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  • Reforming the Nigerian Civil Service: My struggles, my pain, my triumphs (III)

    Confucius, the ancient Chinese philosopher, once gave a remarkable admonishment: ‘Study the past if you would define the future.’ And for Edmund Burke, once we take historical knowledge for granted, then we are doomed to repeat those terrible mistakes of the past. There is no better preface on the significance of historical insights into Nigeria’s administrative trajectory. History, any history for that matter, is not a list of boring stories of what had gone by. On the contrary, history is a rich tapestry of human actions and inaction, and the multiplicity of consequences that flows from them. Nigeria’s administrative history stems from the moment the Nigerian state came into its amalgamated existence in 1914.

    The history of Nigeria’s reform experiment becomes important once we see it as the ongoing attempt, in administrative terms, to come to term with the possibility of redeeming Nigeria from its postcolonial deficits. Amalgamation was motivated by colonial arithmetic; hence, it lacked any national consideration of progress. The need for administrative reform is therefore premised on the urgent necessity of transforming the civil service into an effective institution that would foreground the nation’s search for an infrastructural revolution that would alleviate the years of denigration Nigerians have suffered under colonial rule.

    Within the context of my doctoral investigation of the evolution of administrative reforms, the idea of a trajectory therefore becomes very critical. A trajectory, in this administrative context, becomes an intentional search for an omega-point that is represented by series of successful reform efforts, beginning from an alpha-point. While all the pre- and post-1954 reforms are significant in their own regard, especially in the calibration of what came to be known as the Nigerian Civil Service, the real nation-defining reform issues actually commenced in 1971 with the Adebo Commission. Like most of the others, the Adebo Commission was established to deal with some of the intended and unintended consequences of the Nigerianisation Policy, especially the wage issue.

    But the Adebo Commission soon became caught up in two bigger issues, internal and external. While still investigating its terms of reference, the first military coup had happened, and the decline of the civil service structure and organisation had commenced. The military government set in motion several critical factors that instigated the gradual evolution of a structural pattern that consistently whittled down the capacities the civil service has to promote good governance. Externally, the managerial revolution had already commenced, and the British Civil Service was already the focus of its demands through the Fulton Commission of 1968. Thus it was that the Adebo Commission began with a brief to investigate the wage and recruitment issues of the new civil service, but ended up with a more significant managerial challenge bordering on organisation and structure. The Adebo Commission recommended that another public service review commission; the Udoji Commission came into existence.

    The Udoji Commission, if I am asked, remains the singular most significant reform commission in Nigeria’s administrative history. It is the watershed of what could have gone right but went wrong with the civil service system in Nigeria. The significance of the Udoji Commission is simple but profound: it is the commission that had to mediate between the new managerialism that was defining the civil service system and the old Weberian tradition on which the Nigerian Civil Service was founded. In its Main Report, the Commission diagnosed the central problem of the Nigerian Civil Service as that of its inability to respond to serious change. When the Commission was in place, the NCS was already too bureaucratic to achieve the postcolonial objective of national development and democratic service delivery to Nigerians. Thus, fully inspired by the UK Fulton Report, the Udoji Commission went on to recommend, on the one hand, a new style public service infused with “new blood” working under a result-oriented management system operated by professionals and specialists in particular fields. And, on the one hand, it recommended standardization of conditions of service, increase in public sector wages, a unified and integrated administrative structure, the elimination of waste, and the removal of inefficient departments.

    Andrew Grove got it right: ‘When you’re caught in the turbulence of a strategic inflection point, the sad fact is that instinct and judgment are all you’ve got to guide you through.’ The Gowon administration missed the significance of the ‘strategic inflection point’ that the Udoji Report represented. Rather than Udoji becoming a template for the rejuvenation of the civil service system in Nigeria, it became a slogan for abundant wage. This was because the Federal Government decided to implement the wage component of the Udoji Report rather than the structural components. The turning point was therefore lost in the euphoria of wage increment. It seems to me that since Udoji, the civil service system in Nigeria has been attempting to reverse the mistake of 1975. Udoji casts a long shadow over the stagnation of the civil service.

    For instance, it is interesting to understand the dynamics of the next two significant reform attempts in Nigeria-the 1988 Civil Service Reform and the 1995 Ayida Public Service Review Panel. The Philips Commission Report, which generated the 1988 reform recommendation, was forced by inevitable global trajectory to revisit the managerial revolution in administration through its attempt to lay the foundation of a professionalised civil service. Professionalization was thus tied to specialization. Unfortunately, rather than professionalising, the reform entrenched a politicisation of the workforce, especially the status of the permanent secretary which became a political appointment. The conception of professionalism was also curious because it was taken as a function of the location and time span of an officer in a particular ministry. The Ayida Panel was supposed to act in a review capacity to interrogate the recommendations of the Philips commission as a means by which the system can be reinvented. But it took the logic of reinvention the wrong way-it reinvented the pre-1988 civil service system and its managerial deficit! The simple but sad implication of this is that the Ayida Panel did not have a concrete agenda of reinvention; so it recommended a regression back to the status quo ante.

    ‘Challenging the status quo,’ according to Gary Hamel,’has to be the starting point for anything that goes under the label of strategy.’ While the Ayida Panel failed at doing this, it becomes the administrative standard by which to assess the remaining four reform strategies that define the democratic dispensation in Nigeria-the Obasanjo Renewal Programme, the Yar’Adua Civil Service Reform Programme,the Transformation Agenda of the Jonathan administration, and President Muhammadu Buhari’s ongoing Change Agenda. The four reform agenda are founded on the fundamental principle that no transformation of the Nigerian state would be possible without a capable, efficient and corruption-free public service. The Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan administrations therefore accepted the reform blueprint contained in the National Strategy for Public Service Reform (NSPSR) which projected the vision of a world class public service that is professionalised enough to deliver government policies and programmes.

    Much as these reform agenda are beautiful programmes of renewal and revitalization that has the benefits of administrative hindsight, visions are often undermined by reality. And the present reality is that the civil service system in Nigeria, in spite of the multitude of beautiful reform visions and strategies, is still struggling to deliver democratic dividends to millions of Nigerians who are sighing under the terrible burden of poverty. The Nigerian Civil Service is still far from being a world class public service.

    If, as Norman Cousins insists, ‘history is a vast early warning system,’ have we learnt any good and practical lessons from 1971? From the historical nuggets of reform trajectory that we have outlined here, what are the fundamental administrative lessons to be learnt? What are the defining issues in civil service renewal effort? That will be the subject of the fourth part.

