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Dotun Oyeniyi
 Author, Economist and Practicing Attorney
London, England

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So weep less about the President’s health but more about the nation’s health. The president is even lucky that he has the means to frequently jettison the opulence of Aso Rock for a short term tenancy in foreign hospitals. Tens of thousands others are dying under the roof of their dilapidated homes, with neither a means to afford even the cheapest of drugs nor a visit to the local hospitals, let alone a trip to a foreign hospital. These people are left with no choice but to depend on roadside paraga merchants, an infinitely expanding clan of roadside herbal doctors that have stubbornly made a mockery of NAFDAC control and regulations, apparently born out of economic reality and desperation for survival.

 

A SICK PRESIDENT OF AN UNHEALTHY NATION: PARADOX OF YAR’ADUA’S HEALTH AND NIGERIA’S HYPOCRISY.
 by Dotun Oyeniyi
 

In the last of couple of weeks, the press has been awash with screaming headlines about the President’s health. “Where is our president? Nigerians ask”! “Dead or Alive?”! “Yar’Adua in critical condition”! “The President may not return early”, are some of the endless variant of the screaming headlines.

In response to these probing headlines and the palpable air of uncertainty that hung over Nigeria skies over the President’s health, a sizeable number of Nigeria leaders rose in a seeming defence of, sympathy for and solidarity with the president. From the Sultan to the leadership of the PDP and notable leaders of the north came the message that the President’s health does not yet demand a push of the panic button.

However, beneath some of these amiable shows of concern lies hypocrisy in its most callous form. A section of the sympathisers, especially within the PDP top hierarchy were hoping, even praying that Yar’Adua should return, but not as a passenger of the airline, rather as a cargo, his body locked up in a beautiful casket draped in an immaculate green-white-green national flag, to the waiting hands of a formidable delegation of the federal government led by Goodluck Jonathan and David Mark. This was the callous thought pervading the minds of a section of the PDP leadership. It should not surprise anyone because PDP is a monstrous enclave of strange bedfellows united by a single mission – the capture of political power, however diabolic the process of capturing that power is. To this section, 2011 is too far away, seemingly indefinite period to wait, before having another shot at the presidency.

But why the hoo-hah about the President’s health? Why are some people crying louder than the bereaved? Why did Muhamadu Buhari and some other notable leaders call on the president to publish his medical records in the newspapers? It all boils down to the fact that we are a nation full of hypocrites and downright mischievous people. It is not only the President that is sick, but Nigeria itself is sick as a nation. If we care about Nigeria’s heath, half or even one-third of the way we pretend to care about the President’s health, maybe Nigeria would have been a better place.

Everywhere one turns to, one is confronted with that ugly look of a nation, so sick that it appears to be heading towards its terminability. Less than three weeks ago, I had a running battle with the officials of Nigerian Customs, Narcotic, Immigration and others too many to remember at the Murtala Muhammed Airport. These people, who usually sit at the corner of an airline stand, were not going to allow me take about 10kg of gari on board Bellview airline to London unless I gave them some bribe. The short time I spent arguing with them exposed how sick Nigeria has become as these officials collect bribes, with impunity, from passengers who had any sort of foodstuffs in their London-bound luggages.

It is only in a sick nation, that Babagana ´Afonja´ Kingibe will ever have any prime position conceded to him in a democracy that he worked so assiduously to thwart. Would any person forget the ignominious role that Kingibe played during the June 12 struggle? It appeared that Kingibe had half-heartedly been in the struggle from the beginning until he eventually ditched the struggle for a ministerial position under Sani Abacha. For that same Kingibe to be the one enjoying the fruit of that struggle is a possibility only in a sick nation, and that explains why the man left the office with ‘no regrets.’

For all the good works of that young, vibrant, hardworking and downright incorruptible rare specie of the Nigerian police – Nuhu Ribadu, what the country did was to reward him with a demotion. It is only in a nation that is on a sick bed that that would happen. Those who have woven the complex political tapestry that led to Ribadu’s demotion hung it on the fact that he got rapid promotion during the Obasanjo years. But what is wrong in promoting a man that has done exceptionally well in fighting a national scourge? How many of those fat-bellied Commissioners of police would head EFCC and not make millions for themselves, not in naira but in hard currencies? In this politics of Ribadu’s demotion, the real loser is not Ribadu himself but Nigeria, for we have subconsciously sent a wrong message to others who want to serve Nigeria with all their hearts and in all honesty that Nigeria is not deserving of that dedication.

Have we all noticed the enormous difference between the recently held conventions of the Democrats and Republicans in the United States and those of our political parties in Nigeria? In the former, the conventions were based on ideas, ideals, philosophy, programmes and plans of each candidate and party for the United States. In our own so called convention, it is all about ‘aso ebi’ – uniform dress by participants; eyo masquerade; fuji music; dancing, flaunting of hired thugs; distribution of fez cap, vests and money to hired supporters; without any meaningful speech by the contestants. This regrettably is the hallmark of politics in a nation on a sick bed.

So weep less about the President’s health but more about the nation’s health. The president is even lucky that he has the means to frequently jettison the opulence of Aso Rock for a short term tenancy in foreign hospitals. Tens of thousands others are dying under the roof of their dilapidated homes, with neither a means to afford even the cheapest of drugs nor a visit to the local hospitals, let alone a trip to a foreign hospital. These people are left with no choice but to depend on roadside paraga merchants, an infinitely expanding clan of roadside herbal doctors that have stubbornly made a mockery of NAFDAC control and regulations, apparently born out of economic reality and desperation for survival. This clan has an ever ready medicine for all sorts of ailment. A bottled concoction, prepared out of assorted leaves and roots of trees, soaked and blackened in bottles of local gin. As these herbal doctors continue to display their voracious tray of assorted bottles at the motor parks, market places and even at the entrances to government secretariats, NAFDAC and other government officials have no choice but to look the other way because the president is sick, the citizens are sick and even Nigeria is sick, any sort of healings, however rudimentary and barbaric is welcome.
 

 

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