Category: Editorial

A total of 7,256 trained Nigerian nurses left this country for the United Kingdom between March 2021 and March 2022, entrenching the massive brain drain that has befallen the medical sector just like some others.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council of the United Kingdom issued a report last week showing the trend is worsening – with the number of emigrants in the last year nearly doubling that in the previous ear. According to the report, 2,796 Nigerian nurses migrated to the UK between March 2017 and March 2018, rising to 3,021 between March 2018 and March 2019. There was further uptick to 3,684 nurses between March 2019 and March 2020; and amidst the global health emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic and attendant lockdown, the number rose to 4,310 Nigerian nurses who registered with the council between March 2020 and March 2021. The surge heightened to 7,256 Nigerian trained nurses between March 2021 and March 2022.

According to the data from the UK nurses’ council, Nigeria has the third highest number of foreign trained nurses practising in that country, coming after India and the Philippines.

Reports in  September, last year, indicated that nearly 900 Nigerian doctors were licensed to practice in the UK between July 24, 2020 and September 21, 2021. According to information sourced from the website of the General Medical Council, the body that licenses and maintains the official register of medical practitioners in the UK, no fewer than 353 Nigerian medical doctors were licensed in that country within 100 days spanning June 10 to September 20, 2021. In all, 8,737 doctors trained in Nigeria were practising in the UK at the time – a number certain to have risen even higher by now.

The point to infer here obviously is that the sectoral brain drain has been left unchecked and is actually deepening. It is some historical irony that hospitals are no longer ‘mere consulting clinics’ – one of the reasons cited by the military junta led by current President Muhammadu Buhari (then as military General) that sacked politicians from power in 1983; hospitals are worse off now because there are no personnel available to consult, with most of them having moved abroad to ply their trade. The major factors accounting for this trend remain poor personnel remuneration, inadequate sectoral funding, showing in low grade facilities, and general societal insecurity, among others. Reacting to last week’s statement on mass emigration of nurses, the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives called on government to redress the trend as it was negatively impacting the health sector.

Experience has shown that every country with dramatic success story, like Singapore and Rwanda, built their successes on a unique capacity to attract back skilled nationals abroad, and gainfully engage and retain them to develop the local economies.  Closer home, there was the old Western Region under the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo which spent hugely on training manpower at different levels but also committed the trained personnel to deploying the skills acquired to develop the regional economy.  The converse is the case with the sectoral brain drain whereby medical personnel whose respective training was largely subsidised from the Nigerian treasury are taking their skills abroad because the local environment is stifling and unattractive.  And the fact that they find market for their skills abroad bear testimony to the high standard of their training. In other words, the many mishaps experienced in Nigerian healthcare delivery is not because of poor competency of personnel, but rather that the system obstructs them from putting their training to the best use.

Government must rise to the challenge of adequately funding the sector and make it sufficiently attractive to retain medical personnel at home. This is in addition to ensuring the security of lives and property in the country.

Food is a basic human need, followed by water and shelter, and then other requirements that might pass for wants as against food that is not just a need but a basic one for that matter. Indispensable as food is, it also has categories. There are staple foods and there are luxury foods. While the latter is for the affluent, the former appeal to the mass of the people and it indeed is the issue. As a matter of fact, alarm is always triggered when the prices of such staples are going beyond reach.

Historically, such a situation portends grave danger.

This is why the Federal Government has to be wary about the rising costs of basic food items in the country, such as rice, gari, bread, etc. Indeed, the report that bakers nationwide are groaning as a result of the rising price of flour and other production inputs should put the government on its toes, particularly as the bakers are finding it difficult to pass the rising cost to the consumers.

There is a limit to human endurance where food is concerned. This explains the many food riots in several parts of the world in which people threw caution to the winds and fought the system that they felt was responsible for that situation with the “if I perish, I perish” determination of Queen Esther. It is that serious. After all, someone without food would ultimately perish if that need is not assuaged early enough.

