Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama, the Archbishop of Abuja Catholic Archdiocese, has advised the Federal Government to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and fix the health sector, education and the social systems.
Kaigama told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the pandemic was a lesson for leadership of the country to address brain drain in the health sector.
He said that as the country plan to gradually ease the lockdown, it should also plan to fix some lessons learnt from the pandemic.
“We can see that running away from our country has not done us any good.
“We have hospitals here that are not adequately equipped, we have medical personnel that are so many and well gifted but they don’t have all it takes to render medical services.
“I have been to one small village in America; you have more than 20 Nigerian doctors, why?
“It is because the facilities are there, they receive adequate attention about remuneration and what have you.
“So there is a brain drift. We have engineers; we have scientists, doctors, health workers who are drifting to get greener pasture so this should give us food for thought.
“Why should our politicians and those in authority fly abroad? Why do we neglect our hospitals and clinics?
“We neglect out health facility and slightest headache we fly abroad, something is strong.”
The Archbishop also advised the government to fix the education system and social security system, noting that Nigeria education and the social security system should be better.
“Those who have worked and laboured for us; our heroes; they become helpless, no money to take care of themselves in their old age, no pension coming.
“This should be a serious food for thought. Our leaders should look inward now that the oil price has gone down since we depend a lot only on oil.
“We have abandoned agriculture, we have abandoned mineral resources. We must decide to revive these sectors.
“We can run this country with all the blessings that God has given us. We are so blessed with human and natural resources so we can surprise the world with what we have.’’
Kaigama told NAN that it would be an opportunity to start all over and surprise the world if we assemble all our resources- human and natural and do it right.
“The world will be coming to Nigeria and asking for help rather than us going abroad and also borrowing and borrowing.’’
According to him, COVID-19 is a message that God is giving to humanity as a whole, saying “God is establishing a lesson that He is God Almighty.
“We should be aware of that and that human beings have common humanity, created by God and we should realise the supremacy of God.
“Secondly, God made us with our different culture, characteristic and we should not forget that one thing bind us – our common humanity.
“The Americans have 10 fingers and Africans have 10 fingers, so we have common humanity, it is only the complexion that is different.
“Our difference should not separate us, we should help and support one another,’’ he said. (NAN)
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