BY MONDAY UWAGWU

Good health is the most valuable wealth-African proverb.

his ageless African wise crack remains relevant today as aeons ago when it was first woven by our ancestors sages wizened by age and experience. Yes, as it was then, so is now, and ever shall be-there is little doubt that, as it has been held, probably from creation, health is the best index for measuring the wealth of any individual or community. And the reason for this is self-evident-only the enduringly healthy can be enduringly productive.

This proverb that aptly captures the strategic importance of good health in the life of an individual or group of individuals, is a common place application in Africa. Again, the reason for this is easy to come by-as in the past, so today: Africans place unusual priority on their wealth, which, quite correctly, begins with their good health. In Delta State, however, the slant on health, as a stoic and critical element of the well-being and productivity of a the individual and his society has gained ascendancy since the inauguration of the administration of Warri boy, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, as Governor of the state.

Upon his inauguration into office, Gov Uduaghan unfolded a three-point agenda, revolved around peace and security, human capital development and infrastructure development. Of course, it requires no argument at all, to discerning minds that the critical foundation of the agenda is the human element; it requires a well disposed human population to work for the peace and security of his community/society, just as it requires an efficient pool of humans to build and sustain the infrastructure upon which to erect the sustainable development of society. Fully conscious of this, the administration of Governor Uduaghan realised that his huge and revolutionary investments in the education sector would come to nought, if it is not augmented with potent and far-reaching policies that will ensure the good health of the people over whom he holds watch as state governor.

ENTER THE UNIQUE, REVOLUTIONARY POLICIES

In ageless Africa, it is said that only the diligent eyes spot the squirrel’s droppings in the forest.

And that was Uduaghan. As a medical officer of health himself and a former inner caucus member of the preceding administration of James Ibori, he realised that there was the urgent need ti effectively tackle the scourge of the welter of health challenges affecting Deltans and which the previous administration, could not, in spite of its best efforts, effectively address. A major plank of this health challenge had to do with the high incidence of infant and maternal mortality rates, both of which were tied to the apron of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as spelt out by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2000. By the spirit and letter of the MDGs, both (infant and maternal mortality rates ) and countries’ response to them, are to be assessed in 2015, the benchmark year set by the UN, since they form  critical index for defining the quality of the health of a people and their general well-being. Of course, the slant on infants and pregnant women-covered under maternal mortality –is quite understandable: children are the only guarantee for the sustainability of the human race and, in spite of advances in science, women remain the natural vessels through which they are brought into the world. The health of the world’s women and children, therefore guarantees a critical thing-the sustainability of the human race as we know it, in assured good health. Realising this fact, the Uduaghan administration, quite wisely, keyed into the MDG policy and its essence for the overall good of Deltans, by introducing the free under –five health care policy to ensure the health of children, and the free maternal care policy for expectant wome.

However, in deference to the fact that not all of the citizenry have been covered by the free health care policies for infants and expectant women, Gov Uduaghan introduced the revolutionary free rural health care programme, under which aegis all residents of the state, irrespective of age, tribe, religion and affliction, get free medical services t the hands of experts assembled for that purpose by the government.

POLICIES AND UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHIES

The health policies of the Uduaghan administration are under-pinned by one core philosophy-increasing access to quality health care to the people at the least cost, if any, realizing that the total well-being of any human is critically influenced by his/her state of health.

The need to enhance access is, in itself, predicated on the fact that material poverty, accentuated by a high level of ignorance of basic medical situations and how to respond to them, is largely at the root of the high incidence of health challenges affecting ordinary Deltans.

THE FREE MATERNAL CARE POLICY

It is said that only the wise poultry farmer with a keen eye on the future that nurtures the parent stock, while nursing the chicks. So it is said.