Perhaps the matter would have been less serious if there were cheaper alternatives to bread; unfortunately there is none. The prices of what we could regard as close to alternatives have also skyrocketed. For instance, yams, cocoyam, potatoes, etc. have also witnessed significant increase in prices, as more people now  buy them since they can no longer afford bread.

Again, it would have been a different ballgame if consumers could gladly accommodate the price increases by showing only a little or even no resistance to them. Unfortunately, they too are not in a position to pay more because their meager wages can just not sustain the price increases, what with inflation and the loss of value of our currency. As a matter of fact, many bakers too are at their wits’ end, having applied all kinds of cost-saving measures like reduction in both the quality and quantity of their products, a prank consumers have since noticed and have also been resisting in their own little ways. These days, it is not a matter of asking if the children are satisfied with their food rations, it is simply that of asking if they had eaten. As a matter of fact, many Nigerians have devised strategies like skipping breakfast or lunch daily as a way of reducing their food bills.

While it is true that the bread crisis has been exacerbated by the Ukraine/Russian war, as both countries control a substantial part of global wheat production, Nigeria could have been less affected by the effects of the war but for the self-inflicted insecurity in the country that has sent many farmers, including wheat farmers, away from their farms. As a matter of fact, we could have been reaping bountifully some foreign exchange from this if we had been able to sustain the tempo of wheat production and  therefore  have  wheat  to export in this crucial time of scarcity.

Just last week on this page, we lamented the impact of the insecurity on wheat production in the country. Al Jazeera vividly paints the picture of how this downturn affected one wheat farmer in Borno State: “In 2021, the armed conflict between Boko Haram insurgents and Nigeria’s security forces forced farmer Ismaila Mohammed out of Konduga LGA (Local Government Area) located about 25 km to the southeast of Maiduguri, to an IDP camp in Maiduguri, Borno State. Mohammed, age 47, remembers his thriving wheat farm with nostalgia, recalling thriving harvests that would yield over 250 bags of wheat annually with proceeds that would allow him to maintain a reasonable standard of living and give alms while catering for his family.” As it is with Mohmmed, so it is with many other farmers in the trouble spots.

The matter for regret is that Borno State which used to produce about a third of the country’s  wheat requirement is now producing far below that capacity. Expectedly, his has had a telling effect on foreign exchange and the value of the Naira, as we now spend more to import a commodity over which we have comparative advantage.

It is this insecurity that has wiped away whatever gains we were making on agriculture as a result of the various interventions by especially the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through the Anchor Borrowers Scheme and other programmes.

We therefore renew our appeal to the Federal Government and its security agencies to work more on insecurity. What the country has lost and in fact keeps losing to it is huge. Indeed, it cannot be quantified in monetary terms.

Bread is a staple in many countries, Nigeria inclusive. Therefore, when its price as indeed prices of food items generally assume an upward trend, it should trigger an alarm. France and other countries that had witnessed one food riot or the other, with catastrophic consequences, can better appreciate the implications. And, has been generally acknowledged, a hungry man is an angry man. The country has a lot to gain by keeping food items within reach. Countries that subsidise agriculture and food items are not doing it for fun. They are doing so because they know that food security is an antidote to aggravated poverty which in turn could beget social unrest.

 

After carefully reviewing developments in the two months, and outlook of growth in the domestic and global economy as well as downsides of each policy…It is clear and compelling that tackling inflation is more urgent in sequence of policy objectives”.

That was the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele, at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting last Tuesday – an occasion during which he announced an increase in the reference lending rate – the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) – from 11.5 to 13 per cent, the first in two years.

