Unarguably,  our health sector remains the only sector with the highest number of industrial actions . Many lives have been lost in avoidable situations   owing to these incessant crises in the sector .In view of this,the current administration recently revealed its willingness  to nip this intractable problem in the bud through privatisation of the sector but some cabals benefitting from the pitiable  state of our  health sector have once again raised an alarm against such move by  the government  . I am aware that Satan will be surprised at some of the things happening in our country. Consider,for an instance,Just recently it was reported that street beggars in Kaduna state were threatening  dragging  the state government to court for banning street begging and it was also reported that a fake doctor had the temerity of working,not even at  the local or state government level but at the federal level in a country where qualified medical doctors stay many months  at home before securing jobs  .Will the beggars not use the money they will use to brief their lawyers, to go and start petty businesses or  are they born to beg hence they should not be  deprived of  their  inalienable rights to begging ? Our former first lady under these circumstances would shout,'There is God ooo.'

 

Coming back to our topic  ,the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations (AHPA) and their sister organisations recently opposed the proposed privatisation of the sector . As I read their joint communique ,I remembered a song in pidgin English that says,' No be  you say you  be oga ,na why e dey run.' This communique reminded me of the roles of  Sanballat  and Tobiah in the rebuilding of the temple in the holy book of Nehemiah . By this their recent communique,it  means that  this group wants our health sector to remain in its present pitiable state? Is it not  pathetic that  surgeons in conjunction with the physicians will manage an unstable surgical patient and when the patient is stable to withstand surgical stress ,one group will embark on a strike ,so that after the strike ,the patient will either be resting in the grave or be in the mortuary in preparation for the  final burial?

 

Is it not preposterous that the same  people that were shouting and quoting 'International best practices ' are still the same people that are now opposing privatisation which is the foundation  of the International best practices in any health sector  ? Top hospitals and universities  in the world today are either privately owned or are run by public-private partnership. All the medical tourisms by Nigerians abroad end up in these hospitals run by public private partnership .Why are they afraid of public private partnership and why is Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) supporting  the proposed privatisation  of the sector by the  current government ? The answer is simple,under public private partnership ,each of the professionals in the sector  will be paid according to their inputs/skills and not according to their ability to either draw media attention  by issuing communique or ultimatum on daily basis or form more unions in the sector .

 

Once the sector is privatised ,all these unions will die a natural death,everybody will return to his duty post and face his assigned duty. At that point ,we will see if an entrepreneur will agree to employ a consultant generator operator,cleaner,mortuary attendant etc and pay him/her consultancy allowances .At that point ,we will see if  pharmacists in our tertiary hospitals will continue being drug counters while more than 98% of the drugs used in our hospitals are imported and even those requiring reconstitution are done by private firms outside the hospitals . At that time,we will see if  pharmacists in our public hospitals when  embarking  on any strike will lock up all the drugs in the pharmacy shops such that when they resume after the strike , majority of the drugs must have expired  . Also,at that time we will know if medical laboratory scientists will collect samples from patients and later in the same  day  will embark on a strike ,abandoning the collected samples .

 

Meanwhile ,the opposition roles of JOHESU and their sister organisations against the doctors in the health sector  are proverbial . Why are all workers in the health sector under one umbrella(JOHESU) without the medical doctors? Going down memory lane ,it will be clear that doctors are ubiquitous in the health sector hence any strike embarked by any individual group of workers  would be neutralised by the presence of doctors in those areas. In order to neutralize the effects of doctors in the sector , a joint union was formed against the doctors. When the current director-general of NAFDAC was about to be appointed ,one  of their component units  fought against that for no other reason than he is a medical doctor but the former president went ahead  and appointed  him. Even after that,they went ahead to  contest the appointment of  Dr Paul Orhii  in the law court and they expectedly lost the judgment. Also,when resident doctors were sacked last year ,this amorphous group went ahead and   congratulated the then president for a job well done even when they were aware that our tertiary hospitals could not work without these resident doctors.

