Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri

By Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri

If you have ever been sick, seriously sick, you won’t have the nerve to make jest of another person’s health condition. I am not talking about malaria, typhoid and all those regular afflictions (yes, they kill people, but can be avoided, and treatment is available).

I am talking about ailments that can make you jump from one teaching hospital to another looking for overbooked specialists and consultants that don’t have your time.

I mean sicknesses that require you to spend hundreds of thousands of Naira every week on laboratory tests alone, and yet no projection of cure is in sight. I mean sicknesses that force you to break your life savings, sell off private property, and seek donations from family and friends.

Have you ever been so sick that your local doctors join your frantic search for hospitals and specialists abroad that can better manage your case? Your doctors, to your surprise, take over the business of writing referrals here and there, to foreign hospitals, embassies and other institutions they think can help you.

Probably, many don’t know that there are illnesses that can humble you, drain you emotionally and physically, and even cajole you into writing an early will. You then come to the realisation that good health is life’s most precious gift—not money, not power, not fame. It becomes clear that nothing else matters so much more than being alive and well.

I have many, many issues with Mohammadu Buhari, but his illhealth is NOT one of them. I wish him speedy recovery!