To begin with, the development did not come to us as a surprise. That has been the noticeable trend globally in recent time – a development exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the on-going war in Ukraine.  Only recently, precisely on May 4, the United States’ Federal Reserve had lifted its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point from a range of 0.75% to 1%, its biggest increase in 22 years, in response to the inflationary pressure. Ditto our ECOWAS neighbour, Ghana, which days back hiked its reference rate by 200 basis points to 19%, again in the bid to control inflationary pressures and promote macroeconomic stability. So, it is not as if Nigeria, whose inflation rate peaked at 16.82% in April, could afford to feign indifference to the global wave, or could be accused of taking precipitate action with the latest increase of the MPR.

Yet, the issue provoked by the CBN measure is difficult to ignore – the issue of which, between the biting effects of the current soar-away inflation with consequences in the erosion of the consumer purchasing power on the one hand, and, the hike in lending rates with corresponding risks in higher borrowing costs and potential for recession on the other hand – is to be feared more.

That the CBN sees inflation as a greater risk is certainly debateable. In reality, the larger picture would seem far more nuanced than is often presented by the apex monetary authority.  Of equal worry is the tool possibly exacerbating the crisis, given the peculiarities of the Nigerian economy.

At least, that would appear to be the position of the umbrella body of the nation’s manufacturers – the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN). To MAN, the increase – considering the myriad of constraints already limiting the performance of the sector – is not ‘manufacturing-friendly’. In the words of its director-general, Segun Ajayi- Kadir, it will intensify demand crunch, increase the cost of manufacturing inputs, worsen the already declining profit margin of private businesses and heighten the mortality rate of small businesses.

He would add that: “It would further reduce capacity utilisation, upscale the rate of unemployment, insecurity and reduce the pace of full recovery of the real sector, making manufacturing performance remain lacklustre and lead to a leaner contribution to the GDP.”

These are strong, alternative viewpoints that the CBN will do well to consider. To this we can add the question of whether the current obsession with inflation-targeting isn’t somewhat skewed or misplaced. For, even if current exigencies make tinkering with the MPR inevitable, there are, no doubt, salient issues with further upward adjustments of a rate that is not only among the highest globally at the moment, but one in which the cost of lending is acknowledged to be source of much pain to the micro, small and medium scale sector. That is assuming that the implicit goal of the CBN measure is to keep the economy healthy and competitive.

So, while we agree that the fight against inflation is good; ensuring that sectors critical to the economy are not needlessly starved of the oxygen to maintain balanced growth would ordinarily, in our view, rank higher in the order of priority.

The menace of commercial motorcycle riders popularly referred as ‘okada’ riders again was in the limelight penultimate week in Lagos. A hapless regular Nigerian, David Sunday, was the latest victim of rampaging ‘okada’ riders in the  Lekki area of Lagos.  The allegation is that a little argument with one of the riders had led to an ‘okada’-rider mob action that led to the lynching of the sound engineer.

The Lagos State government swiftly announced a phased ban of ‘okada’ in six local governments and nine local  government development areas in the state from June 1. The local governments are: Eti Osa, Lagos Island,  Lagos Mainland, Ikeja, Apapa and Surulere.  In the interim, there is an order for security agencies to confiscate such commercial motorcycles based on the provisions of the Lagos State Transport Sector Reform Law of 2018.

We commend the state government for taking a decisive action this time, following the tragic lynching  of Sunday. However, this is not the first time that such a ban would be placed on ‘okada’ riders in Lagos. The encroachment of the riders into the Lagos metropolis had increased steadily over the years. Former Governor Babatunde Fashola had once placed a ban on the riders in certain parts of the state. However, the succeeding government of former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode seemingly did not follow up effectively, and this led to the chaos that now exists.

We have however observed that the problem is not about banning but the political will to implement the ban. Sunday was not the first victim of the recklessness of the ‘okada ‘riders. There are many others who are either dead, having been stabbed during an argument, or died through accidents as most of the riders are often illiterate, not licensed or familiar with city transport rules. Many orthopaedic hospitals and local bone-setting traditional houses are filled with ‘okada’ accident victims.

