Nigerian leaders needs to learn from Malaysian former head of state. NIGERIA MISSES THIS PHENOMENA

Mahathir Mohamad in His Own Words

(for those asking for the source of the story of how he objected to being flown abroad for heart surgery in 1989):

“I was admitted into the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital on the night of 17 January 1989. There, Datuk Dr Robaayah Zambahari confirmed that I had had a heart attack and gave me an injection to relieve the pain. She told Hasmah to call our family, which made us realise how serious the situation was. She also called Tun Ghafar Baba, then the Deputy Prime Minister, waking him up from his sleep to tell him what was happening.

“After completing the standard checks, they decided that I needed an angiogram. Coincidentally, Dr Simon Stertzer, a heart specialist from California, was in the region and he was asked to be present for the procedure. He and Dr Robaayah concluded that I had had an infarction and needed a bypass. They gave me a choice of either going to the US for the operation or having it done in Kuala Lumpur. Without hesitation, I decided I would have it done here. I had to have faith in our Malaysian doctors and knew that if I didn’t make an example of myself, no one else would have confidence in our medical service. Previously, all our VIPs had gone abroad, but I knew that Datuk Dr Rozali Wathooth had performed these operations successfully at the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital. He had already left Government service to work at the Subang Jaya Medical Centre, but there were other heart specialists at the General Hospital, including Tan Sri Dr Yahya Awang. I knew that Dr Yahya was quite experienced and I decided to entrust my life to him.

“As a doctor myself, I knew the risks. I knew there was a possibility that I might not survive the operation as it was not, at that time, a common procedure. People still feared letting doctors open up their chests and fiddle with their hearts. But I told myself that if I was going to die, then that was it—I would leave it to Allah and the skill of the surgeon. It may sound dramatic now that so many people have successfully undergone heart surgery, but once I had accepted the possibility of death, I felt quite calm.”

From “A Doctor in The House: A Memoir of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad,” Chapter 43, Oga 89.