 

Why are they afraid of public private partnership ? They should accept the fact that people are supposed to be paid according to their skills and not according to their abilities to make noises in an organisation .Under public private partnership,I will like to see how a nurse that has direct contact with the patients in most of the times will earn lower than a drug counter in the pharmacy unit. They are  aware  that with this newly proposed  arrangement  ,everybody in the sector will work out his/her salary. Until then,let me see a good entrepreneur that will appoint people without the requisite qualifications and experiences as the chief medical directors ( CMD) because the post  ,as JOHESU will always argue, is purely  administrative .In our private enterprises we employ competent hands because we know that the quality of  our services determines our output and Revenue but in our government hospitals we want a cleaner,mortuary attendant etc  with O'level certificates ,first degree or OND/HND  to head our tertiary  hospitals  in the presence of medical consultants  under the incessantly- abused 'international best practices' . I don't need to remind the government on the need to retire  senior army officers when their junior is appointed as the  Chief of Army Staff.

 

When the issue of Yayale Ahmed committee came up last year ,it was this very  group that first accused the then president of intentionally delaying the report of the committee. They so boasted of the report that I developed cold feet . On the contrary,when the committee finally submitted the long-awaited report ,they were still the group that opposed the contents of the report even when the then president had not digested the  report. My question is, by opposing the recent move by the current government to end these incessant crises in the sector ,do they want our health sector to remain in its present pitiable  state where strike can be declared while some patients are on the operating table and medically unstable patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) can be forced to  be referred out of the tertiary  hospitals( the highest hospital in the country) because a group has gone on a strike and many of these patients die on transit? What is wrong with public private partnership if they don't have any skeleton in their cupboard ? I don't want to believe that this group was created to destabilise our health sector. I thank God that I am present in this generation to have a firsthand information of some happenings because if  I were born after this generation ,I would not believe some of the things happening in this generation when narrated as part of  history  .

 

In that communique, they purposely brought in the issue of Yaba Vaccine Laboratories first   in order to whip up sentiments before narrowing down to the major aim of their communique which was to oppose the proposed privatisation of the sector . I hope our government will be able to separate the wheat from the tares in that the issue of  Yaba Vaccine Laboratories was brought in to present them in good light before the government such that having cleared the ground ,their opposition to privatisation was  finally revealed . That is what Napoleon called 'place your iron  hand in a velvet glove'. I must confess that  i am at times  taken aback by some of their moves in the sector especially in the area of paying greater percentage to politics and unionism .All I am saying is that our health sector will not remain this way. Why are private pharmacy shops prohibited from coming inside the hospital premises to establish their shops if the government owned ones don't have any skeleton in their cupboard ? Private  laboratory science laboratories will also be allowed into the hospital premises in order to introduce competitions ? When doctors went on a national strike last year,many citizens criticised them without knowing that the strike was borne out of uncontrollable provocations in the sector  .This is time for Nigerians to know the real enemies of our health sector.

 

I look forward to a day when clerical staff and other workers like accountants in the ministry of justice will be appointed as Attorney general or commissioner for justice  because as my JOHESU friends will argue ,the posts are purely administrative and the sector is muti-disciplinary .Also ,I will like professors of paralegal studies to come and head our ministry of justice as paramedical workers are advocating in the health sector. More so the appointment of paramilitary officers  from the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps ,Federal Road Safety Commission ,Nigerian Customs Service etc as Chief of Defence staff will help to assuage my aggrieved mind after all,the post of the chief of defence should also be purely administrative as my JOHESU may also argue .

 

I know if I surf the internet I will definitely get few countries where civilians like me can be chief of defence staff ,hence I will now parochially argue that such anomaly forms the fulcrum of  our international best practices . I even wonder why  a group has not come up to call for legalisation of same sex marriage in Nigeria under 'international best practices' since any anomaly observed in few countries abroad  forms our international best practices .Meanwhile , as they called for international best practices ,I advise them to openly accept this privatisation in good faith because that is the foundation of the much-touted international best practices.

 

Dr Paul John 

Port Harcourt,

Rivers state.

[email protected] 

08083658038