Nigeria’s economy has been officially declared insolvent by the president. With this affirmation, medical experts, especially psychiatrists say many Nigerians may likely commit suicide as a temporarily measure to escape the quagmire. ISIOMA MADIKE in this report looks at this and other consequences through the eyes of experts
Many Nigerians, according to medical experts, are apprehensive that the recent revelation by President Muhammadu Buhari that the country is broke may lead to quantum suicide among the populace. Speaking in an exclusive telephone interview with Saturday Telegraph, a consultant psychiatrist and deputy secretary, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Lagos State branch, Dr. Oluseun Peters Ogunnubi, said the frank assessment of the country’s economy is likely to lead to “anomic” suicide. According to him, the health sector before this time has been in shambles with non-functional equipment and jaundice personnel that are unmotivated. Ogunnubi said:
“Even when Nigeria was not broke, hospitals have become mere consulting rooms. There was no accessibility, availability and affordability of quality medicare for the mass majority of the people. This was what gave rise to medical tourism that is being experienced in droves. India has suddenly become the destination for quality medicare, which unfortunately, the poor majority in Nigeria could not access because of the huge financial implications.
“Now that the president has come out frankly to admit what most people already know, it would definitely lead to both active and passive suicide. Where someone is unable to pay for simple things like malaria treatment, what do you think will happen?
By mere thinking on how to get the high cost of treatment in hospitals that do not even have what it takes to treat such trivial ailments would on its own lead to death. I mean death-induced by a state of hopelessness. This is what is going to happen if urgent steps are not taking to fix the economy back to shape.”
The consultant psychiatrist did not stop there. He also said that the secondary health facilities are the ones still managing to remain afloat even as he noted that they are being overstretched at the moment. “The primary care sector, which has remained unfunded, is in coma as we speak now while the tertiary sector, that is the teaching hospitals have become mere edifices. These have led to mass exodus of quality medical personnel abroad. I’m not talking of doctors alone; but nurses and other personnel are also moving.
This is a shame for a country that should be selfsustaining in many areas, particularly in the health sector. “I foresee a situation whereby anomic suicide will overtake all known health issues currently plaguing the nation. It may be the leading death in the next six months if truth must be said. Again, more people will take to alcohol consumption, especially paraga because of depression and anxiety, which in turn will lead to more heart-related diseases.
This is my candid assessment of the situation that we found ourselves now,” Ogunnubi said. In like manner, another consultant psychiatrist at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital (LAUTECH), Osogbo, Osun State, Dr. Suleiman Babatunde, aligned with the position of Ogunnubi. He said that despite the change in government, there has not been any visible development in the lives of individuals.
Civil servants, according to him, have been at the receiving end, feeling the crunch with many not being able to meet simple family obligations. “Depression and anxiety are the major symptoms of a regress economy the world over and Nigeria, if you ask me, would not be an exception. The consequence of this will be attempted and actual suicide by many who may not be able to cope with the accompanying stress and hardship.
With the situation at hand, many would not be able to pay their bills as they should or even meet up with sundry domestic commitments. “It will also lead to unemploymenmany will lose their jobs, crime and criminality will rise, incidents of rape like we are experiencing now will continue to rise astronomically and generally, weird things will be happening with no control.
All these are suicidal. This behaviour would be as a result of frustration, which ultimately would lead many to take their lives.” However, Dr. Femi Olugbile, also a consultant psychiatrist and former Chief Medical Director (CMD) at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), chose to look at the issue differently.
He told Saturday Telegraph that the president was only talking about the drastic change and manner the scarce resources are going to be managed in the new dispensation. “It was a realistic comparison of what was and how to get out of it. I believe Mr. President was talking about the lean economy and how to efficiently manage the system to avoid total collapse.
As a medical doctor, I don’t think it will degenerate to the point where individuals would be so frustrated to consider taking their lives. To me, it’s just how the resources would be prudently deployed to the very essentials in the economy; a kind of plugging the hitherto licking areas.
That is my reading of the import of Buhari’s statement on the state of the economy,” Olugbile said. But, Dr. Olusunkanmi Isamotu, a paediatrician and immediate senior special adviser on health to the Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, differ slightly.
He told this reporter that when a country is broke it means it is no longer able to meet up with the demands of activities in most sectors of the economy as it used to before such situation occurs. “A lot of things the country was able to do based on the available income, it won’t be able to do such things any longer.
This applies directly to an individual. So, this situation would affect the life expectancy of the citizens because they would not, in a broke economy, able to do those things they had taken for granted. For instance, the health sector would suffer, in which case hospitals and the allied institutions would have difficulties in meeting up with the demands of the time.
“There would also be less money to service the available equipment or even replacing obsolete ones; drugs would become very expensive and out of the reach of the ordinary people and many would not be able to access these facilities as they should have. The resultant effect is that there would be increase in disease and deaths.”
Isamotu went further to look at the issue of food sufficiency. He noted that there may not be enough food for the required balance diet. This, according to him, would affect everybody because all need or require food to live a healthy life. “In any case, many who would be unable to access the high cost of health would in turn move to patronise quarks.
