Emotions ran high during the screening, by the Senate, of Dr. Tunji Alausa, a US-based nephrologist, whose nomination as a minister was confirmed on Monday along with 42 others..
Following his outstanding credential as a physician, Dr. Alausa was identified as a possible minister for the health ministry and this resulted in a barrage of questions from the senators, during his screening last Friday, on how the country’s battered health care system could be resuscitated.
However, it was the pathetic story by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, on how he lost his grandson four years ago which graphically highlighted how low the nation’s health care delivery system has sunk over the years.
In his comment after Dr. Alausa had answered all the questions posed by the senators the Senate President remarked that every other person in the country had fallen victim of medical negligence. He said:
“My first grandchild in 2019 in a federal medical centre died through bleeding. He was receiving drip and it was tissued in the night. There was no help. No doctor, no nurse and he bled until he lost 60 percent of his blood and almost going mental. He struggled and fell on the floor.
“He was looking for water to drink. He rolled on the floor outside and entered the early morning dew. The dew was all over his body and that’s where they found him. By that time, he had gone into a coma.
“I was on my way to Port Harcourt for the 2019 rally when they called me. 32-year old boy. “They went and brought a defibrillator to attempt to revive him but it did not work. I was told the defibrillator stopped working eight years ago”.
“I struggled with my physician to revive him but to no avail. I had to close his eyes and put him in the mortuary,” he narrated to his astounded colleagues.