Mayowa’s journey has brought us back to the realization
that it’s a long way home. It’s a case that has shown us time and again that we
have failed. We have failed as a nation. The news that Mayowa died in a South-African
hospital is enough to make us reflect over what our health system has turned
into.
Living with sickle-cell is a nightmare on its
own. This nightmare often leads to depression in a country like Nigeria. In
Nigeria, Most sickle-cell patients’ use over-the-counter analgesics to relieve
their pains during crisis because it’s affordable. Government hospitals are lackadaisical
when it comes to promptness in attending to patients and privately-owned
hospitals are expensive for the average Nigerian. The reason is not
far-fetched, the monthly minimum wage for a working Nigeria is less than $70.
Mayowa’s case was an unfortunate one. A case
that explains an average Nigerian mindset. A mindset of superstitious and erroneous
belief. A mindset that discourages people coming out early to seek for help.
Sick people are kept far away by families and relatives. Illnesses are covered
up until it becomes unmanageable. The secrecy and attitude of Nigerians to issues
concerning health has corroborated the fact that we are still not done with
archaic mentalities.
The health system too is completely gone.
We
have no health infrastructure that can detect the simplest of all ailments. The
few government hospitals that have these facilities are faced with hundreds of
people who are waiting to use the facilities despite the tormenting bureaucracies
they have to follow. Dying patients who are calm enough to withstand all
hurdles placed by those who are employed and paid by government to manage the
facilities are in millions. People are making fortune out of other's predicaments. Humanity is gone and Empathy has been thrown to the dogs.
In the midst of all these, we saw Mayowa, a
lady, who fought sickle-cell gallantly for more than twenty years. Except, you
take a second look, you won’t know she was a sickle-cell patient. She comes
across as someone who enjoys the advantage of a modest family with not-so-much
wealth but enough to take care of their needs. Her sickle-cell was managed perfectly
by her family until Cancer came knocking.
Her woes were compounded by the terrible
state of our healthcare system. For a long time, ovarian cancer was diagnosed
as Ulcer. I have seen and read worse things but hers is a mistake that we shouldn’t
even be making in 2016. How on earth can a hospital diagnosed cancer as ulcer?
So for a very long time, hospitals were billing her family on the premise that
she was suffering from ulcer. By the time it was clear that it wasn’t ulcer but
ovarian cancer, it was too late. The cancer has metastasized.
I can be so sure that while the whole issues
was going on, several people told them to go to churches, mosques and other
places to seek help. They would have been duped by fake miracle pastors and
Imams. Mayowa would have been made to drink different concoctions all in the
name of supernatural healing and just like every mortal who is afraid of death;
she would have obliged and struggled with death to stay alive.
Staring death in the face and sensing that
time is ticking, Mayowa decided to plead for financial mercy from the public. I
must be sincere, that must have cost her a lot. Her pride, her sanity, her
freedom, her secrecy and also exposed her family to ridiculing. Unfortunately,
the after-effect was beyond her frail soul. She lost her freedom, her innocence,
and her good-will and as if that was not enough she was even labeled a fraud.
Barely two weeks, after she got the permission
to seek healing elsewhere, far away from the shores of the country that birthed
her, she succumbed to cancer. Mayowa is no more but it’s rather saddening that
there is a Mayowa in all of us.
We have not only been neglected by the same
government that should cater for us, we have also been exploited. Government
employed doctors now run private hospitals by the side and they smuggle
facilities from government hospital to their private clinics. Their fees are
exorbitantly high and they would rather spend more time at their private
clinics than at government hospitals.
When they attend to you at government hospitals,
they act all saucy and impatient. They push you to anger and care less about
customer perception just to make you lose interest in patronizing the cheaper government
hospitals. They smile to the banks afterwards.
On the other side, government officials
embezzle monies allocated for health care. The millions allocated for health
care is enough for Nigeria to compete successfully with India, which has become
the destination point of ailing Nigerians. Government officials take the
shortest route out of Nigeria on the flimsiest of all excuses. They are
billions of dollars, stolen from our common purse, stashed away somewhere where
it can’t even benefit our economy. Their children are taken away from our soil
to lavish our collective money in a foreign land.
At the end, we are still the loser. We are
denied of good health system, financial ability to pull through and we are left
with nothing except public sympathy. That is why the richest of us still have
to beg for survival when the chips are down. Those who are ashamed to come out
publicly to seek for help are in their millions and these ones have resigned to
fate. The fate, as you are aware, is not enticing.
It’s high time we start demanding
accountability from public office holders. It’s time for us to be concerned with
how much the government has allocated for health Care and how it’s been spent.
Nigerians should not ignore sickening attitudes from government employed caregivers. If you witness any health practitioner with an attitude not befitting
of his job-role, please do not keep quiet.
As much as we are demanding positive
governance from our elected leaders, we should also demand that from paid
employees. It’s our right and that is the only way Nigeria can move forward.
