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Saturday 22 February 2014

A Country Not Worth Dying In? By Ebenezer Obadare


Take a look at the table below. It’s a simple five-cell affair with the names of twenty-five recently deceased Nigerians drawn randomly from various walks of life, including ages at time of passing, countries where each death took place, the causes of death (where available), and the year of transition.
The names are presented in a simple alphabetical order, with no distinction between those who lived or had a home abroad, and those who traveled expressly to secure medical care. However, as far as I can tell, only two, possibly three, of the 25 people on my list belonged in the former category.


What is at issue for me – and something I propose to think with in this brief piece – is the information in the third cell: where the deceased were at the time of death. The most interesting observation is that none of the 25 individuals listed here died in Nigeria or in a Nigerian hospital. Eleven died in the United States; 10 in the United Kingdom; 2 in India, and 1 each in Spain and South Africa. What is the import of this pattern, and what does it tell us about life as it is lived in contemporary Nigeria?
What, precisely, is the sociological narrative here, and what are the socio-economic, cultural and political forces driving the trend?
Let’s start with the most obvious take-away, which is that the two countries at the top of the list- the United States and the United Kingdom respectively- are also the same two countries that many young Nigerians are, literally, dying to enter in order to remake their lives.
As Yemisi Ogbe notes in a recent essay, “Birthing the American,” about a related phenomenon, for majority of the younger generation, “American was the most desirable thing to be, British was second best, and Nigerian completely unpalatable.” This is the underlying explanation for the craze among the Nigerian family of means for dispatching their pregnant women to clinics and hospitals in those favored countries at the first signs of labor. Made in Nigeria. Hatched in Arkansas. Those who cannot afford the cost of travel and associated logistics to their preferred choices ‘make do’ with South Africa (whose presence in the table is more than symbolic) and, increasingly, India.
The result of this unfettered appetite for all things ‘Abroad’ by the rump of the Nigerian middle class is an active apathy towards, and continued social disinvestment in public health in particular, and public welfare in general.
The totally predictable outcome of this- hospitals that, to varying degrees, lack the capacity to diagnose simple ailments, regularly misdiagnose, lack qualified medical personnel, and are poorly funded and riddled by corruption – is the fundamental reason why, and as attested to by the table – it has become rare for any Nigerian of some means to either seek medical attention in, or die in Nigeria, let alone a Nigerian hospital.
Unless of course such people happened to be involved in a fatal air or road crash or fell to the bullets of hired assassins. This fact is even more astonishing when we realize that the list does not include the hundreds of individuals who, in quiet desperation, seek medical help outside the country, only to be sent back home to die; either because they could not afford the cost of continuous treatment in foreign hospitals, or because their diagnoses came too late in the day to make any impact on their ailments.
Nor does it include the members of what I call the Sunset Class (mainly retirees and others) who greatly desire to return to the country, but are forced to stay because separation from some vital prescription or recurrent treatment is certain death. If you are a Nigerian reading this, you are bound to recall someone from your immediate social proximity- a relative, an uncle, a sibling, a parent- who belongs to either category.
An additional observation here is the prevalence of various forms of cancer (11 out of the 25 cases here) as the proximate cause of death. This brings up some critical questions: do our hospitals have the necessary equipment for early detection of cancer? Do they have the capacity to treat it? How many of the 11 cancer-related deaths here could have been avoided if our hospitals had the necessary capacity? I admit cancer may not be the best example.
After all, nearly half of total American deaths are caused by cancer, and many do not approach the ages of some of the people on my list. Yet, although cancer is still, relatively speaking, a medical black box, the prognosis for cancer patients is much better in the West. By contrast, thousands of Nigerians die of completely curable conditions, most dying too young to ever achieve the kind of fame or notoriety to which all the individuals on my list had a decent claim.
In all of this, one thing at least is clear: what we are witnessing is the tragic manifestation of decades of neglect of our health sector; and given that there is as yet scanty evidence that those currently in the saddle recognize the severity of the crisis, the reality is that things will only get worse in the foreseeable future.
NO
NAME OF DECEASED
AGE
COUNTRY WHERE DEATH TOOK PLACE
CAUSE/
YEAR OF DEATH
1
Mrs. Remi Abiola, Nollywood actor
NA
USA
Lung cancer; 2009
2
Professor Chinua Achebe, writer/academic
82
USA
Brief illness; 2013
3
Chief Sunday Afolabi, former Internal Affairs Minister
73
UNITED KINGDOM
Cancer; 2004
4
Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe former Vice-President
68
USA
Cancer; 2013
5
Mrs. Alaere Augustina Timi Alaibe, wife of former NDDC boss and presidential adviser
45
UNITED KINGDOM
Cancer; 2009
6
Professor Sam Aluko, scholar
83
UNITED KINGDOM
Old age; 2012
7
Chief Oluwole Awolowo, publisher, Tribune titles
70
UNITED KINGDOM
Complications from 2006 car crash; 2013
8
Mrs. Maryam Babangida, wife of former military despot Ibrahim Babangida
61
USA
Ovarian cancer; 2009
9
Sikiru Ayinde “Barrister,” Fuji music pioneer
62
UNITED KINGDOM
Heart condition/diabetes; 2010
10
Mr. Yinka Craig, broadcaster
60
USA
Blood cancer; 2008
11
Dr. Wahab Dosumu, Second Republic Minister; NADECO chieftain
74
USA
Brief illness; 2013
12
Justice Kayode Esho, legal icon
87
UNITED KINGDOM
Old age; 2012
13
Dr. Victor Olubi Fatunla, Former Director of Medical Services, Nigerian Baptist Convention
81
SOUTH AFRICA
Old age; 2013
14
Mrs. Bimpe Fayose-Sorinolu, sister of former Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayo Fayose.
NA
UNITED KINGDOM
Cancer; 2013
15
Chief Gani Fawehinmi, lawyer and social critic
71
UNITED KINGDOM
Lung cancer; 2009
16
Chief Hope Harriman, chartered surveyor and Second Republic politician
79
USA
Brief illness; 2012
17
Chief Solomon Lar, Second Republic Governor
80
USA
Old age related ailment
18
Dr. Matthew Mbu, First Republic Minister
82
UNITED KINGDOM
Old age; 2012
19
Mrs. Stella Obasanjo, wife of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
60
SPAIN
Complications from cosmetic surgery; 2005
20
Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, statesman, leader of defunct Republic of Biafra
78
UNITED KINGDOM
Protracted Illness/Stroke; 2011
21
Mrs. Roseline Ogbemudia, wife of the eldest son of Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia
48
INDIA
Breast cancer; 2013
22
Chief Sonny Okosun, musician
61
USA
Colon cancer; 2008
23
Apostle Timothy Oluwole Obadare
85
USA
Old age;2013
24
Angela Onyeador-Mayson, Lagos socialite and businesswoman
NA
USA
Protracted illness (Cancer?); 2012
25
Barrister Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, First Republic Speaker of House of representatives
76
INDIA
NA; 2011
Published by Premium. Times
*Professor Obadare teaches sociology at the University of Kansas, in the United States.

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