Nigeria: A Letter to Minister Aliyu Modibbo

Source from:  Leadership (Abuja) 23 August 2008 08/26/2008

Dear FCT Minister, when you started your campaign against tobacco smoking in public places in Abuja, many of us were happy, because we realised that you are in the league of those who would dare the devil in order to protect the rights of others. In a way, we have started to trust you and will continue to pray for your success. Honourable Minister, there is a question I wish to ask you, since you are the chief law enforcement officer and protector of human rights and dignity in the FCT. I have been quite hesitant to ask this question in this column, because religious issues are usually easily misinterpreted by people, but I must tell you this story, so as to prepare you for any shocker that could come your way. I was still in the office, around ten o'clock, preparing to rush back home before midnight caught me at work, when my mother called. She told me my sister's water had broken and she had been rushed to the hospital where she was registered as an NHIS beneficiary. Incidentally, she had been going to this hospital for her normal checkups for pregnant women and had made some arrangements ahead of her delivery time. But let me tell you about my sister. She is what critics call an Ustazia- meaning a Muslim woman who is believed to be devoted to her faith, because she wears the gown that covers her entire body, leaving only her hands, face, and feet covered with stockings. You will agree that such women suffer a lot of persecution in school and in some cases, as corps members. Here she was, caught in a doctor's trap, about to suffer because she was in labour. During the time she was attending the clinic preparatory to the birth of her baby, arrangements had been made by herself and her husband to ensure that her birth attendant would be a woman. This became necessary when one of the doctors had taunted her by saying he was going to see all she was hiding under her hood as long as she would be coming to that hospital. Apparently, he was scheduled to carry out some tests on her, but she requested to be attended to by a female doctor, because of her religious beliefs, which do not encourage a man who is not a woman's husband, or very near relative, to have unfettered access to her body. I learnt the doctor did not find this funny. He therefore made that comment, probably meaning every word of it. To forestall any problems, the young couple arranged with one of the nurses that she be available when the baby was due. She agreed to this arrangement in the interest of the hospital she worked for, but that arrangement was destined to fail. As soon as her water broke, her husband called the nurse who picked the call, but said she had just been robbed and so may not be able to join them as early as possible, but would try. Obviously, she could not make it to the hospital. Incidentally, the young male doctor who had taunted the young woman and her beliefs, was the only doctor on duty in the hospital that night. And there we all were; four men and a woman already on the couch, with the baby's head on its way out, at this doctor's mercy. He insisted that he would deliver the baby despite that there was a nurse on duty who said she could handle the situation. He shouted the nurse down. Obviously, she was not an old nurse, so it was easy for him to intimidate her. This doctor insisted that unless he was given access to her, she would be referred to another hospital. Before then, he made the husband, and one of our brothers, to sign an undertaking-which he dictated while the husband wrote, that if the woman in labour dies while not being attended by him the hospital and himself would not be held liable. It was classical blackmail. He expected us to succumb from the manner he threatened us but we knew he was only angling at fulfilling his threat. We had spent a full forty minutes under his harsh voice and the young lady was still in labour. He finally signed a letter referring us to the National Hospital where we drove the woman in labour to. Mr Minister, I was surprised at the response of the doctor we met at the labour room of the National Hospital. He calmed us down, passed our woman in labour to the nurses, and assured us that the nurses could handle the situation. He told us that it would only be very necessary for him to attend to her if there was a complication. He actually succeeded in calming her down. A short while later, she was delivered of a baby girl, and she was delivered solely by the nurse. Now let me tell you about the film I watched recently on childbirth. This film was entirely about the relationship between health care personnel, pregnant women and their husbands. In the film, an American film, they mentioned that the couple have a choice in all matters concerning the birth of the child. They could choose who they want to deliver their baby. They could choose to hold the child as soon as it is born, with all the blood and amniotic fluid on it, or after it has been cleaned and dressed. They could also choose to listen to some soothing music of their choice during childbirth. They could also choose the colour of the room in which the mother would move into, after delivery, in order to recover her strength, before being discharged from the hospital. Now is that not another classic? So let us compare all these to my sister's ordeal in the hands of a doctor who believed she had no right to choose how her antenatal care would be. Mr Minister, if hospitals in other states do not give women the right to choose as regards childbirth, then the FCT should be a trailblazer. Human rights, to my understanding, extend to this point. Oh yes, dear Minister, I am writing to you so that you can act. And I will supply you the name of the hospital and the name of the doctor if you are interested in investigating this case in order to un-tilt this tilt. But let me ask you sir, who monitors the activities of private hospitals in the FCT? Are they allowed to operate according to their own standards? Has your government made any effort to confirm what pregnant women really go through in the hands of healthcare professionals? This column has written about the ordeals of women in the hands of the healthcare system in the FCT in the past. But has anything really changed? Enditem