NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT PAYING LIP SERVICE TO UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE
- Onowu Igbonine foundation

The Onowu Igbonine M N Okoye Foundation has accused the Nigerian government and past governments at all levels of paying lip service to Universal Health Coverage of its citizens.

Speaking in a press release, the Executive Director of the Foundation, Mr Francis OBINNA Okoye,said that this practice needs to stop.
"How many Nigerians are covered by the Universal Health Coverage?What is the quality of the health care provided?Does the coverage take care of Nigerian herbal medicines and the so called food supplements from abroad? How many Nigerians have health insurance?"

He told a touching story."One young man came to my office today. He said he was suffering from ulcer.He had constant pains in his stomach. He also believed someone had poisoned him. He told me he went to a Chemist shop owner , who gave him herbal medicine.. The pains have even increased.How many with ulcer have tried various ulcer drugs prescribed by medical doctors,yet no relief.Someone told me the fake ones are more than the originals in Nigeria.What can you make of that?"

"Last December a woman came to visit us.She had met a chemist who gave her 18 different tablets to take at a go , to get rid of diabetes. I only recognized one of the drugs to be for high blood pressure.We spent hours talking to her to convince her not to take it.As God would have it, some medical doctors normally invite specialists once a week in my town for free consultations and drugs. That was her savior, not any government program".

Will this coverage mean stopping some Lab scientist prescribing medications for patients after lab test or even doing diagnosis?What about pharmacists prescribing drugs and doing diagnosis?What about doctors doing the work of pharmacists?Has any Medical doctor or general practitioner referred you to a specialist instead of messing up the case until it is too late?What about our leaders , starting from president Buhari who rushes abroad for Medicare ?A practice which has been a tradition since 40 years now in Nigeria.If the president doesn't have hope in our health care system, is it the villages who will trust in rural or urban government health centers or hospitals?This creates a huge loop hole were various types of medical charlatans exploit the sick and drive them to an early grave.

He called on all stake holders to come together and make Universal health coverage work in Nigeria.