The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Reflections on Abia at 23

    Since Abia State came into being 23 years ago, it has become the norm to celebrate the birth of God’s Own State by the government and the people. This annual event which falls on August 27, has assumed a larger context since the inception of the present democratic dispensation. This is because the event has gone beyond an occasion for parade, pomp and pageantry to a period for stock taking in the developmental efforts of the state.Before Abia became a reality, the founding fathers had already put in place the developmental architecture of the state.

    Their dreams and vision centred on making Abia the first among equals in the achievement of human development. This dream was not far-fetched given that Abia is a state well endowed with human resources fired by creativity, resourcefulness and resilience. Indeed, the vision of the founding fathers was that if the human capital was adequately harnessed, Abia would become a state of abundant opportunities for its citizens.There is no denying the fact that the dreams have not been fully realized, largely because the past administrations, both military and civilian had not followed the charted course of development. But today things have changed for the better.

    With the coming of Chief T.A. Orji as governor, the state has been redirected from the course of rudderless journey to purposeful developmental journey. That is why in this year’s Abia Day celebration, the usual lamentation about the slow pace of development was absent. Rather the people are now in high spirits to continue the journey to greatness.The attainment of the present developmental achievements did not come out of the blues.

    It took the wisdom of a well-focused leader who deviated from the worn out path and a personal decision of leaving a legacy for posterity. T.A. Orji inherited a state devoid of any foundation for development. He set out, first of all, to lay the foundation on which his own administration and successive ones could build on. While it may sound absurd that for over two decades Abia government was operating on temporary structures, the truth is that the Government House and the Secretariat are temporary structures, a rented structure made available by a patriotic and enthusiastic citizen immediately the state was created.

    As Abians celebrate the 23rd anniversary of their dear state, they can afford to wear broad smiles and point to tangible infrastructures that define a state in full motion for development. Governor Orji has built a modern secretariat hence Abia workers now have a conducive office environment that inspires creativity and hard work just as the new Government House is fast reaching completion. Today, the state is also in good stead to host big conferences with the coming of an ultra modern International Conference Centre. It is not for nothing that the projects being executed by Governor T.A. Orji have been christened Legacy Projects.

    These are projects that would outlive his administration and sustained for posterity. These are projects that would enhance and sustain the internally generated revenue of the state and enhance the standard of living of citizens, including those in the rural areas where rural roads are springing up. For the first time in the history of Abia, the hitherto static capital city, Umuahia, has started expanding in all directions. It is rapidly growing with new infrastructure thereby shedding its old toga of a glorified village.

    The movement of the Umuahia Main Market to a new site at Ubani Ibeku on the northern flank of the capital city has decongested the city centre and created a new settlement. Umuahia has also expanded eastwards with the relocation of the former Timber Market to a modern Industrial Market at  Azueke Ibeku and southwards with the new Spare Parts Market at Ohiya that replaced the old one at the city centre. The relocation of the markets has added to the environmental cleanliness and aesthetic beauty of the capital city.

    The zeal with which the governor tackled the infrastructure deficit he met when he came on board underscores the feelings that Abia was in a hurry to take off in its flight to development having been dragging along. But in putting in place the needed infrastructure the governor centred everything on people. That is why he prioritized health and security in his development agenda since no matter the level of infrastructural development, if the people are not healthy enough they would not enjoy the facilities and if their lives and property are not secured good roads would make no meaning to them.

    The revolution in health infrastructure is rooted in the rural areas where over 710 modern health centres have been built across the state and equipped with some designated as referral health centres.At the secondary level of healthcare, nine general hospitals have been built and well equipped to take care of the health needs of the citizens that could not be handled at the health centres. Governor Orji has further expanded the accessibility of citizens to quality health care services by building tertiary health care institutions of international standard. His aim is to stem the tide of health tourism that has constituted a major source of capital flight in Nigeria.

    To this end, three Specialist Hospitals and Diagnostic Centres were built in Umuahia and Aba where such complicated diseases like renal and heart problems are diagnosed and treated. Abia also boasts of ultra modern dialysis and eye centres, which are part of the huge medical complexes at Umuahia.On security, Abia State now ranks among the most peaceful and safest states to live and do business in Nigeria. This feat was not achieved by wishful thinking. It took the courage and commitment of a governor who knew that dividends of democracy are for the living to wrest Abia from insecurity of the past years. As the chief security officer of the state, the governor has not spared any available resources in assisting all the security agencies including the Army, Navy, Police, Department of State Security (DSS), National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), among others. Indeed his strategy in matters of security has become a reference point for other governors. Governor Orji has this strong belief that no amount of resources invested on the security agencies is a waste because the peace dividends, is unquantifiable.

    At 23 Abia State is now witnessing an unprecedented job creation and empowerment programmes that has contributed in making the state a haven of peace and security. Under the youth empowerment programme of the administration, thousands of youths have been empowered to go into transport businesses, others trained in various vocational skills and equipped to make their own living while a sustainable scholarship scheme have been put in place for those in tertiary institutions. Abia women have also been adequately accommodated in the empowerment programme as many of them are beneficiaries of loan schemes to engage in small-scale business ventures.

    The massive investment in education which has resulted in transformation of schools is a measure of the importance the present administration attaches to sustainable human capital development, which the state is well endowed with.In the Abia State of today, the self-esteem of citizens is very high because the government encourages creativity and blossoming of talents. Abians express their God-given talents in many forms and bring honour to the state and nation. It is on record that Abia is the only state in Nigeria presently sponsoring three football clubs in different levels of professional football. Enyimba International Football Club and Abia Warriors Football Club play in the Nigerian Premier League (NPL) while Abia Comet is in the National Professional league.

    This is because the governor not only loves sports but also provides the avenue for youths to channel their energy and talents into positive ventures. The investment is paying off handsomely. As Abia looks ahead after 23 years, the founding fathers, both living and dead, can for the first time ease a sigh of relief that their dreams for the state they fought for its creation is living up to expectations.

    • Ajunwa is the Chief Press Secretary to Abia State Governor

  • Lamido’s Ramadan message 

    It has been an important tradition in HIS seven years as Governor of Jigawa State. Every year during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Alhaji Sule Lamido hosted the Iftar, or breaking of fast, with people from all walks of life.  While the Muslim faithful engage in fasting in order to be closer to Allah, the governor hosts citizens, friends and associates to the iftar in order to increase his own closeness to the people. Sir Muhammadu SAnusi II Durbar Ground in Dutse is the usual venue for the event. Political associates, old classmates, clerics, civil servants, students, youth and women groups as well as physically challenged persons are all hosted in turn to break the fast with Governor Sule Lamido.

