By Mu’azu Abubakar Albarkawa
The Islamic Medical Association of Nigeria (IMAN) has called on the Federal Government to implement the 2001 Abuja Declaration by the African Union Member States to spend at least 15% of the nation’s annual budget on healthcare systems;
This was contained in a communique issued at the end of its 22nd National Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference which was signed by Prof. Ibrahim Oreagba and Dr. Abdulrasheed Nasir, National President and Secretary General respectively and made available to newsmen by the National Publicity Secretary Dr. Mustapha Yaqub in Zaria.
The Communique also called for the protection of Nigerians from becoming enticed by the deceptive marketing tactics of addiction industries, thereby lowering the incidence of all forms of addictions within the family and community;
Government has been called upon to discourage brain-drain and medical tourism as a policy by improving healthcare providers’ wellbeing and mandating all tiers of its leadership from patronizing healthcare services outside the nation;
All Nigerians are encouraged to go for COVID-19 vaccination as it still remains one of the best measures to reduce coronavirus transmission and prevent serious illnesses and deaths;
It was agreed to improve healthcare providers’ attitude as a means to reducing the rising morbidity and mortality across all the ages;
The conference also
agreed to continue community engagement to adopt and utilize the universal Islamic Ethics to improve the current poor attitude predominant among healthcare workers; Among other resolutions include:
“Islamic Cooperative Societies should upgrade their capacity to Shariah-complaint Micro-finance Institution towards providing the needed resources for healthcare services”.
The participants seek for the establishment of “IMAN Diaspora Commission” which will facilitate ‘brain circulation’ and improve the provision of healthcare services within the country;
The low adherence to Islamic Ethics was noted as a major cause of poor attitude among healthcare workers;
The unavailability of Islamic financial resources has been pointed out as the main underlining factor limiting most individuals from meeting their healthcare needs;
Both brain-drain and medical tourism have been noted as the two sides of the coin depleting the availability of adequate healthcare services in Nigeria;
The fear of vaccination and subsequent refusal to be vaccinated by a large number of Nigerians have been identified as a major contributor to the rise in and of several variants of the coronavirus in the community;
The new culture of disregard for Shariah acceptable norms in issues of marriage has contributed to the rising rates of singles in the community;
A reason for rise in addiction rate within the family and community is the deceptive marketing of addiction products as “normalized” lifestyle;
The rising rate of addiction among the youths has been identified as a major reason for decline in the nation’s wellbeing and poor awareness in the Muslim community of the investment opportunities available through Islamic cooperatives.
Another factors identified is sub-optimal understanding of Islamic leadership concepts among the Muslim health students as well as unhealthy professional rivalry has continued to undermine team work, inter-professional collaboration, patient safety and health outcome within the healthcare system.
“Nigerians are encouraged to follow the guidelines given by the Prophet Muhammad SAW in choosing life partners and in the practice of polygyny”.
“Ibadah friendly services should be embraced by all health facilities and personnel to bridge the gap in fulfilling the spiritual needs of patients”.
The conference also implored health workers to embrace team work, inter-professional collaboration and Ibadah-friendly practices to improve patient-centred care.
