It is a national embarrassment of intense proportions that Nigerians , who can afford it , continue to flock to foreign countries to seek medical care while the poor are left with no other option than to probably die in the nation ’ s decrepit hospitals .
Therefore, that the health sector requires attention is no news because , for decades , Nigeria ’s health sector has been characterised by a disturbing degree of deterioration due to neglect by successive administrations . Indeed , it is now near total collapse with very little hope of revival . Even the State House Clinic established to take care of the President, Vice - President, their families as well as members of staff of the Presidential Villa, Abuja has joined the league of hospitals that cannot deliver basic healthcare services . This came to the public glare when Mrs. Aisha Buhari was ill in 2017 and was advised to travel abroad because of the poor state of the clinic . Indeed , she opted to go to a private hospital owned by foreigners when she was told that the x - ray machine in the State House Clinic was not working.
Although some strategic departments in some tertiary hospitals were once equipped in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration , some of the equipment installed have since been tampered with and cannibalised with the result that the supposed centres of excellence are not much better than consulting clinics. So, in spite of the billions of naira expended on some tertiary hospitals , the challenge in the sector remains daunting . Again , poor funding, inadequacy of medical facilities , high cost of drugs , sub- standard drugs , wrong diagnosis, high morbidity and mortality rates, poor attitude of health workers and neglect of patients by medical personnel , are all characteristic elements of the Nigerian health care delivery system.