    Night after night, he shared meals with the invited guests and citizens who also had the opportunity to speak to the head of the state government. During this year’s Ramadan, members of opposition political parties, religious leaders, associates of the governor from Kano State and his old mates from Barewa College were part of this experience. This year’s occasion had added significance because it is the last Ramadan to be observed before the governor completes his second term in office. He therefore used it as an opportunity for stock-taking on his administration’s programmes, policies and activities in the last seven years.

    On one particular evening, Governor Lamido hosted party leaders from all the 27 local government areas of Jigawa State. Speaking to this august gathering of political associates all of whom have been part of the great journey that has been the Lamido administration, the governor said he thanked Allah for enabling him to deliver on all his election promises. He said during his inaugural speech in 2007, he presented a booklet which contained his vision, mission and hopes for Jigawa State and its populace. He said, “Today, I am proud to say that I have accomplished the mission. I have delivered on all the promises I made during the campaign and have even gone the extra mile in developing Jigawa State and bringing the dividends of democracy to my people.”

    He added, “We provided the best roads, the best airport, the best working environment for civil servants, the best health-care services, the best education system, the best judicial system, and we laid a solid foundation for economic and infrastructural development. Above all we promoted discipline, due process, rule of law, patriotism and respect to human dignity among ourselves and our younger generation.” He has added value to everything and to everyone in Jigawa State including his political opponents, Governor Lamido said, and he challenged anyone to judge his statement according to the booklet he launched at his first inaugural in 2007.

    State indigenes as well as recent visitors to Jigawa State all testify that the face of Jigawa State has been transformed in the seven years that Alhaji Sule Lamido ruled over it. The transformation has been in all sectors and the overall impact has been profound. His dynamic administration has established schools and hospitals, constructed roads and water schemes etc. Economic activities have received a huge boost and the foundations have been laid for rapid industrialisation. A first class airport has been built to facilitate the easy movement of goods and services and to facilitate the coming of investors who are set to cash in on Jigawa State’s rich potentials now that the foundations have been laid.

    A  Jigawa State University has been established by the Lamido administration in order to afford state indigenes more access to higher education opportunities. Half of eligible candidates of Jigawa origin who seek admission into higher institutions fail to get it due to lack of opportunities, hence the very warm welcome with which Jigawa citizens received the establishment of the state university.

    At that epochal Ramadan iftar session, the governor also used the occasion to call on the Jigawa people to be law abiding, committed, hard-working, love one another and to co-operate to move the state forward.  He also commended security agencies in the state for ensuring peace and stability in the seven years of his administration. He said they have done their primary task of protecting lives and property very effectively. He said,  “I am indebted to Nigerian Army, police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Nigeria Immigration Service, Prisons, Customs, NDLEA and FRSC for the maintenance of peace in the state”.

    Governor Lamido capped his speech with an appeal to the youths to be law abiding, respect their elders and aspire to be responsible citizens of Nigeria. He urged them to shun drug abuse, armed robbery, bribery, prostitution, fraud, corruption and other social vices and not allow themselves to be used as political thugs.

    Governor Lamido also spoke on an issue that agitates the minds of politicians and other citizens, namely the succession. He made it clear that he is not in the business of imposing candidates in elections. He had earlier said that his likely successor will emerge through a round of consultations that will carry everybody along. He will certainly work within his political party, PDP to ensure that a candidate emerges that will sustain the tempo of the last seven years and disabuse the minds of Jigawa citizens that after the Sule Lamido hurricane, there could be a retreat into a standstill. That will not be a fitting succession to a dynamic regime and Governor Sule Lamido is not expected to countenance that.

     

    • Adamu is Special Adviser to Jigawa governor on Media.

  • Oyo governorship in perspective

    Naturally, when elections draw near in Nigeria, the polity is agog with a flurry of activities. All manners of human beings masquerading as politicians will be on hand selling their dirty wares to the unsuspecting masses. So, the emerging situation in Oyo State today is the usual hallmark associated with politics in this part of our world.

    Ironically, what motivates politicians in other climes to offer themselves to serve their people are most often than not in low quantum or non-existent in our own case.

    Politicians, who by their background, exposure and other known or hidden factors, qualify to aim to be councillors, will aim for the highest political position in the land. In our own system, acquisition of money, irrespective of the morality of its sources, were the only yardsticks either on the part of contestants or their supporters who are largely made up of rented crowd. So, altruistic factors for leadership do not matter in political calculations, as long as the would-be contestant has a deep pocket. The sad result of poor ascendancy in our political system stares everyone in the face. Even, in circles and quarters where one would have expected the stakes to be high and optimum standards put in place, what we get, shockingly, are pedestrian and self –serving yardsticks.

    It is against this backdrop that one views the on-going melodrama in the build-up to who becomes the governor of Oyo State next February, as most unfortunate. It is worrisome that such things are happening in a state reputed to be the pacesetter in the country and the political headquarters of the Yoruba race. Or how does one fathom over 15 people jostling for the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) ticket in Oyo State? Could serious minded people who are desirous of serving their constituents genuinely be this blinded by ambition? Even if PDP has no opponents to contend with in the February, 2015 elections, it is very clear that the bickering and backstabbing that will follow the emergence of one of the palace jesters called aspirants will take another four years to contend with. Where then lies the interest, well-being and future of the hapless electorate on the chessboard of politicians who are rabid opportunists?

    If you look in the other directions, it is only Rashidi Ladoja of the Accord Party that could be said to have a semblance of political choice available for the people of Oyo State. That option on its own carries a lot of precarious liabilities that make the choice suspect. The other political gangs, looking for recognition and relevance daily to cover their treacherous past, could not be seen as a united force that could assuage the feelings of the larger percentage of the electorate in Oyo State.

    It is saddening if sharing of political lucre among party members is the main reason for disagreement among politicians elected to serve the people and protect their interests. It is equally uncharitable if the rivalry of who becomes a party’s flag-bearer in the governorship race were the raison d’etre for dumping a political party that brought one to limelight. The electorates who toiled day and night laboriously to ensure that today’s gladiators in Oyo State politics came to power no longer count. It is ego on display, backed by ill-gotten wealth. This kind of behaviour and the negative use of money to confuse the electorate may not achieve much this time around because the voting public is wiser than it used to be.

    Evaluating Abiola Ajimobi’s administration in the last three years, it is crystal clear that he has raised the bar of governance from the pedestrian level of yester-years to an Olympian height, that has made Oyo State an investors’ destination of choice. The fact that the governor, unlike his contemporaries in other states, is peace loving, gentle and humane cannot be denied, even by his political foes. Consequently, a man who loves and protects his people, irrespective of political affiliations, and who treated them fairly and equally, to all intents and purposes, remains the best man, still, for the job.

