The President of the Paediatric Association of Nigeria, Dr Olufemi Ogunrinde, on Wednesday, dismissed widespread beliefs that the best brains among healthcare professionals had left Nigeria to seek greener pastures abroad.

Ogunrinde made the dismissal in Akure at a news conference to herald the 54^th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of PAN.

The theme of the conference is: ‘Optimising Child Healthcare in Nigeria Despite Current Socio-Economic Challenges.’

“I want to salute the health workers that are staying behind to continue offering services and I want to say that it is not the best brains that are leaving.

“We still have best and fantastic brains who are not leaving, who are committed to stay in this country despite everything,” he said.

Ogunrinde bemoaned infant mortality rate in the country, and advocated optimal performance of stakeholders for the well-being of children in Nigeria

“We at PAN are not so happy with poor health indices of Nigeria, though we have made some gains in recent years compared to 1990, but we still have some number of children dying.

“The last statistics shows 74 children die per 1000 births and neonatal deaths almost double that number, about 100.

“So, to every 1000 children that are born, about 100 die. That is about 10 per cent. That is actually a loss to any nation. When you compare to what other people are getting in other climes, it is about three to 1000.

“Also we still have a number of children that are malnourished. They are stunted, they are not growing well. And from experience, these children constitute a social problem.

“They hardly develop well. They may grow up well with adequate nutrition, but damage has been done to the brain especially in the first to three years when they are supposed to get the nutrients, but they were not given,” he stated.

The paediatrician added that such damage could be permanent, saying that this would invariably affect the trajectory of the nation.

“Can you imagine a nation that is full of defective adults? It is not going to function very well,” he said.

The PAN president asked mothers to adhere strictly to exclusive breastfeeding and necessary vaccinations, adding that they should access good healthcare services for their children.

“We ask mothers to give exclusive breastfeeding to their children and husbands should encourage their wives and let them have vaccination and others as directed.

“Let us protect ourselves so that our children will not become orphans. I believe in popular saying that health is wealth. There should be a demand from the people for good quality health.

“We have made ourselves available despite poor welfare and salary, but it is like people are not demanding our services.

“Maybe you say you cannot afford them, which may be true or because you have faith in the so-called alternative medicine or for other reasons, but I think there is need for re-orientation of people to seek health in appropriate place.

“When your child is sick, you go to appropriate place and when you do that continuously, and you create a demand, everybody in government will see that health is wealth and they will do the needful,” he said.

Ogunrinde said that the association was collaborating with everybody to ensure that children survive, live quality life and achieve maximal development.

“For me, Nigeria has great potentials, so when we treat our children well and they grow up, we will have a fantastic country. Everything will just fall into place, but we need to start now,” he said.

According to him, the Ondo and Ekiti state governments should tap into the pool of paediatricians that are available in their states for quality healthcare of children in the states.

“They should approach and harness their (paediatricians) potentials regularly and they can give advice on the way forward: our children need to survive,” he said.

He said that the three-day conference in Akure would discuss sickle cell, anaemia, pneumonia and other factors that could impact negatively on children and proffer solutions to them. (NAN)

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