The Nigerian Medical Association NMA, has called on well-meaning Nigerians to show empathy to flood victims across the country.
The National President of the Nigeria Medical Association, Dr. Uche R. Ojinmah, made the call in his address to the 2022 Physician’s Week, held in Abuja.
He also called on Governments at different levels to work together in helping victims recover quickly and urged the Federal Government to actively initiate measures to avert another flooding.
He said that the NMA in sympathy for flood victims had to shelf the all glamorous activities for its 2022 Physician’s week.
“Let me start by informing you all that NMA had to shelve this year’s Physicians’ Week National opening ceremony and razzmatazz as a result of the massive flood affecting Bayelsa and some other states of Nigeria with attendant loss of human lives and properties thereby dampening the mood of the nation. We have from our meager resources sent some relief materials to Bayelsa state which was worse hit; we also encouraged our branches in affected states to roll out medical outreach programs and sent solidarity messages to the state Governors and some dignitaries in the affected states”. Dr. Ojinmah said.
He noted that Nigeria is at a turning point and that everyone is charged to stand as compatriots to obey the call of Nigeria.
“Our beloved country is passing through difficult times but I know that if we persevere and continue being the best that we can be, there is light at the end of the tunnel”, he said.
The NMA President also said that Nigerian doctors are poorly paid, overworked, lack necessary work tools, and have become a target for kidnap.
“We as Nigerian doctors have been taken from the lofty heights of nobility to nothingness by the neglect and possible disdain for the health sector by successive governments. The penchant of State governments for seizing or slashing our salaries and paying it piecemeal at their convenience without interest has become a subject of folklore and hence cannot be allowed to continue”, he said.
At an event by the NMA FCT, the Chairman of NMA FCT, Dr. Ugochukwu Uwuanyi, said that as the 2023 general election draws nearer, there was a need to ask presidential candidates the right questions concerning their plans for the health sector.
He said that the NMA FCT is holding medical outreach to attend to indigent citizens of the Federal Capital Territory.
Dr. Igwuanyi also lamented the effects of brain drain in Nigeria.
“Currently, Nigeria has the third highest number of foreign doctors working in the UK after India and Pakistan,” he said.
The theme of this year’s Physicians’ Week is Nigeria’s Healthcare Delivery System and the 2023 Democratic Transition: A Time to Change the Narrative.
Dominica Nwabufo