  • Some Causes of pain and some solutions…1

    When I lived at 3A Emina Crescent, off Toyin Street, Ikeja, Lagos, a trauma hospital next door constantly reminded me of pain. Day and night, agonizing cries from body-wrenching pain sounded like the signature tune of this hospital. And the specialist doctors who worked there would appear to have bundles on their hands. For one set of peculiar cries often quickly gave way to other ones, suggesting that some patients were calming while the hospital was admitting a new set of others.

    I hate pain and agony and, so, never ventured into the grounds of this hospital. I have been lucky not to live in pain, except for when, in 1966, I suffered a femur fracture when a taxi knocked me down in Ibadan, and when, in 2000, a terrible toothache sent me to the dentist. It was a 50th birthday toothache and began in the night. I had at home no herbal remedy such as Clove Oil to calm it.

    Being unable to bear the head-splitting headache which accompanied the toothache, I dabbled the tooth with an Aloe Vera product which was not meant to be administered internally. And the tooth cracked, worsening the pain.There are two other pain experience I cannot easily forget. The first was a sharp and prolonged pain in both eyes which I experienced in an airplane on my way home from the Netherlands. It was as though pins were being short into each eyeball. Obviously, these were nerve pains and should have educated me well enough to pay more attention to those eyes. Like most people, I forgot about that pain after an almost instant relief from a dose of Aspirin which the cabin attendants gave me. Years after, the underlying cause, glaucoma, was to be woken from slumber, according to my ophthalmologist, by drugs an orthopaedic doctor gave me for suspected rheumatoid arthritis in both shoulders.

    When Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) he gave did not appear to work well, he replaced the prescription with Corticosteroids, a more powerful anti-inflammatory regimen, and, according to the eye doctor, this was what exhumed and roused a slumbering volcano. I will not forget, also, post-operative pain after a minor surgery to connect a deviated septum. The septum is that ridge of tissue which separates nostrils, it was possible that I fell as a baby, bled from nose and the blood was stopped but the septum was not properly checked. said Dr. Kunle Okupe, a terrific Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) doctor (now of blessed memory) who carried out the surgery. I had noticed that, if I lay on one side of the body, the septum flipped to cover or block the nostril on that side, leaving me to breathe with only one nostril during sleep. When Dr. Okupe said he would ‘’pack’’ the nostrils after the corrective surgery. I didn’t understand the procedure in all its ramifications. When he finished, cotton wool was stuffed into the nostrils to absorb blood from bleeding tissue. I had to breathe through the mouth for the next 24 hours.

    That meant I had to keep awake all night, as the surgery took place in the evening, with severe headache which heavy doses of pain killer, could not contain. But this was only the beginning of post-operative pain. Removal of cotton wool was traumatic as blood clots had glued it to tissue after the cotton wool was removed, cleaning of the Nostrils to remove blood clots was an unforgettable experience. I was free of the cotton wool, dressing every three days to clear the nostrils of blood clots were an unforgettable pain experience.

    The experiences of many people with pain are varied. Some people suffer from migraines or tension headache, some from cluster headache. Eye pain is the challenge of others. For some others still, degenerating neck bones may cause a type of arthritis known as cervical spondylosis.

    In this condition, the neatly arranged and well aligned neck bones may shift or misalign, pinching a nerve, and this may set off a pain reaction. Surgery may be advised to re-align the bones. But the risk taken may involve the possibility of the surgeon’s knife cutting a nerve and causing paralysis. Sometimes, neck collars are worn to help the condition. If one prefers a chiropractor may be called to knock the bones into shape, but there are not many of them in Nigeria. Peptic ulcer and duodenal ulcer cause pain. Indigestion and other digestive system problems do cause pain. If the blood does not flow well to the organs, pain may arise. And when one organ exceeds its boundary and encroaches on another, such as when the intestine drops on the testes in testicular hernia, pain arise. One time Nigerian military Head of State Gen Ibrahim Babangida once suffered from radiculopathy, inflammation of the radicles, a nervous system condition, which warranted surgery in France. Chronic hypoxia (insufficiency of oxygen in the blood) is another pain factor. Tumours or cancers of any sort are another breeding ground for pain. Even when iron levels (ferritin) are too high in the blood, this causes pain. Many people are challenged with fibromyalgia. Most of the sufferers (about 50 percent) are women.

    This is an arthritic condition of the muscles and skeletal system which affect both sides of the body. The symptoms encompass fatigue and sleep disorders. Mrs. Elizabeth Strand, the wife of Dr. Ray Strand, was a well-known sufferer from this condition. Her energy crashed to the point that she couldn’t even brush her teeth. Her husband couldn’t help her. But she got well on herbs and nutritional supplements she was given by her friends to the point that she could tend and ride her horses again. Dr. Strand was intrigued by this that he began to research nutritional supplements, with Grape Seed Extract becoming his pet supplement, and he wrote the book WHAT YOUR DOCTOR DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT NUTRITION MAY BE KILLING YOU. Many of these conditions are not lone rangers. Fibromyalgia, for example, is associated with some medical situations, including Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), itself caused by micro-organisms in the bowels, post-traumatic stress disorders and lupus, an auto-immune disorder. Back-ache is reported in many countries to be second in occurrence to only headache. Back-ache may arise from factors which may include back injury, arthritis of the spinal bones, slipped disc, herniated disc, nerve injury, muscle and/or ligament tear or strain, muscle spasms or swollen joint. Bad standing or sitting posture may be culprits as well. Bone spurs caused by deposition of calcium not inside the bone but on the outside is another problem to watch. Dr. Oz, whose television programmes are popular in Europe and in the United States, advices that pancreatic cancer can be a cause of back pain. He says that, when a tumour blocks the pancreatic duct, which sends pancreatic enzymes into the intestine to digest food there, this causes an acid build-up in the pancreas, eating up this organ and causing abdominal pain which may radiate to the back. He suggests that, to rule out this condition if your stool is pale and your skin is yellow, you see your doctor immediately. Lymphoma is becoming a common ailment in Nigeria. It is cancer of the lymph nodes (in the neck, armpit and groin) which attacks white blood cells. Some sufferers experience lumps in the throats and difficulty in swallowing. Another pain factor many pain-stricken people do not consider before they gobble pain-killing or relieving pharmaceutical drugs is that too much iron or too little of it is dangerous to health. Iron is needed to form heamoglobin, a constituent of red blood cells which transport oxygen throughout the body. When the cells are deprived of oxygen for their living processes, they ‘’cry’’ out in pain. For the purpose of making red blood cells wherever they are needed, the body stores iron inside a special protein called ferritin, it is found in bodycells with a little of it found circulating in the bloodstream. The Mayo Clinic says ferritin contains 20 percent iron, with the largest concentration of ferritin being in the liver. When it is time to make more red blood cells, the body calls for the release of ferritin. Ferritin thus released is then bound to another substances called transferrin, another protein which takes ferritin to where new red blood cells are manufactured. One authority describes transferrin as a “taxi”. In low ferritin levels, the following symptoms may be experienced as iron levels deplete: “Unexplained fatigue, dizziness, chronic headaches, unexplained weakness, ringing in the ears, irritability, leg pains and shortness of breath, in excess ferritin levels, the symptoms may include “stomach pain, heart palpitations or chest pains, unexplained weakness, joint pain and unexplained fatigue.”

