This year’s World Health Day which took place on Thursday, April 6, 2022, was themed to converge the health of our planet with those of its inhabitants, especially humans: Our Planet, Our Health.

It emphasises that as we continue our reckless pollution of Mother Earth, we are increasing diseases such as cancer, asthma, heart disease and the frequent outbreaks of severe pandemics such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Earth also has its diseases due mainly to human irresponsible behaviour. These include severe flooding, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons, rising sea levels, melting ice shelves, rapidly-vanishing freshwater resources, droughts and others.

The questions that this year’s celebration is putting at our doorsteps are: “Are we able to imagine a world where clean air, water and food are available to all? Where economies are focused on health and well-being? Where cities are livable and people have control over their health and the health of the planet?”

Myopia and self-centeredness are the banes of human occupation of the planet. Today, there is war in Ukraine due to one man’s over-bloated sense of national superiority towards his weaker neighbours. 

An issue that could have been ironed out through honest constructive engagement is being decided by war in which vile weaponry are being deployed in a manner detrimental to the existence of humans and the earth.

Back home in Nigeria, our disregard for the health of the people and that of Mother Earth is near total.

We pay lip service to the issue of environmental management. We have ministries of environment that only exist to drain public resources rather than engage the populace to manage the environment and protect us from its retaliatory lash-outs. 

We burn bushes, log down our forests with reckless abandon, block drainage channels with rubbish and pollute the air with greenhouse gases.

These misdemeanours come back to haunt us with diseases, erosion, rapid desertification and erratic, severe weathers. 

Meanwhile, our leaders neglect our health sector and use our resources to take care of themselves in hospitals of saner foreign countries.

This year’s World Health Day beckons on us to take the earth along in caring for our health. That is sustainable healthcare.

Vanguard News Nigeria