A Quick End to Medical Tourism: Yahaya Bello’s Lofty Dream
By Hafsat Ibrahim
“Time and health are two precious assets that we don’t recognise and appreciate until they have been depleted.”
– Denis Waitley
Medical tourism has been a big issue in the Nigerian public space for decades now. It’s a practice that not only cost Nigerians a lot in foreign exchange but also a lot in national pride.
After over 60 years of independence, it is regrettable and shameful that Nigerian leaders have over the years been so irresponsible that they have not fixed the nation’s healthcare infrastructure even for their own enlightened self-interest. Observers have said that as far as political office holders and their families are not banned from seeking medicare abroad, nothing concrete will be done to fix the problems at home.
There is however a governor in Nigeria who is not waiting for such extreme measures to be put in place before doing the needful.
Governor Yahaya Bello is not just investing huge sums of money on health infrastructure across the state and investing huge effort and time in formulating policies to expand the space for quality healthcare delivery in the state, he is actually very intentional and meticulous in the pursuit of his long-term goal to eradicate medical tourism.
A very ambitious governor, Bello said his dream is to create a list of world class medical institutions that will be a reference point for not only Kogites but also residents and indigenes of surrounding states. That kind of dream is a brilliant one because Kogi state is in the middle of Nigeria bordering about ten states. Even if it is only those ten states and Kogi that are removed from the list of Nigerians who travel out of the country on medicals by virtue of Bello’s medical institutions, that is a lot of achievement.
Recently, I was privileged to be part of a media tour to Kogi state for a fact-finding mission on the achievements and challenges of the present administration.
When we sat down to talk with the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Saka Haruna, he said the administration has done a lot of construction, renovation, and remodeling of medical facilities and no local government has been left out of these projects.
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“Since the establishment of the New Direction Blueprint, the rate of child/maternal mortality has reduced drastically. Our long-term plan is mainly on infrastructural intervention. Malaria immunisation has been given to all kids, health insurance is available and the administration also introduced the Bello Health Intervention Program (BHI) which consists mainly of two components; Payment for needy patients and procurement of drugs for special category of patients. Over 2,500 indigenes are currently benefiting from it and it also takes care of people living with disabilities.”
He challenged us to visit some of the sites where the projects are taking place for us to understand fully the passion of Governor Bello to end medical tourism among Kogites.
We started by visiting the Prince Audu Abubakar Teaching Hospital in Anyigba which was started by Governor Bello and was nearing completion and the Specialist Hospital in Lokoja which was given a world-class facelift by the administration. We also saw the magnificent Reference Hospital in Okene which was started by the administration and is also nearing completion. Based on what we saw and heard in Okene, the Reference Hospital, as the name implies, is meant to attend to the most complicated and most complex medical cases that require the best attention.
With well-equipped wards, psychiatric clinic, perfect maternity and theater halls, the Specialist Hospital is befitting of the state capital. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is also well equipped with a seasoned neonatologist that is said to be always available to give newborn babies the best care. We also gathered that the hospital has a 24/7 emergency service and an ambulance service that goes as far as Ekiti State to the South and Abuja to the North. We were also informed that the same standard of a Specialist Hospital was being replicated in the two other senatorial districts of the state.
The Prince Abubakar Audu Teaching hospital in Anyigba has 300 bed spaces, 5 laboratories, male and female standard wards among other amazing facilities.
When leaders lead by example, followers follow the examples to the letter. If there is one appointee of Governor Bello that has really internalized his passion for excellence especially the determination to end medical tourism, it is the equally hardworking Vice Chancellor of the Prince Abubakar Audu University, Professor Marietu Tenuche. On her own, the VC built a new block in the Main Campus Clinic and equipped it with modern facilities and human resources to tackle cancer, diabetes and other terminal illnesses.
What we saw from all the places we went to proved one thing, that this governor is truly ambitious. Meanwhile, the Commissioner was right. He had warned us repeatedly during the interview that what we were going to see would shock us. If we merely listened to the Commissioner and left for Abuja without seeing the projects, we would have just concluded that the governor was a mere dreamer.
But now, we can safely say that the governor is a dreamer and a doer.
