By Daniel Kanu
Assistant Politics Editor
Nigerian–born U.S. based medical expert, Dr Anuma Ulu, has given damning verdict on the nation’s medicare system, saying that government is missing in action in terms of commitment.
Also he criticised the actions of most medical practitioners, whom he said, “play God and fail to let the populace know the basic things they need to know about their medical care, even before going to a doctor.”
The gynatrician, who was in the country on his yearly medical mission, told The Niche that there was no medicare in Nigeria when compared to what obtains in other climes with the kind of resources that abound.
Said Ulu: “When it comes to healthcare in Nigeria, government is missing in action because they are not living up to what they are supposed to do.
“There is really no basis for comparison, everything we are doing here is wrong. I have to be frank. Some of you may have had the opportunity to travel and see what obtains in other climes.
“I trained here at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) before I traveled, and since I traveled and got my further training, I have been coming here to practice. So, I stand in a better stead to actually compare and say as it is based on world standard, we really don’t have anything here that is called a hospital or medical delivery system.
“The system is rippled with many practices that would land a medical staff in any other clime in jail or a situation where he or she would lose license. “There is no checks and balances in most cases here and I believe that some people might know what to do, but because of self-aggrandizement or the need to make profit beyond the need to serve, then they get derailed.”
Ulu, who was nominated for the 2009 and 2010 CNN-Heroes Award for his philanthropic work, also urged his fellow Nigerians in the Diaspora to think home despite lack of infrastructure and other social malaise that abound.
According to him, “The truth is that there are people who have similar intentions to what I have but they want the system to be holistically complete before they would come down. They want a better security, the kidnapping and armed robbery to stop.
“However, even America is not a perfect system but they want a better system. They said they want good roads, stable electricity but if they keep looking at all these things, they will never come back.
“This will continue to promote brain drain and there would come a time that everybody wants to go and the people left would just try to do any ad hoc thing to survive and then, the health system would become comatose. So I advise my colleagues abroad to think home so that together we will build our country.”