Governor Uduaghan, realizing that the health of the unborn child is inextricably tied to the health of its mother, introduced the free maternal health care programme as part response to the issues of poverty and ignorance listed above, and the subsequent high incidence of maternal mortality in the state.  At its introduction some five years ago, the incidence of maternal mortality in the state was 456 out of 100,000 pregnancies.  Though this was significantly lower than the prevailing national average at the time (which was between 800 and 1000 per 100,000 births of pregnancies), it was still unacceptable, particularly to Governor Uduaghan, who, as an experienced medical officer of health,  fully appreciated two facts: the health of the society is invariably tied to that of its expectant mothers, and that, the prevalent ratio was unhealthy for the long-term good of the state and its people.  Now, the benefits of the policy are self-evident, as they are alluring.  For example, after the first years of its operation, the policy has significantly whittled the incidence of maternal mortality in the state.  Dr. Joseph Otumare, Commissioner for Health and one of the arrowheads of the policy, confirmed at a press briefing on the fifth anniversary of the policy, that the programme had recorded 250,000 ante-natal registrations, and 120,000 deliveries.  It has also reduced the incidence of maternal mortality to 221 from 456 when it was introduced, the good news that this represents, translated into basic arithmetic, means that the state has achieved a 48-50 per cent reduction in its maternal mortality ratio.  This is heart-warning, not only on account of the lives saved, but perhaps, equally importantly, for reason of the fact that the ratio of 221 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies (which the government is determined to further bring down) is below the prevailing global average of 300 per 100,000.  There is, however, a wonderful economic angle to the huge success recorded by the policy: according to Dr. Otumara, between 10 and 12 per cent of the 120,000 deliveries taken by the programme were by caesarean section (operation), each of which would have cost in excess of N200,000 in a private health facility.  The real appeal of the policy is that, in all of the 57 public hospitals where it is implemented, ante-natal care, delivery, including caesarean section, post-natal care, treatment for ectopic pregnancy and complicated abortions, are entirely free of charge.  What, truly speaking, can be better than this?

ENTER FREE UNDER-FIVE HEALTH CARE POLICY

The child is the father of man.  Do you doubt it? Of course, I am convinced that you are in total agreement with the real essence of this statement, paradoxic as it may sound.

Since creation, the strategic importance of the child in the family – the building block of humankind has never been lost to man.  This is the real reason he is the cynosure of all eyes and the object of their great endearment.

This positive attitude and the principled philosophy behind it (safeguard of the long-term interest of the society) was never lost on the Uduaghan administration, which, long ago, set up a policy of free all-round health care for all children under five years of age in the state.  Taken together with the regular and special immunization of the children against the six childhood killer-diseases, this represents a regime of comprehensive effective medical care for children within the age bracket.  This revolutionary policy under which tens of thousands of children have benefitted, has legion benefits for the society.  Economically, it saves parents the cost of such treatments, while socio-psychologically, it saves them the trauma that would have arisen from the loss of those children to death for reason of lack of funds to afford the quality medical care to safeguard their lives.  In net, it also helps whittle the incidence of infant mortality and, by the same token, enhances the prospect of the state attaining the infant mortality element of the MDGs, set for critical assessment by 2015-just two years hence.  But above all else, the policy has enabled the government enhance the quality of health of the under-five, the most vulnerable, yet most strategic segment of humanity for the sustenance of humankind.  The beneficial effect of this is best illustrated in the ancient saying that a productive adult was once a healthy child. Put simply, it means that only healthy children grow into productive adults.  The importance of this is strategic in lieu of the dream of the state government for the post-haste development of the state, particularly outside of the meal of crude oil proceeds.

BEHOLD THE REVOLUTIONARY HEALTH CARE PROGRAMME

That the free health care policy of the administration for both expectant women and children under-five years of age has been revolutionary in positive impact is without an iota of doubt.  However, what is also not in doubt is the fact that, as potent as the programmes have been, they have not comprehensively covered all of the segments of the population.  Without a doubt, those outside of the bracket of expectant mothers and under-five children are not less in need of effective medical care from the public sector.  It is in response to this situation that the Uduaghan government introduced the historic free rural health care programme, under which aegis, citiznes with all sorts of medical care needs are treated free of charge.  This programme runs on the philosophy of knocking out the inaccessibility problem facing the citizenry, especially the rural poor, and is fashioned after the hospital-on-wheel policy of the former Governor of Bendel State, Prof. Ambrose Folorunsho Alli.  Under its aegis, an ensemble of medical and other expert, transverse the length and breadth of the state in ultra-modern mobile hospitals, to dispense free medical care to them.  To elicit a huge patronage base, the committee, well ahead of its visitation time, gives adequate notice of its itinerary, via the mass media, to its targets audience.  This strategy of mobilization has been so effective that a throng of patrons literally mob the team of expert in charge of the programme at every of the venues it visits, dispensing quality health care to those to whom it would be otherwise inaccessible.  Tens of thousands of persons, some with ailments that would otherwise cost a fortune to treat, have benefitted from the programme that, in the first of its cyclic annual rounds across the state for the 2012/2013 year alone, recorded a whopping 60 surgeries, including 38 cataract extractions.  Dr. (Mrs) Akpe Aghogho, of the Mobile Field Hospital, who disclosed this, added that others included hernia, appendicitis, hemorrhage (pile) and lymphoma).  Of course, these excluded the more than 15 major surgeries, and the tens of thousands of others, whose cases required non-surgical solutions.

