About Me

My Photo
Funmi Iyanda
Lagos, Nigeria
Funmi Iyanda is a multi award-winning producer and broadcast journalist. She is the CEO of Ignite Media and Executive Director of Creation Television
View my complete profile
Powered by Blogger.
Friday, October 20, 2006

Second Quick story

Last weekend l was in lbadan on a work assignment. I had worked all morning in Lagos and survived the usual crazy traffic and gone home to change and take my crew and cast to Ibadan. Usually a one hour drive that due to our many contradictions can take up to five hours on a bad day. It was a good day and we made it in 2 hours and spent the next 6 hours in a rigorous recording session. By 8pm we retire to Premier Hotel, which is a crumbling caricature of its old glorious self. Aside from its gorgeous location Premier hotel has nothing going for it and in world ranking must be a minus 10 star. However Premier is one of the best hotels in Ibadan.

I tried to retire into my room but the mosquitoes drove me into my mentee tayo's room whilst l waited for my assistant to find mosquito repellent (wetin be housekeeping for premier) to spray my room. Perhaps it was the combination of the screeching air-conditioning blowing dust mites into my nose and the music from the all night pool side party downstairs as well as the exertions of the day. I became feverish and started to shiver and shake whilst every bone ached and my head pounded. Thus began the macabre dance for basic health care. Someone went out and came back with a dodgy looking fever reducer that had obviously escaped Akinyuli's rigorous vigilance. It was as fake as Michael’s nose. We called the hotel for help and Premier had no sick bay, stand by nurse or doctor nor first aid kit! Someone procured an even dodgier looking panadol. So my assistant and producer take the driver and spent two hours to my doctor in Lagos. All took four hours before l got relief and medication to knock me off to sleep. All this in a major city with millions of people.

It had been a scary night and next day as we drove around the city, myself high on my medication trying to finish our assignment, l notice the dearth of proper hospitals and pharmacies especially in the old city centre and suburbs. If this is the case in lbadan what about more remote parts of Nigeria. Where do the sick, infirm, aged, young, nursing, pregnant poor go for basic health care. I asked this question of a friend of mine recently and she said.. The rich go abroad and the poor go to healers and churches. No wonder at a recent Benny Hin crusade, the man was quoted to have asked quite a number of the miracle seekers why they were there. That because he probably realized that what most of those people require was not a miracle just hospitals, drugs, doctors and nurses for illness that have become extinct in some others climes.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Most tasks/projects are said to be 'in progress' but Nigeria is a project that has not yet started.
We have a long way to go. Untill all the rich people in Nigeria start to realize that they can not keep running out of the country for proper healthcare for ever, then we may begin to find a way forward.

I hear u loud and clear!!

Anonymous said...

All dat for a big city then imagine what it is like in the remote areas every year budget is done to fight diseases. hey think of were those funds go while we pay.
each yr roads budgets reach billions anyway thats naija for u.
hey whats up with the show and advert recently