Health, Power and Sickness in Nigeria

Health is highly valued around the world; in Nigeria it is adulated by shibboleths such as “Health is wealth”, “a healthy nation is a wealthy nation”. How health translates to wealth and under what circumstances are often assumed. Furthermore, what passes for healthcare are greatly determined by the many divides in society such as religion, race, and ethnic origins out of which socioeconomic status has the most profound influence. This book addresses these issues and access to medical services, why many are under served, and why the poor die of avoidable causes. The book focuses on the following themes, all of them with special attention to Nigeria: • Contesting paradigms in health • Changing nature of health services • Power and privileges in access to healthcare • Struggles for control over medical care practice • The nature and challenges of entrepreneurial Medicine • Challenges of availability and regulation of drugs • Reproductive health and HIV/AIDS The book also deals with how power and wealth intersect to grant health access to a few, while denying same to most. It is not a question of access, Nigerians have become inured to ‘hostage taking’ of patients who cannot pay for costs incurred; others are raising funds to undergo some life-saving procedure. This is the situation which makes the poor confront avoidable deaths. Given the multifarious nature of what passes for healthcare, the book argues that most of the key decisions affecting the provision are taken in the Ministries of Finance, Women Affairs, Works and Water resources as well as Ministry of Agriculture rather than in the Ministry of Health. This is the nature of complex politics of health and health care.