By Talemoh Wycliffe Dah
That we do have some confusion regarding our national development is not in doubt, and that that confusion has become inbuilt into our effort process is very obvious. It is like an evolved DNA sequence where dragonfly will sire dragonfly and monkey will birth monkey, for certain. And though the chief architects of this unfortunate distortion can be fingered, we seem to be all complicit, because if we were in charge, we would do same, and we expect our own who is there to act same; I mean, to steal, embezzle, express the colours of nepotism, cheat, not be conscientious with regard to national interests, etc. Or we just acquiesce, condone, tolerate, abet, accept or end by making small noise to satisfy our conscience, just as I am doing by writing this piece.
Give a contract for a road construction from Abuja to Kaduna, and the lousiest son of the prophets can predict it won’t be done on time, at that cost, or at all. Dare ask why, and the explanation will be plausible. No one will take responsibility or be held responsible, even when we know that there is a federal controller or so of works who reports to somebody who reports to somebody. There is a House or Senate Committee playing oversight functions. And, oh yes, there are journalists who won’t question why it has not been done and who is responsible. This is only possible when there is a maturity of collective national negligence.
Recently, a maternal death occurred at Abuja in the FCT. Understandably, the Honorable Minister was angry. He was reported to have wondered why the deceased would use such a low-level facility manned by low cadre medical personnel when he has declared and provided for free maternal services in the FCT. Good and logical question. But nothing followed, except for the closure of the facility and the punishment of the proprietors. Senate and House Committee members in charge of health and the FCT heard, FCT elders heard, journalists heard, the civil society heard, but no further thing was done. Why did the deceased choose to not use the better FCT hospitals and medical consultants? Was it a problem of accessibility or acceptability? Are the free maternity services actually there since they were funded? How can a policy backed by tax payers’ money be shunned by the very poor for whom it was meant? What is going on? No, nothing. Nobody asked somebody who reports to him and to whom another reports. The matter has reached its conclusion since the culprits were punished. Khalas!
A recent similar policy by the federal government through the ministry of health, that maternal health services, especially maternity services, are free for indigent women, has been noted to be well implemented in several Federal Medical Centres. This is praise worthy and the Honorable Minister of Health and the Federal Ministry of Health must be commended. What is not commendable and what gives credence to this comment is the inaction of whoever is concerned about the policy pronouncement by Mr President last year about delaying the retirement of medical workers so as to cushion the effects of the Japa (fleeing abroad) phenomenon.
Mr President has, getting to a year now, made a policy that the retirement ages for medical personnel be raised. This policy, together with others, was a stop-gap and short-term measure to mitigate the effects of medical staff attrition occasioned by migration. It is an urgent policy fit for an emergency situation. But alas, one year on, it has not been implemented. ‘Right and good’ reasons are proffered, one of which is that the National Council on Establishment is yet to be held for the ratification, paving way for enabling documents! So the depletion in health human resources continues to take place on the dual fronts of Japa and retirement. Nobody close to the president cares to remind him of the policy to see if implementation was done. The ministries of health, labour, etc, are unperturbed while the health services suffer. Civil societies are mum, and so are elders in the health industry. All because the jungle of collective national negligence has matured. Who will tell the president? And will he be allowed to hear?
Worse than the collective national laissez-faire attitude to every developmental issue are regional grand-standing and sectional interpretation of every matter. Though not collective, they are the lenses through which some people in our country have decided that the rest of us must view things. Of course, these are for selfish reasons, making them most annoying because when they get the benefits, they don’t think of you but when they are excluded, they recruit you to fight their battles. To look good, they pretend to champion sectional or regional agitations for inclusion, in all and any matter. If money is budgeted to revive a desert plant, their littoral state must be included; when there is an outbreak of a marine-related disease in the littoral states, funds for preventive measures must be shared to the Sahel. And the rest of us must be recruited, or else we will be seen as not promoting our regional development and good. Needless to say, I am not available to be recruited to fight someone else’s battle by proxy of intentions.
Another confusion regarding our national development is the intelligent dissection of issues ailing the country, with the proffering of perfect solutions, but, the predictable non-implementation of such solutions. It is a recurring decimal. So, it is known that the textile industry should be revamped and we should wear dresses from local industries, but it has not been done for decades. In the medical industry, we agreed more than forty years ago to manage traditional birth attendants till we quickly produce midwives so as to reduce maternal mortality. Since it takes three years to produce a midwife, at least fourteen sets would have been produced by now. Instead, some states even closed the schools of midwifery they had and replacing the ones lost to attrition is a matter of discussion only. Thanks to the positive strides made by the military now; but, we know that regime after regime, legislative assembly after legislative assembly, the insecurity we have continues, with only voluptuous volumes of talk full of conflicting theories to show as efforts to counter rag-tag militias with little training and no education. We are not even ashamed to keep transferring responsibility for their presence from one regime set to another. Talk, just talk, like that ingredient necessary for beer parlour tarrying.
The disregard to institutional roles by traditional and religious bodies adds to our developmental confusion. Traditional leaders now don’t find it difficult to be partisan and sectional, forgetting that they are fathers to all. What shamefully induces this behaviour is love for lucre. Religious leaders instill hatred for others into the soul of their adherents. They don’t preach piety any longer but politics, sectionalism, etc. Or else how do you explain the burgeoning of vices in every sphere of life? The success and importance of the religious industry to a country is the reduction of vices in the society, whatever the name of the religion; but this role has been disregarded.
These confusions, listed above have merged with lack of rule of law to eat away the patriotism in all Nigerians, to varying degrees. We openly say that our country is ‘finished’ (that is, irredeemable). But this is not true. When we step away from just talk to action, a national rebirth is possible.
● Dah, a consultant gynaecologist is based in Abuja, and can be reached at talemohwdah@yahoo.com
