universities in Europe and America.
Dear Mr President, you should have realized that Nigeria needs hospitals enough to treat the president. There is the need to heed the advice of the Nigeria Medical Association and replicate in Nigeria what is in the London hospital. If Nigeria had quality hospitals, the money spent on your transportation to and from London, medical bills, parking spaces, housing and feeding aids, and the transport fairs spent by all who visited in London – could have been spent on building three hospitals in Nigeria. It ought to serve as a clarion call to build at least a hospital good enough for Nigeria president. If the medical expertise cannot be found locally, foreigners can be called in. Not only will Nigeria’s public office holders stop going abroad for medications, but people from other countries will as well start coming to Nigeria for medications. You know the economic benefit accrued to that.
I once suggested that there should be a law instituting that anyone who seeks or occupying public office, elected or appointed, must not travel out of Nigeria for medication, education, vacation/ holiday, and shopping. The same should apply to their family members. If such education, medication, relaxation, etc. cannot be obtained in Nigeria, they should be provided. That is what leaders are elected to do; provide good conditions for all citizens. If such conditions cannot be provided for the good of all, it should be ignored. If Nigeria is Nigeria for all Nigerians, fair ( in fact, egalitarian) Nigeria should be provided for all Nigerians. Nobody is too important to suffer or die; nobody is too unimportant to enjoy or live. What is good for the president, vice-president, senators, reps, ministers, governors, commissioners, chairmen, councillors and party chairpersons is good for every Nigerian.
It is godly to jubilate that our president returned alive from medical vacation in London, but it is devilish that our president had to go to London to get a medical vacation.
Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija
Leave a reply