These unskilled personnel would also compound the already bad situation. “Given that the average life expectancy at the moment is about 52 years compared to the United States of America which is about 78 years, the situation would further compound this ugly scenario.
Apart from these, the education sector would suffer in that many children would not be able to go to school as their parents wouldn’t be able to meet up with the fees. “The struggle of life in this circumstance would force them into crime and criminality even as some other unwholesome ventures that may eventually cut their lives short would become attractive.
In a similar regard, it would promote unemployment as many would be thrown out of job. The resultant effect would be that they may not be able to take care of their immediate families,” he said. For Dr. Saheed Bello, family physician at LAUTECH, the country’s very bad economic state is obvious.
He believes that the economic situation has greatly affected would even affect the citizens the more in the coming months. “Many people cannot afford their bills now. In this year, we have experienced seven strikes, including doctors who had gone on strike for over four months.
As it is now, government seemed not to be concerned. And the situation affects other sectors of the economy too. We now have many beggars on the streets and at the market level, goods are out of the reach of many with little money at their disposal to spend.
“All of these would sum up to increase mortality because people can no longer afford simple things like malaria drugs. For sure, these would eventually shorten the life expectancy in the country, which in the first place, is not encouraging.” Incidentally, the experts agreed that there is a problem in Nigeria and that many, who are dying young, usually die from diseases that could have been prevented or treated if the economy is boisterous.
People’s immune systems, they chorused, are weakened by living substandard lives, in which many frequently succumb to avoidable diseases like cholera and malaria. President Buhari recent admission that the country is broke is, indeed, rattling not only to medical experts but to all Nigerians.
Buhari, who is the President of Africa’s biggest economy, confirmed many people’s fear when asked about the neglect of infrastructure. He bluntly stated that paying salaries by the federal government is so tough that not much else can be done. He mentioned that 27 of the 36 states had to be bailed out so they could pay salaries and went further to state that Nigeria was morally and economically vandalised. Watchers of the country’s economy took it from there.
They have gone on to paint a gloomy picture of the economy and how it would inadvertently affect the already depleted life expectancy of the average citizens. Compared to this time last year, a barrel of crude oil was over $100 (now less than $50), at the black market was N169 (now about N226), while inflation was about eight per cent (now 9.4 per cent).
These figures, however, have somewhat forced living standard to nosedive dramatically. The situation is remotely being linked also to the rise in many young people who have begun to have serious heart-related diseases that lead to, for instance, strokes and renal failures that have become rampant in today’s Nigeria.
Before the country’s Center for Disease Control announced that it calculated a reduction in the national life expectancy figures, the World Bank had said it was just above 51 years old, almost 20 years less than the world average. This may be why Dr. Adamu Onu, a family medical practitioner, said that the health crises across the country have poverty as the main cause.
He is of the belief that most people in Nigeria simply do not have access to healthcare because they live far away from the nearest clinic and do not have the money or the means to travel to the city to access better medical treatment. Incidentally, this correlation of income and life expectancy is often said not to affect individuals born in wealthier countries negatively.
On the average, they are expected to live longer than those born in poor countries. To these analysts, it is not the aggregate growth in income, however, that matters most, but the reduction in poverty. At present, lives in the remote areas of the country presents a horrifying picture. Infants within the age bracket of two years are generally looking malnourished. Many of them are pipe-stem thin with rather large teeth which jut from a somewhat perpetually open mouth etched on a face with skull-tight skin and buzz-cut hair.
They often grit their teeth when they talk. Their sight casts a dark shadow over a rising Nigeria, where millions of children have little to eat. If they survive, they are likely, according to experts, to grow up shorter, weaker and less smart than their better-fed peers.
However, it does appear that the country’s efforts at reducing the number of undernourished people would be largely hampered by blighting poverty where many cannot afford the amount and types of food they need. In addition, shoddy management of food stocks, over reliance of carbohydrate-rich food that fuel and fill the poor rather than truly nourish them in the country’s poorest rural settings, according to findings, would only but worsened the already bad situation..
Civil servants, according to him, have been at the receiving end, feeling the crunch with many not being able to meet simple family obligations. “Depression and anxiety are the major symptoms of a regress economy the world over and Nigeria, if you ask me, would not be an exception. The consequence of this will be attempted and actual suicide by many who may not be able to cope with the accompanying stress and hardship.
With the situation at hand, many would not be able to pay their bills as they should or even meet up with sundry domestic commitments. “It will also lead to unemploymenmany will lose their jobs, crime and criminality will rise, incidents of rape like we are experiencing now will continue to rise astronomically and generally, weird things will be happening with no control.
All these are suicidal. This behaviour would be as a result of frustration, which ultimately would lead many to take their lives.” However, Dr. Femi Olugbile, also a consultant psychiatrist and former Chief Medical Director (CMD) at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), chose to look at the issue differently.
He told Saturday Telegraph that the president was only talking about the drastic change and manner the scarce resources are going to be managed in the new dispensation. “It was a realistic comparison of what was and how to get out of it. I believe Mr. President was talking about the lean economy and how to efficiently manage the system to avoid total collapse.