    The Ajimobi administration’s footprints are spread across the state. Most of his policy thrusts are products of painstaking research and planning, with a photo-finish implementation strategies. Examples abound in his ground-breaking infrastructural development and beautification, youth empowerment, provision of portable water and maintenance of peace and security.

    Looking for a man who thinks outside the box, Ajimobi is it! The Ajimobi administration’s giant strides in the area of quality road construction and expansion, resuscitation of the moribund Agodi Gardens and the introduction of modern management of refuse, establishment of a Technical University, among others are quite commendable.

    The administration has changed the face of the state through heavy investment in provision and maintenance of social infrastructure, as exemplified by the Mokola Fly-Over, the first of its kind in the history of any civilian administration in Oyo State. Unlike his predecessors, Ajimobi’s insistence on quality road jobs and fitting drainages that will stand the test of time, stands him out as a man of vision. If the assessment of experts were anything to go by, the road projects across Oyo State were done in line with best practices for the government to ensure value for money and the road users to enjoy a long lasting road network, geared towards improving the state economy.

    It is against this background that eminent citizens of the state and beyond have been associating with the Ajimobi phenomenon in Oyo State. The endorsements from the late Alhaji Abdul-Azeez Arisekola Alao, Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Dr. Olapade Agoro, notable individuals and groups, foremost traditional rulers, members of the academic community could only be symptomatic of the handiwork of a performing governor. The question that readily arises is: What can Ajimobi offer this cross section of the people that would make them a rented crowd or campaign instruments? Give it to them, they must have seen what God had used Ajimobi for in the lives of the Oyo State people, who in their estimation, deserved the best this time around, after many years of crass opportunism, maladministration and neglect by the erstwhile lacklustre political class.

    As it is customary, politicians at a time like this, will engage all manners of campaign of calumny, character assassination and diversionary tactics. One thing that should be paramount in the minds of the good people of Oyo State, as the election draws nearer, is to evaluate all those who will genuinely serve their interests. Political jobbers, opportunists and discredited politicians, particularly those standing trial for criminal charges, should be rejected at the polls, lest the people be taken back and the hope of a better tomorrow for themselves and their children will continue to hang in the balance.

    Since a bird in hand, is worth more than 10 in the bush, Ajimobi, who has been tested and seen to have a clear vision and rare commitment, should be trusted to complete his good works. It is precarious to gamble with today’s disgruntled elements who have no clear record of public service, and who are better known as cobweb politicians with no clear-cut political pedigree and belief. Politicians that  oscillate like an Ibo fan, are not the right class Oyo State requires to go to the next level.

    There is no gainsaying the fact that Abiola Ajimobi’s passion to serve, commitment and deliverables on his electoral promises in the last three years should earn him a second term without fuss. It is apparent that Ajmobi’s rare achievements as governor are the major albatross around the neck of opposition politicians in Oyo State today. They have a Herculean task of convincing people of throwing away a jar of honey in place of a piece of bean cake. However, the final decision of the good people of Oyo State is in the belly of time!

     

    • Oluwa, a Public Affairs analyst writes from Ibadan, Oyo State.

  • Containing Ebola virus in Abuja

    That the news of the outbreak of the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) has left Nigerians reeling with palpable hysteria and unfathomable fear is no longer contestable. And that the situation has gotten so bad that people now fear to freely interact with their relatives and friends, especially in affected states, is equally a reality. What is however a matter of contention is whether Nigeria posses the ability nay wherewithal to contain the viral spread of the deadly virus.

    According to medical experts, symptoms of EVD are Malaria-like, including fever, weakness of the joints, vomiting, severe abdominal pains, bleeding from the mouth, nose and ear, and an outbreak of noxious skin rashes and eventual death in a week or two.

    The dreaded EVD was first detected in 1976 in Nzara, Sudan and Yambuku village around the Ebola River area of Congo Democratic Republic. After subsidizing for a while, it suddenly re-appeared early this year in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and now Nigeria. The disease kills almost 90 percent of its victims.

    The hoopla that accompanied the outbreak of EVD was so paralyzing that the media was replete with stories of Nigerians taking bath with water spiced with salt and even consuming large quantities of it, a development that led to the death of those unfortunate Nigerians.

    Because there is no known cure so far and all drugs developed to treat the dreaded scourge remain merely experimental, efforts have largely been focused on prevention as a veritable means of curtailing its spread.

    This explains why the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) under the leadership of Senator Bala Mohammed recently constituted a high-powered technical committee to manage and curtail its threat in the territory.

    It is also probably in the light of this reality that the minister, while inaugurating the committee made it clear that the measure was a proactive one, stressing that the committee would have the responsibilities of working out modalities for responding to the threat of the Ebola virus; create awareness on the nature and symptoms of the virus, to proactively prepare an action plan for its containment; work out ways for effective surveillance of the population, visitors and travellers and to recommend tools and methods for managing cases if they arise among others.

    To further give a boost to the fight against this hair-splitting monster that has virtually raised everybody’s antenna, in a manner of speaking, the minister restated the decision of the government to designate and isolate a ward at Kuje General Hospital for management of possible victims of Ebola fever, just as he allayed the concerns raised by some residents of the town over the choice of Kuje General Hospital as the centre for the management of victims, stressing that all precautionary measures had been put in place to ensure that the designation of the ward would not endanger the health of medical staff and other workers at the hospital as well as residents of Kuje.

    As it is, the real challenge of this raging health issue lies in government’s ability to overhaul our health delivery and preventive systems. It is the opinion of a high preponderance of Nigerians that considering the nation’s enormous wealth, every part of Nigeria, including the nation’s capital city of Abuja should have first class medical facilities whose impact on the citizenry is overwhelmingly comprehensive and embracing.

    Be that as it may, even in the face of the intimidating challenges posed by this threat, the measures taken so far by the FCTA is encouraging and raises the hope of residents about the capacity of the authorities to give the deadly virus a bloody nose.

    If the FCTA hopes to clinically execute its war against this virus, it must embark on massive public awareness campaigns in both English and major Nigerian languages in both electronic and print media with a view to sensitizing residents on the dangers posed by the virus and how to avoid contacting it.

    In the same vein, it must commence immediate collaboration with federal authorities in the areas of procuring drugs and equipment that are highly critical in containing the virus.

    Deliberate efforts should be intensified towards continuously soliciting the cooperation of traditional rulers and youths in the FCT to ensure that government’s well-intentioned measures in this respect are not undermined.

    And considering the critical nature of this current health challenge, it is a welcome development that the federal government has ordered that passengers be screened at the airports. In addition, as part of its proactive approach to combating the virus, the federal government had requested for the experimental drug, ZMapp, from the US Centre for Disease Control. Even though Uncle Sam turned down the request, the Japanese government has volunteered to make an alternative available.

