Nigeria: Poverty, Still a Major Malady

from All Africa

Adeze Ojukwu
Lagos

FOR some reasons, I love writing about poverty and the over arching primacy to destroy this Frankenstein monster.

You may wish to recall that last week's edition of Health This Week dwelt largely on poverty and its negative and huge impact on health of Nigerians hence any comprehensive plan to improve health services in the country without poverty reduction programmes would amount to a 'mild goose chase.

Speaking recently in Lagos on breaking the vicious circle of poverty and disease, health minister, Prof. Eyitayo Lambo said, "there has been a growing proportion of the pool of poor people in Nigeria and corresponding, the health status of Nigerians had worsened, adding, "it is clear that the determinants of poverty are largely the same as those of health."

Lambo spoke at the 7th Ajasin Foundation Lecture held in Lagos last November. He continued: "Although we lack accurate data concerning the level of poverty in our community as well as about the health status of our people, some other evidences clearly portray the facts that a high proportion of our people live in poverty and are a low health status.

Many people may have roofs over their heads but they do not live in the kind of accommodation that they themselves consider to be adequately comfortable. Many parents have bright children but they cannot afford to send them to secondary school, talk less of sending them to universities.

Many people cannot afford to eat more than one full meal a day. Many people cannot boast of having more than two sets of decent cloths and pair of shoes to wear.

Many people cannot boast of having more than N500 kept somewhere in the house in case of an emergency. Many people who are farmers barely have enough land to cultivate to feed the members of their families and even when some have adequate land, they cannot engage extra hands to help them on their farms.

Many people have limited access to education, health, sanitation and water services. Many people trek to all places they have to go inside and outside their domain not by choice or preference but because they cannot afford to pay the transport fare.

Many people are sick but they cannot afford to even go and see the staff in the health facility. All these are evidences of poverty at our local level," Lambo stressed.

Said he "Many people are down on their beds with one disease or the other almost on daily basis. Many of our new babies die at birth or before they reach age one and we lose many more before they reach age five. Many pregnant women still die while carrying their pregnancies, during child delivery or after child child delivery. More young people are dying than the old ones. Malnutrition still continues to be a problem for a large number of our people, particularly children ands women. We have many people around with symptoms of HIV/AIDS and more people are dying of other diseases like cancer and diabetes just as we have very many dying from communicable diseases. The health facilities around provide substandard services and therefore, the faithful patronizing of them has not reduces the incidence of mortality and morbidity. All these are the results of and or contributions to poor health status.

According to him, poverty is a disease that saps people's energy, dehumanizes them and creates a sense of helplessness and loss of control over one's life. The poor share an unequal burden of disease.

Emeritus professor of medicine, University of Ibadan O.O. Akinkugbe speaking on "confronting poverty and disease: Nigeria's Unholy Alliance at the occasion, said poverty/ health problems on the table in most of the developing world have to do with socio- cultural issues, the fragile nature of our social and health infrastructures the absence of an enabling political and policy environment and severely limited resource.

The data is as presented by the Professor is frightening:

*One in five children in Nigeria dies before the age of five.

* 90 per-cent of malaria deaths worldwide occur in Africa.

* In Africa, one child dies of malaria every 30 seconds.

* Nigeria's ranks fourth among world's 22 highest Tuberculosis (TB)- burden countries.

Akinkugbe said, it was this kind of dismal statistics that prompted the United Nations (UN) to convene the 2000 conference crystalling into the communiqué which formed the basis of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS).

It is not surprising that tackling global poverty and hunger tops the eight point agenda geared to boost development world wide.

"In spite of remarkable efforts of the present administration to reposition, restructure, reform and renew, we are still far behind. Unlike Indonesia, which according to him started in much the same way as we did.

"The present government appears to be rearranging these priorities to diversify but the time lag between polices and outcome is such that salutary economic consequences may not become obvious until many years from now.

With the 2015 target for MDGS, the nation's policy makers and authorities must confront widespread poverty and disease headlong.