Covid-19: The Health Minister Is Not Also Aware -By Efe Agabi

The oblivion of the SFG when he affirmed he is not aware that health care system is in deplorable state is understandable, the crème in the highest echelon of government do not seek medication in Nigeria. He said “I was not aware that the health care infrastructure is in such a deplorable state until I was made chairman of the Presidential Task force for Covid-19”. Whether he is sincere or insincere is immaterial, what is important is that the statement is not coming from the main opposition’s ceaseless press statements, a civil society organisation or any of the reputable international organizations whose reports have been binned lately for lacking objectivity. What prompted the SGF to utter what would have been described by the propaganda outfits as hate speech is difficult to decipher, but for the first time, we are beginning to see a silver lining in the dark cloud enveloping the proclaimed giant of Africa.

What is more shocking, and regrettable, is the oblivion of the minister for health during the interface between the Covid-19 task force and the National Assembly. The question asked by the cerebral speaker of the HoR as to whether health workers are paid hazard allowance evoked what could be best described as a comic response. If it is not a joke, it is obviously a self indictment and a confirmation that there is a lacuna between public servants and the institutions under their purview. In a bid to trivialize the life threatening efforts of health workers in the fight against Covid-19, the health minister said “what they do is temperature screening, it is what they do daily”. Dissatisfied with the response, the speaker probed further, and the minister didn’t disappoint the wailers, he said “Hon, I am not aware if they are paid hazard allowance”. In climes where premium is placed on the lives of the citizenry, and where the welfare of health practitioners is prioritized, the Minister would be forced to resign or issue a public apology, but this is Nigeria, where public servants are not subjected to disciplinary actions, willful negligence is the hallmark of our mode of operation and it is just okay.

In South Africa, the minister of communication that had lunch with a friend, and flouted the social distancing policy was mandated to proceed on a compulsory leave, but the urgency and the seriousness needed to tackle the pandemic, which was described by the President as a matter of life and death is obviously treated with levity.

The implication of the posturing of the health minister is that health workers would be de-motivated, less committed and less patriotic in the fight against the ravaging virus, and the consequences of such cannot be fully quantified. The NMA can draw succor from the rejuvenated NASS that have demonstrated that productive legislation is critical to national development, against the prediction of naysayers and prophets of doom, that predicted the National assembly would become a rubber stamp, the Ninth Assembly under the leadership of the dovelike Dr. Ahmed Lawan and the charismatic Femi Gbajabiamila is walking the talk, having been accused of populism and cheap politics by the media aide of the President for calling on the President to address Nigerians on Covid-19, they are currently insisting on transparency, accountability and equity in the distribution of Cobid-19 palliatives to Nigerians, a move that has again pitted the NASS in a war of words with the strong women in government. With over 100 billion purportedly distributed, and protests across the country on lack of evidence on the ground to show such monies have been disseminated. The NASS have joined us in the trenches to ask the needed questions that bothers on the criteria employed to identify the vulnerable, the methods employed to generate the social register and the channels utilsed to ensure the palliatives are channeled to the doorsteps of the vulnerable. Until these questions are answered satisfactorily, Nigerians will use available channels to inform public servants that are “not aware” that there is hunger in the land, and the hunger is equally as vicious as covid-19