SWEET  TALES OF BENEFICIARIES

In Africa, it is said that the good news is sweet in the mouth of the bearer and to the ear of the listener.  And so it has been with the free rural health care programme of the Uduaghan administration.  While the government, understandably for good reasons, is elated at he relief the programme has given the ordinary citizens, the beneficiaries have virtually gone hoarse, eulogizing the government for its landmark programme.  A minutes sample of the huge beneficiary population will attest to the deep-hearted relief of the programme: Mrs. Mary Igbiwu, 42, who hails from Kolokolo in Warri North council area would not bear a child, decades after she married, for reason of fibroid.  In her desperate search for solution, she went to many hospitals, which charged her between N120,000 and N150,000 for the operation to remove the unwanted growth.  But for years, she labored in vain to raise the fund for the crucial operation, until news filtered into her ear, to the effect that he free rural health team was visiting.  The rest, as they say, is history: To her immense relief, the troublesome fibroid was not only removed, but all the anciliary therapeutic actions, including drugs, blood transfusion and treatment were all given her, free of charge.  Now, not only is she medically fit now, at no material cost to her, she is now more economically productive, and above all else, hopeful that the privilege of conception and child birth which the fibroid has hindered was now a matter of time.  And would that he an uncommon blessing for a citizen by her caring government?

Igbiwu’s case, as elating as it is, is not an isolated one.  Chinyere Nwaogu, 37, of Omumu-Agbor, has a similar issue.  Married 2001, she has remained without a child because fibroid has prevented her from conceiving.  To find a solution to the problem, she had literally walked the earth, going from one hospital to the other, all of which, on the average, gave her a net bill of N80,000.  But where was she to get the fund? This stridden question remained her major challenge until the free rural health scheme came to her rescue, giving her relief from a debilitating medical condition, aside restoring her hope-otherwise lost forever, of having her own biological children.  Both Nwaogu and Igbiwu shared the same fate with Mrs. Ngozi Nmosi, from Ewuru-Agbor, who was saved from the debilitative clutch of fibroid by the same team, after she had struggled in vain for years to raise the N100,000 charged her for the operation.  There was equally the case of Mrs. Suzanna Uzorji who, for 24 years, battled prolepsis (protrusion of the womb through the vagina) that was accompanied by unbearable pain.  In vain, she had searched for solution, which was hard to come by, without the cash necessary for the operation, until she was rescued by the free rural health care programme team of experts.

Like all four persons listed above, many other Deltans, from all over the state, and otherwise down with different alimentis-some of them potentially fatal – have benefitted from the life-saving free health care programme, which for good cause, has elicited thunderous applause from across all of the state.

OFFSHORE APPLAUSE

It is said that a good wine needs no bush, while a marketable commodity sells itself.  That is the real-life story of the Uduaghan government, in respect of its landmark health polices/programmes, which have redefined service in that critical sector.

In Africa, it is said that the aroma of a good broth for exceeds the kitchen of the chef. The sterling health care polices of the Uduaghan government have, as is publicly acknowledged by even the most stridden critic citizen, been positively revolutionary and totally earth-shaking in effect.  Aside of their in-house allure, however, is the offshore appreciation they have earned for the government, the state and its people.  It was therefore, no surprise that the first national health summit in the history of the state, held in Delta state earlier this year.  Of course, the god, ubiquitous finger of Governor Uduaghan was clearly evident at the even and its lead-up processes.  This was clearly evident from the statement of the co-chairman of the Local Organising Committee of the event and State Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Uyi Osarenkhoe; the NMA National President, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, and the Health Minister, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu.  While Uyi praised Uduaghan for the life-touching effects of his revolutionary health polices, Enabulele hailed him for being the unseen arrowhead of the historic summit meant to reposition national health sector for enhanced efficiency.  The minister, on his part publicly acknowledged the exemplary roles of Dr. Uduaghan, stating, for emphasis that he remained a member of which the NMA remained immensely proud. What else is left? Now, if a priest earns the trust of his congregation and the confidence of all else, does he need any further proof of credible performance, or the acceptable of the services he has so selflessly rendered his compatriots along the line of duty? Pray, is there any more honesty service to God than the selfless service to man?