The trio of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, Goodluck Jonathan and Abdulsalami Abubakar yesterday bemoaned the state of healthcare in the country, calling for new measures to upturn its fortunes.
Speaking at the Care365 Health Hub Product launch in Abuja, Obasanjo said it is no longer acceptable that a Nigerian child should die of malaria because her mother cannot afford to travel to the nearest health facility, in the age of artificial intelligence and space tourism.
He emphasised the need to leverage technology and innovation to make health services available to all Nigerians. Obasanjo also stated that it was unacceptable that young people in remote communities go blind untreated because there’s no eye clinic for hundreds of miles, stressing that it was not just a failure of infrastructure, but failures of empathy and leadership at all levels.
He said: “When I reflect on the Nigeria we envisioned at independence, and even more so during my years of service in government, healthcare was never meant to be a luxury for the privileged or the urban elite. It was to be a fundamental right, accessible 365 days of the year to the child in Damaturu, the mother in Yenagoa, the farmer in Ogbomoso, and the teacher in Birnin Kebbi.
“This was what was envisaged for Nigeria, yet we know the truth. Millions of Nigerians still walk miles to reach a health post. Still, many die from preventable situations and conditions, and still more, many live in places where the nearest doctor is hours away, on bad roads. Care 365 is going to change the story and the situation.”
Obasanjo argued that technology should be for inclusion and should make health services available and accessible to all, irrespective of their geographical location and social status.
Aformer Head of State and the Chairman of Care365 Health Hub, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd),also deplored the poor state of health infrastructure, stressing that much still needs to be done to change the healthcare delivery in the country under the current minister, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate.
Similarly, the former President Jonathan added that the digital revolution was the way to go in the health sector and urged young Nigerians who are good at technology to come up with different digital products that would help to move the country forward instead of indulging in activities that cast the nation’s image in a bad light.
He noted that the digital revolution had transformed the health, agriculture, and virtually every sector, warning that if Nigeria was not properly focused, it would be left behind.
The CEO and Founder of Care365 Health Hub, Ngozi Joseph Odumuko, said the initiative was a transformative healthcare innovation conceived in the United States and now launched in Nigeria.
He said: “The reason for this vision is to make accessible health care affordable, healthcare quality, and available healthcare are valuable to the citizens of Nigeria.”
The Vice President, Kashim Shettima, said the launch of the Health Hub was a demonstration that Nigeria was ready to move forward and rewrite the narrative with the help of technology.