    Commendable as the action of the federal and the FCT administration towards containing the virus is, the point must be stressed that EVD still remains potently deadly, irrespective of the stories making the rounds that some victims receiving treatments have been certified okay and discharged from hospitals.

    For now, it is advisable that Nigerians maintain basic hygiene procedures more than ever before like washing of hands more often; washing of fruits with a bit of salt; avoid overcrowded places and body contact. Above all, they should avoid indiscriminate hugging and kissing.

     

    •Ochela is an Abuja- based media consultant

  • Dora all the way

    I have struggled with writing a befitting piece for Dora Akunyili since her cruel demise. And this is why. In less than six months that I worked closely with her in Abuja at the Ministry of Information and Communications, I was unable to come to terms with her undying believe that Nigeria was still the greatest country in the world. For her, no country had all of God’s blessings together in one piece like Nigeria. Nigeria to her had the ingredients to attain greatness. It was only a matter of time.

    If I shared her faith, I could not share her optimism about Nigeria. Where she saw greatness, I saw something different. Where she saw hope for a better country, I saw a bleak future. But no one could stop her or change her passion for Nigeria. Consummate in her endeavours and committed to achieving set goals, Dora Akunyili had no comparison. Even from a distance, one could sense her commitment and share in her dream.

    I became part of that dream as I worked with her to see how best to change the Nigerian narrative through the Great Nation, Great People mantra. If that effort came short it was not that she did not put in her all. It was due to the fact that millions of Nigerians have lost hope that Nigeria can be redeemed. Yet, I saw her many times climb down from the mountain of optimism and faith for a better country to the valley of despair and angst. It was at such moments that I saw the innermost pains of her soul.  She agonized about how key people in key positions sabotaged Nigeria instead of bandaging her up to heal.  I saw her many times working the phones at a frenetic pace to rally all she knew to make sure certain injustice was redressed or a key decision was taken. She was unstoppable even at moments when her faith confronts the stony ground and Nigeria disappoints her. Dora never disappointed Nigeria.

    Now you know a bit of why I struggled with what to write. Not because the words and poetry will fail me. No. It is simply because words mere words could not do justice to who she was, what she stood for and why there will be only one Dora.

    Her public service career though like a fairy tale has no equal. She was made for Nigeria. She was placed in places and times in our history to lift up our country and our spirits. Like a star in the dark firmament, she was the shining star never to be shut out. Her stint at NAFDAC had no equal and with that singular act, she brought the world to Nigeria. She chalked up points for Nigeria globally and redeemed our image. She lifted up the spirits of millions who realized that some good could come out of Israel. Dora became a sensation. She provided a rare excitement about a Nigeria that is possible. She gave true meaning to the fact that only through building institutions can a nation progress and serve the people. Dora herself was an institution.

    Sadly, when she positioned to build on a solid foundation of public service, the very nation she served let her down. Her bold foray into politics by seeking elective office came under uncommon challenge.  Her friends in the corridors of power deserted her. But she was one never to be put down. She once told me, “You must fight and stand for what you believe in. People will not always be kind to you, but you must be kind to yourself by staying true to yourself”.  Indeed, that was the way she lived her last years even as she sought for a place to best continue to serve Nigeria.

    Dora we will never forget. She was the Amazon. She was the leader of our team. She was an embodiment of grace, brilliance and devotion to humanity.

    When I first encountered her at an international conference in Dakar, Senegal sometime in 2007, little did I know that she would one day convince me to resign my prestigious job with the Voice of America in Washington DC to come work with her. I had no reason to leave my job. I was not in search of a job. But no one could say no to Dora.  She hardly took no for an answer. Her argument was unassailable and her plea for me to join her to make Nigeria better was un-ignorable. She was willing to seek out those that shared in her dream. And even though I moved on, she left an impression never to be forgotten. She worked hard.  Committed with focus.

    Though cut off so soon, she has left behind a legacy like no other. She would never be forgotten. Adieu Dora Akunyili. You lived and worked like no mere mortal, but mortals we all are. You have run the race faithfully and may the crown sit fittingly on your head. No better words will do as an epitaph on her grave that these words, “Here lies a soul that touched other souls and gave humanity her best”. Sun re o!

    • Dare, was Senior Special Assistant to Akunyili at the Information Ministry.

  • Oyo’s urban renewal in context

    In his inaugural speech on May 29, 2011, Governor Ajimobi highlighted the situation of infrastructural decay in the state when he said: “What stare us in the face today are nothing but the ruins of that noble pedigree. Even the most generous commentator on Nigeria’s affairs will not deny that Oyo State is no longer the pace-setter that it used to be. The labour of our heroes past has been lost in the vortex of vanity. Our public infrastructure is dilapidated. Our public institutions have been compromised. The psyche of our people has been bruised. Our state has ceased to be the reference point for laudable programmes for which it earned her nobility. We have, on the reverse, become a staple on reports on violence and brigandage, corruption, street fight and lingering political crises. The duty of government as guarantor of public peace has been performed in the breach.”

    In addressing this challenge, the governor promised that his government would pursue a programme of urban development and renewal, adding that it was disheartening that Oyo State, Ibadan in particular, remains a recurring decimal in discussions about urban degeneration. According to him: “We are going to institute a robust programme of urban renewal for our urban centres.” This is the basis for assessment of urban renewal programmes of the Governor Ajimobi administration since 2011.

    In Nigeria, the failure of several state governments to respond adequately to the increasing demand for urban infrastructural services has had the consequences of hampering the productivity of the economy as well as contributing to the deterioration of the quality of life in our cities. In other words, lack of infrastructure is one of the most pressing problems in Nigerian cities. In virtually all cities, inadequate provision of infrastructural services has affected most business firms, with the result that returns on investment have been adversely affected.  Indeed, while cities in Nigeria, as in other developing countries, have been growing at a very rapid rate, there has been no commensurable growth in the rate at which social services and infrastructural amenities are provided. The result has been a gradual decline in the quality of the environment and in the quality of life.

    Urbanization is one of the macro trends driving the global economy and opening up entrepreneurial and business opportunities globally. Generally, the ills common in developing countries are urban poverty, squalor, and unemployment. As at 2007, each of 11 Nigerian cities, namely Abuja, Benin City, Ibadan, Ilorin, Kaduna, Kano, Lagos, Maiduguri, Ogbomosho, Port Harcourt, and Zaria had more than 750,000 inhabitants, and of course is home to Nigeria’s large youthful population.