As a medical doctor, I don’t think it will degenerate to the point where individuals would be so frustrated to consider taking their lives. To me, it’s just how the resources would be prudently deployed to the very essentials in the economy; a kind of plugging the hitherto licking areas.
That is my reading of the import of Buhari’s statement on the state of the economy,” Olugbile said. But, Dr. Olusunkanmi Isamotu, a paediatrician and immediate senior special adviser on health to the Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, differ slightly.
He told this reporter that when a country is broke it means it is no longer able to meet up with the demands of activities in most sectors of the economy as it used to before such situation occurs. “A lot of things the country was able to do based on the available income, it won’t be able to do such things any longer.
This applies directly to an individual. So, this situation would affect the life expectancy of the citizens because they would not, in a broke economy, able to do those things they had taken for granted. For instance, the health sector would suffer, in which case hospitals and the allied institutions would have difficulties in meeting up with the demands of the time.
“There would also be less money to service the available equipment or even replacing obsolete ones; drugs would become very expensive and out of the reach of the ordinary people and many would not be able to access these facilities as they should have. The resultant effect is that there would be increase in disease and deaths.”
Isamotu went further to look at the issue of food sufficiency. He noted that there may not be enough food for the required balance diet. This, according to him, would affect everybody because all need or require food to live a healthy life. “In any case, many who would be unable to access the high cost of health would in turn move to patronise quarks.
These unskilled personnel would also compound the already bad situation. “Given that the average life expectancy at the moment is about 52 years compared to the United States of America which is about 78 years, the situation would further compound this ugly scenario.
Apart from these, the education sector would suffer in that many children would not be able to go to school as their parents wouldn’t be able to meet up with the fees. “The struggle of life in this circumstance would force them into crime and criminality even as some other unwholesome ventures that may eventually cut their lives short would become attractive.
In a similar regard, it would promote unemployment as many would be thrown out of job. The resultant effect would be that they may not be able to take care of their immediate families,” he said. For Dr. Saheed Bello, family physician at LAUTECH, the country’s very bad economic state is obvious.
He believes that the economic situation has greatly affected would even affect the citizens the more in the coming months. “Many people cannot afford their bills now. In this year, we have experienced seven strikes, including doctors who had gone on strike for over four months.
As it is now, government seemed not to be concerned. And the situation affects other sectors of the economy too. We now have many beggars on the streets and at the market level, goods are out of the reach of many with little money at their disposal to spend.
“All of these would sum up to increase mortality because people can no longer afford simple things like malaria drugs. For sure, these would eventually shorten the life expectancy in the country, which in the first place, is not encouraging.” Incidentally, the experts agreed that there is a problem in Nigeria and that many, who are dying young, usually die from diseases that could have been prevented or treated if the economy is boisterous.
People’s immune systems, they chorused, are weakened by living substandard lives, in which many frequently succumb to avoidable diseases like cholera and malaria. President Buhari recent admission that the country is broke is, indeed, rattling not only to medical experts but to all Nigerians.
Buhari, who is the President of Africa’s biggest economy, confirmed many people’s fear when asked about the neglect of infrastructure. He bluntly stated that paying salaries by the federal government is so tough that not much else can be done. He mentioned that 27 of the 36 states had to be bailed out so they could pay salaries and went further to state that Nigeria was morally and economically vandalised. Watchers of the country’s economy took it from there.
They have gone on to paint a gloomy picture of the economy and how it would inadvertently affect the already depleted life expectancy of the average citizens. Compared to this time last year, a barrel of crude oil was over $100 (now less than $50), at the black market was N169 (now about N226), while inflation was about eight per cent (now 9.4 per cent).
These figures, however, have somewhat forced living standard to nosedive dramatically. The situation is remotely being linked also to the rise in many young people who have begun to have serious heart-related diseases that lead to, for instance, strokes and renal failures that have become rampant in today’s Nigeria.
Before the country’s Center for Disease Control announced that it calculated a reduction in the national life expectancy figures, the World Bank had said it was just above 51 years old, almost 20 years less than the world average. This may be why Dr. Adamu Onu, a family medical practitioner, said that the health crises across the country have poverty as the main cause.
He is of the belief that most people in Nigeria simply do not have access to healthcare because they live far away from the nearest clinic and do not have the money or the means to travel to the city to access better medical treatment. Incidentally, this correlation of income and life expectancy is often said not to affect individuals born in wealthier countries negatively.
On the average, they are expected to live longer than those born in poor countries. To these analysts, it is not the aggregate growth in income, however, that matters most, but the reduction in poverty. At present, lives in the remote areas of the country presents a horrifying picture. Infants within the age bracket of two years are generally looking malnourished. Many of them are pipe-stem thin with rather large teeth which jut from a somewhat perpetually open mouth etched on a face with skull-tight skin and buzz-cut hair.
They often grit their teeth when they talk. Their sight casts a dark shadow over a rising Nigeria, where millions of children have little to eat. If they survive, they are likely, according to experts, to grow up shorter, weaker and less smart than their better-fed peers.
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