Seasonal rains have sent water flowing over riverbanks again in Nigeria, picture from Lagos suburbs. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)
I wonder why their demeanor does not correlate well with the hopelessness of their situation. Not only is their house flooded, the whole neighbor is under water, from the rains. Is this a form of adaptation to hard life?
This is what I see: Continue reading…
The construct of the Nigerian nation is complex, multifaceted, and demands a sound political and executive management that is contrary that what is being operated today. Continue reading…
The problems in the Nigerian health sector are in most part driven by the combination of limited funding, poor oversight and lack of innovation. In my opinion, the limitations and barriers seen in the health sector can be tackled by innovative leadership much more than increase in funding.
For instance, there are creative ways access to clean water can be improved beyond just drilling boreholes. Would it help if village health centers, market squares also provide people with clean water? Continue reading…
There are quite a good number of people and organizations that send surplus medical supplies to Nigeria. Often times, these supplies are not usable in the intended destinations. The reasons are varied, ranging from damage, to lack of consumables, and inadequate electricity supply.
There are ways to make medical donations work, if the procurement process is done right. Tina Rosenberg shares some insight, via NYT:Making Medical Donations Work.
When Bayo Ohu a News Editor with Nigerian Guardian newspaper was shot by assassins last month, he was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment. But the medical team there wouldn’t touch him until a police report is produced. The journalist later died from complications of gunshot wounds (GSW) while a report was being processed.
It is unfortunate that it would take the assassination of a high profile journalist and media outcry to drive the authorities (the police and legislators) into action and compel medical facilities to treat victims of gunshot wounds without police reports.
The media attention generated by Bayo Ohu’s death is a needed energizer, no doubt, however, it also revealed a remarkable level of ignorance of what is really needed. Focusing just on the unwillingness of hospitals and doctors to receive and treat GSW without a covering police report is to focus on a tiny piece of the problem. Of the multitude of commentaries on Bayo Ohu death, I doubt if any mentioned the need for a proper emergency trauma care system in Nigeria; the major fragment of the problem.
Data collected from a multisite survey conducted in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and six states, namely, Lagos, Anambra, Rivers, Borno, Plateau, and Kaduna found that motorcycle crashes accounted for majority (54%) of all road traffic injuries in Nigeria, according to data published in the Injury Prevention Journal.
Simple extrapolations from the survey highlight road traffic injury is a neglected public health problem in Nigeria: “Over 4 million people may be injured and as many as 200,000 potentially killed as the result of road traffic crashes annually in Nigeria“.
Title: The burden of road traffic injuries in Nigeria: results of a population-based survey
M Labinjo1, C Juillard2,3, O C Kobusingye
1 World Health Organization, Abuja, Nigeria
2 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
3 UCLA Department of Surgery, Los Angeles, California, USA
4 World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Congo
5 International Injury Research Unit, Department of International Health, and Center for Injury Research and Policy, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Anti-shock garments saves lives…I wonder how many hospitals have this simple strap on device?
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