    Elsewhere, in urban China, urbanization has exacerbated environmental problems such that Beijing is having more cars than Houston, as well as some of the dirtiest air on the planet. And it is not just affecting the Chinese. The nation surpassed America in 2006 as the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide from energy, and is now pumping out nearly twice America’s level. This suggests that the issue of urban renewal is of global appeal.

    The urban renewal programmes being implemented in Oyo State have continued to attract differing comments by sections of the society. While a segment of the citizenry, particularly the elites believe that the programmes are timely, well-thought out, and are capable of transforming the economies of the state, other groups in the society, most especially, the so-called victims of the urban renewal programmes in the state, think otherwise. This latter group maintains, and has argued, that since development is about people, any urban renewal programme that constraints their economic empowerment is not just counter-productive, but also capable of deepening their poverty level.

    In recent times, particularly since the onset of administration of Governor Ajimobi, Oyo State has been undergoing massive construction and renovation and is currently wearing a new look to the delight of all, including unrepentant opponents of the administration.  Prior to the inauguration of this administration, the general belief was that Oyo State, and in particular, its capital, Ibadan was the dirtiest city in the country. Most of the major roads in the state are in serious state of dilapidation, with pot-holes lying the length and breadth of the state, with implication for vehicular and human movements. Of note is the notion that the state lacks an urban development master plan making urban planning extremely difficult.

    Urban renewal programmes of the Ajimobi administration involves rehabilitation/reconstruction of over 200 roads across the state as well as construction of about 10 major bridges demolished by the flood of August 2011, among which is the multi-million naira Bodija/Secretariat bridge.  It also involves dualization of major roads in Ibadan, as well as entry roads to major towns of zones in the state like in Oyo, Ogbomoso and Iseyin. Others are construction of a fly-over at the Mokola Roundabout in Ibadan, the first of such by any civilian governor since the creation of the state, in 1976, and construction of bridges and road repairs across the 33 local governments in the state are on-going.

    Among achievements of the Ajimobi administration’s urban renewal programmes is the construction of major intra and inter-city motor parks within the Ibadan metropolis, among which are the Temidire motor park and the Podo motor park. Others include clearing of 225 identified unauthorized refuse depots; regular collection of waste from major markets and hinterland at no cost to our people; repair and refurbishing of 55 waste management trucks; monitoring, collection and disposal of waste during sanitation exercises, every Thursday and last Saturday of the month; establishing synergy with 11 Local   Government Councils in Ibadanland for the coordination and use of their refuse/garbage trucks; and re-engineering of Private Sector Participation (PSP) Scheme of refuse management by contractors. The upgrade of Agodi Garden, a tourists’ haven located near the state secretariat is included. Also related to the urban renewal programme is the inauguration of the Joint Security Patrol Squad comprising the military, the police, State Security Service (SSS) and Civil Defence Corps, code-named “Operation Burst” for the maintenance of law and order. This is considered one of the best practices in inter-governmental relations in Nigeria’s federalism.

    It is noteworthy that aggressive urban renewal exercise in Ibadan and Oyo State in general has transformed the erstwhile dirtiest city in Nigeria to one of the most investor-friendly metropolis in Nigeria. This has led to attraction of reputable investors into the state, including one that is constructing the largest soya milk industry in Africa, another building the largest bakery in West Africa, yet another erecting the largest poultry that will produce the highest number of day-old chicks in Nigeria, a major food processing company, a major dairy producer and one of the biggest outsource agencies for the telecoms industry. In addition, the state has been spared the tragedy of municipal flooding that ravaged most of its cities in the past two years. This is a clear dividend of the administration’s urban renewal programme.

    Governor Ajimobi has taken every opportunity to assure the citizens that the urban renewal programme currently being executed by his administration was not meant to inflict unnecessary hardship on the lives of the people but to give the state necessary facelift, promising that the current pain would soon turn into gains.

     

    • Oladeji is a researcher at the Nigerian Institute of Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan.

  • The other side of Ribadu’s defection

    Apparently, the conscience of this nation lies with our moral angels, the newspaper columnists, TV anchors and hosts of talk-show orgies that provide viewers with a daily dose of political pornography. Only in this country does one see these impatient anchors jumping out from the restraints of journalism and physically flanking their disagreements with political positions simply because they do not conform to their innermost convictions.

    They have assumed the roles of political puritans. Only in Nigeria are the views of political puritans and their followers, more powerful than those of political players and the democratically elected, public representatives. Only here can we expect, in the aftermath of a decade-long conflict, displaced peoples, devastating economic disasters, a region isolated and its disappeared children unaccounted for, kidnapped children unrecovered and those at home still contracting and dying of measles. In Nigeria political revolution is neither about people nor freedoms. It’s about settling scores.

    I am recounting these as a corollary to the Ribadu argument, of which there seem to be only two important features. These are the spectacle, Nuhu Ribadu himself and the lessons of a politics that is without an identifiable cause. Since Ribadu moved from the APC to the PDP, only the skies have remained where they are but the roofs have all but fallen. Nobody seems to find the nexus between theory and practice. When a man is full of decent theory, he would also require a platform to implement them and that is where the need for certain structural adjustments become very necessary.

    But many have described Nuhu as having committed class suicide. But Nuhu is in the PDP for the love of his people and not for the love of lucre. This much a lot of people can attest to but many simply just ignore. The performance factor is obvious. Nuhu has the lead role in the plot of the play where ethnicity is calculatedly mixed with politics. His defection may not be legitimate in the eyes of electoral democracy or serious political scientists, but this is the occupational hazard of grandstanding for political purposes – you become a spoiler for both disciplines. Ask the northern politicians, to them, the only thing worth defecting to is APC.

    Anyone who knows Ribadu knows that he wants the Millennium Development Goals back in Adamawa – shelter for all, education for all, employment for all, with some sprinkling of gender equality and minority rights. Ribadu is also a proponent of peace and religious harmony. But Nuhu’s investment in representative national politics has not paid off. He had no constituency and suffered from ethno-religious identity-based politics. His political relevance depends only on a performance of promissory and not on delivery.

    The PDP’s performance, on the other hand, has simply been one of a cringe-worthy lack of political intuition. Worse, the PDP leadership is not just prone to being counter-intuitive but, since several of them and their advisers have been identified with garrison politics, they tend to revert to a do-or-die-style of it. Their thinking, vocabulary, attitude and methodology seem to be taken straight out of some militant manual. Outside of their exclusive board rooms, they often seem enamoured by their own power and destiny but are having a hard time convincing others of their wisdom and deliverability. It doesn’t help to have Nuhu Ribadu explaining the nutritional importance of his defection to the people. They should know that his intentions are altruistic and far from selfish. His clinching power will spell the end of power breakfast for the state’s cruel stakeholders.