    Rising ferritin levels call for a check on the liver and spleen as damage to these organs may cause ferritin influx into blood circulation. This would cause pain, which, in Nigeria, many self-medicating people try to resolve with a popular pain killer. Unfortunately, accumulations of the residues of this pain killer damage the liver and the kidneys. It is a pity, too, that this pain killer can be purchased by anyone over the counter, and doctors who prescribe them do not often warn their patients against an over dose. According to an article on the Gastro-enterology and Hepatology Journal, as reported by Racheal Nail in Health line Medical Review team (www.healthline.com): “The most common causes of elevated ferritin levels are obesity, inflammation and daily alcohol intake Health line add: Lower than normal ferritin level can indicate that you have an iron deficiency, which can happen when you don’t consume enough iron in your daily diet.”

    Another condition that affects iron levels is anemia, which is when you don’t have enough red blood cells for iron to attack to. Additional conditions includes excessive menstrual bleeding, stomach conditions that affect intestinal absorbtion and internal bleeding. Ferritin levels that are too high can indicate certain condition. Some example is haematochromatosis which is when your body absorbs too much iron. Other conditions that cause too much iron levels include rheumatoid arthritis, liver disease, hyperthyroidism, adult still’s disease, Type 2 diabetes, leukemia, Hodgken’s lymphoma, iron poisoning and frequent blood transfusions. This much has been said of iron and ferritin as causes of pain and some of the causes of their elevation have been mentioned as well, to advice that it is not in all cases of pain that these dangerous pain killers should be greedily consumed. They do not solve underlying problems of pain. They merely block the pain temporally. Pain is terrible. So, where we may seek to block it, however temporally, so we can move on more freely with our lives, we should not relent in making our doctors investigate the root causes of the pain. Doctors will prescribe Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) or Corticosteroids, such as that which exhumed my slumbering glaucoma. It would be up to us, once armed with the appropriate diagnosis, to find natural solutions to these underlying conditions, as I did for my smoldering rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

    Many women would not forgive me if I do not mention the pain which comes with menstruation. For it makes them miserable every month. Some have even lost their Jobs on account of this. What would happen, for example, is better imagined if, on the day of the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination, that crucial examination in Nigeria for University placement, a girl is knocked out of the competition by menstrual pain. It would mean she would have to wait another year to try again. But who can predict the future? What if menstrual pain debars a young university graduate from attending an important job interview or mars her performance before the panelists?  It is still arguable medically if women should menstruate. In THE NEW RAN ENERGY published in the 1960s, Leslie and Susannah Kenton featured research work  which showed that, like the old World Monkeys, women who consumed large amount of beta carotene do not menstruate but, nevertheless, fertile and get pregnant.

    At a Gotha Institute health  seminar I attended in Lagos in the 1990s, a young mother of three from the middle belt zone of Nigeria was presented. She was banished from her village because she was not known to menstruate. This menstruation is now being seen in some medical circles as a New World disease. For women who menstruate, this phenomenon is the expulsion of the lining of the uterus, the endometrium, if no pregnancy occurred prior to it. Menstruation is stimulated by some hormone like substances called prostaglandins. Of which there are two major types. One type promote inflammation. The other is anti-inflamating, if a woman has too much of the former, they may cause excessive cramping of the uterine walls. And lactic acid would build up in these walls, inducing inflammation and pain.

    The pro-inflammation prostaglandins have been linked to diet, especially the consumption of red meat, white sugar, white flour foods, fried foods etc. Many women who are beset with this condition  are known to have an excess of calcium (from milk consumption etc.) viz-a-viz magnesium. While Calcium causes those contractions, there is not enough magnesium at work to simultaneously relax the nerves and muscles. Research in this field of pain have noted that other factors may cause menstrual pain. These include endometriosis (when the uterine lining grows in other parts of the pelvic region), family history, early puberty (before age II), irregular periods, heavy periods, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS), uterus fibroids and Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID), among others. This column is exploratory. Other columns in the series will examine specific conditions or groups of them with the aim of suggesting natural ways of answering them or overcoming them.

  • Reforming the Nigerian Civil Service: my struggles, my pain, my triumphs (II)

    I prefaced this long series, in the first part, with a narration of the pain of exit and how for me, retiring from the Nigerian Civil Service (NCS) is definitely not the end of my reform business to transform a system I have dedicated twenty seven years of my life to. I made the point that exit simply implies that I am transitioning from being a critical insider to becoming a critical outsider who can bring an external perspective to bear on what the civil service has done wrong, what it has done right and in what direction we can move it towards becoming a world class institution. For me, my institutional life may have come to an end, but my foot is still caught in the mat of the institutional dynamics of the NCS. I am too involved to just bid goodbye to a system I see as being critical to the coming national glory of Nigeria.

    But first, it is necessary that I tell the story of how I came to be in this system in the first place. I must say it has nothing to do with fascination or coincidence. Far from it. Rather, I would say Providence perhaps planned it all along! I am a scholar by heart. My original and lifelong desire is to be a philosopher. I have a sanitized spirit that is suitable for contemplation, and the cloistered life of the ivory tower.

    In my projection, if I would ever come in contact with administrative matters, then it would be on the pages of critical and scholarly books and conferences. Opting for Political Science, rather than Philosophy, but I was deluding myself all along-reality is much stronger than projections! And the reality in the late eighties for me, while I was in the postgraduate school, was that I needed survival on the Abraham Maslow hierarchy of my need so urgently, before I could think of climbing the ladder of self-esteem towards scholastic attainment. The Nigerian Civil Service, through the Presidency, came to my rescue. And at the centre of my entry dilemma was Professor Ojetunji Aboyade. He played several subtle roles that played out into larger future dynamics for me as a critical change agent in the reform of the civil service system in Nigeria. ‘To be a catalyst,’ Theodore Zeldin informs, ‘is the ambition most appropriate for those who see the world as being in constant change, and who, without thinking that they can control it, wish to influence its direction.’

