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From Uche Usim and Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, on Monday lamented that over 3,000 primary health centres scattered all over the country have been taken over by weeds, stressing that concerted efforts must be made to revive them and generally improve the health sector.
Mustapha made the disclosure in Abuja at the public presentation of a book titled A Sociology For Medical Practice written by Dr Manassah Daniel Jatau, a retired Deputy Comptroller-General of Customs in charge of the Modernisation, Research and Economic Relations Department.
The SGF, who chaired the occasion, said there was an urgent need to begin planning for the ballooning population of Nigeria, as the projections of future population figures were scary.
The SGF said: “There is a need to begin planning for the Nigerian population. The projections are scary. In the next few years Nigeria will become the third most populated nation.
“The rate at which we spend our resources going for medical tourism abroad is alarming. The thing about COVID19 is that it is a leveller. It affects everybody and nobody is safe until everybody is safe.
“So, it is in their interest that they are creating the vaccines and ensuring that everyone takes it. I am glad that we are interrogating our health system in Nigeria.
“If we take away the semblance of civil authority from the local government we will continue to see ourselves in the critical crises we face. Corruption at every level has dwarfed and thwarted every effort of growth and development of the country.
“Corruption abounds in every aspect of our lives including Churches and mosques.
“We have drifted as a people. We need a paradigm shift in our perception of corruption. It is not only when you steal money that is corruption. Abuse of power, impunity in place of work are all corruption. I believe that if we can imbibe the content of this book, we will bring some healing to this all important sector”.
Mustapha noted that he knew the author of the book from a very youthful age, adding that many issues were raised in the book with a compelling need to address them.
In his remarks, Adewale Adeniyi, an Assistant Comptroller-General of Customs hailed the author for writing the book and implored the public to explore benefits therein.
Also speaking at the event, the author, Dr Manassah Daniel Jatau
said the book was inspired by the realisation that health is too important to human beings and that leaving it to biological, chemical and pharmaceutical sciences alone will leave numerous health conditions unresolved.
“This is totally undesirable and unacceptable as we all know that when health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot
manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless and
intelligence cannot be applied; Herophilus (355-280 BC).
“Based on the above reality, there is a challenge to all of us to adhere to the socialist adage “dip your buckets” where you are, so as to contribute to the attainment of health in the society and population”, he said.