    The economic disobedience of the elite to the people of Adamawa state (it’s not civil) after deep introspection, has just made every tax-evading member of the upper and trading classes a rebel – now with a cause. Such a complex PDP economic plan must be inspiring to all progressive economists who have for years advocated for restructuring the economy by doing exactly the opposite.

    Most would agree that there are flaws in our electoral system. Our voting citizens hang admirable hope on representative politics. However, fighting for its reform doesn’t make it to the top of the list of their poverty-stricken, disease-ridden, insecure and brutalised lives. The majority’s is a politics of localised deals and negotiations with the system – whether of the state or local community/tribal structures. What will they get from upgrading big politics if it doesn’t change the small politics of their daily lives? Nothing trickles down except floodwater, and we all know it.

    Historically, there have been no local revolts to institute the most important feature of an egalitarian political system (i.e. local government). So, why would any party imagine that the nation will rise and topple governments for the cause of big, centralised political reforms? It also makes for the most unlikely revolutionary slogan ever. Compare the promise of stomach infrastructure to ‘electoral reform so a party may just win and deliver a clean government’. The people of Adamawa state are right to be insulted since they successfully elected the PDP through this defective system. Now they must suffer that choice and join the revolution that asks for more sacrifice, not expect delivery.

    Mobilising people for causes is not easy. This is not to suggest ‘people’ are not discontented or, that they are ‘lazy’, ‘uneducated’ or ‘ungrateful’ but that their gripes are not with any vague ‘system’. Instead, depending on who these ‘people’ are, they have very specific, localised, identifiable issues with equally distinguishable systems, codes and power-centres. The people, unlike the system are not a faceless, identical bloc. So, unless a party can tap into different people’s immediate needs and prove its commitment to delivering these in a targeted manner, it may as well forget success. PDP knows this and has poached Ribadu to redeem it in Adamawa. Shouldn’t the people be happy?

    Nuhu is performing a protest politics that has no direct personal interest or impact. In the absence of a people’s cause, one cannot take seriously his disobedience. But Adamawa is in an emergency. Preachers, TV anchors and columnists need to climb out of their intellectual fog from which they insist that we need a new Nigeria where Nuhu cannot defect even if to save the situation. The PDP leadership brokers no revolutionary hate for the religious militants in Yobe who have murdered thousands of soldiers and citizens of Nigeria. They advocate peaceful negotiations with these internal enemies of the state. Their street power that we see in action today has managed to stop food supplies in the past but not once have we seen it directed towards a policing of funding or arms supplies to these militants.

    Abusing the ruling party, the opposition, the judiciary, INEC and media houses but not the militants, the interventionist army, the religious bigots, the laws that enable persecution of minorities, the capitalist elite that crush labour, the men who rape women and children – all makes for a boiled-egg revolution that is anti-state, but not pro-people. Nuhu has even, perhaps, squandered away the opportunity for a genuine pressure for electoral reforms in Nigeria but he has done it for his people and he should be supported to bring those same people out of the doldrums and not crucified.

    •Ubandoma writes from Yola

  • Kwankwaso: Lone fighter for just cause

    From inception it was obvious the composition of the ongoing National Conference was made to achieve motives inimical to the corporate well-being of Nigeria. From the ever visible Any Government in Power (AGIP) individuals who were sneaked into the conference under different shady platforms down to the skewed and serious ethno-religious membership imbalance well-intended to give undue advantage to one group over another in a highly polarized Nigeria, the present chaos in the National Conference was easily predictable.

    It’s not out of tune therefore, when the conference is robbed of any semblance of credibility by the overzealousness of planted professional moles who are known for their negative attitude for Nigeria and its future. Among this lot, there are shameless people like former Deputy Senate President of Obasanjo’s third term infamy and a host of other characters with just as shady past. To assume anything reasonable will come out of the conference with this bunch is simply taking fantasy to a whole new level.

    In the last few days we were treated to desperate attempts by conscienceless people like Raymond Dokpesi to sneak in doctored documents to form part of the decisions taken by the conference. In this category, not even the Deputy Chairman of the conference Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi could hold back his ambition to fulfill what I want to assume was his end of the bargain with a government determined on having its way. Not exactly something unexpected. Perhaps this might explain the dogged resolve of the government to select leaders for the conference rather than allow it elect leaders that could operate with some level of respect for the respectability of both the members and the conference. I don’t need further proof that the conference was created to achieve, with some level of constitutionality what could not be achieved initially by the “open market” approach of the federal government to serious issues threatening Nigeria’s corporate existence.

    The most contentious issue before the conference, and perhaps the most contentious in modern Nigeria is the 13% derivation issue complete with the vexatious onshore/offshore dichotomy and its attendant effect on the Nigerian system. Perhaps no subject ever received as much professional and “roadside” attention as this issue since the 1914 marriage of the Northern and Southern protectorates. Funny enough, solution to this problem not only remained as elusive as the elixir of life, the problem itself have graduated from an innocent ambition to correct perceived wrongs into a multi-billion dollar bottomless cesspool of corruption as well, a tool of political blackmail.

    Ever since the ascension of President Jonathan to Nigeria’s highest office, agitations for more funds to the Niger Delta received a boost by direct and contagious beneficiaries, all for different intents and purposes. Some ask for it for the obvious benefits it portends for their personal economic security, while distant agitators do so to remain in the good books of the President for the political safety and security (Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi is a good example here.

    Interestingly, no one is yet to propose a cogent reason why Niger Delta should have more than the “more than enough” it already have at the expense of other regions and without justifying the billions of dollars that obviously went down the bottomless pockets of the region’s leadership class and their supportive elite leaving the ordinary masses high and dry on the brink of hunger and poverty.

    The pertinent question for which the advocates of more funds to the Niger Delta should answer is, why should other regions be shortchanged when there is nothing to show for a heavy sacrifice already made? What about the billions expended on the region through the instrumentality of NDDC, 13% derivation, Local Content bill, royalties and Ministry of Niger Delta – the only ministry in the world created to exclusively service the needs of a particular region in what is supposed to be a federal arrangement? If funds lavished on the region were effectively used as some jingles and billboards in the region suggests, why is the region asking for more? If not, why not and where is the money?

    One could easily hazard a guess as to the fate of the billions of dollars that accrued to the region in the last decade. The region is proudly the owner of the largest fleet of private jets – a frivolity that has put Nigeria on the global map for a wrong reason. Recently elites of the region added another hobby to an already a long list of insensitive hobbies. At the last count, Chief Edwin Clark, probably the most powerful person in the region by virtue of his closeness to the President and Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the vocal President of CAN are proud owners of brand new universities whose sources of funding were as controversial as their hasty accreditation. When will it be time enough for Nigerians to start asking the right questions?

