Government and the chosification of Nigerians

It is shocking that despite the surging COVID-19 and the raging cholera with their attendant fatality and the brazen effrontery of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health to conduct recruitment interview for consultants and specialists in the medical profession in Abuja and Lagos, the Federal Government still hid behind legalism to sustain the industrial action embarked upon by members of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).

One would have thought that with the rise in the number of deaths occasioned by the virulent attacks of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the cholera epidemic, the government would have pulled all stops to accede the doctors’ request. But rather than do this, the government threatened the resident doctors with the no work, no pay rule.

The doctors had embarked on a strike action early on in April but they were persuaded to suspend it when an agreement was reached between them and the government that their demands would be attended to. But according to the NARD president, Dr Okhuaihesuyi Uyilawa, the government failed to live up to its promise and forced them to resume the suspended strike.

The NARD’s demands are not earth-shattering, neither are they a request for the moon. They are legitimate demands by people who risk their own lives to save others’. The doctors are asking for immediate payment of all salaries owed to all house officers, an upward review of the current hazard allowance to 50 per cent of consolidated basic salaries of all health workers, payment of the outstanding COVID-19 inducement allowance and the payment of death in service insurance for all health workers who died as a result of COVID-19 infection or other infectious diseases in the country.

These are legitimate demands that the government should not have thought twice before settling. It is by no stretch of imagination out of place that doctors are asking a government that pays them N5,000 hazard allowance per month while paying a Senator over N1million to buy newspapers and magazines monthly to increase their hazard allowance. But the government did not consider the request important enough and shoved it aside. The delay by the government in executing an agreement it voluntarily entered into speaks to the fact that it does not value the doctors. By even threatening not to pay them for going on strike, the government made a statement that the doctors do not matter. Hence, while Nigerian lives were being harvested by COVID-19 and cholera, the government didn’t care whether the doctors continued with their strike or not. This is disregarding the dignity of the citizens; this is reducing people to filth. It is what Ola Rotimi describes as chosification in his play, if: A Tragedy of the Ruled. According to the late dramatist and playwright, chosification is the art of turning a person into a thing.

Robbing people of their dignity is the general attitude of those in government. They act as if they are better than the rest of the society, just because they occupy one office or the other. Not only do they exhibit arrogance, they actually hold the citizens in disdain. They talk shabbily at people, look down on those they are supposed to serve and treat human beings worse than animals. Treating people with ignominy dehumanizes them; deprives them of hope, reduces their self-worth and pushes them below the human baseline. When a person has a hope, he conducts himself properly because he doesn’t want anything to jeopardize his expectations. But when he is without a hope, he is without a care. He becomes irrational because of the belief that his situation cannot be worse than it currently is.

In November 2013, during his tenure as Edo State governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, while on a sanitation tour in the state, raged against a woman, Mrs Joy Ifije, who had violated the state provision against street trading. The former governor got further incensed when the woman told him she was a widow by telling her to “go and die.” Although Oshiomhole was humane enough to later apologize to the woman, donate N2million to her and employ her in the state civil service, not many Nigerian public office holders are like that.

This attitude of robbing people of their dignity by those in government is at the root of the instability the country is experiencing. It is the cause of the crisis in different parts of the country. It is the origin of the hostility between the people and government and the aggression Nigerians demonstrate against one another. Most men respond in a like manner when treated with civility. But when a man is robbed of dignity, he becomes dehumanized and slides into bestiality. If Nigerians exhibit traits of savagery, it is because those who lead them have dehumanized them by robbing them of their dignity.

So, the solution to many of the problems plaguing the country is in treating Nigerians well. When the government treats doctors well, they will live by their Hippocratic Oath and be totally committed to saving lives. When policemen are treated with dignity, they will want to reciprocate the good gesture by going out on a limb to protect the people. When soldiers are treated well, they will give their all to defend the nation’s territorial integrity. If the Igbo man is treated with dignity, he feels honoured and has no qualms staying put in the federation. If the Yoruba man is well treated, he will feel respected and there will be no longing for any Oduduwa Republic. When the average Nigerian is treated with dignity, his confidence is buoyed, his hope is raised and he reciprocates the good gesture by doing what is right. Turning citizens into patriots can neither be legislated nor enforced, it can only be accomplished by treating them well and giving them a reason to believe in the country.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents

In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state…

Selfies, video calls and Chinese documentaries: The things you’ll meet onboard Lagos-Ibadan train

The Lagos-Ibadan railway was inaugurated recently for a full paid operation by the Nigerian Railway Corporation after about a year of free test-run. Our reporter joined the train to and fro Lagos from Ibadan and tells his experience in this report…