Little
Practical Steps With We Wait
By
Dr.
Olufemi Adedeji Adebajo
femiadebajo@yahoo.com
It
seems highly unlikely that an epidemic of selflessness and patriotism
will suddenly break out in the ranks of our political and social elite
class. This is partly because we have a culture of passive indifference
on the part of the citizenry and a rapacious appetite for filthy lucre
on the part of our politicians. The primary purpose of government in
Nigeria would appear to be the personal enrichment of
politician-contractors and the personal aggrandizement of our infantile
political class. And I am not convinced that either prayers or curses
alone can provide the magic formula for solving our problems. Prayers
obviously didn’t work in Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sudan, North Korea and
their utility, as a sole or prominent weapon in the Nigerian context, is
highly dubious to put it rather mildly.
Given
the foregoing doom-laden scenario and abject prognosis, it is
unsurprising that true patriots and even ordinary compatriots have
become resigned to their fate, accepted our unattractive ‘destiny’,
retreated into mental and physical inertia and adopted a ‘to your
tents o Israel’ mentality. If this situation is not reversed, we risk
giving up the struggle for our nation’s betterment, emancipation of
ourselves and our very survival becomes a chance occurrence subject to
the capricious whims of our bandit politicians and crooked rulers.
Methinks
we are not totally helpless and I direct my appeal to those Nigerians
who have had the good fortune to have an education, are able to earn a
living and have the luxury of not worrying about getting the next meal.
There are simple things we can do while we wait for good governance in our
motherland. Here are some of those things, and this list is by no means
exhaustive.
-
Health
education:
Inadequate
knowledge of health issues is a major factor in generating our
dismal health statistics like infant mortality and life expectancy
rates. The lack of awareness of elementary health facts and
misconceptions even among highly educated Nigerians is truly
alarming. For example very few people outside medicine realise that
‘heart failure’ is not a synonym for ‘cardiac arrest’ and
‘food poisoning’ does not mean deliberate contamination of food
by chemical poisons or juju powder. Those who know can painlessly
share knowledge and can repeatedly ram these nuggets of knowledge
down the throats of our family and friends. It is literally a matter
of life and death.
-
Health
promotion:
Those of us who are healthcare professionals can adopt a more
proactive attitude to the health of our families and friends. We
can, for example ask hard questions about health and wellbeing and
not simply wait until things become desperate. Practically speaking,
why not offer a free health check (physical examination, blood
pressure, blood sugar, haematological and biochemical profiles etc)
annually to most or all members of your extended family. It surely
must be cheaper than burying them prematurely later. We can
encourage our people to ask more questions from healthcare
professionals when they go to hospital. For example, if your doctor
says you suffer from typhoid, ask questions about his diagnosis
methods and treatment suggestions. The doctor ought not to mind and
I can attest to this longing for even mild curiosity from personal
experience as a practising physician in Lagos. We must take control
of our health and strongly discourage sloppiness and quackery in
healthcare.
-
Education:
It is possible to inexpensively augment the efforts of our
educational system at all levels and help improve the overall
literacy level of our citizenry. One example is to have small
mentoring groups consisting of perhaps 3 to 5 individuals each. They
can they undertake to ‘adopt’ a few pupils each and closely
promote their education by measures such as helping them with
learning materials, liaising with their teachers and generally
taking an active interest in their academic development. This need
not be a high cost option and a few phone calls here and a few
purchases here would rapidly amount to a lot of effective attention.
This is especially pertinent to those of us who live abroad as, by
my reckoning, a paltry monthly outlay of 20 pounds can be put to
very effective use. If your ward is able to access the Internet (and
there are many cyber cafés around in Nigeria now) you might even be
able to keep in touch more frequently and less expensively by email.
Just think of how inspiring a pep talk from ‘Uncle Joe’ from
Lagos or ‘Aunty Joyce’ from London can be to a young child in
the village. We can disseminate information about scholarship
schemes, support our alma mata, supply writing and reading materials
to schools in our neighbourhoods and set up school competitions
(spelling contests, essay competitions, endow end-of-term prizes
etc).
-
Career
promotion:
We
can all actively seek to promote the careers of our younger
compatriots and offer useful help based on our life experiences. If
you come across one studying Accountancy for example, help them to
consider taking ICAN exams or if you meet a youngster studying
medicine, try to help consider options for postgraduate training and
career development should that be their ambition.
-
Reduce
waste:
It is very common for us to fritter our cash on frivolities
like big parties and flashy clothes. Some might argue that these
parties are deeply entrenched in our culture and arguably play a
role in maintaining some social cohesion in a fractious society but
this is a largely specious argument. We can have smaller parties
less frequently (and have just as much fun), decline to celebrate 80th
year remembrance of our late great-grandmother with anything more
than token drinks and prayers and ‘spray’ just a little less
money (or none at all) at the next Owambe party. Whatever we save
this way can be deployed to making the lives of others just that
little bit more bearable. It really is that simple.
-
Little
acts of protest:
When
our absentee governors, legislators and senior special advisers and
their retinue of lackeys and political jobbers arrive on their next
trip to Europe and USA, those of us who live here can take advantage
of the culture of democratic protest in these societies to make
their stay most uncomfortable. We can pester them with hostile
posters, flood their residences with protest mail, harass them with
hostile phone calls on TV phone-ins and generally make their lives
miserable. It is a fate richly deserved by our traducers and we are
morally justified in doing this. I am open to suggestions in this
regard.
It
is regrettable that we are unable to mobilise our abundant resources to
promote the wellbeing of our people and lift Nigeria into the ranks of
advanced societies but that is our lot at present. We can either wring
our hands in frustration or do something, no matter how little. The time
for action is NOW. Please do something. TORI OLORUN. I BEG UNA.
Femi
Adebajo
femiadebajo@yahoo.com
24
May 2004
Milton
Keynes, UK.
Author’s
note
Dr.
Olufemi Adedeji ADEBAJO is a 1991 medical graduate of the University of
Ibadan.
He
is a currently a practising psychiatrist in the United Kingdom and a
member of the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists.
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