‘Okada’ menace, as seen all over the country, seems a disaster foretold. In the beginning, many analysts correctly predicted the chaos that is now the fate of many cities due to careless ‘okada’ riders who ride with a nauseating sense of entitlement and arrogance. The reason for their haughtiness is not far-fetched; most of the motorcycles are supplied them by some money-bags who exploit their lack of skills and education. It has been discovered that the money-bags encourage them to be reckless as they instantly replace their seized motorcycles.

The government must show its might and willingness to implement the law and forget whatever political capital it could gain from not doing so because the disadvantages far outweigh whatever advantage people bandy.

There must be a deliberate and urgent action to improve the means of transportation by rail, water and land, and an investment in city buses that are functional and safe. Most ‘okada’ patrons do not do so out of choice, it is almost like a last option. No city worth its name can rely on motorcycles for transportation.

Beyond the dangers the riders cause the society, they are an endangered species themselves. Most of them get respiratory infections because the brands of motorcycles they ride do not have the protective screen that come with the ones used frequently on the road. Again, the demographic of citizens that ride the ‘okada’ for a living are the productive youths that could do better if they learnt other skills or are educated. What the suppliers and state governments that are tolerating ‘okada’ are doing is empowering the youths of the Asian Tigers who produce the motorcycles.

Even though there are some professional operators in the business, Nigeria does not have the requisite infrastructure to accommodate too many of the riders on roads that are too narrow with none delineated for such rides.

The Lagos State government understands that this ‘okada’ issue will test its will to walk the talk instead of succumbing to the blackmail of the businessmen who gain from the operations.

There must equally be education of the people to understand the real dangers of patronising the illiterate, unlicensed riders, whose only motive is profit. An informed citizenry will always make more informed choices.

His story, though familiar, is still potent. A high-flyer as a student but for a year, he has nothing of a meaningful job. His name is Abdulmalik Bashir. He graduated in first class at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria, in water resources and environmental engineering. He whiles away his time at a construction firm, as he says, to avoid boredom.

This is a contrast to a time in this country that scholars like Bashir were spoilt for choice. Big corporations sent scouts to headhunt students of especial talent and potential, and persons like Bashir with a first class would be the first choice.

It is a measure of the decay of the times and the poor management of the nation’s affairs that a first-class student would even have to cry on the pages of newspapers and, even at that, his story would fail to shock. And it is not as if some graduates still do not land plum jobs today, rare as they are. But the ones who get the jobs, whether in special government services or top-notch or blue-chip firms, are often children of the elite, who may be politicians, top bureaucrats or business executives, and the children school not in ABU like Bashir.

They did not have to scrounge for a living to graduate in Ivy League colleges in the United States or top British institutions like Oxford, Cambridge or Imperial College. They ride in luxury and are assured jobs here without struggle. Yet the unemployment profile of the country, even for those with less stellar performances is grim, including those without university degrees. It is 35.5 percent in 2022.

For all the damage to the economy, few students of the poor have a chance to show their merit. A class divide has exposed the injustice of the Nigerian state. With his degree in water resources and environmental engineering, the state of the country is ripe for his talent and initiative. Most of our citizens have no access to clean water, and this is borne out of the prevalence of water-borne diseases. That is, those who have any access to water. Lack of water has also imposed its own raft of infections.

He could also work in the oil field where exploration, drilling and distribution could challenge Bashir’s expertise. But nothing of an opportunity is looking his way. Bashir said he might have looked into going into business to test his acumen as an entrepreneur. But he lacks seed money.

That he even graduated is something of a miracle. He cruised through primary and secondary education because his mother was healthy and fruitful and his father, a primary school teacher, could eke out some funds for him.

But his narrative in ABU was different. His father was no longer getting his salaries as a teacher and his mother had been crippled with a stroke. Neither could provide anymore and he had to beg his way through school, sometimes fruitful enough in that adventure to send some money home for his parents. In their reversal of fortune, there was a reversal of roles without reversing their fortunes.

