WHITHER NIGERIA?

I try my best to look at the brighter side of things each time I think, speak or write about Nigeria. I consider it a service to my country not to be a doomsday provocateur. But these days maintaining one’s sanity and positivity is becoming increasingly challenging. I have posited time and again that we have focused too much on electoral politics and that it weakens the same institutions we elect our leaders to superintend. Can there be democracy without the rule of law? Can the rule of law be upheld without a strong, independent judiciary and police force? If something urgent isn’t done to savage the situation, all plausible indices show that our dear country, Nigeria, is nose-diving into the abyss.

The big lie that we are is taking the shine off our potential for greatness; we have become a source of comedy to the international community. We are the laughingstock of the world, yet we seem clueless about it. It is only in Nigeria that a registered private jet would take off from the Presidential Wing of an international airport stacked with $9.3 million cash (a society preaching cashless economy) and land in another sovereign country in total disrespect for all known international protocols on money laundering. And when the authorities in South Africa arrested the two Nigerians and one Israeli in possession of the confiscated sum of money, a real Pandora’s Box was blown open: the three men were meant to procure weapons with the money on behalf of the Nigerian government! It turns out that the South African government didn’t license the company they intended to do business with! The whole thing stinks. Who are these people? Who are the arms intended for? Are these some of the arms we find with terrorists and cannot explain how they have arrived in our land?

If we were a sane society, we should be asking the airport authorities, the Nigeria Customs Service, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Central Bank of Nigeria and security agencies how they managed to miss what the South African authorities intercepted. We would have seen some high-level resignations and arrests. We should be getting answers on how the Nigerian government had to “borrow” a private jet belonging to a man of God to procure arms when there are 10-12 jets in the Presidential Fleet. Yet, we cannot ask questions or raise concern because we don’t have institutions strong enough to provide answers. Our legislators have stood down a debate on the matter, as they see no need.

  

While we were breaking all protocols and conventions known to man and flouting the local laws of a fellow African country, back home, a church building has collapsed, killing around 115 people on religious tourism. Of that number, 85 people were from – guess where – South Africa! An apparent case of negligence and violation of set regulations was twisted into a cock-and-bull story of terrorism and perhaps a witch-hunt. No protection for the believers; no information for us.  Even if our government is insensitive to the criminal and/or diplomatic implications of its actions in the $9.3 million scam and its inaction in the issue of the collapsed sanctuary, shouldn’t it at least be mindful of the wellbeing of its Diaspora citizens? The South African media has commenced a sneer campaign on Nigeria and Nigerians. We should be mindful that our own silence makes us complicit in it. 

Nigerians in South Africa are being targeted afresh for attacks because back home the recklessness continues and even if there were a probe, it would amount to nothing, as our rule of law continues to be trampled upon with impunity.

We may never know what brought down that Synagogue building. Nigeria is a country of absurdities and we seem OK with it.

So long as ethnicity, religion and venality are thrown in the mix of our extractive socio-political system, core institutions responsible for checks and balances will continue to be defeated. If we cannot speak the truth or protect our laws for fear of being labeled, then greater injustices will continue to ravage us. The power play unfolding in Taraba State is a microcosm of the corruption of our government and the weakness of our institutions. There are two governors in Taraba and no government. A parasitic cabal has retained an evidently incapacitated governor, thereby preventing the constitutional process that would have paved way for the transition of power to his deputy. The biggest losers in this distasteful opera are the people of Taraba whose state has been floating for the better part of two years.

Meanwhile our President is silent, but represented us at the United Nations Security Council meeting and gave an address on terrorism and how to prevent it.

Heaven help us! 

COMMUNICATION AND UNDERSTANDING

I read that Washington Post editorial about the insensitive parody of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign by some supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan before I actually saw the posters. The one erected close to the ECOWAS Commission at Asokoro, Abuja, gave me an understanding that we all do not think in the same way and see things from very different perspectives.  The green-and-white #BringBackGoodluck2015 wasn’t only a poorly conceived, insensitive and myopic idea; it was an embarrassment to Nigeria and Nigerians.

  

Had the little minds that conceived such a distasteful association to the person of President Jonathan known what the BBOG hash tag stands for, if they understood what is at stake, they would not try to use it for political gain. Resorting to the adaptation of a symbol of pain, struggle and hope for political gains is a moral crime. For a tool devised to constantly remind the government that for five months those young girls have been held captive in the hands of terrorists to be so mocked leaves me with no words. It is an irony, a paradox and an indictment all at the same time. As claimed by the Presidency, it is possible that the group which perpetrated the evil act (yes, it is an evil act!) acted alone without the consent of Jonathan or any of his advisers. But, why did it take an editorial in a foreign newspaper for the action to be reversed? Were the cries in the social media prior to that Washington Post commentary not loud and clear enough?

We here are the constituency. If we know what we are doing as a people, our government, our leaders will listen to us first before being influenced by the views of outside bodies. While it is quite easy for the Presidency to claim its innocence of any complicity in the campaign faux pas, how does it explain the former Borno State governor escorting the President to Chad, after an Australian hostage negotiator, Stephen Davis, accused him of sponsoring Boko Haram and the Department of State Security released a statement saying Sheriff was under investigation. Although they came out to vehemently deny the allegation, Sheriff should not be seen to be hobnobbing with the President. It is not my duty to either defend or prosecute Sheriff, but his 2011 advertorial, wherein he tendered unreserved apology to Boko Haram for unknown reasons, is a traceable public document.  No court of competent jurisdiction has pronounced Sheriff guilty but with such an allegation dangling over his head I am not so sure that he is the best choice of ambassador! Our leaders should not only do the right thing, they should be seen to do it. 

