The death of Citizen Chinenye

By Adeze Ojukwu
THE recent death of Chinenye, a fresh graduate, in an
lndian hospital is apparently a sad reflection of Nigeria’s
poorly funded health sector. The young lady, who
graduated last month from the University of Abuja, went to
India for a corrective limb surgery.
The distraught mother, in an online publication, said her
daughter allegedly ‘died due to carelessness of some
doctors at Fortis hospital Delhi.’ The bereaved mother who
made the allegation, while lamenting about the tragic loss
of her daughter after the operation accused ‘the hospital of
negligence and recklessness.’
The story, which went viral on several social media sites,
has continued to elicit public fury. Undoubtedly, the
weighty allegations and circumstances surrounding the
inexplicable death of Citizen Chinenye are reflective of
Nigeria’s appalling health sec- tor, which has forced many
citizens into a new and growing medical tourism abroad.
Obviously, medical tourism which has continued to boom
over the last two decades, constitutes a huge drain to this
country and its citizens, on several fronts. In the main,
most foreign medical services are very expensive and
accompanied with inherent dangers.
In some cases, hapless Nigerians fall into the hands of
dubious foreign medical practitioners and their Nigerian
allies. Media reports are awash with stories of nebulous
activities of these foreign hospitals, greedy agents and the
Nigerian cartel.
Presently, thousands of Nigerians are referred to various
hospitals abroad, by Nigerian doctors for major and
chronic ailments, reportedly due to personal gain and other
sundry reasons. The millions of dollars spent on these
spurious medical arrangements is unimaginable.
Indeed, the overall impact of this exercise on the Nigerian
economy, due to the concomitant effect of capital flight, is
huge. The situation is made worse, due to increasing
incidences of non-communicable dis- eases, including
organ-related diseases, such as heart problems, kidney,
liver, bone, spinal cord, and genetic diseases.
With the abysmal failure of the nation’s health sector,
desperate Nigerians plunge into the waiting hands of
hospitals, particularly in India and China. The result can
only be imagined than experienced.
Without doubt, many hospitals across lndia, China, Egypt,
Dubai and of course Eu- rope and America offer excellent
medical services and care, far beyond what is obtain- able
in Nigeria.
Many Nigerians attest to this fact. How- ever, Nigeria
cannot continue to travel this route. Apart from being
import-dependent, this country is also beleaguered by
brain- drain, educational decline and economic woes. Over
70 percent of Nigerian citizens are poor, according to the
United Nations (UN) data, hence cannot afford medical
services. As a result of this, only the rich and their
accolytes can afford standard medical care in the country.
In some cases they take advantage of their privileged
positions to obtain medical treatments abroad, largely at
public expense, as national resources and funds are often
plundered and diverted to private pockets.
Today most government hospitals across the country are
grossly ill-equipped, even as many of them lack experts to
man hi- tech medical equipment. Sadly, private hospitals
offer little or no panacea as their charges are too
prohibitive for the common man to afford. Meanwhile,
most super-speciality hospitals in India, Brazil and other
developed countries boast of robotic machines,
laparascopic equipment and CT scanners for various
specialist medical surgeries and procedures.
The story is different in Nigeria, as inadequate funding for
training, research and monitoring, as well as labour issues,
unfavourable conditions of service and related is- sues
culminate in hampering excellence in the nation’s health
sector.
But most importantly, inadequte medical expertise and
allied professionals as well as paucity of funds, lack of
modern technology and poor power supply have been cited
as major factors affecting the sector and invariably driving
the medical tourism business.
Despite the country’s abundant resources, decades of bad
governance have bequeathed a decrepit health system to
its citizenry. As a result of this, Nigeria can hardly boast of
affordable modern hospitals, comparable with what is
obtainable in nearby Egypt or even lndia. Our so-called
leaders, or perhaps, rulers, not only plunder the nation’s
commonwealth, but scuttle budgeted infra- structural
projects, developmental services, and socio-economic
advances.
Over the years, this crop of military and democratic rulers,
also entrenched a culture of impunity and corruption in the
nation’s public sphere, placing little or no premium on
lives of citizens. The onus lies on the cur- rent
administration to rise above parochial, political and tribal
idiocyncracies to revive the nation’s comatose health
sector and the public service in general.
The masses also have a civic responsibility to place a
demand on leadership at all levels to ensure transparency,
accountability and meritocracy in governance. Without
this, Nigerians would continue to die like citizen Chinenye
in foreign lands. Certainly, Citizen Chinenye’s demise is
one death too many. And this trend must stop.
Undoubtedly, Nigerians deserve a better deal.
•Ojukwu, a Hubert Humphrey Program Alumnus is a
Lagos-based media practitioner and writes via
adezeo@yahoo.com