I was inspired by the adage ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’ especially when some people started using it in criticizing the Federal Government’s decision to suspend the physicians residency program temporarily for the purpose of re-appraisal of the challenges facing the health sector. Then a question leapt in my mind, would it not be two wrongs for NMA to have gone on an insensitive, ego/power and money driven indefinite strike and neglecting the people’s lives and wellbeing while the Government also fold its arms and watch the same people it swore to govern die and left uncared for, not taking any steps to ameliorate their plights, then attracting names like ‘clueless’,‘toothless’ and insensitive Government. 

 

My answer is ‘Yes’, and I think the Government has taken a RIGHT, first step in their cluelessness for the purpose of ‘re-appraisal’ in their own words, which if the Government feels is necessary in proffering solutions to our current health challenges, so be it. Knowing fully well that a better solution ensues when there is a critical and unbiased ‘appraisal’ of a problem which in medical science is more succinctly known as ‘assessment and examinations’, so I was taught in the School of Nursing. Then evaluations come at the end which I think we should also leave to the government to do.

 

To me, ‘two wrongs’ is when NMA embarked on strike for so long becoming so insensitive to the plight and feelings of the masses, now worse still, the MDCAN who were rendering the so-called queried ‘skeletal services’ have also join on this insensitive trip. An adage in yoruba says, Agba ki i wa loja, ki ori omo tuntun wo. (Meaning, where there are elders in the market, the young ones behave and are in order.)Permit my want of grammar. So, where are the elders in NMA, Ti won n se oro bi ewe?...MDCAN is expected to leave NMA a good example but no way, they took the government and JOHESU to court and they were the first to flout the court order to maintain status quo and not to embark on strike, MDCAN could not tame NMA but rather decided to abet them in complete violation of the rule of Law. They clearly showed their ‘wisdom’ by heeding the adage which says ‘if you cannot beat them, you join them’…L’o ba tan! (The question is, why would MDCAN be dragged into this folie-a-plusieur situation? I’m lost!!!) Now, the public are getting to know how they have ruled the health sector for the past twenty-something years, no wonder we found ourselves in this mess.

 

However, what will make it completely wrong is for me, a Nurse to turn my back on and wage war against the suffering masses by not doing my best in alleviating their pains and sufferings when I have been trained, licensed, skilled, experienced, PAID and EMPOWERED by the Government to do so, especially at this crucial time when the Physician who “own” them have abandoned them, more so, the Physician himself needs healing.

 

Two wrongs won’t make a right when I swore to support the sick and ailing but fail to do so and becoming an enemy with my own Nightingale Pledge and the oath I swore to protect and help humanity, for I would rather receive the blessings of God and those I could help than the curse of not being faithful to the oath/pledge I swore in good faith to God and humanity and that of the dying patient I was paid to save, as is painfully observed with some of my colleagues in the health sector who for the love of power and money have turned their back on the sacred Hippocratic Oath which has now become an Oath of Hypocrisy and the Hypocrites’ especially in Nigeria.

 

It will be two wrongs that don’t make a right, for the Physician to be ‘tired and resting in the call room’ while the patient is in pains and bleeding to death and the Nurse also leaves without ameliorating the pain and arresting the hemorrhage, the electrician switches off the light, cleaner begs for leave, everybody disappears… will that be right? If the physician is ill, then others should pick it up from there and do their best to take care of the patients (patients have exclusive right to care at least). Treatment is expected to be ‘teamwork’, hence where that is in place, and then the Doc will not be so missed while he recuperates. It will not make two wrongs right if others disappear or are incapacitated, by forces like some Heads of hospitals, from doing their own bits. I believe strongly that God, humanity, the government and JOHESU will not take it lightly. It absolutely becomes wrong when I make effort to attend well to my friends and relations in private and refused to bring same passion to fore at my duty post where I am paid to do so. It is equally not right when my stable patient is at the verge of relapse and I know what to do but didn’t do anything to salvage him, even when I am aware of the imminent agony, pain, waste, loss of life and property and the danger to the society at large, which may follow his relapse.

 

As NMA and MDCAN are on strike, then JOHESU should hold forth till they return and should not be hindered from doing so, otherwise it will be two wrongs that will never make a RIGHT, because the Cleaner, the Nurse, the Security Personnel, Pharmacist, MIDWIVES, Psychologists, Social Workers, Laboratory scientists, Physiotherapists, Occupational therapists and others have the right to WORK for THE SALARY THEY EARN without hindrance from any quarters, and within the provisions of Law, Scheme of service, professional and ethical limits before they (NMA & MDCAN)return to join the TEAM. Members of the public and the Government also have exclusive right to patronize the hospitals and have positive, constructive and lively dealings with members of JOHESU without walls and hindrances.

 

INDEED, TWO WRONGS DON’T MAKE A RIGHT…

 

Durosawo S.Michael

Psychiatric Nurse.