    Ojetunji Aboyade was exactly that, an intellectual catalyst that turned my rabid fear of systemic dysfunction in the civil service into a serious fascination with the dynamics of institutional change. He influenced the direction that would become cogent for me to becoming a change agent. He supplied me with the intellectual prism from which to refract the dysfunction into a philosophy of reform. And that became the research dynamics which I have pursued since I determined to pursue a doctorate hinged around the consuming desire to understand the operational dynamics of the civil service system in Nigeria. I was however very lucky to have entered the civil service when Prof. Aboyade was struggling with Nigeria’s development struggle through policy designs and advisory professionalism. Aboyade came into public service with all the energies of a committed intellectual ready to inject sound ideas and practices into the system. Unfortunately, Nigeria was at that point under the terrible pathology of the Dutch and Double Dutch Disease arising from the oil windfall of the 70s. It was not long before all his tight implementation schedules and the tightening of the Development Planning praxis met the fundamental challenge of weak institutional and executive capacity in the civil service and national valueless-ness. Aboyade was therefore caught in between development visions, policies and plans, on the one hand, and implementation and development outcomes on the other. This was with the full conceptual awareness of the intellectual current of the time that was hinged on the seminar contributions of institutional economists and implementation researchers whose advocacy birth the dominant though controversial reform theory of our age, the new public management (NPM) paradigm.

    This was precisely the depressing administrative context within which I began my initiation into the civil service system and public administration research. The redeeming factor for me was that it was also an incredible period that gave birth to critical research dynamics spearheaded by Aboyade himself. I had no choice at the time but to accept Aboyade’s challenge to me-‘You need to transform from being just a researcher to be a change agent; with the transformation of the civil service system through expert knowledge and reform as your mission’.  And the initiation I needed came when I became Assistant Secretary to the White Paper Panel on the Ayida Public Service Review Panel of 1995 through invitation. The Ayida Review Panel was commissioned to revisit the 1988 Civil Service Reform which had failed to redress the administrative system into a desired projection. Its task was to reinvent those factors that would facilitate the restoration of the civil service into an effectively performing institution.

    Being the technically-minded member of the White Paper Panel’s Secretariat was a blessing! It afforded the internal perspective in articulating and interrogating all aspects of administrative system. But in a concrete sense, this was the point at which my research focus took hold and took off. The dynamics that connects the Prof. Dotun Phillips Study Report, the Koshoni White Paper, the Decree 43 of 1988 and the Ayida Review Panel gave me the intellectual impetus to commence a critical interrogation of the civil service system in its entirety and the condition for its institutional reform. For instance, as Assistant Secretary to the Ayida Review Panel, I had the opportunity to not only confront the weaknesses of Decree 43, but also the limitations of the Ayida Panel Report itself. It immediately became clear to me that theory and practice must be integrated if a committed reformer must achieve a coherent and robust rejuvenation of the civil service system in Nigeria that speak to the nuanced chemistry of the administrative system. Theory and practice are already implicated in the complex and complicated trajectory of linking vision of reform to its implementation, especially within a difficult administrative context like Nigeria.

    So, after a thorough Masters degree in political theory, public administration offers the most immediate theoretical entry point into the challenge of understanding the civil service system in Nigeria. By 2002, I had the second privilege of heading a technical team from the Management Service Office (MSO) that was to undertake a strategic planning study and exercise that could facilitate the proper restructuring of the system. This study turned out to be a conceptual revelation for me because, apart from the exposure it afforded through Donor Agencies technical assistance that enable study tour of over 25 public services around the globe, it threw up those critical questions that enabled me jumpstart my doctoral reflection on the civil service. These fundamental questions remain fundamental to the reform of the Nigerian civil service: (a) what kind of public service does Nigeria need to successfully manage the dynamics of a transition from military authoritarianism to civilian democracy? (b) How can the vision of building a public service that works for the people be realised within the shortest possible time? (c) How can the size of the chronically imbalanced bureaucracy, with a structure that harbours 70% of the workforce at the unskilled level, be streamlined? (d) How can the skills deficit at the senior management levels be corrected through re-skilling and the injection of skills from other sectors, without a far-reaching process of painful rightsizing and declaration of redundancies? (e) What are the appropriate personnel policies, pay structure and operational cost ratios that are most cost effective and consistent with the optimal productivity level of the national economy? (f) How can the civil service be made more sensitive to the political objectives of policy makers and be, at the same time, accountable to the people as clients without its independence and professionalism being undermined? (g) What should ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) be doing that is different from what they have been doing to become strategic partner in national transformation?

    When my research got under way, I was buoyed by the enthusiasm about what is possible. Ludwig Wittgenstein, the German philosopher, accurately captured my dissertation mood: ‘The riddle does not exist. If a question can be framed at all, it is also possible to answer it.’ The bubble of reform enthusiasm that began a long time ago, stayed with me till retirement. It nearly burst through the many terrible encounters of disillusionments, frustrations and dejection. Once, at reform training in Wellington, New Zealand, a renowned reform expert specifically told me: ‘With your passion and depth of knowledge for reform, be ready for war!’ My reform efforts bred friends and foes. But it also generated invaluable theoretical, historical and practical insights that are the sine qua non for transformation. One of the achievements of the doctoral dissertation is that it enabled a concise but critical assessment of the trajectory of reform in Nigeria, especially from 1974 to date. I will examine this in the next part.

  • Crude oil a pain to economy, says NEXIM boss

    Crude oil a pain to economy, says NEXIM boss

    The discovery of crude oil has been described as a great pain on Nigeria’s economy, the Managing Director/CEO of Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), Robert Orya, has said.

    Orya, who spoke over the weekend in Abuja at a forum tagged, ‘Business Talk In Summer’ organised by an Abuja based radio station- Cool Wazobia FM, said whereas other oil producing nations make good use of their oil proceeds to diversify their economy, Nigeria uses its oil proceed to kill other thriving sectors of the economy.

    He lamented that the agriculture sector with all its potentials to transform Nigeria economically, has been neglected because of the existence of cheap monies from the sale of crude oil.

    Orya warned that Nigeria will find itself in a fix should her oil dry up. The NEXIM bank boss noted that, Nigeria, essentially is an agrarian economy with oil producing capabilities has turned a lazy country because of cheap income from oil sources.

