“Supreme leader, our healthcare is dying”. The activist said in a voice coated in defeat.

“Have you seen the state hospitals? They belong 30years ago but today, they are worse than funeral homes.”

The supreme leader in his usual boisterous self, seemed exasperated by this activist who kept coming to him every year requesting funding for the country’s health sector.

“Mr activist, I have told you, the states speak for themselves. I speak to federal infrastructure and resources.”

“But sir, even the federal infrastructure are… The states are lazy. They keep taking federal funding and throwing state parties with them. The people are worse off today than they were 10years ago even though the federal budget has keeps going higher.”

“You complain too much o, Mr activist. You said there are no beds. We commissioned 1000 hospital beds last year to be distributed to all teaching hospitals across the country. Did you not see the fanfare? It made front page in all major newspapers in this country. Our friends even put up congratulatory ads in those papers to us. I saw each and everyone of them.”

“What am I saying?”, the supreme leader asked no one in particular. He continued.

“Before you say those ones are political minions and they would put anything in the papers so long as they got contracts from us. What about the market women?”

“What about them?”, the activist asked.

“The market women kept dancing our names all the way from the airport to the square. They even had aso-ebi to commemmorate the event. We are working, my friend, we are. Those women agree too.”

“We even recieved Leader of the Year Award from that prestiguous TV station. They recognise our efforts. But you, always complaining!”

“Sir, if the hospitals are good enough, how come you and your political friends never use them?”

“Mr activist, you see, that’s what you don’t understand. The best hospitals are here in Nigeria for the masses to use. We the political class fly abroad for less effective medical treatments. That’s why we go so often. I mean if their treatments were efficient, why do we keep going back month after month? We are the ones who are suffering, not the masses”.

The activist attempted to say something but he couldn’t. He was flushed with anger. Anger at the country’s leadership and its indignation. Anger at his own helplessness. His mouth opened and closed intermittently like fish gasping for water.

Mr Activist, you are too dramatic. Do you know how much we budget for healthcare every year? The budget is so huge that we politicians have to fly to the UK and the US everytime because we cannot afford the healthcare in this country. All so that you and the masses you keep fighting for can get the best care here.

In his last attempt to make a case for the people, the activist said.

“Sir, hazard allowance for medical personnel is 5,000 Naira. That is less than $14. This is the 21st century, that amount cannot even fuel a car for a week. How do you expect our doctors to put their lives on the line for less than $14? Your boys get more than that in a day and it’s ridiculous. Preprostrous, even.

Our healthcare needs help sir!”

“You and this your grammar sha. Okay, we will set up a committee to look into it. We will take the recommendations and ask our ministers to advise us.”

The Activist’s face fell. He had been fighting for Nigerian hospitals for years. Party after Party, leader after leader, they were all the same. Hospitals in the country remain a death trap even when the government swore that they were spending billions on the country’s health sector. Billions that looked to be going more into their own state-paid treatments outside the shores of the country. It was a sad situation and the activist was running out of steam.

Until that afternoon…

The headlines caught his eyes. “Presidential Chief of Staff Tests Positive…”

He didn’t know whether to jump for joy or sit in silence or cry in thanks. The implication of the news hit him.

Countries have closed their borders. Which means very restricted movement in and out. Of goods and people. Only movement deemed essential to the general public is allowed i.e. food and medical supplies only.

All in a bid to stop the virus.

Which also means that the Nigerian political class have been shut out of their regular hospitals abroad.

And now, someone in the top echelon of government has tested positive.

Someone with access to the very corridors of power.

Someone who attended rallies and banquet dinners and lunches and prayers and government celebrations just days before testing positive.

Someone who led and shook hands with state governors and government representatives at various state functions.

That someone has now been tested positive.

And now, that someone will be forced to use the “best medical care” they’ve promised and delivered to Nigerians over the last 30years.

Because of that someone, everyone at the top is now afraid. Some of them probably now carry the Virus too. They can no longer run away.

Nowhere in his wildest dreams would he have imagined a story as this. He would never have imagined that countries will shutdown their borders to prevent the onslaught of a deadly virus, leaving politicians who left millions of Nigerian masses to a flailing healthcare sector stuck with using that same healthcare sector.

And the virus has only just begun. Who knows who the next victim will be? Everyone is here. No one can run.

****

 

If you’ve enjoyed this story, please support the blog!