ANPA to assist Nigeria scale-up healthcare
By Isaac Aregbesola
The Association of Nigerian Physicians in America (ANPA) has pledged to enlist the services of over 5,000 members to assist Nigeria to scale-up its health indices and boost healthcare delivery.
Dr Iwueze Obilo, Chairperson ANPA New Jersey Chapter, made the promise at an interactive session between President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigeria in the Diaspora in America.
The meeting was convened by the Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, on the sideline of the ongoing 73rd UN General Assembly in New York.
Obilo, who is also President, Nigeria Healthcare Foundation, said that the Nigerian medical practitioners in America were ready to assist the country reduce medical tourism.
“We are hungry to come because you need us to be successful, we love going to Nigeria but it is unfortunate we don’t have national career
“We want to be coming to Nigeria every month to provide health care services to our people. As the President of Nigeria Healthcare Foundation I have been doing that for the past 15 years.
“We are working, we are hungry to come home and help, you have been doing a lot of work but you need us to support you too.
“Our mission will not also be successful if we don’t get the support from the government,” he said.
He said that the Nigerian doctors in the U.S. had created a forum whereby members could be coming home every month to render health services to Nigerian in different hospitals of choice.
“We created a forum with the Nigeria Medical Association called, “ratio 11:1” so that we can come to Nigeria for one month and inherit any hospital to improve its health care system and support their services.
“Our health care system is going down and a lot of people are dying. The products of Nigeria doctor is going down because of poor resources.
“We want to help you anything you want us to do.
“We have many qualified Nigerian doctors but Nigerian still go to other countries to treat themselves; when you have your doctors who can take care of you in the best way to reduce the medical tourism,” he said.
Dr Bola Omotosho, a U.S. based medical practitioner said that Nigerian doctors in U.S. were looking for a way to contribute their quotas to the development of health sector at home.
Omotosho, who is also Chair of Community Board at Bronx in USA, noted that Nigerian doctors in USA were over 5,000 performing excellently in their various fields of operations.
“The wealth of the nation is the function of the health of the nation, we want an avenue to help materialise what our intention is as an organisation in this regard
“We are looking for a situation whereby we can move the Nigeria health indices up,” he said.
Aminu Danladi, who spoke on behalf of the youth, urged the president to intervene in the making the “Not Too Young To Run” Bill a reality.
While describing the passage of the bill as a notable achievement of Buhari’s Administration; he, however, said there was need for the president to look into it to ensure that youth can actually run.
“We have an obstacle to the bill of “Not Too Young To Run” and you have done everything within your power to make it a reality.
“However, we want to still appeal to you to put in place mechanism for the youth to participate in governance for instance the form selling for contestant is too expensive, they cannot afford them.
“We also plead with you to please include young people in your cabinet,” he said. (NAN)
