Nigeria Health Watch: At Christmas we are "Only As Strong As Our Weakest Point"

Nigeria Health Watch: At Christmas we are "Only As Strong As Our Weakest Point"

Partnership and Collaboration for a Successful Nigerian Health Programme

On Saturday, 6 September, 2010, I was privileged to attend Nigeria Health 2010 (www.nigeriahealth.org) convened by the Nigeria Public Health Foundation (www.nphf.org). My good friend and TEDxEuston (www.tedxeuston.com) and Project Hope (www.fgce-hope.com) colleague, Chikwe Ihekweazu, had asked me to join him and our other colleague, Ike Anya despite the fact that I am no medical professional. Coming from a family with a good number of doctors and nurses, I was acutely aware of how a day spent with doctors can easily become an exercise in will power for the uninitiated, so I approached the day with cautious optimism. I have believed for a long time that Nigerian doctors often do not take a holistic approach to solving our healthcare problems. There tends to be a master/servant attitude from the doyens of the profession to other contributing professionals.

So I was immediately pleasantly surprised to find a conference that was highlighting collaboration and partnership as the way forward. Throughout the day this theme was born out in many of the excellent presentations from a vibrant group of speakers.

The work of the leadership at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (www.nphcda.gov.ng) was particularly notable, demonstrating what is achievable when you have leadership that is focused and inspired. Our remarkable progress in the fight against Polio (http://one.org/blog/2010/07/14/progress-on-polio-in-nigeria/) is worthy of all the accolades possible.

In achieving this feat, the team sought to think outside of the box, involving local expertise and knowledge like traditional, religious and political leaders in the task of education and mobilisation to great effect. The key here is the partnership and collaboration. It works every time. Remember I said I was no professional? True but in 2010, you need people in my profession too – Information Technology. And it was notable that at the NPCDA, they have already trialled Video Conference solutions for delivering training remotely. At the end of her presentation, Dr. Ugo Okoli, who is currently the Project Adviser/National Programme Consultant to the Midwives Services Scheme of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, concluded by calling for help and support from other professionals to help the agency consolidate on the progress it was making within the agency.

Other speakers carried this theme through. Professor Gyoh delivered the keynote address and called for us all, Naija people, to put pressure on Politicians to put health at the top of their priorities as an unhealthy nation will never make it to the Promised Land.

Dr. Agomoh, Medical Director, Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital Enugu Nigeria, shared the result of excellent collaboration demonstrated in the execution of the Amaudo Community Nurse led mental health initiative which has been running successfully for 20 years.

The effervescent, Gloria Urhoma, Maternity Public Health Development Lead at North West London Hospital NHS Trust, made a strong case for patient empowerment as a key to driving improvement in Nigerian healthcare standards. Gloria won the Mary Seacole Award in 2008 – a Department of Health and NHS Employers award that provides opportunities for nurses, midwives or health visitors in England in leadership positions to undertake a project, or other educational/developmental activity, to enhance patient/client-focused care. We can certainly copy this!

There was so much to admire at this well attended conference and it really is a call for professionals in other fields to look to the medical field in Nigeria and bring innovative ways to support the gallant efforts of organisations like the NPHCDA towards improving our primary care.

All in all, I got to spend a day with friends and hear from the good people that clearly care about the health of the ordinary Nigerian and came away feeling inspired to support any effort in this direction. So how about we start with steering our politicians away from discussions on zoning to health in the coming months before the general elections.

The Premier of Burning Hearts (A True Story)

So it was that Enugu Old Skool got together for a family picnic and guess who dropped by? Prince Okoye, a true Enugu boy. In our discussions, he revealed that the premier of his movie, Burning Hearts (A True Story), was coming up. I was immediately intrigued for two reasons.

1. Prince is senior brother to Nicky Okoye who Og and I played a lot with when we were young and back then we looked up to him as a senior boy. And many years later I get the chance to entertain him in my home only to find out that he is now directing movies.

2. A True Story caught my eye as I believe we need our creative giants in Nigeria to start to use true stories to highlight the plight of our society.

So I am really looking forward to this premier with excitement at the prospect of seeing a movie co-filmed in my two home cities - Enugu and London.

The preview for the movie is available below:

The Real Housing Needs

As we Nigerians continue to work to reclaim and rebuild Nigeria, I had the chance a few days ago to talk to my mother about life as a widower in 1979. 7 July is always a difficult day for us in my family as that was the day in 1979 that my dad died leaving behind a Matron at UNTH, a ten year old son as well as nine and seven year old daughters.

At the time we were in rented accommodation in Uwani, Enugu and my mum was able to purchase our family home from the government housing scheme in Trans-Ekulu. The scheme was such that the government built the estate with all the basic infrastructure and developed the properties up to the ground floor with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom suite, a living room, a dining room and a kitchen. The property and approved plan was then sold to people for what must have been cost price or perhaps even a subsidised cost (N27,000).

Those like my mum who were able to buy one, then finished the houses at whatever pace their finances could afford without the financial pressure of buying a fully completed house. Both the cost and administration of the scheme were perfect for the needs of most middle class and working class families.

It was not too long after that the Federal government followed suit with a low cost housing project much like the one (built under the Jim Nwobodo-led Anambra State government) we moved in to. Again, thousands of families in this process got a roof over their heads.

