Nigeria’s damning health situation

The nation’s precarious and alarming health care delivery system received one of its worst reviews recently when Nigeria was ranked among countries with the worst basic healthcare for mothers and children worldwide.

According to the United States-based global humanitarian organization, Save the Children, more than 16 million children die in the world annually for lack of basic healthcare. The organization said that if there was basic care, more than six million children would have been saved yearly from dying of preventable and treatable diseases. The report which states that more than 200 million children under the age of five did not get basic healthcare when they needed it, further says that about 10 million children die every year from easily preventable and treatable ailments. It observed that if countries like India and Nigeria improved on their basic healthcare systems, about six million of those children could be saved. In overall global rating, Nigeria ranked 111 out of 146 countries.

In one of the reports tagged, “Basic Health Care Report Card,” it said that by the sheer population of Nigeria, the country accounted for 10 percent of the number of these deaths globally.
Apart from ranking Nigeria second to India as the country with the highest number of children who were not getting adequate basic health care, it said 16 million children in the country were deprived of basic medicare.

A more damning report on Nigeria was contained in its other report tagged, “World Mothers’ Report,” in which Nigeria was ranked 70 out of 71 less developed countries as the worst places to be a mother.

The report looked at child survival rates of 55 countries among children who were better-off and those who were very poor and discovered that within countries, poor children were dying at a much greater number than the best-off children.

For instance, in 12 of the 55 countries, the poorest children are three or more times more likely to die than the richest children. In the 55 nations surveyed in the study which accounts for nearly 60 percent of the world’s population of children under five and 83 percent of all child deaths, India has the highest number of children without adequate care put at 67 million while Nigeria is second with 16 million.
The report largely reflects the situation on the ground and we believe that in view of our poor statistical culture, the grim picture painted might as well be grossly under-estimated. This is further buttressed by the fact that some of the child and maternal deaths in Nigeria occur in places where they are not recorded and as such unreported.

The sad report actually tallies with what we know because our health services lack basic care. The government health facilities are in very short supply and where they exist, they are not affordable and accessible. It is therefore not a surprise that our child and maternal mortality figures are among the world’s highest considering the nation’s lip service to health issues and the recent sleaze in the health ministry where officials share unspent health budget.

Our health sector is in shambles because of ineptitude and the penchant for travelling overseas for medical attention by government officials and affluent Nigerians. The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which would have boosted the healthcare system, is yet to fully take off while the Primary Health Care (PHC) which is supposed to be the pillar of our health system, is a shadow of its former self. The continued neglect of the health sector despite the nation’s huge material and human resources is evidence that our leaders care less for the lives of the citizens.

A government that does not care for its younger ones and those that give birth to them does not plan well for its future. The worst thing that can happen to any government is to toy with the future of its children.

Let our health system be overhauled so that we can reverse this alarming health statistics that portrays us as unserious people. The various levels of government in the country should work in unison to bring about the desired changes that will make our healthcare system one to reckon with in the world.