Revisiting Nigerian Health Indicators: Lessons Learnt from the Swedish Example

I am in Lagos at the moment. I traveled by road from Jos-a 12-hour journey. It was quite exhausting but it allowed me some time off my daily routine. I am not here entirely on vacation. My place of work cannot afford for me to do that. To the contrary, I am here to attend a workshop on reproductive health organized by the Faculty of Family Medicine of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria. It has been quite revealing, quite riveting!
We discussed several issues that bordered on the ways and means by which we can reduce maternal mortality and morbidity. Chairmen of Local Government Councils, officials of the Faculty of Family Medicine, among others, were present. Renowned, experienced university professors from Nigeria’s premier university were some of the facilitators. The workshop was participatory in approach. Issues such as the following were appraised:
Community obstetrics-its relevance in reducing maternal mortality in poorly urbanized settings,
Maternal mortality-its cause, effects and needed intervention,
High risk pregnancy
Puerperal sepsis
Breastfeeding
HIV issues in pregnancy
Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy
Contraception
During one of the sessions, one of the facilitators decried the state of medical record keeping in Nigeria as we could not agree on what the maternal mortality in Nigeria is.
The workshop, for me, has re-echoed the intrigue I wrote about in my last post (see below). By the way, I kept on coming back to that post to compare those figures. I am still amazed by the fact that Sweden, with a population of about 9 million people, spends more than 50 times what Nigeria spends on the health of about 130 million people. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that Sweden’s Total Health Expenditure as % of GDP is twice that of Nigeria. Here lies the difference-responsible governance. And the rest of the Swedish data speak for themselves.
Some may consider it cruel to compare Nigeria with Sweden. But there is no wisdom in doing otherwise. I would rather compare myself with those who are better than me. After all, Nigeria’s Fitch Rating is now BB minus, comparable to some countries that are doing well. The fact that Nigeria is rich in resources, the fact that Nigeria has paid off its debts to her creditors, the fact that Nigerians have got the resolve, among other things, is enough impetus. Jeffery Sachs, the acclaimed global economist and advisor to the United Nations’ Secretary-General is strongly of the opinion that resource-challenged countries have the capacity to initiate the process of change successfully even before the often needed support comes from donor countries. While canvassing for prudence and responsible governance by resource-limited communities, he encourages “big” countries to quickly help so as to achieve the MDGs as scheduled.
Developing countries should take a cue from the foregoing.