Category: Letters

Sir: The United Nations celebrated the International Day of Friendship on July 30. It was another opportunity to reflect on the gift that friendship is.

The International Day of Friendship was proclaimed in 2011 by the UN General Assembly with the idea that friendship between peoples, countries, cultures, and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities.

The resolution places emphasis on involving young people, as future leaders, in community activities that include different cultures and promote international understanding and respect for diversity.

To mark the International Day of Friendship, the UN encourages governments, international organizations and civil society groups to hold events, activities, and initiatives that contribute to the efforts of the international community towards promoting a dialogue among civilizations, solidarity, mutual understanding and reconciliation.

The International Day of Friendship is an initiative that follows on the proposal made by UNESCO, defining the Culture of Peace as a set of values, attitudes and behaviours that reject violence and endeavour to prevent conflicts by addressing their root causes with a view to solving problems. It was then adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1997.

On July 26, the military in Niger unilaterally decided that the country was tilting dangerously towards peril. Citing security concerns and worsening socio-economic conditions, the junta led by Gen  Abdourahamane Tchiani  ousted the democratically elected government of President Mohammed Bazoum.

While a handful of misguided protesters have wildly cheered what is the latest obstacle in the way of Niger’s tortuous road to democracy, the world has looked to the friends of the country to defend its democracy.

While the European Union has swiftly suspended aid and assistance to the country, its closest friends, the 15 countries which constitute the Economic Community of West Africa,(ECOWAS) has chillingly threatened to use force to restore Niger’s democracy.

A slew of sanctions meant to suffocate the junta are already in full flow. But at a time when West Africa, which is the heart of West Africa, is facing unprecedented terrorism, friendship can offer West African countries the template they need to confront what is an existential danger.

What the long-suffering people of Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, need to see is that the world is interested in their friendship; the everyday Nigeriens, who have long shouldered the burden of a broken democracy and must now bear the brunt of military abuse and avarice.

The children and women of Niger have to see and know that despite the chaos that their country has become, the world remains deeply invested in their present and future.

• Ike Willie-Nwobu, Ikewilly9@gmail.com

By Deborah Oluwabunmi

SIR: I received with immense joy the order given by the president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu which called for the suspension of arbitrary increment in charges recently announced by some federal government owned universities. The order, though a step in the right direction, is only a temporary fix to the hydra-headed monster created by the poor funding of our universities.

It is not a lie that Nigerian public universities have been grossly under-funded by successive governments over the years. The issue of poor funding has greatly affected the quality of graduates produced yearly. This itself is the result of the dearth of infrastructural facilities, poor welfare for members of the academic community among others.

Few months ago, electricity supply was cut off at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria following the alleged failure of the university to pay an outstanding bill worth N900 million to the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company.

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While I greatly sympathize with the managers of the academic community, it is important to note that the failure of the government to meet up to its duty in the aspect of funding does not mean that our institutions have to be left at their mercy.

Of course, the removal of fuel subsidy which has continued to cause untold hardship for Nigerians has greatly affected the academic community. 

However, it is unacceptable that the only solution proposed by the managers of some of our institutions had to be a fee increment which in my opinion is the least innovative and most lazy alternative way of generating funds.

In saner climes, institutions generate funds through endowment funds, sponsorships by philanthropists, corporate organizations, alumni associations and the likes. 

While Nigerian public universities still unarguably remain one of the cheapest universities in the world, it is imperative to state that universities require adequate funding to survive. Presently, the university system in Nigeria lacks the willpower to be financially autonomous. Financial autonomy at this stage will mean the introduction of tuition which will be suicidal seeing that Nigerians are still battling with the removal of fuel subsidy. The introduction of the student loan fund though might help a little to keep interested learners in school, will not provide permanent solutions nor address the issue of funding. 

The government can help by implementing a Public-Private Partnership scheme for the management of our institutions. A bail-out fund to rescue some failing universities will also be appreciated.

• Deborah Oluwabunmi, Abuja.

Sir: Gender plays a crucial role in shaping health systems and the overall well-being of individuals. In Nigeria, like many other countries, deeply ingrained gender norms and inequalities can lead to significant disparities in access to healthcare, utilization of services, and health outcomes between men and women. Recognizing and addressing these gender-related factors is essential for achieving a more responsive, fair, and accessible health system for all Nigerians.

Gender norms include beliefs, cultural ideals, stereotypes, and roles related to health and disease. These norms often result in gender inequalities that advantage men over women, leading to avoidable differences in accessing healthcare services and health status.

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For instance, women may face challenges traveling long distances to clinics, either due to family obligations or restrictions on their ability to travel alone. Furthermore, women’s lower cash income compared to their husbands can lead to dependence and hinder their access to health services without their spouses’ permission.

Additionally, gender norms can influence health-related behaviours and stigma. For example, men may avoid seeking medical attention for fear of appearing weak in front of their peers, while women may experience stigmatization when accessing antiretroviral therapy for HIV.

In Nigeria, the healthcare workforce is predominantly female at lower levels, such as community health workers, yet the management and leadership positions are still dominated by men. Such disparities perpetuate gender inequalities within the health system itself.

Addressing these gender-related issues requires comprehensive efforts through research, workforce policies, strategies, laws, and human resources management training. Tackling workplace violence and gender discrimination concurrently can improve workforce productivity, retention, and the enjoyment of human rights at work. It can also create more opportunities for women to advance into leadership positions.

To ensure equal representation of men and women in management and leadership roles, various policies and programs can be implemented. Equal opportunities for professional training should be provided to both men and women. Educational and informational materials should be reviewed to ensure women’s representation in images related to key decision-making. Adopting and implementing affirmative action objectives can guarantee equal opportunities for women in health workforce leadership positions. Involving health workers and clients in the design of training and career paths, as well as the development of human resource policies and management strategies, can also contribute to achieving this goal.

