IT is about the good, the bad and the ugly. The good is that for the first time in our national life, we had a situation whereby response to a national emergency, was fast.

 

The reaction in containing the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak by the Federal Government, Lagos state government and other state governments was very well appreciated and we must commend that laudable initiative. But beyond that there is really little to cheer.

I once said that the fundamentals of healthcare in Nigeria revolve around the propensity of one professional group to grab all the privileges and resources in the health sector.

 

We need to restructure the mentality of people who think that leadership of the sector is their birthright because indeed it cannot be the birthright of anybody.

 

It is the particular endeavour at hand that will throw up who is most competent at leadership. Government has a responsibility in this direction to redress a number of problems in the health sector.

 

The other issue is about funding. The way we are running healthcare in the country we will always experience systemic collapse.

 

Government needs to go back to the drawing board to deal decisively with these issues. Until we do these things cannot be out of the woods.