Health forms the bedrock of prosperity and national progress. No country can surpass the vitality of its citizens. As Mahatma Gandhi aptly put it, “It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.” Yet Nigeria grapples with a profound health crisis that strips millions of this essential asset.
The nation’s health metrics paint a grim picture. Men live an average of 55 years, women 58. Maternal deaths rank among the world’s highest—Nigeria accounts for one in four globally. Countless women enter labor wards and never emerge.
Children suffer equally. One in ten fails to reach age five. Over 30 percent of under-fives endure stunting from malnutrition, their futures compromised from birth.
Infectious diseases remain rampant. Malaria claims about 200,000 lives yearly, HIV impacts nearly two million, and tuberculosis persists unchecked. Preventable outbreaks of measles and meningitis continue to kill.
Non-communicable diseases compound the crisis. Hypertension afflicts nearly four in ten adults, diabetes surges, and cancers are diagnosed too late. Strokes and heart disease now reap thousands annually.
Underpinning these figures is a crumbling system: fewer than 40,000 doctors serve over 200 million people, clustered in cities. Rural residents trek miles for rudimentary care. Out-of-pocket costs exceed 70 percent of funding, plunging millions into poverty. Meanwhile, doctors and nurses flee abroad in a relentless brain drain.
Arthur Schopenhauer cautioned, “The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.” Nigeria must end this sacrifice.
Artificial Intelligence trains machines to learn, reason, and perform with speed and precision beyond human limits. Far from fiction, it powers everyday tools like Siri, Google Assistant, and fraud detection. In medicine, AI scans images, parses records, and suggests treatments at lightning pace.
Kofi Annan declared, “Knowledge is power. Information is liberating.” AI embodies this liberation.
Globally, it saves lives: screening diabetic retinopathy in India’s remote areas; spotting breast cancer early in UK mammograms; hastening COVID-19 vaccines; triaging patients via US chatbots.
Albert Einstein noted, “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” AI is Nigeria’s.
Key Applications:
– Early Diagnosis: Precisely interprets malaria slides, X-rays, CT scans—enabling prompt intervention.
– Telemedicine: Delivers AI consultations to village smartphones, decongesting city hospitals.
– Personalised Medicine: Customizes therapies to genetics and habits, ditching uniform approaches.
• Hospital Management Forecasts admissions, allocates beds, slashes delays.
– Counterfeit Control: Monitors drug supply chains to expose fakes.
– Outbreak Prediction: Analyzes data to forewarn of malaria or cholera surges.
Nigeria’s digital-native youth can craft bespoke solutions. Having skipped landlines for mobiles, we can vault to AI health systems—cutting costs, curbing excess visits, and enhancing training.
Alan Kay urged, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
Barriers persist: patchy records, erratic power, weak connectivity. Data and infrastructure are prerequisites. Privacy ethics and job-loss worries demand attention.
William S. Burroughs asserted, “The purpose of technology is not to confuse the brain but to serve the body.” AI partners with clinicians, not supplants them.
Path Forward:
– Enact national AI-health policy.
– Forge public-private ties among hospitals, academia, and tech.
– Train providers in AI literacy.
– Fund startups targeting malaria, sickle cell, and local burdens.
– Legislate ethical AI and data safeguards.
John Maxwell: “The true measure of leadership is to see possibility in the impossible.”
Envision Nigeria where AI preempts maternal deaths, nails malaria diagnoses, and prevents financial ruin through streamlined care.
Gandhi: “The future depends on what you do today.” AI magnifies doctors, nurses, pharmacists. With talent, urgency, and resolve, we convert scarcity to innovation, efficiency, hope.
Nigeria’s health tomorrow rests on today’s actions.
Dr. Lolu Ojo is a consultant pharmacist.
