Lamenting our many woes…

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How exactly do we define Nigeria’s problems? Is the country suffering from leadership failure or is it that our country is suffocating inside a miasma of defective citizenship? Could the country be dying under the weight of both problems? Should we blame the eternal rigmarole of our dear country on the strings tied around her by unseen foreign powers, which they pull at will? There is obviously a sad collapse of something important, something like a pillar or cornerstone in the bequeathed Nigerian firmament. It is not in doubt that something is not right about growth and development as expected of a once promising Nigeria. It is also obvious that there is no common agreement among even experts on what the cause or solution is or should be. The time when the causes of Nigeria’s stunted growth began to get at the country, is yet another point of disagreement among the various opinions on this burdensome issue.

Various events that make the news daily in the country show that we are moving. However, the direction to which we are moving is what we do not know in actual fact. The direction to which the country is heading is a matter for another level of discussion. Our politicians want us to believe that the country is moving in the right direction, but those of us on the other side of the divide, who are at the receiving end of their often inexplicable actions, know that this assertion is wrong.

Among those who know and also recognise that our country is moving albeit at an unacceptable pace is Dr Akinwumi Adesina. He was a Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria and currently serves as the President of African Development Bank (AfDB). Adesina said at the 2023 BusinessDay Forum that “Nigeria is developing too slowly and well below its potential.” He suggests that to energise the country, there must be something concrete done to stimulate the Nigerian private sector as well as the micro, small and medium scale enterprises. Of course the president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, addressed these on Monday when he made a nationwide broadcast. Even though the presidential broadcast appeared like an ambush of the angry and NLC and raging TUC, it came with a lot of promises that Nigerians had not heard in a long time.

President Tinubu’s address was like an oasis in a fierce desert. However, to get to the oasis is as dangerous as the perilous people leading the charge. The president enthusiastically reeled out plans that would surely impact the economy of Nigeria going forward. He also announced several measures that might likely stimulate the private sector of the economy as well as the micro, small and medium scale enterprises where the informal sector falls in. however, the small businesses in the informal sector and the scaled enterprises do not have reliable power supply. They also do not have means of getting cheap fuel. Petrol is expensive and its pricing is at the mercy of the fluctuating cost of the dollar. Petrol and diesel are the chief fuels in our country in the absence of reliable public power supply. If there was enough electricity, Nigerians would be more innovative. How would the enterprises to be stimulated by President Tinubu’s measures be so enthused in the face of high cost of fuel? It looks like patching a wrong leak in the long run.

During the week, the NLC and TUC defied the presidential appeal to carry out their protests on Wednesday. The protest brought out the best in our policemen as exemplified by those stationed at the National Assembly. But as an aftermath, there are reports that government has acted like a slighted woman… like a spurned woman. The government through the Federal Ministry of Justice was reported to have filed for a contempt of court order against the NLC. The NLC said they only protested and did not go on strike as ordered by the court. The workers threatened that if the government went ahead in its pursuit of the contempt of court moves, they would down tools. This action by the government brings another dimension to the lingering war between them and the workers and may further widen the gulf between the two bodies. The trust between them had long died. Of course there is always no love lost between them right from time.

Fuel was added to the fire with a memo said to have been sent to chief medical directors of federal government’s tertiary health institutions. The chief medical directors were told to implement the ‘no work no pay’ policy in their institutions. The government through the Federal Ministry of Health also said they should open attendance register for all resident doctors who are willing to work. The memo came with the title that portrayed the government as one which has not taken any serious interest in the deep reasons for the constant dispute with workers in the Nigerian health sector.

The government memo has a kicker which is not just repulsive but insensitive to the reasons we experience strikes in that sector: “Re: Incessant strike action by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors…” The title of the memo is a pointer to the shallow thoughts we may have been giving to the problems in the Nigerian health sector. The rope cannot be so long without a source. The strike actions – numerous they are indeed – by Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors is usually the last resort by these beleaguered health officials. It has been proven over the years that these strikes are not just about remuneration. They are also about conditions of service and tools to do their work effectively. The most recent example of the poor conditions of service is the death of Dr. Vwaere Diaso at the government hospital in Lagos where she worked. Her avoidable painful death is one of the numerous non-pecuniary reasons doctors are not happy and are leaving Nigeria at the slightest opportunity.

In 2018, a respected senior in the medical profession and an eye care giant in Nigeria, Dr Benedict Ajayi, wrote about their nascent experiences in the medical and health sector of Nigeria. He had to express his opinion when the problems in the Nigerian health sector have reached a dangerous crescendo. Of a fact, the elderly doctor was relating how his friend lost his brother during a brief illness. He said: “I asked, did he receive the best of care? ‘No he replied, ‘but certainly, he had the best available care. Every doctor knows and must have experienced the difference between ‘the best of available care’ and ‘the best of care’.” Dr Ajayi’s summation is deep and throbbing.

In 1932, Australian soldiers waged a full scale war against emus. They lost. The large flightless birds that were destroying crops and livestock in Western Australia outwitted humans – including soldiers that had just returned from the Second World War. The Great Emu War was a classic example of military failure. The war was fought under the command of Major Meredith of the Royal Australian Artillery’s 7th Heavy Artillery. The embarrassment of that episode notwithstanding, the country rose from the ashes of the crushing defeat handed it by the birds. In Nigeria, who is the emu and who is the army?

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