By Joseph Erunke
ABUJA- Stakeholders in the nation’s health sector have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to build a world class medical facility similar to the ones he patronizes abroad for the country before leaving office in May, next year.
They also called on the president to declare a state of emergency in the health sector, saying the present state of the nation’s health sector system was appalling.
Speaking variously during a town hall meeting organized by the Health Sector Reform Coalition ,HSRC, to commemorate the Universal Health Coverage,UHC day,in Abuja,they claimed there was an emergency health threat in the country hence their submissions.
Speaking at the event with the theme,”Health for all Nigerians: leaving no one behind”,the
Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria, Ene Obi,regretted that the health sector in the country had been abandoned by authorities.
Regretting also that the National Hospital,Abuja,which she noted,was mainly established to take care of the health needs of women and children had been neglected,she called on President Muhammadu Buhari to bequeath a legacy of building a world class medical centre similar to those he patronises abroad for Nigerians before he leaves office.
“The National Hospital in Abuja was built for women and children but then had been abandoned. Subsequent governments of Nigeria have not deemed it necessary to keep it to expectations.
“A reporter went to Aso Clinic and when he came back from there,he said he now knows why the president does not use the Aso Clinic,why he runs abroad all the time.
“We call on President Muhammadu Buhari to build a world class,state of the art medical centre before he leaves government. A medical centre for the country, “she said.
She told participants at the event that:”We are going into elections,some of you are coming from different parts of the country, engage your leaders. We are having general hospitals that are so archaic and they are paying attention to issues of security,what of the security for the Nigerian woman? They are producing humans. So I call on the government of Nigeria to pay attention to health,to declare a state of emergency on the health sector in Nigeria,to pay attention to that environment.”
“Our politicians have left us behind and they are looting the economy of this country,some of them, remember that. They are killing people. When you cannot pay salaries for eight months,you are killing people and all of the things that you are doing,know that you are accountable to the Almighty God.”
In a communique released to the media after the event,the stakeholders tasked the federal governement to pay adequate attention to health spending to achieve the Abuja Declaration spending target, minimising wastage in the health sector, and taming the worrisome trend of health workers attrition, among other health system-strengthening measures.
The communique which was jointly signed by the Chairperson, Health Sector Reform Coalition, Chika Offor, expressed concern on the slow pace at which the country was progressing in the attainment of the universal health coverage.
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