    He said: “Prior to rebasing of Nigeria’s economy in 2014, Agriculture contributed over 40 per cent of GDP, but with the rebasing, the Agric Sector now accounts for about 20 per cent, not because of lower productivity, but because other emerging sectors have diluted the contribution of Agriculture”.

    He stated that despite the fact that 93 per cent of our revenue comes from oil, it is an area that we should have used what we are getting from there to develop the non-oil sector.

    “It is the non-oil sector that determines the rate of our economic growth and not oil. If we had used that money to develop agriculture, agro-processing and to developed solid minerals, Nigeria will not have the magnitude of challenges it has today.”

    To address some of the problems militating against development of agriculture sector, Orya advocated the promotion of private investments through suitable incentive measures, like tax holidays and other fiscal measures to encourage investment in agriculture.

  • Thousands of Ebola survivors face severe pain, possible blindness

    Thousands of Ebola survivors face severe pain, possible blindness

    Thousands of West Africans who were infected with the Ebola virus, but survived it, are suffering chronic conditions, such as serious joint pain and eye inflammation that can lead to blindness, global health experts said yesterday.

    Ebola survivors who fought off the most severe bouts of infection are the most likely to suffer ongoing medical problems, World Health Organization experts said, and their health is becoming “an emergency within an emergency”.

    “The world has never seen such a large number of survivors from an Ebola outbreak,” said Anders Nordstrom, a WHO representative in Sierra Leone who took part in a five-day conference this week about Ebola survivors.

    “We have 13,000 survivors in the three countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone). This is new – both from a medical and from a societal point of view,” he told reporters on a telebriefing.

    Daniel Bausch of the WHO’s clinical care team on Ebola survivors said about half of all those who fought off the virus now report joint pain, with some suffering such severe effects that they can’t work.

    Eye problems including inflammation, impaired vision and – in severe but rare cases – blindness, have been reported by about 25 percent of survivors, Bausch said.

    Less measurable but equally serious long-term problems, such as increasing rates of depression, post traumatic stress disorder and social exclusion, are also affecting survivors.

    Since West Africa’s devastating Ebola epidemic was by far the largest ever seen – infecting more than 27,000 people and killing almost 11,300 of them – scientists are not able to say whether survivors’ chronic health problems are unusual.

    The Ebola virus is thought to be able to survive no more than 21 days in most body fluids, such as blood and vomit, which are the primary means of transmission.

    But it is also known to be able to lurk in semen and in the soft tissues of the eye for up to several months after recovery.

    Scientists believe the vision impairments reported by survivors of the current outbreak are probably linked to the virus persisting in the eyes.

    Bausch said sight problems, joint pain and headaches have been reported in a few survivors of previous outbreaks since the disease was first detected in 1976. But past epidemics were much smaller, meaning survivor numbers were too small to study or draw any meaningful scientific conclusions.

  • Ginger’ll cure nausea, pain, others

    Ginger’ll cure nausea, pain, others

    Ginger has been used for its medicinal properties for centuries.

    Consuming fruits and vegetables of all kinds has long been associated with a reduced risk of many lifestyle-related health conditions. Many studies have suggested that increasing consumption of plant foods like ginger decreases the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and overall while promoting a healthy complexion and hair, increased energy and overall lower weight.

    Digestive issues

    The phenolic compounds in ginger are known to help relieve gastrointestinal irritation, stimulate saliva and bile production and suppress gastric contractions and movement of food and fluids through the GI tract.

    Nausea

    Chewing raw ginger or drinking ginger tea is a common home remedy for nausea during cancer treatment. Pregnant women experiencing morning sickness can safely use ginger to relieve nausea and vomiting, often in the form of ginger lozenges or candies.

    Pain reduction

    A study involving 74 volunteers carried out at the University of Georgia found that daily ginger supplementation reduced exercise-induced muscle pain by 25%.

    Ginger has also been found to reduce the symptoms of dysmenorrhea (severe pain during a menstrual cycle). In one study, 83% of women taking ginger capsules reported improvements in pain symptoms compared to 47% of those on placebo.

    Inflammation

    Ginger has been used for centuries to reduce inflammation and treat inflammatory conditions.

    A study published in Cancer Prevention Research journal found that a ginger root supplement administered to volunteer participants reduced inflammation markers in the colon within a month. Researchers on the study explained that by decreasing inflammation, the risk of colon cancer is also likely to decrease. Ginger has also shown promise in clinical trials for treating inflammation associated with osteoarthritis.

    •Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com

  • No one wants pain…

    No one wants pain…

    All over the world, several books have been written on pains, but I have not seen any book written to capture understanding of pains from the perspectives of different segments of the society in clear terms. Pain experienced from the womb to the grave with enourmous “gain” for human existence in a detailed manner is not what can be exposed overnight, it seems. This scenario, is what the book:  ”Life is Pain: No Pain, No gain” clinically addresses.

    The book chronicles why pain is unavoidable from birth to death. It explains different types of pain and reasons for pain. Chapter 2 begins with the origin and concept of life, DNA as the language of life, the anthropic principle, and the vanity of life. Chapter 3 reveals marriage and family as critical institutions of life worldwide. Chapter 4 looks into society and culture, national and regional conflicts in Nigeria and Africa at large including the newspaper stories of “when the heaven wept for Rwanda” among others.

    Chapter 5 dwells on God as supreme in understanding and handling pain. Chapter 6 reveals fear as connected to pain and how to deal with it. Chapter 7 takes the reader to the journey of success and how to deal constructively with failure and end with all round success. Chapter 8 reflects the golden age and extensively details useful submission of the African iconic legend on his 95th birthday – Late Nelson Mandela. It also contains sayings of other well known wise men. Chapter 9 looks at how beautiful life with a desire to live on if possible.

    Chapter 10 talks about inevitability of death and how it is understood by different religious leanings. Death in the perspective of heaven, hell, reincarnation and what happens after.  Beyond death who deserves to go to heaven or end in hell? Chapter 11 cracks this mystery.

    Apart from being written in a matter-of-fact style that keeps every reader engaged towards the end, the references are fantastically phenomenon which is an indication that the book was well researched to meet the needs of the academia. The incredible assertions and quotations from the religious books (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism) and other philosophical pedagogies without unnecessarily creating controversy but deepening healthy argument, is commendable.

    Indeed, many intellectuals would find the revelation embedded in this book interesting for education and counselling; hence it is a must read for cleric, spiritual leader, philosophers, researchers, community leaders, parents and students. The masterpiece is more than spiritual as it exposes the nitty-gritty of life, now and thereafter.

