Sambo Dasuki, Nigeria's former national security adviser, who was recently charged with the illegal possession of arms, and had his passport seized is set to get it back so he could purportedly seek medical treatment abroad. He was granted bail on self-recognition after he had deposited his passport with the court. As is usual with Nigeria's public figures, the ailment he will be going abroad to treat (in all probability at tax payer's expense) will remain undisclosed.
The few Nigerians who can afford it, also go abroad when they have serious medical problems. India is now a popular 'medical tourism' destination for Nigerians who can afford it. Those who cannot, die; or seek divine healing from miracle-peddling pastors and muslim clerics who claim to have supernatural healing abilities, and quack traditional medical practitioners/healers. Godswill Akpabio, immediate past governor of Akwa Ibom state, and now a senator of the federal republic, sustained minor injuries when his car was involved in a collision with another car because his driver ran a red light. He was in the UK the next day to get medical attention. This was a man who commissioned a "world class hospital" in his state mere weeks before his tenure as governor came to an end. He could not even avail himself of the facilities he had extolled.
The few Nigerians who can afford it, also go abroad when they have serious medical problems. India is now a popular 'medical tourism' destination for Nigerians who can afford it. Those who cannot, die; or seek divine healing from miracle-peddling pastors and muslim clerics who claim to have supernatural healing abilities, and quack traditional medical practitioners/healers. Godswill Akpabio, immediate past governor of Akwa Ibom state, and now a senator of the federal republic, sustained minor injuries when his car was involved in a collision with another car because his driver ran a red light. He was in the UK the next day to get medical attention. This was a man who commissioned a "world class hospital" in his state mere weeks before his tenure as governor came to an end. He could not even avail himself of the facilities he had extolled.
Mr Dasuki is part of what is wrong with Nigeria. Nigeria's political class jet out abroad at the slightest ailment for treatment. The wife of former president Olusegun Obasanjo, Stella, died on a plastic surgeon's operating table in Spain where she had gone to have a cosmetic procedure paid for with public funds. Patience Jonathan, former president Goodluck Jonathan's wife, had major abdominal surgery for an undisclosed ailment in Germany while her husband was in power. Maryam Babangida, wife of Nigeria's former military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida, died from the complications of ovarian cancer in a USA hospital in 2009. Mr Babangida was only granted a visa to be with his wife during her last days on compassionate grounds. How human he must have felt after ruling Nigeria like a god for 8 years during which he misappropriated the $12 billion gulf war oil windfall. All the monies he stole while he was head of state could not save his wife, even with the best medical care, something he had denied Nigerians when he had the opportunity to give us a world class healthcare system. Today, Nigerian medical doctors abroad far outnumber those in Nigeria, worsening a healthcare system already in dire straits.
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