In many communities worldwide, women and girls take on the primary responsibility for caregiving in their households, including providing community- and home-based care support. This is particularly evident in HIV/AIDS care and support, where women and girls form the majority of the informal and unpaid workforce.

Workforce policies and programs must challenge stereotypical gender roles in health care and develop community behaviour change strategies that promote the value of caregiving by both men and women. Establishing a national community health worker policy that integrates them into the formal health system, providing training, supervision, support, and compensation for services, can also help foster equal representation at the primary level.

Also, targeted efforts must be made to ensure fairness and justice in the distribution of benefits, power, resources, and responsibilities between women and men. This includes acknowledging and addressing the specific health needs and challenges faced by women and men and working towards greater balance.

Reproductive health is one area that requires particular attention, as women face unique risks and challenges throughout their reproductive lives. Ensuring universal access to reproductive health care is crucial for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in the health system.

Health programmes must avoid reinforcing existing gender inequalities and work towards transforming them. This involves taking specific measures to compensate for historical and social disadvantages that hinder gender equality.

Efforts to improve health financing should also consider gender disparities. Health financing schemes must provide incentives for equitable access to quality services for women, men, girls, and boys, without exploiting or risking the poverty of vulnerable populations, particularly women.

Promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment within the health system can lead to numerous positive outcomes, including increased fairness in health service access, improved responsiveness to different gender needs, and better reproductive and overall health outcomes.

Addressing gender and health systems strengthening is not only a matter of justice and fairness but also an investment in the health and well-being of the entire population. By actively promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, the country can create a more inclusive and effective health system that benefits everyone, regardless of their gender.

• Victor Okeke Centre for Social Justic e,Abuja.

Sir: Africa is indeed the most religious continent in the world and Nigeria would rank amongst the first five countries, probably securing the number one spot, because of our zealousness. Unfortunately, however, this does not translate to development or less evil. In Nigeria, the citizens will pray away problems rather than facing it headlong and surmounting it. We will pray away health issues, rather than seeing the physician; pray that God gives us good leaders rather than electing them sincerely and when they turn out bad, we pray as against voting them out or recalling them.

My people will be on the “mountain” praying from Monday through to Friday and lock up their stores; someone will wake up, pray for daily bread and yet lay on the bed all day. 

Factories and businesses closed shop gradually until they were all gone. Factory buildings turned into worship places. Foreign investments all moved out to neighbouring countries because of bad leadership and mismanagement of the economy, coupled with humongous and stifling corruption.

I remember the malls and factories we had while growing up, though some of us could not even afford to shop there: the Kingsways; Chellarams; Leventis Stores; GB Olivant; Kewallarams, and the factories like Peugeot Assembly Nigeria, Volkswagen Nigeria, Exide Batteries, Ibadan, etc. All of these left our country ages ago and no government made efforts to bring them back. These investors saw the handwritings on the wall way back.

By virtue of the constitution, particularly section 10, Nigeria should be a secular state, meaning that Nigeria will not have a particular religion. So, religion should be a personal thing and government should not intervene in one’s religion. In the same vein, citizens have a right to practice the religion of their choice without any molestation. The reverse is however, the case in Nigeria. Citizens harass each other for their choice of religion and governments get involved in matters of religion, rather than focusing on development.

Religion is personal and should point us to the salvation of our souls. So, each person should be free to approach his salvation their own ways. Government should therefore, stop wasting our common patrimony on religious pilgrimages to sponsor their ilk at the detriment of other citizens who don’t give a flip.

If religion was tantamount to development, then Nigeria should be paradise on earth by now. Many not so religious countries use technology to make life better for themselves, while we go praying some imaginary four legged demons to death, when the demons are actually ourselves, ineptitude, incompetence, laziness, bad choices and bad leadership.

Religion without technology; religion without hardworking citizens; religion without solid education system; religion without transparency and religion full of deception and charlatans will only consign us to the abysmal valley of perpetual under development and poverty, rather than a silicon valley.

• Prof Tunji Oyelade, OAU, Ile-Ife.

Sir: Over the past years, there has been a significant change in the relationship between education and economic development and how they both correlate with one another. The rate of dependency of the former on the latter has caused great chaos in institutions which are a vital part of these sectors. Most of these problems, however, have arisen from ineptness and unprofessionalism in the economic sector. Education, which is a foremost and pre-requisite tool for development in virtually every sphere of human life, has lost its potency and influence on economic development. Graduates leave school with little or nothing to contribute in aiding economic development and this owes majorly to the fact that fundamental problems in the economic sector which in turn, affect the education sector, are left unidentified. As a result of this, various economic crises such as inflation may arise even when there are many monetary problems in educational institutions which need to be resolved.

In most tertiary institutions, there tends to always be a periodic population explosion with the start of every new academic session. Students can be seen receiving lectures in an incapacitated hall with no public address system(s) to aid easy communication. In such cases also, the class could be coordinated and managed by just one academic instructor. This propagates lackadaisicalness among students and even lecturers. Research which is very essential in the discovery and or development of ideas has been neglected. General Studies courses, mostly offered by first and second year tertiary institution students does not comprise of courses that are research-based. As a result, students are exposed to the world of research only in their final year of study; when they are carrying out their projects.

Most of the inadequacies and fallacies in the education sector are extensions of problems in other sectors; especially the economic sector. Funding for acquisition and instalment of tools which are highly essential for learning is inadequate or lacking. There is a pressing need to discourage the perception that education obtained elsewhere is superior to that obtained in Nigeria. This can only be made possible if those behind the destruction of the education sector are denied acquiring education elsewhere. 

• Elijah Sunom Umaru, <sunomkttw@gmail.com>