    The photograph used in the front cover of the book would have shown a better gesticulation of painful mannerisms. Also, the author seems to have more in his quivers as the book keeps the reader in suspense of more books in pipeline. It is amazing that despite his busy schedules as a banker with Nigeria’s apex bank, the author, Mr. Francis Amagwu, still did justice to the subject matter with unparalleled details. In fact, it will not be out of place to term him – a pain therapist!

    Without mincing words, the mystery unfolded in this practical life literature, to say the least, speaks volumes. It is therefore recommended for every lover of knowledge.

     

  • Pain, anguish pervade Oyo communities

    Pain, anguish pervade Oyo communities

    In about two months, six  commercial motorcyclists  have been murdered in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. They are allegedly killed by criminals who posed as customers, OSEHEYE OKWUOFU reports.

    Of late, no fewer than six motorcycle operators popularly called okada riders have allegedly been killed by criminals who camouflage as customers. This is a recent phenomenon since the introduction of commercial motorcycle popularly known as okada as one of the means of transportation in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

    Many people prefer boarding it to commercial buses and taxis. Their reason for its preference is its ability to ply narrow spaces, beat traffic and fastness. Added to these reasons is the joy of cool breeze that calms the nerves, especially during hot weather.

    Notwithstanding its high rate of accidents, young and old see okada business as quick source of daily income, until recently when the operators became fear struck over the killings of members by armed men who thrive on okada theft.

    Dotted many roads in the city are shocking discoveries of lifeless bodies, with severed limbs or heads in some cases.

    A recent case was the discovery of a headless body in cold blood at Bembo Apata and a lifeless body with severed limbs at Bakatari areas of Ibadan. The two were commercial motor cycle operators who lost their okada and precious lives to robbers who boarded the motorcycles only to snatch them from the owners after killing them.

    According to Mr. Taiwo Adisa, a commercial motorcycle operator who was at the scene of the discovery of the headless body at Bembo, Apata area of Ibadan, the victim was murdered in the early morning of the fateful day by his passenger who robbed him of his motorcycle and other belongings.

    The victim, identified as a mechanic, used his okada to make brisk money early in the morning before going to his workshop.

    “We saw him in his pool of blood there with cuts all over his body. The head was not there but some of his friends who are also okada operators were able to identify him through the clothes he wore.

    “The okada has been snatched from him and maybe in the cause of struggling with his attacker and of course, knowing that if he escapes, he could identify him, the ‘passenger’ killed him. We have witnessed many cases like that when the passenger would suddenly turn to a robber and made away with the okada. And if the okada operator is lucky, he escapes unhurt, but if not, he might lose both his life and the okada.

    “The case involving the mechanic was very pathetic and shocking as it is unfortunate. In fact, our union has recently alerted members to be vigilant by not taking passengers to secluded places and deserted and quiet roads. We have a long list of cases of okada theft and killings.

    It is so frightening now that some operators are considering leaving the business as a result of fear of their dear lives,” Adisa said.

    The police as at the time of filing this report have no clue on the gruesome killings and theft.

    At Apata Police Station where the case was being handled, the police said investigation into the murder was ongoing.

    A police officer at the station who confided with this reporter said the body has since been deposited at the state hospital mortuary, Ring Road, Ibadan.

    Igede boy
    •Agaba

    The murder of Job Agaba, 31, on April 20, this year at Iyana Adeaga between Ilupeju and Orile areas of Ibadan is still fresh in the minds of residents of Bakatari. His dead body was sighted in a bush by a team of searchers at 7:00 p.m. the next day.

    Our correspondent learnt that four other okada operators narrowly escaped death on the same spot where Agaba was murdered. They lost their motor cycles to the robbers.

    Agaba, a native of Adiko in Obi Local Government Area of Benue State was described as a gentle and a loving husband who got married two months before he was mauled down by his assailants who made away with his okada.

    Daniel, a younger brother to Job narrated how his deceased brother left home and never returned.

    “He used to ply Apata to Omi Adio to Bakatari route. He left home early morning of April 20, this year to work with his okada which was not up to two weeks when he bought it. We were all happy that morning, his wife, I and other members of the family had a good time. By 6:00 p.m., the time he usually returns from work, he was not at home.

    “So, his wife started feeling unsettled and by 8:00 p.m. after all attempts to get him through his phone failed, we knew something has happened to him because it is not in his character to stay out late without calling his wife. That night, we could not sleep. We were busy contacting his friends, town’s people in Ibadan and some close friends. The wife could not sleep throughout the night even though people around were consoling and assuring her that nothing bad happened to her husband.

    •Agaba’s father
    •Agaba’s father

    “The next day, a search party went out looking for him. It was around 7:00 p.m. when they told us that his body was found at Adeaga area of Bakatari. We were shattered by the news and till now we cannot compose ourselves,” he said.

    Since the case was reported at Apata Police Station, no arrest has been made in connection with the murder.

    The robbers have been described as a threat to the communities. A traditional ruler of the community, Balogun Olomi of Omi, Chief Mukaila Adebayo admitted that some reports have been lodged about the activities of the criminals who specialise in robbing and killing innocent people in the area. He listed the killing of Agaba and other three okada theft.

    “ I even heard that the deceased has been taken to his home town for burial. We got other two reports at Omi Adio and one at Bakatari where these people snatched okada from their owners. We have been educating okada operators to be vigilant and report any suspicious individual immediately to the police,” he said.

    The traditional ruler of Bakatari, the Olu of Bakatari, Chief Yekini Ajagbe Ayodele urged law enforcement agents to mount surveillance on the areas where the cases were reported.

    On the part of the community, the traditional ruler explained that a monitoring team has been raised in addition to a vigilance group to track down the perpetrators of the heinous crime and ensure that they bring the killers of Agaba to justice.

    He noted other pockets of cases of okada snatching and continued assaults on the operators.

    We are not happy with the activities of these criminals; we want to sleep with our two eyes closed. We have asked people to help keep vigil at the scene where the criminals hide to commit this crime. We want to support the police as they make effort to flush out the perpetrators and ensure that the areas are safe for our people,” the traditional ruler said.

    As the people and the police collaborate to thwart the plan of the criminals, Oyo State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Adekunle Ajisebutu assured the communities that all those involved in criminal activities would not go unpunished.

