Heart-warming tales from Taiwan

Sometime in April 2016, I received a call from the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the Wife of the President, Dr. Hajo Sani, informing me that Her Excellency’s program the “Future Assured Initiative” had been offered two slots on a two-week training workshop on Maternal and Child Health by the Taiwanese Government under its Ministry […]

Sometime in April 2016, I received a call from the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the Wife of the President, Dr. Hajo Sani, informing me that Her Excellency’s program the “Future Assured Initiative” had been offered two slots on a two-week training workshop on Maternal and Child Health by the Taiwanese Government under its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and organized by the International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF). She also informed me that Her Excellency had nominated me as one of the representatives. I was delighted and honoured. I told her I would seek permission from my husband and get back with a response. In his usual supportive way, he agreed.
The other participant was Dr. Kamal Mohammed, a public health specialist, and coordinator of the Initiative and personal physician to the Wife of the President. The added advantage for me was that I would be able to bank the course as part of my Continuous Professional Development (CPD) to keep up my registration with my regulatory body, the Nigerian Medical Council for the year. I must admit it’s been a struggle since becoming ‘Wife of Governor’ and it was getting harder to attain the required points. 
I have never been to Taiwan and so I learnt not just about the health systems and hospitals, but also about the people and their culture. It took 16 hours of travelling by air to reach this beautiful corner of Asia populated by just over 23 million people, a tedious but worthwhile journey. My fellow course mates for the training were 18 health professionals from Africa, South Pacific and the Caribbean and one of the first things we learnt about the health system was its funding. It had both public and private funds with a strong insurance component.
Taiwanese, like us, have strong cultural beliefs, and gender equity was very obvious in many aspects. A part of me feels this equity was forced by the ‘one couple, one child’ policy introduced between 1978 and 1989 to curb exploding population rates. This meant son or daughter, both the government and parents have to strive hard to make that one child a success story. So gender lost relevance and opportunities given became balanced. However, that policy is being phased out. My view on gender equity in Taiwan was reinforced when Tsai Ing Wen led her party to a landslide victory during an election held shortly before our workshop held. With a 56% win, she became Taiwan’s first female Prime Minister and was sworn-in the day I left.
As a paediatrician, one of the personal high points of the workshop was visiting the National Taiwan University Children’s Hospital (NTUCH). It was the first fully dedicated children’s hospital built in Taipei in 2013. Twenty-two floors high, I was, understandably, quite impressed. Every aspect was developed with the primary interest of the child in mind. Premature birth rate was low at 6-8%. The Neonatal intensive care unit was not only as high-tech as I had seen in other developed countries, but also highly innovative. We saw specially designed and adapted transport incubators as well as strong support services and facilities for children, especially those with special needs.
The special needs children facility was interesting to me and is one I hope to be able to explore further because in Nigeria we have no effective system for caring for such children. The whole process of diagnosis, investigating and treating special needs children in Nigeria is very weak, leaving many families at a loss as to what to do. It’s not often apparent because we have a strong family support network that care for the daily needs of such children. It was in this unit that I was struck by two similarities between Taiwanese culture and ours. The first is that the Asian culture gives a lot of respect and reverence to constituted authority, and hold achievements in high esteem especially in the academic sector. I trained in a western environment where I was encouraged to address 60-year-old professors by their first name. It was a shock to my system when I first started but I eventually got into it. In Taiwan, like in my country, this is not acceptable. A professor isn’t only addressed as such, one is expected to stand up and bow in reverence to him.
Education in Taiwan is not free, but it is compulsory to complete secondary school. There are public and private streams at all levels. Even at primary level, there are no completely free schools. However those who can’t afford to pay can apply for scholarships but are bonded to work for the government until the debt is paid. I must admit I didn’t get to see much of the schools beyond the medical ones. Here, we were told about training programs for foreign health professionals especially at post graduate level. It is my hope that we will be able to use the links we have forged and work with the Taiwan mission in Nigeria to establish links and foster bilateral ties.
Another take-home message for me was the urgent need to domesticate the primary healthcare under roof and universal health insurance coverage laws. This has to be considered in all states, including our Kebbi. It is the only avenue to improve our healthcare delivery systems especially in the rural areas. 80% of Nigerians living in rural areas are the major contributors to our disheartening health indices. It will be expensive to start, but in the long run it will work out cheaper, reduce out-of-pocket spending and, most importantly, deliver a reasonable standard of healthcare to the poorest of the poor. One cannot expect returns without investing. For the Nigerian government to improve our amenities, citizens should also put in something. Only then will the social contract balance out. By investing, I don’t mean just contributing a part of our monthly earnings, but also conducting ourselves in a manner that reflects discipline, pride and cleanliness always.
I thank Her Excellency, Wife of the Nigerian President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, and the Government of Taiwan for making this opportunity available to me. I hope many more will benefit in the coming years. However, despite 24-hour power supply, free high-speed Internet access across all nooks and crannies of Taipei, ‘Dunlop’ roads, clean working hospitals, and all the rest, I was glad to head home. I’ve missed the air in my country, my loved ones, my work, and I can’t wait to do justice to a plate of hot Kebbi rice and stew or tuwo with dry okra soup? I really can’t decide just yet.
Bagudu is the wife of the governor of Kebbi State.