I fast forward today and wonder when we had a project such as this since back then. I cannot find any attempt by the Ministry of Housing to alleviate the dire needs of ordinary Nigerians with such simple and obvious solutions. Homes are touted in the region of N40 million naira because they are strictly commercial ventures. Simply put, no matron can afford any such home unless he or she is signing government cheques.

Interestingly I understand that Governor Fashola (Again!) is leading the way on this with several housing projects planned or under way - Egan-Igando Housing Scheme is an example and I found this from the Lagos State University:

http://www.lasunigeria.org/bulletinaug30.html

More grease to Fashola and his team and I pray that other governors see the light. Apologies to those that may well be doing the same that I have missed.

Land that belongs to the people are sold to the highest bidder but what arrangements are made for the low income earners? If we are to reclaim Nigeria, we must strive for a better equitable society such that every layer of society can dream achievable dreams without resorting to crime. A home is the most basic of needs and we need to drive more low cost homes to put a roof over our people.

There are lots of low cost housing templates all over the world - we do not need to invent one. The will just needs to be there to provide shelter for Nigerians. So top of my wish list for 2011 is a leader who will drive the development of low cost housing for Nigerians.

The FB front runners. A sideways look at the 2011 general elections in Nigeria

Part of reclaiming our nation is to analyse those that seek to lead Nigeria in the general election less than a year away. This time we are looking at FB popularity by fan size. The President, Goodluck Jonathan outstrips everyone and this is understandable as he is the most active and holds the highest post in the country. With 140,176 fans when we checked, he leaves his nearest challenger, Governor Fashola of Lagos State in his wake. Fashola's second place is well deserved as he can easily claim to be the highest performer amongst all the governors.

The real battle ground for the hearts of Nigerians is in the middle ground where the trio of Pat Utomi, Nasir El Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu fight to capture the hearts of Nigeria's estimated 1.7 million FB users. Pat leads the way probably for having the vision to engage Nigerians on FB at a time the others were still too busy with EFCC and FCT work to see the benefits. But his popularity is remarkable too as he, unlike the others, has not served in government at the level they have. All three though have been youth activists and have a lot to offer.

The real shocker are the relatively poor showings of Donald Duke and Sullivan Chime who have 11,424 and 1179 Nigerians following them. In Sullivan's case, his annual updates mean there is little to encourage you to keep an eye on his page but Duke is very active on FB and Twitter.

Altogether though, this new era of Nigerian politics is fun and long may it continue.

The Figures:

Goodluck Jonathan - 140,176 fans

FB Page: http://www.facebook.com/jonathangoodluck?ref=ts

Twitter: http://twitter.com/JGoodlucktweets - 144 Followers


Babatunde Fashola - 60,211 fans

FB Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/BABATUNDE-RAJI-FASHOLA/32609636260?ref=ts

Twitter: http://twitter.com/tundefashola - 303 followers

Pat Utomi - 45,818 fans

FB Page: http://www.facebook.com/Utomi?ref=ts

Twitter: http://twitter.com/utomi2011

Nasir El Rufai - 38,617 fans

FB Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nasir-El-Rufai/393816480127?ref=ts

Twitter: http://twitter.com/elrufai - 955 followers

Nuhu Ribadu - 28,578 fans

FB Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nuhu-Ribadu/37035137872?ref=ts

Twitter: http://twitter.com/NuhuRibadu - 1,431 followers

Donald Duke - 11,424 fans

FB Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Donald-Damien-Duke/18568433589?ref=ts

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Donald_Duke - 2,540 followers


Sullivan I Chime - 1,179 fans

FB Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/SullivanIChime-Governor-Enugu-State-of-Nigeria/66482083614?ref=ts

Twitter: None

Winds of Change

I have been labelled a sycophant in the last week by a childhood friend who I love very much. Why? Because I can barely conceal my excitement since Nigeria's President, Dr. Goodluck Ebere Jonathan (GEJ) announced and subsequently fulfilled his promise to create a page on FB and personally manage it. My excitement may well have something to do with my enjoyment of the internet and all its possibilities. Maybe, years of working in the IT industry is wholly responsible.

After giving it some thought, I have finally put my finger on the source of my excitement. It is simply this; I remember the many conversations I had with my peers at secondary school, university, youth service and for the first few years of my working life in Nigeria. We had so many ideas and aspirations and amongst all of this was a good dose of enthusiasm. Alas, we were mostly having those under the sad watch of the military leaders. Theirs is a tale of nothing but shame as they ruled Nigeria for 16 years and destroyed everything I grew up with.

At the point they bowed out as most useless leaders do, in diabolical circumstances, i had returned to Nigeria and watched as civilians regained control of the country (albeit under the watch of a former general in Obasanjo). There was hope.

What we have witnessed so far since has simply been an extension of the military rule under civilian cover. The particular distinction has always, for me, been about communication. You cannot claim to be a democratic nation whilst a few people do whatever they like at the top regardless of the will of the people. The difficulty has always been how to accurately present the will of the people. In the West, opinion polls drive everything.

So my real excitement is that in making this single act of creating a prescence on FB, GEJ is saying that he is happy for opinions on the page to be held valid by him and us as the opinion and wishes of Nigerians. So far the page membership is growing at over 1000 Nigerians a day.

This is a good thing. Now if a Nigerian has an opinion, he can share it on a page officially created by the President of Nigeria.