Bayelsa State Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, has called on the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and its affiliate unions to engage the presidential candidates of major political parties in Nigeria on their respective blueprints and agenda for the health sector, ahead of the 2023 general elections.
He gave the charge while declaring open the South-South Zonal Executive Council meeting of the NMA, Monday, at the Aridolf Hotel in Yenagoa, the State capital.
In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr Doubara Atasi, the Deputy Governor urged the NMA to provide the necessary leadership to make the engagement with the presidential hopefuls a reality.
According to him, such a meeting is important and relevant as it will afford stakeholders in the health sector an opportunity to hold the new government that will emerge from the 2023 elections accountable to its promises concerning the health sector.
He said quite a good number of the presidential candidates for next year’s election had consulted with several other stakeholders.
“Some of the presidential candidates have visited the business community, farmers, journalists and Christians. Have they visited stakeholders of the health sector? Have we invited them?
“We are here talking about healthcare improvement and transition. How do we get that? A man who says he is prepared for battle but begins to shoot within his house is not prepared for the war.
“I think we are putting our priority wrong in this instance because this is a time for the NMA and all the health sector associations to put themselves together to invite all the candidates, particularly the four major ones to address us on their development agenda for health.
“The NMA should provide leadership for this to happen because, like the lecturer asserted, if we don’t make it a top priority, nobody will even make it a secondary issue in this country.
“We must begin to hold them accountable now by asking questions on what will be done so that we hold them to their promises. If we don’t do that now, I think that will be opportunity not missed but squandered”, the Deputy Governor said.
Responding to the twin issues of brain-drain and lack of manpower in the health sector raised by the keynote speaker at the event, Professor Dimie Ogoina, the Deputy Governor said the present administration in the state was doing its best to retain its personnel.
He reminded the members of the NMA that migrating from Nigeria in search of greener pastures elsewhere was not the solution to the challenges bedeviling the health sector, adding that what is required is for Nigerians to make all necessary sacrifices to fix their country by themselves.
Senator Ewhrudjakpo, who disclosed that government was working on a new state health policy through a soon-to-be passed bill on the health sector, promised the Bayelsa Chapter of the NMA that government would grant them audience to look at their demands.
Earlier in their separate remarks, the Chairman of the occasion, Professor Ebitimitula Etebu, and the State Chairman of NMA, Dr Tonbara Koroye, acknowledged the efforts of the Governor Douye Diri’s-led administration towards improving healthcare in the state and called for more support to the Association
Similarly, the National President of the NMA, Dr. Uche Rowland Ojinmah, and the South-South Zonal Chairperson, Dr. Imosili Udoka, gave a pass mark to the Bayelsa Government for its attention to the health sector of the State.
They appealed for domestication of the recent federal circular on medical doctors’ allowance.
Speaking through the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Toyin Azebi, the Commissioner for health, Dr. Pabara Newton Igwele, thanked the NMA for reaching out to victims of the just-receded flood and wished the participants fruitful deliberations that would move the Association forward.
In his keynote lecture titled, “Nigeria’s Healthcare Delivery System and the 2023 Democratic Transition: A Time To Change The Narrative”, Professor Dimie Ogoina, highlighted some of Nigeria’s health sector challenges to include corruption, brain-drain, frequent strikes, poor infrastructure and policy implementation, as well as lack of individual and institutional accountability.
Professor Ogoina, who is the Chief Medical Director of the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri, identified the election of trustworthy leaders who would show true care for the health sector by investing in both human and critical health infrastructure, in addition to strengthening effective accountability framework as some of the solutions to health problems in the country.

By: Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa