Nigeria’s dependence on donor funding for health sector is an embarrassment – Edozien

How do you feel being honoured for your contributions to the advancement of humanity?

Well, I feel special, I feel honoured, I feel privileged and I feel inspired. I think those words capture my emotions today.

How did the award come to you?

The award came to me as a surprise, because I was not quite familiar with the organization and this is its sixth edition. But I have not been following the award, so it came to me out of the blue but I think that the name itself, Silent Heroes suggests something. There are many people not just myself who work behind the scenes, doing a lot of good work unannounced, unsung, and in some cases getting little or no appreciation in terms of publicity. It is a very good initiative that somebody will set out to fish out such people and recognise them for what they are doing. When you talk about silent heroes, it does not necessarily mean that someone has saved the whole world from catastrophe, nor that they have split the atom, there are so many little good deeds here and there that are in themselves inspiring and for which generation coming after us can learn and get inspired and also pull together to make Nigeria a great country much better than it should be, much better than it is today.

What specifically would you want the coming generations particularly doctors to learn from you and many others who were equally recognised?

The younger colleges have to take it on board that you work today for rewards tomorrow, not reward today with little or no work. The younger generations don’t want perspiration but they want success. We have to perspire, we have to work and then we get the rewards and it is more fulfilling that way. One gets the impression that our young people these days, just want immediate gratification and the shortest possible route to success even if that success is only short term, it is not sustainable, not lasting, not fulfilling not broad-based, and in terms of who will benefit from that success. You can be successful in your own right but how many people are benefiting from that success of yours? These are some of the things that the young people of today would want to take on board and if everybody does that we would have that momentum that gives us a quantum leap forward. In Nigeria today, we are so far behind where we should be, that we need leaps and bounds. We don’t want incremental movement- small, small, we want to be jumping and flying to take us to where we really should be.

What in your opinion inspired the organisers to look your direction?

Where do we start, I can say, from the law side of things, my area of interest is health law and I introduced the teaching of medical law into the undergraduate medical curriculum in Nigeria for the first time. We are probably the only medical school in Nigeria that has formal lectures in medical law for its undergraduate medical students and that is important because you cannot practice medicine to the required standard, a global standard that ensures patients safety, if you are not aware of the legal framework that circumscribes your practice. So, understanding the laws relating to health matters is important to our doctors. So, we introduce that to the training of our medical students here. First ever, and then, health law itself is not a specialty that is present in Nigerian academia. Again, I introduced a master’s degree in health law and policy and our first set of students graduated with a master’s, we have a second set of students and a mere fact that the former Governor of Delta State is one of my students in the health law class shows the level to which people have recognized that this is important and want to do it. So, we have also had other successes in academics in the medical sector but let us just pack that to one side and talk about engagement with youths. Back home in Asaba, I have involved the youths in several projects and programme, things as having an annual spelling competition, essay writing competition, and debates. We do it in conjunction with one other academy, we do it every year and the next one comes up in September. We have also done skill acquisition called care, education, and skills for young adolescents where we teach them soft skills. You can learn to be a mechanic, cook, or fashion designer. There are some other soft skills like anger management, time management conflict resolution, planning strategy for interviews, and how to write essays. We teach them all those things. We have also had COVID-19 conversations where we link with the public on how to manage COVID-19 and things like that. We have also had a programme where we give a small amount of money to young people to start up their businesses. Somebody is a barber and he does not have a sterilizing machine, you give him money to buy such equipment. We do that under the Ubili endowment.

What is your assessment of the state of the health care system in Nigeria today?

The state of the health care system in Nigeria today is well below what we expect it to be. When Prof Olikoye Ransome-Kuti was the Minister of Health, we had great expectations. Things were beginning to pick up, structures were being put in place and we thought that this was the dawn of a new era. Things would shoot from their upward but when he left, things fizzled out, and as it is now we are struggling to catch up. By any indices you choose to apply, we are not doing well. If you are looking for an example of how much money is dedicated to the health sector, it does not meet the level that was prescribed in the so-called Abuja declaration where African Heads of State said that there will be a minimum or an average of 15 per cent of the budget for health. We have been well below that over the years and we need to up that a little bit. So, we need the right structures in place, we need the right governance of our health sector. Despite having a health summit, things have not quite fallen in place, and let us be realistic, we depend a lot on donor funding for our health sector and that should be an embarrassment to us. There are advantages to donor funding no doubt but there are also disadvantages, you must follow the agenda of the donors. You don’t know the amount that would be coming tomorrow or the years to come. You cannot plan on that basis, there is a lot to do in the health sector.