  • Breaking the cycle of pain

    The state of decay and human misery we find our country in today can be attributed to cumulative years of conflict and violence. Every part of Nigeria has now had its own share of violence and brutal killings. It started in the early 1960’s in the South West, as brother turned against brother, in the fierce battle for political supremacy. This was followed in the mid 1960’s, when all hell was unleashed on the Igbo ethnic stock, in a collective effort by other ethnic groups in Nigeria, as a result of their perceived dominance in government and business. These perceptions culminated in the three-year civil war. This war decimated the collective psyche of Ndigbo and continues to hamper their psychological re-emergence in the political affairs of Nigeria.

    The violence moved to the North Central, compounding the already delicate ethnic dissensions. The Maitatsine upheaval in the 1980’s brought economic activities in the North Central to a standstill and caused the untimely deaths of thousands of people. Despite the judicial inquiry into it and the far reaching recommendations made, reparations were not made to heal the physical and psychological wounds. The very young of those violent years, traumatized by the visuals of murder and extreme religious thoughts are adults today, bearing the scars of those events, with their distorted perception of society buried deep within them.

    Further on, in the 1990’s, the Niger Delta violence emerged as a new type of guerilla war fare that threatened the livelihood and existence of the nation. Years of deprivation and oppression of the Delta region, despite their many years of peaceful agitation for a fair share of development, as the entitled region that mills the black gold for Nigeria’s prosperity, finally propelled them to a different strategy of violent agitation.  The instability and loss of income compelled the nation to succumb to a handsome reward to the guerillas and the number one political seat in the Nation. However, the ripples of those violent years, combined with the dearth of development in the region, created a hollowness that the cash largesse to a select few did little to assuage. Rather, it reinforced resentment, as the majority of the region were not imbued with life skills or better living conditions. The people are still left backward, physically and psychologically damaged from both the years of violence and the warped reparation made, through cash incentives, devoid of real development.

    While Nigeria was yet to recover from the consequences of various forms of violence on these regions, the violence moved to the North East, in a more brutal and insensitive version of religious extremism in the Boko Haram movement. This extremist teaching resonated with the long suffering, angry, illiterate and unemployed northern youth. These youth, who are literally invisible to the welfare statistics of the country, existing in a sort of societal oblivion, suddenly found distorted hope and relevance, within the group that cherishes, empowers and respects them and offers them a semblance of a family, however warped or distorted. The brutal killings, rape and mayhem continue as the rest of the de-sensitized country, appears to carry on normally, almost oblivious to the continuous bloodletting going on.

    Regrettably, the cumulative subconscious effect of these years of violence on our collective psyche is a Nigeria, where literally, the Law of the Jungle (survival of the fittest) prevails: a fractured country, burdened with the consequences of years of greed, negative ethnicity, maladministration, corruption, mediocrity, inequity and injustice. Those are the results of our collective reaction from struggling to survive in one way or the other, from violent deprivation. The years of violence have produced Nigerians that are abusive to their own brethren and the nation at large; Nigerians with a damaged collective psyche that have lost all sense of nationhood, which was our initial course at independence; The civil Nigerian, who cared for fellow citizens at independence is lost in the current version that seeks only for self. How did we let our collective mission to be defined in this cycle of pain: violence from one group being inflicted on the other, eliciting revenge and bringing back pain on one another and on our beloved country? How did we end up with Nigerians rife with wickedness, that even her very young are already exposed to violence, such that by their teenage years, they are insensitive and immune to empathy, ensuring a future generation that would reinforce this negative cycle?

    This cycle has given birth to our present state of the nation, where there are deep divisions and inequality on all fronts: While the majority literally scratch the earth to make a decent living, the privileged few and their cronies, many of whom are supposed to be political representatives of their people, have dubiously and unabashedly appropriated the commonwealth of the people. The usual pride of success and wealth, derived from the genuine dint of hard work, with the experience and decorum that it commands, are lost in this system, where the speed of overnight riches can only be compared to the spoils of robbery, lottery or gambling.  This is the negative message of the end justifies the means, sent to the youth, which further compounds their already fragile psychological disposition.

    It is important to note that despite the riches, opulence and subversive powers of the few, they too, are also in deep pain, inadvertently manifested in the fear and paranoia that they exhibit – terrified for their lives as they are cradled in the arms of gun totting security men – prisoners in their self-made cages of affluence! Interestingly, they are oblivious of their tragic circumstances, as they misread their situations as the necessary theatre for the exhibition of their ill-gotten wealth, power and influence.

    Between the dubiously rich and the scrounging poor, both are the products of a violent society that has lost its sensitivity and sensibilities. People walk past dead bodies and watch numerous killings on the news, over a sumptuous family dinner, drinks or vibrant conversation, without any empathy or sympathy. It is therefore, no surprise that the people that emerge for political leadership, have also been bruised and desensitized from this twisted and warped system, making them have little or no consideration for those who have entrusted them with the management of their common wealth.

    It is based on the above background that the chant for “Change” in the last elections resonated with most Nigerians. It had become clear to many that maintaining the existing status quo was going to eventually lead us to the path of a failed state. We are lucky to have this jolt of awakening, which must be managed well to bring us back on the path of real progress. The “Change” we seek must therefore not only be delivered in real, physical terms, but it must also include a complete psychological overhaul of the way we think and see one another. This “Change” must produce the rebirth of Nigeria where we understand the true meaning and privilege of citizenship and nationhood.

    I believe that Nigeria’s ‘rejuvenation’ has commenced with these last elections, which despite their imperfections, for the first time in my lifetime, were indicative of the will of the people. The numbers may not have truly reflected the actual voting statistics, but in most places, the results were a reflection of the true desires of the majority of the citizens. Furthermore, the awareness has been created in the minds of majority of the youth, who are learning that the power in a democracy rests in the hands of the majority.

    The pain and violence has gone full circle, stopping at the door of each ethnic group. It is time to stop this cycle and start to build a true nation nation where pain for one is pain for all; a nation where we have a level playing field to allow for effective competition to throw up our best and brightest to appointments and employment; where if one fails to win today, it is taken in good faith and proper preparations will be made for better contest for the next time.

    A nation where we educate each child, each citizen, ensuring international best practices and standards; where we recognize that the backwardness of any section is to the detriment of all others; a nation where we develop every part at the pace that enhances their contribution to the overall development; where each citizen can, live and work wherever he or she chooses, without any fear of discrimination; and where love transcends all, and our differences enrich us, rather than divide us…

    ‘The pain and violence has gone full circle, stopping at the door of each ethnic group. It is time to stop this cycle and start to build a true nation nation where pain for one is pain for all’

     

     

  • Anguish, pain as UCH doctors strike shuts down hospital

    Anguish, pain as UCH doctors strike shuts down hospital

    •Management, Doctors trade blames
    •MDCAN urges them to embrace peace

    If there is anything to remember in the on-going  industrial action embarked upon by the the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), University College Hospital (UCH)  chapter since May 1st, it is the untold hardship that it has brought  many patients especially those who needed urgent medical attention were turned back by the hospital.

