Former president Muhammadu Buhari
Following the statement of former presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, that his late boss, former president Muhammadu Buhari, could have died long ago if he had relied on Nigerian hospitals for medical attention, medical doctors have faulted that claims as misleading.
The doctors explained that such claims were not only misleading but unfair to their medical profession and qualifies specialist in the country.
Recall that Adesina had during an interview on Channels Television said the late Buhari decision to continue treatment abroad was based on professional expertise and the limitations of Nigeria’s healthcare system at the time.
According to him, “Buhari always had his medicals in London, even when he was not in the office. So it was not about the time he was president alone. He had always had it there.
“One has to be alive first to get certain things corrected or changed in the country. If Buhari had said he would do his medicals here as a show of patriotism or something, he could have long been dead because there may not be the expertise needed in the country,” he said.
Commenting on the claim, Professor of Community Medicine and Public Health at the University of Lagos and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Adebayo Onajole, hailed Nigeria’s doctors’, adding that, many are globally recognised and excel in top hospitals abroad.
He added, saying a lack of expertise in Nigeria amounts to undermining the credibility and capacity of professionals who have consistently delivered quality care in the country.
“I do not agree with him (Femi Adesina). Because the former vice president had a surgery done here in Nigeria and he is still alive. You see, for some of our people who travel to access healthcare abroad, it is a matter of psychology. It’s a matter of the mind.
“A lot of the people (doctors) they go to meet in London or other countries are also Nigerians. One of my classmates was the one who came from London to operate the immediate past vice president.”
The senior public health physician insisted that there are experts and hospitals that deliver quality healthcare to patients in Nigeria.
“I will tell you there are hospitals in this country that can provide services as good as, if not even better than the quality you get in Europe and America. But the question is: can they be affordable? Can the common man get the needed care there?
“So his statement is an understatement in the sense that he’s just not very educated on how or where things work. The expertise is there. I will tell you that the expertise to provide care services exists in Nigeria.
“Go to the US, Europe today, the sizable proportion of people delivering healthcare services over there did their first degree in Nigeria. So his questions of unavailability of expertise in Nigeria do not hold water,” the don added.
Also, the President of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, Dr. Tope Osundara, expressed concerns over the implications of Buhari’s death in a hospital in the UK, lamenting that the incident further erodes public trust in Nigeria’s health institutions.
Osundara said Buhari’s decision to seek care abroad, sends a dangerous signal about the nation’s failing confidence in its own hospitals.
Osundara said, “If we are going to look into the issue of him dying in a UK hospital, one of the grave consequences of this is that the trust that people will have in our own hospitals is rapidly diminishing. In fact, it is already diminishing. Other people of former President Buhari’s caliber will simply not trust our healthcare institutions anymore.”
“These institutions were funded by Nigerian money, yet if we do not have our top officials, past and present, patronising these hospitals, then there is a serious problem. It will discourage further investment. The government is already underfunding the sector, but even when some funding comes in, it will only yield results when prominent Nigerians patronise the system,” he said.