    Perhaps it was this intellectual and moral retardation by Nigerians that provoked the anger of Kano State Governor, Engr. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso. Known for his uncompromising patriotism and sincere belief in the workability of the Nigerian idea, Kwankwaso once gave a detailed account of how northern members of the National Assembly were induced to pass the onshore/offshore dichotomy bill that has proved inimical and counter-productive to the well-being of Nigeria.

    Expectedly, Kwankwaso’s opinion about the skewed revenue sharing formula remained today just as the were in his earlier truncated term as Kano State governor. Expressing his views on the revenue sharing controversy at the on-going National Conference, he minced no word in giving it to the northern delegates – and I believe he spoke the minds of many northerners.

    His views: “Whoever endorsed such arrangement of increasing revenue derivation to states that already have enough either does not understand the issues at stake or has ulterior agenda to kill the country”. He blamed the federal government for playing to the gallery, saying all of such ulterior motives of the President are the root causes of insecurity in the country.

    He regretted that instead of the northern delegates to discuss the agenda agreed upon before they were sent, which is onshore/offshore, they went ahead to deliberate on the demands of oil producing states. He called on delegates at the conference to deliberate on the fact that northern states need better attention to fight desertification, poverty and insecurity whose effects are threatening to incinerate Nigeria. Could anything be truer?

    • Dammalam wrote from Kaduna

  • Liberia; beyond the Ebola scourge

    Arriving in Post War Liberia in June 2007, all the tell-tale signs of a country still recovering from a 14-year civil war were glaring. From a ramshackle airport building to poorly dressed airport and security officials, the sign of grinding poverty and post war weariness were all around to be seen.

    As we left the Robertsville airport for the one hour trip to Monrovia, it became obvious that Liberia was still recovering from its years of civil strife which cost the country an estimated 250,000 casualties. On both sides of the road could still be seen buildings damaged by mortar shells while the blue berets of the Peacekeeping UN troops could be seen everywhere. Just outside the airport, we chanced on the Military Barracks that housed the UN troops. Amidst the barbed wired fortified building was a big billboard with the screaming headline…WE BRING PEACE!

    The last stage of the civil war was in 2003 under Charles Taylor when rebel forces who had entered Monrovia tried to push him out of office. The resultant war which has been acclaimed as the severest in the country’s 14 year old civil war became so bad that Liberians cried to the outside world for help. However, the UN insisted on Taylor’s departure from the country before it could send in its troops. Thanks to the joint initiative of Presidents Obasanjo, Mbeki and Kuffour, Taylor was eventually persuaded to abdicate while Nigerian troops moved into the country in August 2003 before merging into the then UN forces that eventually moved in October of the same year. For this timely intervention which saved millions of lives, Nigeria and indeed former President Olusegun Obasanjo are still held in high esteem in Liberia. Everywhere I went during my one week stay in the country, Liberians were still appreciative of this wonderful gesture by Nigeria, which reportedly cost Nigeria $8 billion, the death of 100 soldiers and another 100 missing. Apart from contributing about 9,000 of the 12,000 UN soldiers then resident in Liberia, the country’s Ministries of Commerce and Defence were headed by Nigerians for a number of years. The only draw back to the ECOMOG mission were the spate of allegations against the soldiers ranging from rape, violence, production of teenage pregnancy as well as armed robbery. At about the time of my trip, many Liberian newspapers reported the story of the theft of a Liberian ship which was hitherto under the care of the UN troops. A week after their disappearance, both ships were eventually traced to Ghana! Also, in one of the several seminars on HIV/AIDS conducted by my group during my stay, some community and religious leaders were of the opinion that as long as the UN soldiers remained in Liberia, the war against HIV infection, prostitution and teenage pregnancy can never be won.

    I had gone to Liberia as part of a five member team contracted by the then Ghana based NGO, AWARE Africa to support the passage of the HIV Anti Stigma Bill by the Parliaments of the West African sub region. Prior to our trip to Liberia, the team had visited Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Senegal where we engaged parliamentarians and stakeholders in the HIV sector. Five years later, when I visited Liberia again, the country had made remarkable improvement in both its physical infrastructure and human resources. Apart from renovating its bombed-out buildings, pot-holed roads and collapsed power lines, Liberians had been able to put the pains and horrors of the war behind in search of a better future. What had not changed was the country’s gratitude to Nigeria for saving it from itself.

    It is therefore ironical that the approximately four million people saved by Nigeria will now be the source of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease that has become a source of death and national anxiety to Nigeria. However, before we castigate Liberia for being the source of our current travail, it is on record that Liberian health authorities had advised Patrick Sawyer, the courier of the deadly cargo not to leave the country. The reason for Sawyer’s defiant act according to his wife was because Sawyer wanted to take advantage of Nigeria’s good health system which contrasted vastly with Liberia’s poor health facilities. Even if Mrs Sawyer’s claims were correct, it is still believed that it was the duty of Liberia to prevent the known virus carrier from departing the country.

    Interestingly, the Ebola issue which a Nigerian newspaper has tagged ‘The Virus Diplomacy’ will not be the first episode of a ‘viral transfer’ between Nigeria and Liberia. It is on record that an undisclosed number of the 9,000 Nigerian soldiers who served in the ECOMOG force during the 14 year old Liberian Civil War came back home with the HIV infection. A sizeable number of the HIV positive soldiers went on to infect their wives while another sizeable number finally succumbed to the infection. Nigerian military authorities later spent a lot of money (assisted by the US PEPFAR fund) to clear up the HIV mess years after the ECOMOG mission.

    I had managed some of these soldiers in my hospital during my days in full time Medical Practice in Ibadan a few years ago. When asked why they were so indiscriminate in their relationship with women, many of the soldiers who were in the prime of their years replied that the war was long, they missed their wives and women were cheap and available in Monrovia due to poverty and the vagaries of the war.

    As if to confirm this bit of information, it has been revealed that Nigerian soldiers fathered and left behind 250,000 children in Liberia after the ECOMOG mission.

    Apart from war and poverty, there must be something in Liberian women that make them so irresistible for 9000 soldiers to father 250,000 children (an average of 27 children per soldier). When the legendary late super song star, Michael Jackson waxed the famous song ‘’Liberian Girl’’ in 1983, the Liberian Civil War had not happened then.

    ‘’Liberian Girl . . . More Precious Than Any Pearl/Your Love So Complete… Liberian Girl You Know That You Came And You Changed My World’’.

    The song received a positive reception in Liberia, with women from the country viewing the song as empowering. As one Liberian lady Margaret Carson put it in an interview with the Washington Times “When that music came out … the Liberian girls were so astonished to hear a great musician like Michael Jackson thinking about a little country in Africa. It gave us hope, especially when things went bad … It make us to feel that we are still part of the world.’’

