I just read an inews.co.uk report posted by Carol Ngozi Ezunagu on Facebook. Below is an excerpt of the report which details the financial support the British government provides persons living with long-term health condition or disability.
In Nigeria, long term ill citizens are strictly on their own, except of course, you are the President who can spend weeks in top flight London hospitals with all expenses paid with public funds. Here, such ill citizens and there are millions, waste away, burning their savings or if they are lucky get family, friends and well meaning folks to contribute to their searing financial costs of treatment that often run into tens of millions of naira over a long period of time.
The great majority of Nigerian citizens, with long term health conditions, are too poor to afford good but extremely costly treatment. So they usually turn to quack doctors, spiritualists, churches, alternative medicine practitioners, nutritionists, supplement hawkers, who ruthlessly fleece the poor sick until they can pay no more.
Then they are left to suffer harrowing, crushing, debilitating pain until they die exhausted. They have no recourse to one kobo, just one kobo, financial support from government to help them in their journey of pain.
The men in power, men of power, men who gobble up security votes and free monthly oil revenue allocations from the federation account, do not give a damn. Until you fall that ill, you may never know, just how terrible, the word governance is in Nigeria. May this fate of horror not befall you in Nigeria.
The long-term sick citizen in Britain is entitled to an equivalent of N30,000 to N45,000 daily to cover part of cost of treatment. Be sad for our country as you read the excerpt below, that says long-term ill citizens of Britain are:
“entitled to Personal Independence Payment (PIP), a benefit that helps with the extra costs of living with a long-term health condition or disability. The weekly rate for the daily living part is either £57.30 or £85.60 and for the mobility part, either £22.65 or £59.75.”
