[afro-nets] Thomas Adeoye Lambo,former WHO DDG... (5)

[Uduak Archibong <U.E.Archibong@Bradford.ac.uk>]

Thomas Adeoye Lambo, former WHO DDG and psychiatrist is dead (5)
----------------------------------------------------------------

Dear all,

Please let's use this opportunity to challenge the slow progress
in health care development in Nigeria and other African coun-
tries - Prof Lambo has left a legacy. We all know that Professor
Lambo gave all he could to promote Nigerian/African and indeed
the World Health Care System. But I believe that the Nigerian
Health Care System he contributed so much to failed him in his
last hours. What is our Government doing? What hope is there for
the rest of the population?

I was also at the meeting in London with President Obasanjo in
2000. I am aware that he hosted similar meetings with Nigerians
in Diaspora in the US and so on. What happened to the recommen-
dations we made on how the Government could modernise the health
care system? How are we going to restore people's confidence in
our health care system?

Warmest regards,

Dr Uduak Archibong
School of Health Studies
University of Bradford
25 Trinity Road
Bradford - England BD5 0BB
Tel: +44-1274-236347
Fax: +44-1274-236373
mailto:U.E.Archibong@bradford.ac.uk


--- Begin Forwarded Message ---

Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 21:52:03 -0000
From: Joseph Ana <nmf.nmf@virgin.net>
Subject: Thomas Adeoye Lambo, former WHO DDG and psychiatrist is dead 
(2)

Udi,

We share the regret of the writer below, on the way Prof Lambo
passed away, high in the sky, rushing to get vital emergency
care, no doubt in a foreign country so far removed from the fa-
miliarity of family, friends, relatives and his hometown, Abeo-
kuta, in Ogun State of Nigeria. It is tragic that he who founded
the Aro community care approach for the mentally sick in Nigeria
in the 1960's, the first such approach in Africa, an approach
that as you know the West (especially the NHS) embarked on in
the 1980's, should be so uncared for in his last days and hours.

I agree that it is a shame to Nigeria's health care system (if
there is a system) for deteriorating to its present level such
that even emergency patients must be transported across the
globe in an aeroplane, when we all know that it is very hazard-
ous to do so, especially when the patient is one that would have
been celebrating his 81st birthday on the 30th of this month and
therefore elderly and frail even without the added strain of ill
health.

Three years ago, President Obasanjo of Nigeria, in his first
term of office, visited the UK and met in London with a cross
section of Nigerians in Diaspora in Europe. Every professional
group handed recommendations to him including health profession-
als. The main theme of the health professional's suggestions was
that his government should make haste to link up and tap the
enormous talent of Nigerian health professionals in UK and
Europe for the reshaping and re-invigoration of health practice
in Nigeria. I remember that we told him that many of us are
ready and willing to offer, freely, our expertise in primary,
secondary, tertiary and academic sectors of health care planning
and implementation that the country so desperately needs. I am
not aware that any of this has been taken up. Yet we see what
has happened to icons and doyens like Professor Lambo. What hope
for lesser Nigerians?

Let this debate gain strength if only as a legacy to Professor
Lambo who was life was devoted to caring for the sick both in
and out of high office. If change can come from his tragic end,
he would have succeeded in death what some of us know at first
hand he stood for and fought for in his lifetime.

Greetings,

Joseph Ana
Volunteer Trustee-Director
The NMF (Nigerian Medical Forum UK, 1991-)
65 Warden Hill Road
Luton Beds LU2 7AE
(Partner Health Charity to BMJ West Africa edition www.bmjwa.com)