An American based professor on Transfusion and Stem Cell transplantation professor Abba Zubairu Wednesday called on Nigerian government at all levels to demonstrate the needed political will and evolve policies that can revive the ailing health sector, so as to save the country from imminent embarrassment.
Prof. Zubairu who spoke while delivering a paper delivered entitled, “Hematopoietic Cell Stem Transplant in Nigeria, Challenges and Prospects”, during the opening ceremony of the 43rd General Conference of the Nigerian Society of Haematology and Blood Transfusion
(NSHBT) said the failure to establish a functional Stem Cell Transplant facility in Nigeria is partly due to a failed system.
The stem cell transplant researcher also decried the syndrome of brain-drain in the health sector, revealing that Nigerians in the Diaspora are counted among the best medical practitioners in the world, but cannot practice in the country due to a failed health system.
According to him, “lack of seriousness on the part of government to properly fix the health sector system in the country, has continued to dampen the spirit of medical professionals in the country who have continued to excel in the face of decayed infrastructure in the health sector.”
He added that, “Nigeria as a nation parades the best of brains who could excel in all ramification of clinical and laboratory medicine. The Nigerian system only needs to be fixed to enable potentials in the field to harness it to the fullest, so as to address the ongoing brain drain syndrome.
“What is wrong in Nigeria today is the system, and not the people, because Nigeria is endowed with brains, in which the system needs to be fixed, as to me, I don’t think anything is wrong with the people, that are eager for such encouragement.”
Zubairu noted that, hundreds of Nigerian nationals are excelling in various professional skills across the globe, but what we are lacking in the health sector is the absence of sound policy.
Prof. Zubairu, who heads the first private Centre for Regenerative Medicine located in the United States of America said that, “Nigerian youths can excel, what is wrong is the system, what we need is great leadership at all level.”
The Stem Cell expert further stated that, “for Nigeria to excel, the authorities must invest on technology; provide quality management and the sustained determination to develop the health sector.”
He urged government at all levels to encourage enrolment into science schools, while allocation of adequate resources to these schools will play a major role towards the creation of skilled personnel in the field of medicine and other professions.
While declaring the conference open, Kano state governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje lamented that, the number of Nigerians suffering from Sickle Cell ailment is rated as the highest in the world.
Ganduje, however, called on the society to continue to educate Nigerians on the available methods through which Sickle Cell could be prevented.
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