How Sad! This population has been neglected and condemned in Nigeria

Sitting on the eastern edge of Abuja, the federal capital, and occupying an area of about 36 km in Karu local government area of Nasarawa state, Mararaba is a conurbation of towns stretching to Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory.

It is surrounded by other towns such as Ado, New-Nyanya, Masaka, New Karu and Kurunduma, and by villages which grew up as a result of the rapid expansion of Abuja’s administrative and economic activities into neighbouring towns, and as a result of the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from Abuja by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) administration.

Mararaba is believed to be one of the most densely populated suburbs around the Nigerian capital, and this contributes to its reputation as having some of the busiest roads, with traffic jams stretching as much as 11 kilometres back from the popular A.Y.A. junction during rush hours.

With a population of over 200,000 cramped together owing to the high cost of living in the neighboring FCT, Mararaba is undoubtedly one of the most populated satellite towns in Nigeria. Mararaba is also a town which offers respite to the poor with an affordable standard of living.

This is one factor which has been responsible for the ever-increasing population that is now second to none in the whole of northern Nigeria. Given the over population of the town, Mararaba provides a ready market for almost all kinds of enterprise and artisan services.

However, the town which contains the largest concentration of people in the state has continued to exist in the estimation of successive administrations as merely a source of internally-generated revenue for the government of Nasarawa state. There is virtually no indication of the benefits of government in the lives of residents.

While there is no evidence of the provision of infrastructure and other essential services on the part of government, most dangerous among the decay and neglect being suffered by residents is the near absence of functional public medical facilities as well as personnel to cater for the healthcare needs of the people.

In the whole of Mararaba there is only one medical centre, the general hospital, belonging to the government and it is in a state of decay. The hospital, which attends to an average of 700 patients a day, coming from within the area and from neighbouring towns and villages, can only boast four medical doctors and 32 nurses.

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According to an investigation by our correspondent, all attempts to get the state government to take action aimed at improving the situation have all been ignored. The state governor, Tanko Al-Makura, has continually ignored pleas by organised labour in the state, ultimately resulting in the shutting down of the hospital.

Currently, the hospital, which hitherto served as the only public hospital providing affordable services to patients, is shut down as workers are engaged in an indefinite industrial action.

When NAIJ.com visited the hospital the whole place was shut, while some doctors were seen seated outside the hospital premises.

Also seen hanging around the hospital premises were some patients who had come for treatment but encountered an institution bereft of activity. When our correspondent spoke to some of the patients they said:

“I was operated a week before the strike commenced and then I was asked to go home with my wounded belly. I find it difficult to cope at home so I decided to come back to the hospital to see if there would be a way out, but as it is the gate is still locked up. I don’t know what else to do because I don’t have money to go to a private hospital.

“We are really pleading with the state government to meet the demands of the medical personnel and workers so that people’s life will be saved. The health sector should be given utmost priority because if there is no life nothing else will exist,” Adah Monica said.

Lucy George, a mother whose daughter Hannah George also had a surgical operation, told NAIJ.com that her daughter was in pain and could not sleep at night.

“Since we were discharged and forced to go home without my daughter properly recovering, I have not been sleeping at night because she cries out of pains and the operated area is losing. I’m confused and don’t know what to do so I decide to come back here but I learnt the strike is still on.

“I am pleading with Governor Al-Makura to look at the tears of innocent Nigerians and do something fast so we don’t lose our sick families. Right now I will go and borrow money and take my daughter to a private hospital so that she would not die. I hope that the governor hears this and act fast,” she said.

Other stranded patients at the hospital gate were seen shouting and screaming for help while others were also seen chanting “Al-Makura must hear our cry”.

Our correspondent went to speak with some medical personnel seen in the hospital. One of the hospital workers, who asked for anonymity, said patients find it difficult to get prompt medical attention because of the limited number of doctors and other medical personnel in the hospital.

“During working days, this hospital is overcrowded with lots of people seeking medical attention, and the hospital has just four doctors and 39 nurses which are too small for a kind of hospital like this. Sometimes just a doctor and a nurse will be on duty and they have  to go round the whole wards to attend to patients with mostly critical issues and by the time they finish, they would  be exhausted and as a result can’t be effective.

“How can we have just one doctor attending to lots of patients who troop in and out of this hospital on a daily basis? It is practically impossible. That is why we had pleaded severally with the state government to bring in more hands but nothing seems to be done,” he said.

He further stated that the issues of salary and promotion were a challenge to medical personnel as most of them are owed tree months’ salaries and have also not been promoted as they should have been..

“My last promotion was since 2009. I was due for promotion in 2012 but up till now nothing has been done about it. Even other medical personnel who were due before me has not gotten their promotion. When this is the case, how can medical personnel be encouraged to put in their best when we are not been paid?

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“After been owed for many months, the government is now paying 20, 30 percent of our salaries for May without any notice of when the remaining will be paid. That is totally unaccepted. That is why the medical personnel and workers decided to embark on industrial action which started three week before the whole state went on strike,” the hospital worker said.

Speaking also to NAIJ.com, another medical worker who also asked for anonymity said that a lot of medical services had been unable to continue in the hospital as a result of the lack of facilities and manpower.

“This hospital is the biggest hospital right from Mararaba down to Keffi, where we have the federal medical centre, and Mararaba Medical Centre is also surrounded by 10 primary health care centres, which means all patients are referred down here. But we lack the manpower to attend to them all as expected, even though we try our best. But it can’t be more effective like it would be if we had enough manpower to attend to sick people and people with medical issues. This has resulted to crowds during our working days.

“Recently we have had close to 15 to 16 medical doctors retire from service but nothing has been done to fill the gap. Sometimes doctors in this hospital fall ill because of the volume of work they do. Even our nurses are overworked,” he said.

Gonoyah Bitrus, the secretary of the Nasarawa State Organised Labour at Mararaba Medical Centre, expressed his displeasure at the status of workers in the hospital. He said workers at the hospital had gone on strike three weeks before the state workers embarked on a general strike.

“How can a state government of any government neglect the health sector. This sector is very vital in all areas. If people’s life is toiled with, then it is a great minus to any government.

“In February this year, the unions meet with the state government and several agreements were reached but this government has refused to play their part of the agreement. How long can we continue like this? We have our families to take care of?

“Just last week the governor came out to say he would reduce workers’ salary by fifty percent and then this week he is already implementing it without any formal or written notice. How can that be when other states are increasing workers’ salary then Nasarawa state is reducing its own?

“It is not acceptable at all. That is why we have embarked on this industrial action and until our demands are meet, we will not call off this strike. We are been owed since the beginning of this year. I have been owed since May this year. How do I survive? I was also due for promotion in 2011 but up till date nothing has been done,” he lamented.

A visit by our correspondent to Dr George Dangana, the chief medical director of Nasarawa state hospital management board, in Lafia found him to be absent, but when a call was made to his cell phone he said: “I don’t comment on policy issues except I am permitted by the state commissioner for health, therefore I would not comment,” and he laughed.

When asked if the board was on strike, he said: “Management staff don’t go on strike but circumstances might limit our job description.” He laughed again.

All efforts to get a response from the state commissioner for health  were unsuccessful, as calls made to his cell phone went unanswered.

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