It is also noteworthy that his siblings could not rise as he did to obtain a higher degree because of their desperate economy. It is little wonder that we have young men and women who no longer see their future in their fatherland. Whether to the United States or Canada when not in the United Kingdom, they are leaving. Not long ago, Saudi Arabia sent head-hunters to cart away high-prized medical doctors.

Bashir is a metaphor for a broken country.

Escalating terroristic attacks and killings in Nigeria’s Southeast geo-political zone continue to attract attention. The zone, which comprises five states, Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo, is increasingly becoming another hell. The situation demands urgent government intervention.

Two recent cases underline the need for improved security in the zone. In Anambra State, the tragic murder and decapitation of Okechukwu Okoye, the lawmaker representing Aguata 2 Constituency in the House of Assembly, introduced a chilling dimension. He represented Governor Charles Soludo’s community in the state legislature. The legislator’s murder amounts to a direct assault on the authorities. The government must deal with the challenge, and should not give the impression of being powerless.

He was abducted by mysterious gunmen on May 15.  His head and headless body were found in separate places in the state about six days later. It is suspected that his aide, Cyril Chiegboka, who was abducted with him, may have been killed too.

A viral video showing Okoye’s head, which was said to have been dumped at a park, also showed two warning notes believed to have been written by his killers. “We give the politicians 48 hours to withdraw all the soldiers in Biafra land or face our wrath or the consequences,” one of the notes said. The second one said: “We will attack you one by one because soldiers and police (officers) are no longer our problem.”

It is difficult to avoid the inference that the murder was politically motivated. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) seems circumstantially implicated in this incident. The proscribed separatist group is fighting for an independent “Biafra land” made up of the five Southeast states and parts of the South-south region of the country.

Insecurity has worsened in that section of the country, since last year, following the arrest and detention of IPOB’s leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who is facing trial for alleged treason and terrorism.

Ironically, Okoye was abducted on the same day Governor Soludo visited Kanu in detention as part of his moves to restore peace and security in the Southeast.

IPOB condemned “the abominable beheading,” saying its investigation showed that the deed was done by “fifth columnists.” This does not exculpate the group, which continues to employ terroristic methods to fight its unlawful cause.

Although the group rejects its proscription by the Federal Government and its listing as a terrorist organisation, it ironically continues to demonstrate, through its activities, that it deserves such treatment.

Yet again, it had ordered a sit-at-home in the Southeast on May 18 and 22, the dates Kanu was scheduled to appear in court. IPOB has no business issuing sit-at-home orders. The orders, issued without regard for constituted authority, sadly suggest state incapacity.

The enforcement of the order usually causes a standstill in many parts of the Southeast as people sit at home largely out of fear of the enforcers. This is unacceptable.

Then, not all the enforcers operate under the group. IPOB disowned the actions of some supposed enforcers in the past.   People who claimed to be IPOB members controversially enforced sit-at-home orders in the past.

Indeed, there could be internal rebels rebelling against the rebellious group, separatists that are not on the same page with the group’s leadership.

The group may well have created a monster it can no longer tame. This is the tragic truth. So IPOB, one way or another, is implicated in the insecurity in the Southeast.

Two days after Okoye and his aide were abducted, mysterious gunmen again struck in Ebonyi State. The chairman of Ikwo Local Government Area of the state, Steve Orogwu, lamented: “They attacked my family compound at Ikwo at night and killed my elder brother, two of his sons and a security guard.” The killers also burnt a house in the compound. The council boss, possibly the real target of the perpetrators, was not at home when the incident happened.  His political position may have been the reason for the attack.

Perhaps targeting political figures is the new approach to separatist activism in the zone, whether or not it is done under IPOB’s banner. It is also possible that political saboteurs, who are not necessarily secessionists, are involved. The objective may be to make the affected states ungovernable. The authorities must not allow this to happen.

It is striking that Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, observed that “the Southeast was adjudged the most peaceful before the attack on the Correctional Centre, Owerri, Imo State and the release of 1,844 prison inmates by unknown gunmen on April 5, 2021.”

