As Nigeria marks her 55th independence anniversary today, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) says the greater part of the country’s health history is replete with one of the worst health indices in the world since 1960. The NMA president, Dr Kayode Obembe said such outcomes include woes, travails, lamentations and buck passing without effective remediation. He stated this in a statement yesterday ahead of today’s independence celebration while calling for a paradigm shift for the health of all Nigerians. According to him, the failure to establish world class health system is a major factor causing the retardation of Nigeria’s development, which is in keeping with the dictum that ‘health is wealth’. He said “We also observe that the country has never lacked effective recommendations to mitigate our crippling socio-economic, political and developmental woes, rather, poor leadership and poor implementation have been responsible for the uninspiring status of the nation in the global development circle.”

Obembe said notwithstanding these lapses, there is hope for a greater Nigeria, urging all Nigerians to keep faith with government and diligently contribute their quota to the change the present administration promised Nigerians. “Pessimism must give way to hope and optimism, destructive opposition and extremism to virile issue- based constructive dialogue and agitation.