Tiko Okoye
I write with respect to the above-referenced piece which appeared in your edition of Sunday, April 12, 2020.
It is a great understatement to say that the issue of the Chinese medical experts that arrived Nigeria to bolster the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic has become the hottest topic in town. What with the heat raised in diverse social media platforms demanding that that the government send them back!
But while one may enjoy the luxury of laughing at the ignorance and mischief-making underscoring the vituperations of the naysayers, it becomes an entirely different kettle of fish, so to speak, when literal giants, such as Mr. Idowu Akinlotan, voluntarily decide to act as the major conductor of the we-no—go-agree orchestra.
But let me first explain what I mean by ignorance and mischief-making. Even as we speak, the governors of the populous American states of California and New York, among other states, have publicly disclosed that they are expecting large consignments of lifesaving ventilators from the same China that President Donald Trump never ceases to demonize and ridicule at any given opportunity. These governors must therefore know something that Trump and his co-travelers in Nigeria, like the social media rats and Akinlotan, do not know.
It was widely reported that two contingents of Cuban doctors flew into Italy and Spain to assist in the battle to checkmate Covid-19 and received rousing receptions from citizens of both nations. Is it that Italy and Spain do not have strong doctors’ unions that would have demanded that the Cubans not be allowed to step foot on the ground?
When you speak of the quality of healthcare, can it be really said that Cuba is on a higher pedestal than Italy and Spain? Yet, the Cubans were rousingly received with wide open arms. Why? Because the world has since become a global village and what ails a nation ails the rest, and everyone tries to assist as much as possible because no one knows with any degree of certainty whose turn will be next.
Akinlotan would have us believe that because “the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), the National Assembly, not to talk of a majority of Nigerians (although he didn’t disclose when and how he conducted the census), are suspicious of the invitation extended to the Chinese experts, and fear that there is more to their presence than meets the eye,” the government should withdraw the invitation.
He has carved out a reputation of sorts by using his highly visible column to serially spin and fabricate all kinds of conspiracy theories against President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC), but this is one conspiracy theory too many. Is Akinlotan aware that a similar conspiracy of this nature once spread through the northern states like bush fire in the harmattan with respect to the polio vaccine? Many parents simply refused to have their children vaccinated and the gory outcome is still ever present with us. By the time the government got the traditional rulers to bring their subjects onboard the scheme it had become a case of too little too late.
Right now, Nigeria does not have the manufacturing capacity and expertise to manufacture much-needed equipment such as ventilators nor does she have sufficient foreign exchange – as crude oil price hits rock bottom – to import them. It is therefore ridiculous for a nation in such dire straits to begin to look a gift horse in the mouth when appropriate precautionary measures have been taken by the government, such as ensuring that the Chinese medical experts have tested negative for Covid-19 and commence their stay here by staying 14 days in quarantine.
Rather than resort to baseless public posturing, our doctors ought to borrow a leaf from the Chinese book on rapid development by stealing or copying the equipment they bring along and taking the technical imprints to the Oshodi Industrial Research Institute for fabrication of working prototypes.
One other very important thing; Akinlotan and his co-travellers are huffing and puffing as if we are doing the invited Chinese medical experts a great favour. I dare say that the reverse is the case and that they are the ones doing us a great favour. Just imagine this: have they a spared a moment to mull over the reality that the Chinese medical experts, wearied to their bones from fighting a successful but highly bruising war against the deadly disease in their own country, would rather be with the families they most probably separated from for so long rather than be found in any nation in Africa?
In fact, if anything, this must be one of those moments when we ought to be highly appreciative of the reality that an authoritarian Communist foreign government gave the marching orders to some of its citizens to proceed to Macedonia to lend a helping hand because the response to our government’s invitation would have been totally different if the doctors were to have any say in the matter!
Yes, the Chinese may have ulterior motives for their action. But tell me which nation in the world that does not have clear-cut foreign policy targets aimed at propagating her self-interest. Is it the Western democracies that are unabashedly driven by a profit maximisation motive?
Let us suppose, while not conceding, that Akinlotan is spot-on when he magisterially declares that “majority” of Nigerians are opposed to the coming of the Chinese medical experts; and so what? Must any rational government – elected or unelected – succumb to the dictates of mobocracy? Yes, democracy is supposed to be the government of the people by the people and for the people. We have done our part by putting a government in place and we need to allow them play their part by working for us. Must the government swim with the tide of public opinion, else where is the place of visionary leadership?
As the case of the ill-advised opposition to the polio vaccine in large swathes of the North has ably demonstrated, the public can often times get it wrong. Truth is that even as we love to say that the people constitute the government, there is a very small group of people we have entrusted to act in our collective best interests, using their superior knowledge of events and developments and the performance scorecard will be assessed at every election cycle.
And now to the mischief-making aspect. After taking a very deep analysis of the characters of individuals and groups at the forefront of the “Chinese must go back” protestations, I have become fully persuaded that the same unrelenting traducers who see nothing good in any action taken by the current administration and who are ever ready to use any opportunity to give President Buhari his comeuppance in the manner of never-ending electioneering by any other means. Little do these characters realise that they are doing a great disservice to this nation.
All things being equal, Buhari would exit Aso Rock Villa by 2023 but the deepening religious, tribal, partisan and regional fault lines that such unrelenting traducers like Akinlotan continue to exploit at every twist and turn would continue to imperil the stability and cohesion of this country long after the curtains are drawn on the reign of the man from Daura.
- Okoye is a Financial Inclusion expert in Abuja
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