    Now with the Ebola virus causing havoc and panic in Nigeria courtesy of a Liberian by the name Patrick Sawyer, Liberians have definitely stamped their presence in the world. Expectedly, many Nigerians are seething with anger over the invasion of their country by the Liberian Ebola virus courier. And despite apologies from the Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, many Nigerians have suggested possible retributions to the small country. While some people are advocating for a permanent closure of our borders to Liberians, others have demanded for compensation from the Liberian government to the families of the Nigerian victims. A more outlandish suggestion from another enraged Nigerian was for Nigeria to invade Liberia as a form of punishment on the already Ebola infested country.

    However if we are to punish Liberia for the Ebola crisis, is it not also fair for us to compensate our small brother nation for the war atrocities committed by our soldiers during the ECOMOG years?  What about the HIV infection that our soldiers were accused of spreading among other social vices perpetrated under the guise of helping the beleaguered country? Are we to agree with some newspaper commentators that the 250,000 unclaimed children fathered by our soldiers was Nigeria’s assistance to replace the 250,000 Liberians said to have perished in the 14 year old Civil War?

    Already, the suggestion for countries to close their borders and ban air travels with Ebola infested nations had received several knocks from those who believe that such a decision will be counter-productive. Equally, help in form of drugs and doctors have been pouring into Liberia and other countries severely affected by the Ebola virus all in the spirit of humanitarian gesture. Thus, instead of mapping out strategies to ‘avenge’ the harm done Nigeria by Liberia over the Ebola issue, what should be uppermost on our minds should be how to support each other in this very difficult period. Whichever way we look at it, issues of Public Health, Diplomacy and trans-border movement and commerce will continue to pose enormous challenges to nations due to the ease with which we now relate with each other due to improved technology, international commerce, war and natural disasters.

  • Ebola: Managing public information

    Strategic communication remains a critical success factor or element of any human endeavor, issue or institution.  Strategic communication is a well-planned and well-coordinated means of passing well-designed messages from an individual or institution to its identified stakeholders or general public at the right time, in the right quantity to achieve well-defined objectives.

    Strategic communication, therefore, involves a carefully-planned and systematically delivered message with the purpose of creating a desired understanding, goodwill, support or behaviour for a particular course of action, policy or programme. Information is power, and must be used appropriately to achieve desired results.

    My submission here is that there is acute need to apply strategic communication or effective information management in dealing with the current outbreak of the deadly Ebola Virus dDsease (EVD) in Nigeria; and indeed in all the countries where the disease has been reported.

    For now, raw information, in my considered view, is just being dished out unprofessionally, insensitively, without weighing their implications and imports, sociologically and psychologically on the people and residents of Nigeria. What is flowing into the public space is unguarded, unprocessed information that has capacity to aggravate the sad situation we have found on our hands.

    While CNN and the US health officials are dishing out positive information about how the two infected Americans, Dr. Kent Brantly’s and Nancy Writebol’s conditions have significantly improved after receiving a medication of an experimental drug, ZMap at the   Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, their Nigerian counterparts are unmindfully reeling out frightening information about the number of Nigerian doctors and nurses that have been infected, how many persons are being quarantined or isolated, how there is no cure for Ebola, blab bla bla! What exactly is the objective for this kind of information dissemination?

    Top government health officials have inadvertently engaged in much misinformation and outright poor information management about the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria. There is the urge to rush to the press to announce something. Such unprofessional information (mis)management has only achieved widespread tension, fear and panic among health workers, immigration officers, airport and airline workers, family members of sick persons and the general public.

    This would eventually degenerate into stigmatization of anyone who falls sick especially as the symptoms of EVD are same with those of common illness in Nigeria such as malaria, typhoid fever, diarrhea, etc. Very soon many clinics and hospitals may close down for fear of their personnel contracting the disease. Many bereaved persons may become afraid of burying their dead and leave the corpses to decompose in their homes. Already, many people are no longer shaking people’s hands. I’m told that many medical personnel have started absenting themselves from work because of the fear of contracting Ebola.

    Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu gleefully announced that a Nigerian doctor who attended to late Sawyer has tested positive to the deadly EVD, and three other health workers have become symptomatic of the disease. Lagos State chapter chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association, Tope Ojo, equally announced that the matron of the hospital who also attended to Sawyer was showing symptoms of Ebola virus.

    This kind of unprofessional information dissemination has heightened the apprehension about this Ebola epidemic.  More worrisome is the fact that government is not saying anything about measures being taken to save the lives of those who have tested positive to the disease.  We are only told how they are being isolated … to die or to recover!

    Such hopeless information has also impacted negatively on Nigeria’s image outside the country. Just last week, a South Korean university (Duksung Women’s University) rescinded an invitation for three Nigerians to attend an  international conference it was co-hosting with the United Nations; and a group of South Korean medical volunteers called off a trip to West Africa amid growing concerns about the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

    One of the misinformation already dished out about the Ebola disease is that it has no vaccine or drug; therefore it is incurable; that anyone who contracts the disease will die. This is not exactly correct. A search at the website of the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that many people have survived this disease in Liberia, Sierra-Leone and Guinea where the disease broke out about March this year.

    According to WHO, as at July 23, a total of 1,201 cases of the disease and resultant 672 deaths had been recorded in the three West African countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone), which gives a case fatality rate of 55-60%. This statistics was updated on August 4, by WHO, showing more cases and more deaths, with one death of a Liberian, Patrick Sawyer in Nigeria, but the fatality rate remained around 55%.

    A WHO bulletin showed that many patients have survived the disease as a result of prompt medical care and intensive supportive care. According to WHO, the patients who are frequently dehydrated need intravenous fluids or oral rehydration with solutions that contain electrolytes. This is one piece of good news! Pray, when a government health official continues to emphasize that Ebola disease has no cure or vaccine, what does he intend to achieve with that message?

    It is not surprising that during a recent visit to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the Director-General of WHO, Dr Margaret Chan, emphasized on the need to “improve information and communications systems in an effort to strengthen sensitization and promote community participation, taking into account cultural contexts.” Effective communication or proper information management is key to fighting the scourge of the Ebola epidemic.

    We need to control or guard the dissemination of information about the disease. Government needs to upgrade its public enlightenment and education programme about how to prevent the spread of the disease; send those infected to the US hospital; provide needed laboratory facilities; provide appropriate testing facilities at entry points; and go the whole hug in researching the effectiveness or otherwise of our own bitter kola in providing the needed cure for this deadly Ebola disease. We need action and a message of hope.

     

    • Dr. Nkwocha is head of corporate communications for a multinational company in Nigeria.