Want member as Minister, Surgeon General

AS Nigeria clocks 55 years today as an independent nation, and one year since the signing of National Health Act 2014, doctors under the aegis of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has scored the country low on health sector performance even as they called on President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint their colleague of the new Health Minister and Surgeon General of the Federation.

President of NMA, Dr. Lawrence Kayode Obembe, yesterday, in a statement said: “The greater part of our nation’s history is replete with woes, travails, lamentations and buck passing without effective remediation. Since 1960, the NMA is of the opinion that Nigeria has not scored an impressive mark, which accounts for its position in the ranking of Global Human Development and Health Indices.

“We also observe that the country has never lacked effective recommendations to mitigate our crippling socio-economic, political and developmental woes; rather poor Leadership and poor implementation have been responsible for the uninspiring status of the nation in the global development circle. In particular the failure to establish world-class health system is a major factor causing the retardation of Nigeria’s development, which is in keeping with the dictum that ‘Health is Wealth’.

“…In the same vein, NMA notes that in the absence of a Surgeon General of the Federation / Chief Medical Officer of the Federation, Nigeria’s Minister of health combines the dual role of political and professional headship of the health sector as the Attorney General and Minister of Justice does for the judiciary. Therefore, the NMA prays that as Mr. President announces his ministerial appointees, he would accord professionalism, competence and comprehensive understanding of the different areas of the sector their due consideration and appoint a medical doctor to the position of Minister of Health.”

He said notwithstanding these lapses the NMA believes there is hope for a greater Nigeria, and therefore urges all Nigerians to keep faith with government and diligently contribute their quota to the change the present administration promised Nigerians. Obembe insisted that pessimism must give way to hope and optimism; destructive opposition and extremism to virile issue based constructive dialogue and agitation. He said Nigeria’s religious and ethnic diversity should be the focal points of our strength and unity rather than weakness and division as presently witnessed.

The NMA President called on Mr. President, state governors, national and state legislators and other leaders at various levels of governance to work assiduously to implement the National Health Act 2014, which will guarantee Nigerians a long, delayed Universal Health Coverage (UHC). He said UHC shall increase access to and affordability of health care delivery through the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) by using the Community Based Health Insurance Scheme (CBSHIP) and complemented by the basic healthcare provision fund provided for in the NHAct 2014 and other sources from luxury items and ‘sin’ taxes.

The NMA also called on government to speedily commence implementation of the recommendations of the Mahmud Yayale Ahmed-led Committee on Inter-Professional Relationships in the Public Health Sector as the pedigree and track record of the Committee members and thoroughness of their activities strongly suggest that they would not have misdirected the nation.

Obembe appealled to President Buhari’s government which has rekindled the hope of the nation in its potentials, to reverse the dissolution of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) as the damage done to medical practice in the country in the absence of the regulatory body is colossal and almost irreversible.

He further stated: “Nigeria perhaps could be the only country that allows the practice of medicine to go on without regulation even for one day. NMA further calls on Mr. President to direct that henceforth, MDCN should never be dissolved for the health of all Nigerians.”

Obembe, however, on behalf of all the medical doctors and dentists in Nigeria and in the diaspora, congratulated the President Buhari, all other leaders at various levels of authority, and the entire citizens of our great country for the journey so far, and especially for achieving a most peaceful general elections with a landmark transition from the ruling to an opposition party.

The NMA President salutes the unparalled patriotism of her members who kept faith with their patients and stood back to save lives in parts of the country bedeviled by insurgency; and all health workers in Nigeria.