On the bright side of things, the Defence Headquarters and all Nigerians should be proud of the fact that we still have amongst us, brave and determined men and women who are ready and willing to pay the ultimate price for the good of Nigeria. Injured Lt. Col. Adeboye Obasanjo, son of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, is one of them. Many wives have been made widows and many children made orphans since the insurgency started. We haven’t appreciated our soldiers enough. They are doing a sterling job even in very difficult circumstances and risk their lives every day to rid our land of terrorists. With the power his father wields, Adeboye could have chosen not to be deployed to the frontline but he has chosen to do so and we thank him and all others who are fighting the fight for securing our futures. 

It is at times like these, when so many things around us are not going well and our spirits are dampened and we despair, that we are given a boost of oxygen and a pick me up, and understand that all is not lost and we are not alone and we must fight on.  Nigeria is what we make of it, whether a comedy of errors, a tragic reality or a success in the making. At present, we poison our country with too many toxins. We should be mindful that these toxins would still be causing damage long after we are gone. It is for these reasons, with so many challenges confronting us as a nation, that we should all take an interest in the upcoming elections. Poor communication causes confusion, misunderstanding, conflict and inevitably insecurity and loss of life; precisely what we are experiencing now. Some amongst us accord the 2015 elections and only what they can gain from it more priority than these crises threatening our existence.

Think what you can do for Nigeria and not what Nigeria can do for you. Please get involved now and let us all fight to have a voice that is always heard.

DOCTORS’ DEMANDS

Whatever sigh of relief we heave at the news of the suspension of the strike embarked upon by the Nigeria Medical Association (MNA) is bound to be ephemeral. It is heart-warming that our doctors in the public health sector have, out of the Ebola emergency, decided to put a human face to their agitation. They have reasoned, but should we celebrate? This is an association whose members render essential services impossible to quantify; they are life savers whose plights should not be ignored.

But here we are in a country where government’s response to doctors’ grievances is mass sack. Between being a bad joke and an uninformed propaganda, the federal government announced the sack of these same doctors. 16,000+ medical doctors in the public sector, already grossly inadequate for a population of over 170 million people, were pronounced sacked in a democracy? It had to be a joke. And throughout the duration of the strike, government maintained a hard-line position. The general public was misinformed in a bid to portray the striking doctors as selfish, arrogant and implacable. Their demands were treated as if they were all about better wages and entitlements.

I took time to study the 24-point demands of the NMA and what I found could be classified into two groups. The first group of demands falls in the category of outstanding agreements officially reached by the government with the doctors during previous negotiations. As usual, those agreements are yet to be honoured. It is not so difficult to find instances where government enters into an agreement with a trade union and adamantly refuses to redeem its pledge; it is the same with ASUU, ASUP, NUT, NLC, etc.

The other category of demands made by the NMA concerns rational technical issues the government should be ashamed of refusing in the first place. For instance, the association demands the Office of the Surgeon-General, a professional among its members who should be saddled with the responsibility of medical bureaucracy. It wants the chairmen, Medical Advisory Committees in teaching hospitals and federal medical centres to be assisted by deputies. They demand the establishment of a health trust to upgrade public hospitals. The doctors want the position of Chief Medical Director/Medical Director to be occupied by a medical doctor as against using it to return political favours. Most importantly, they demand that government expedites the passage of the National Health Bill (NHB) and extend Universal Health Coverage to 100 percent from its current 30 percent.

How on earth are these self-centred claims?                     

We shouldn’t forget that our public hospitals are poorly stocked. There are cases where patients are made to pay for gloves and syringes. I have personally witnessed where a patient had to pay for the sanitary materials used during the evacuation of her miscarried foetus.  Aren’t these basics that should be available in every hospital? Why should any well-meaning government shirk the implementation of minimum standards in its health sector? We forget that resident doctors are also human beings who have families and responsibilities. If we don’t take care of them, then we should stop bemoaning brain drain, because it is going to continue on an unprecedented scale.

No doctor wants to work in public hospitals where there are not facilities. They either set up their own private practice or move in their droves to countries where things are done right. A    substantial percentage of members of the Association of Black Doctors in America are Nigerians. By implication, brain drain is one of the challenges faced by our health sector, occasioned by collapsed infrastructure, poor remuneration and a deficient healthcare master plan. All the doctors are asking is for government to tackle the problems in the health sector that have made Nigeria a medical scavenger.

Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa said, at an interactive session with officials of the Nigerian High Commission in India, in 2011, that she was stunned by the revelation that Indian middlemen collaborate with fraudulent Nigerians to extort innocent Nigerians in search of medical treatments in Indian. Victims pay as much as three times the actual medical costs, no thanks to the scandalous opportunity a breakdown in our health sector has presented callous syndicates. Does this worry our leaders?

Isn’t it distressing that Nigerians seek medical attention in such odd places as Ghana, Egypt, the UAE and India, because our system cannot take care of itself? Those who cannot afford such “luxury” are faced with the choice of exorbitant private hospitals and their near-inefficient public counterparts at home. Yet, it is the constitutional right of every Nigerian to be catered for by the government, or what do we think is meant in Section 14 (2b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) by  “...the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”?