Someone very close to me has been admitted to the hospital, and in the past few days, I’ve been spending a lot of time with them there. They have nurses and physicians coming in and out of their rooms, giving them medication, and keeping the family updated. When they leave the hospital, they will be given an updated list of the medication they need to take. Whatever else they are worried about, they never have to worry that they may have to choose between managing their condition and feeding. Which is as it should be. Sadly, for many Nigerians, things are more complicated.
Apparently, “high foreign exchange rates, import tariffs, and fuel costs have led to some pharmaceutical companies exiting the country” (Business Day). As a result, the cost of drugs has risen exponentially in the past few months.
In a country where only an estimated three per cent have health insurance, many folks have to choose between buying life-saving drugs and other necessary, pressing priorities. The Vanguard newspaper recently quoted a retired hypertensive civil servant who said the present cost of his medication was forcing him to ration his pills (which he shouldn’t). Worse was that he was expected to abandon treatment altogether if things continued as they were.
Imagine having to make that choice (well aware of the consequences) because there’s nothing left to do? Both of my parents are hypertensive and I can’t even begin to imagine a world in which they were forced into such a decision.
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Naija appears to be entering a dystopian era in which citizens must choose death by curable/manageable illness or death by hunger. Tufiakwa! In 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics estimated that nearly two-thirds of Naija’s population lives on less than two dollars a day. That number has risen since. What can that amount do for you when you get sick?
The chronically poor aren’t spared chronic illnesses, sadly. My best friend at UNN was asthmatic, and I recall that she always had her inhaler with her. I googled the price of that Ventolin nebulizer today in Nigeria and Pharmgate pharmacy has it listed for N9,750 ( I hear it’s N15,000 elsewhere, and that’s if it is in stock). HealthPlus has Omcron pocket nebulizer for N69,300.
Family with personal drivers in Nigeria say they pay their drivers between N40,000 and N50,000 per month. So, should they need to buy it, those drivers would have to spend almost 20 -25 per cent of their salaries on Ventolin. And they cannot even afford to buy a single Omcron inhaler. Google says delivery drivers in Nigeria can earn up to N123,000 monthly.
So, say one of those delivery drivers has an asthmatic child, that is more than half their salary gone on ONE Omcron inhaler. But that child also needs school fees paid and the family still needs food, how is the N123,000 going to stretch to cover everything? And that is assuming that this asthmatic child is an only child? What if they developed diabetes? HealthPlus has insulin syringes for N100,000 and the insulin itself for N66,000. Ozempic is N220,000 (Pharmgate). What if they were epileptic? Healthplus has anti-convulsants retailing for between N7,150 and N50,000. Or the needed antibiotics? Fourteen tablets of Augmentin is N20,000 (HealthPlus).
How does one choose between buying prescription meds and getting fed (never mind the rest like clothed and housed)? When one cannot afford to eat, buying drugs – even if those drugs are absolutely necessary, will naturally take a back seat.
You can’t take drugs and then die of hunger. Or be homeless. Or run around naked. You look for alternatives. For miracles. So, it is no wonder then that fake drugs and fake healers thrive. When discernment is a luxury, you become vulnerable to every snake oil salesman peddling a cure wherever.
Things need to change. That much is obvious, and maybe the place to start is to find a way to truly produce our drugs locally. Late last year, the president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria told Reuters that our country imported a majority of its drugs, and those that were locally made relied on imports for the pharmaceutical ingredients for their production.
The implication is therefore that the cost of drugs is dependent on both the dollar exchange rate and shipping rates. The government must create an enabling environment for local manufacturing. Beyond that, let us all continue praying for Nigeria.
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