Power and privileges in medical care: an analysis of medical services in post-colonial Nigeria.

Subsequent Nigerian Governments since independence have been committed to a policy of health-for-all. The right to medical care is now constitutionally guaranteed. But it takes more than the constitution to translate medical, and indeed all rights, to reality. In practice, as this study reveals, status, power and privileges determine whether or not one gets Western medical services and of what type in contemporary Nigeria. Further, medical services for the generality of the people have remained a second rate priority of post-colonial governments, very much like the situation in colonial days. The care for state employees and other elites continues to take precedence.