Since then, the group said in a statement entitled ‘Satan on the prowl in Igbo land,’ the Igbo-dominated zone “has been in a macabre dalliance with siege, atrocities, abominations, arson, all forms of violence and to the worst of the extremes – killing of human beings.”

The greatest puzzle in all this is that local non-state actors seem to have overwhelmed the official security system. This is inexcusable.

Importantly, there is a need for collaboration between law enforcement and stakeholders in the zone, including traditional rulers, community leaders, vigilantes and youths, to halt this drift towards anarchy.

In a country where institutions continue to pay lip service to the needs of the citizens with special needs, it comes as refreshing that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, (JAMB), continues to strive to make a difference. Going by reports from its just-concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), 383 visually impaired candidates sat for the examination  in 11 centres across the country. And just like their less-challenged counterparts, the candidates were assessed in all subjects, with each availed the option of taking their examination via braille, computer or typewriter, whichever they found convenient.

Equally commendable is the welfare and logistics put in place by JAMB to facilitate their participation. These included picking the bills for transportation, feeding and accommodation of the candidates – including those of their minders to and from the various examination venues, as well as the bills of those who could not return to their homes on the day of examination.

In all, we cannot but commend the initiative – deriving as it were from the need to ensure that no qualified Nigerian is denied the opportunity to access higher education on the grounds of physical disability. According to the board, “The goal of the Ishaq Oloyede-led JAMB is to ensure that no Nigerian who is eligible, is prevented from taking the UTME regardless of disability… He holds the firm view that we must have a level-playing field for all candidates. As long as the candidate is intellectually capable and meets the minimum conditions for admission in the university/polytechnic/college of education of choice, he/she should have a good chance of admission placement.”

This arrangement, which began in 2017 has seen to the processing of about 2,200 candidates for the UTME, with over a third admitted to courses of their choice in higher education institutions in the country, mainly universities.

Last year, the number of candidates in this category was 332, while in 2020, it was 351. This year’s number – an obvious improvement on the two years, can only speak to the diligence in planning and execution for which the credit deservedly goes to the select group of senior academics and special education experts set up by JAMB for the task – the JAMB Equal Opportunity Group (JEOG) led by the current chairman of the governing board of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Prof. Peter Okebukola.

Commendable as it is, the number of those who have benefitted from the arrangement can only be a tip of the iceberg of those deserving Nigerians in this category. Indeed, were a census of this class of Nigerians to be taken along the lines of their special needs, the rest of the country would be shocked at not just the numbers left out of the loop but at the sheer inadequacies in the existing infrastructure available to cater to the different categories of special needs at this time. Such is its importance that it has become a reference point in several countries as a good model for Africa. Indeed, the initiative received respectable mention at a UNESCO meeting in Paris as recently as May 7, this year.

For JAMB, the cost can only be imagined in an environment where inter-agency cooperation is virtually non-existent – the implication being that none of the logistical components can be outsourced to other agencies of government.

We do understand that an agency like JAMB can only do so much in the absence of a coherent policy to address the broad concerns of the physically challenged. In any case, how many of such candidates get to write the UTME? How about the hundreds of thousands of other cases across the country, many of them stuck at basic education levels for want of such opportunities? What is to be done about them? Are the facilities in place adequate? What about the manpower?

And the universities expected to receive the candidates; how equipped are they to attend to the day to day special needs of the qualified? Are there provisions in the public spaces, buildings and even libraries for those with special needs? Are there special considerations in the area of transportation?

That the government continues to fall short in terms of policy and the matching investment to get this category of citizens to live an optimal, productive life is to put it mildly – unacceptable. None of the items for making life easy and tolerable to these fellow citizens requires rocket science to put in place. What is required is a fundamental rethink by governments at all levels, of existing policies and programmes on citizens with special needs, and a fresh resolve to implement extant relevant codes and statutes relating to them.