A reverie is not always what it seems; sometimes it is real life hiding itself snug in your imaginations. So it was that after the revolution that ran through Tunisia, Egypt, Libya et al in 2011, the world began to take a second look at its affairs.

Nigeria the big brother of Africa was not spared, so it was that the World Health Assembly in a one of its kind joint session held in May 2011- Agreed the 193 member countries of the W.HO. were banned from providing health care to Nigerians, until they fix their infrastructure for health! Wait a minute, there were some exceptions; N.G.O’S, middle income earners and low income earners  could still access treatment abroad, this rule was targeted specifically at Politicians, Government Officials- the President, V.P, Senate President, Ministers, and all the other government officials.

The world was shocked! India and Germany decried the income they would lose as a result of the ban, but then again everyone knew Nigeria had no health sector. Was that not the country where their president was ill and had to be taken to Saudi Arabia for months? Alas did two of their ex-first ladies not die abroad, one in Spain and the other in U.S.A? Truly the World Health Assembly had cause to be vexed; after all a world that is greatly out of balance in matters of health is neither stable nor secure.

The W.H.O D.G complained that while under 5 mortality rate was below 15 per 1000 in the high-income areas in Nigeria, in a slum in the same city, the rate was 254 per 1000. Did the world health assembly not have good reasons for this ban?

Geneva was agog with the news of the ban, the Nigerian press were churning out all sorts, they even purported that the U.N was soon going to ban their president from travelling out of the country until he tackled corruption and fixed the country. Even their press needed the fix, brown envelopes were their best friends and they even protested the ban at first until reason kicked in.

The World Health Assembly thought they were smarter than Nigerians, the politicians and government officials- they started claiming to be middle income earners, then the low and middle income earners revolted they told the World

Health Assembly to make it a general ban, people were prepared to die for Nigeria now like the guy who burnt himself up in front of the Egyptian parliament, no not exactly like that, I heard somewhere that Nigerians loved life a little too much but if they did why did they sit and fold their arms and allow their health care take a back seat.

The Central Area office of the World Health Organization was inundated with all sorts of Ghana- must –go bags, these Nigerians they thought they could also bribe the W.H.O. Some big men flew abroad for treatment but when asked to present their passports they were denied treatment.

So it was that they had no choice but to improve their health care, the excess crude account was used to facilitate the health care rejuvenation project. In less than 6 months, world class hospitals sprung up in Nigeria, everyone applauded their effort but the ban was not lifted by the W.H.O.

They wanted them to patronise and by so doing, maintain their own health care.

As reveries come, this one was far-fetched…