Some doctors in Nigeria use candlelight to perform operations due to the dearth of funding for the sector, a medical practitioner told a Senate panel during a public hearing on the 2017 budget yesterday.

Benjamin Anyele, chairman, Health Sector Reform Coalition, said this when he delivered a keynote address to the surprised lawmakers.

“It has gotten so bad that Nigerians are running mental without knowing, nurses use candlelight to assist in carrying out operations,” Anyele told the lawmakers.

After losing her fourth child during delivery at the house of her regular traditional birth attendant (TBA), 42 year–old Kemi Ariyo contracted spiritualists to get to the root of her problems. “I was widely accused to be a witch as a result of the demise of my babies,” Kemi said. “So I approached the spiritualists who pray for pregnant women and see to the delivery of their babies”.
 

To check the rate of infant and maternal mortality in the state, Cross River State Government is to integrate traditional birth attendants (TBAs) into its healthcare system.
 
The state government said this was necessary considering their strategic role in the society, in terms of taking delivery of babies, especially in rural areas.
 

The Senate on Tuesday said that the expenditure of over $1 billion (about N305.250 billion) annually for medical treatment abroad was unacceptable.
 
Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Senator Lanre Tejuosho, who stated this at a press conference in Abuja said that the Senate was working assiduously to turn the country’s health sector around for the benefit of Nigerian.