By Achilleus-Chud Uchegbu
Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, left Nigeria with harsh words. While the
Nigerians leadership was still ruminating his unkind words, he returned to
the United states of America to the waiting arms of CNN. He was interviews
by David Mckenzie, an international correspondent of CNN. CNN called Gates
Nigerias silent partner because of his spending $1.6 billion on health
concerns in Nigeria. CNN puts it this way: His money is helping to
eradicate the scourge of polio in Nigeria. But grinding poverty remains.
And for many, an absence of political leadership.
Responding to CNNs question, Gates said: You know, I am saying that the
current plan is inadequate Nigeria has all these young people, and the
current quality and quantity of investment in this young generation, the
health and education, just isn’t good enough. And you know, so I was very
direct.
Gates sees wasted opportunities. He sees a threatened future. But the world
sees much more. The world sees Nigeria as a people who are only good at
making more babies, but not planning for their future. The statistics say
so. A 2015 World Bank report indicate that only 29 percent of Nigerians
have access to sanitation. It means that 71 percent others dont have
access to sanitation. The implication of this is high disease rate.
Speedtest Global said internet broadband download speed (megabits per
second) for Nigeria is at 9.5mps while Singapore ranks first at 153mps
meanwhile the population growth rate for Nigeria is put at 72 percent while
Germany at one percent. Many countries are creating wealth using fast
internet systems.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) ranks Nigeria at 131 on the 2018
infrastructure quality index. On the index of Government Spending
Efficiency, 2018, also by the WEF, Nigeria is ranked 120 0f 137 countries
indexed while the Public Trust in Politicians, 2018 index ranks Nigeria at
130 with Brazil at 137. On the index of Internet access in Schools 2018,
the WEF ranks Nigeria at 120 with Singapore, New Zealand and Sweden ranking
top three. The Innovation Index 2018, also by WEF has Nigeria at 112 of 132
countries indexed. Nigeria is also placed 97 on the Railroad Infrastructure
Quality of WEF.
The sad healthcare situation in Nigeria hits on the face when the World
health Organization (WHO) index of Psychiatrists per 100,000 people.
Nigeria is sitting at the bottom of the ladder with 0.1 psychiatrists per
100,000 people while Netherlands sits at the top with 20.1 per 100,000
people. World Bank ranks Nigeria at 145 on the Ease of Doing Business, 2018
index while the 2017 Human Development Index of the United Nations has
Nigeria at 152 with an unemployment rate in Africa of 18.8 percent
meanwhile, we hold 2.6 percent of worlds population. While the monthly
minimum wage in Nigeria is N18,000, Albania, one of Europes poorest
countries has a monthly minimum wage of 159 Euro while Luxembourg tops the
list with 1922 Euro.
With a population which has grown by 72 percent in the past 20 years,
Nigeria is estimated to have 752million people by 2100 with an average
birth per woman put at five and 89 infant deaths per 1000 live births and
youth unemployment of 33 percent. A military research platform puts
Nigerias Military aircraft capability per million people at 0. While that
of Israel, with a population of 8.547 million, as at 2016, is put at 55.
WEF also ranks Nigeria at 79 on the index of Availability of Scientists and
Engineers in which 137 countries were polled. That does not look too bad
but the Gold Reserve Index puts indicates that Nigeria has 21 metric tons
of gold in reserve while the United States has 8133 and Brazil, 63. And to
cap it, Nigeria which used to sit at the apex of World Happiness Report is
now ranked 95 with Norway, Denmark and Iceland occupying the top three
spots. Behind this is the WEF report that Nigeria ranks 14, out of 137, on
the most bribes and irregular payments index.
These are the indices that Bill Gates saw. These are also the indicators
that many investors see of Nigeria and which inform their investment
decisions. As Nigerians, we dont only see these, we live with them and we
feel their pains. However, these handicaps present investment opportunities
in solution-driven options. But government policy, on the other hand, does
not seem to support this. The policy direction of Nigerias government
helps in national planning. But from the office of Budget and National
Planning, there is a glaring disconnect with the government policy drivers.
This may be reason it is often difficult for government to build its budget
around intangible deliverables that could transform society. For instance,
it is difficult to see the physical effect of investment in healthcare as
against building railway lines and bridges and roads.
The reality of Nigerias situation comes back real when the recent
experience of Emevo Biakolo, a Professor of Communication at School of
Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos is taken into
context. Prof. Biakolo shared his experiences in an update on his facebook
page titled We Must Fix The Broken Health System, thus: Late last week,
I returned from New Delhi, India, where I had gone for a surgery. Why did
I, like so many of my country men and women, go to India? Here is why. In
September 2017, some six months ago, my spouse underwent surgery at a
private hospital, the Lagoon Hospital (which my family has used for over 10
years) in Lagos. In accordance with proper medical practice, given the
nature of the problem, a post-surgery histology and immunochemistry (lab
tests to determine if the organs had cancer) was recommended. I agreed and
paid for it. It took THREE MONTHS for the reports of this test to be
released by this hospital. This was after repeated inquiries by personal
visits, by phone calls and text messages. The surgeon stopped picking my
calls. When the report eventually came and we had a meeting on it, I asked
why it took this long for the report to come. The explanation was that this
hospital, like others, sends samples abroad because there are no adequate
labs in Nigeria.
He also wrote: In spite of what happened, at this same hospital, I had a
biopsy (a procedure to extract samples for lab tests) done on an inflamed
prostate. A biopsy is an outpatient procedure of less than an hour. But
after the procedure, I was put in an ICU (intensive care unit) room for the
required brief recovery period. This turned out to be nightmare. I was in a
pool of blood both on the bed and in the unhygienic toilet close by. There
was no nurse or attendant to take care of me. In my dazed state, I stumbled
out to look for toilet paper to clean myself. To cut a long story short, I
eventually left the hospital for home. But worse was to follow because not
unsurprisingly, given the ICU experience, infection had occurred, an
infection so massive I had to be hospitalized for five days. I returned
home on the eve of Christmas.
Given the nature of what I was experiencing as a result of my condition, I
was advised to do a bone scan. I therefore travelled to Ibadan, early this
year, to the University College Hospital, to do this. I duly paid N72k to
the Nuclear Medicine unit. But as I write, this scan has still not been
done. The reason: there are no reagents. All this was why, contrary to my
usual nave nationalism, I left Nigeria with the help of my workplace, my
children and my friends to do a surgery in India.
He caps his update with this: Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals (New Delhi)
where I had surgery on 12 March has 750 beds for in-patients. It performs
on average 80 surgeries daily. The outpatient figures run into 1000+ daily.
It is a private hospital system with branches all over India.
Prof. Biakolo has told his story. There are many more Nigerians who have
worse stories to tell about the healthcare system here. These, account for
reason Bill Gates was unrestrained in his criticism of Nigerias economic
recovery plans. However, he said nothing we did not know about our country.
The only difference was that it was said, this time, by a white man. But
the statistics up here shows that the world knows much more about us and
that is why they laugh at our ERGP and wont bother investing too much here
despite being a very large market.
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*Achilleus-Chud Uchegbu |Editor, The Union Newspapers |No. 65, Oduduwa Way,
GRA, Ikeja, Lagos | 234-8023030366, 09092007000
|http://achilleusuchegbu.
<http://achilleusuchegbu.
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