    Right now, UCH patients are faced with series of pain and agony as a result of the strike action. Some families are losing their loved ones due to lack of care at the hospital, while others are now seek solace in either private hospitals or traditional clinics including Traditional Birth Attendants, and Faith Based Clinics. One of such unfortunate families was the Owolabi’s that rushed one of their family members to the hospital  but was asked to go back home due to the strike. In pain, Wasiu, was rushed to the hospital on Friday morning.  He was said to have been bleeding from the nose a night before he was rushed to the hospital in the early hours of Thursday.And because, there was no doctor on ground to attend to any patient, he was advised to go to other hospitals that  were open to patients. Similarly, many people have been facing the same agony as a result of the doctor’s strike action.

    A preganant woman, Mrs Waliyat was rushed to the  Maternity ward, but was turned back. Although, she has been attending her ante-natal clinic in the hospital, she was rejected at the entrance of the hospital based on the ground that nobody will attend to her

    And because her condition was critical, she was rushed  to a state hospital in the city on emergency and there, she was saved. As if it was not enough, an old man who had a car accident lamented the ordeal he passed through when he came to the hospital on the second day of the strike action. He came from Ikire to Ibadan but was rejected at the entrance of the hospital, despite his critical condition. He was told to look elsewhere for help.

    However, those who would not let their families to die now prefer to patronise other hospitals in the city.

    Meanwhile, investigation has  shown that the in-flocks of pregnant women to the Traditional Birth Attendants clinics  are enough to tell the scenario of the after-effect of the indefinite industrial action. Compliance with the strike was total as several  clinics departments in UCH were devoid of the usual beehive of activities as the doctors stayed away from their duty posts,  forcing hordes of patients, several of whom turned up as early as 6am to seek treatment elsewhere.Another patient, Mrs Yemisi Banjoke, exprssed hope that the  strike would not take a long time to be resolved so that people would have  access to medical care at the hospital. According to her, accessing a private hospital is totally unaffordable, adding that the level of poverty in the country will not give room for equal rights of the citizenry.

    “I cannot afford the cost of treatment at private hospitals that is why I use the general hospitals. This strike will make a lot of people suffer in terms of finance. I appeal to the government to dialogue with the doctors so that the strike does not become indefinite,” she said.At the outpatient department as well as  medical and surgical emergency wards,  skeletal services were available, but priority was being given to critical cases. Only a handful of patients were encountered waiting for service. One of them, who spoke to The Nation said he was only able to obtain a card because he was familiar with one of the staff  duty.

    Another patient encountered who identified himself as Taiwo, recounted how he brought his father from Omi-Adio to UCH. “I feel so bad to have come from that far distance only to be told that doctors are on strike. I also feel bad spending money bringing my father yet no doctor to attend to us. It is very painful,” Taiwo lamented.

    Another patients, Alhaji Saheed Lamidi lamented the attitude of some nurses at the hospital and appealed to the doctors to return to work, adding that the nurse spoke to patients with little or no respect. In his remark, the President of the ARD, UCH, Dr Lukman Ogunjimi alleged that the university management was reluctant to implement their request for over seven months they have been having negotiation with them. He said casualisation of medical officers and the refusal of the UCH management to honour a circular issued by the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation on the welfare of doctors were issues at the centre of the strike.

    He said: “We have about 600 doctors in this hospital. The reasons why we are on strike are clear. What we are against is casualisation and we want skipping to be implemented as directed by the Federal Government in circulars issued by the Head of Service of the Federation and that issued by the Federal Ministry of Health.”

    The Federal Government in the circular said a particular grade level should be skipped by all health workers. It has been done for all other health workers while some centres have started doing it for doctors. This is backed up. Here in UCH, it has not been done.”He went on that: This strike is a local one and we are following a national directive from our national leaders. Some centres are enjoying all this benefit already and they do not need to join us in the strike action. Just yesterday, Abeokuta branch. Started their own and within two hours their hospital management has resolved their demands” The ARD boss said they have been attending to patients at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the emergency centres, stressing that the care of their patient is very paramount to their hearts.

    Ogunjimi  appealed to the members of the public and well meaning Nigerians to prevail upon the hospital management to fulfil their demands, threatening that they will not call off the strike. Meanwhile, Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Prof. Temitope Alonge, had denied having doctors with casual status in the hospital. Alonge said that some of the issues raised were internal matters that had been resolved, adding that the issue of salaries and wages that are due to workers are not the prerogative of the ministries.

    ”Funding for the hospital is coming directly from the federal government and when you prepare the budget, it captures specific part of personnel cost, but the issue of Skipping doesn’t exist in the calender of the federal government. When we had a meeting with the resident doctors we explained to them that the budget of 2014 which was approved in 2015 only has the issue of the correction of anomalies of relativity and the issue of Skipping was not captured. It is the prerogative of the National Salary and Wages Commission. So, the issue of employment is resident in the Head of Service and what the resident doctors presented to us was a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

    A letter is an intent and does not carry much weight as an MOU. The next one is a circular which is something that has been agreed up and has received the backing of government, it can be issued by government establishment on behalf of government. What we got from the resident doctors was an MOU and not a circular. ‘’In the circular that we have from the National Salary and Wages Commission, there is nothing like skipping for doctors. So, whatever conflict that has arisen, the only body that is empowered to provide an answer is the National Salary Wages Commission. You don’t pay what you don’t have.

    No Chief Medical Director (CMD),can unilaterally wake up and change the salary table. He said any CMD in the country that has paid the Skipping allowance will be summoned next week to explain to the Ministry of Health where he got the money from, which salary table he is using and who gave the approval. Alonge assured the people of Oyo State and Nigeria that he does not have any power to withhold salaries that has been appropriated to any healthcare worker.

    Also, the consultants, under the aegis of Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria(MDCAN)  rose from an emergency congress over the weekend, urging both the striking doctors and the hospital management to sheath their swords for the sake of  the patients.The consultants equally revealed that MDCAN has set machinery in motion to address “the contentious issues in collaboration with resident doctors and UCH Management.”A statement by MDCAN General Secretary for UCH, Dr. Victor Makanjuola  after the congress said the consultants considered all issues being raised by the resident doctors, declaring them(the issues) as legitimate and urging the hospital management to  speedily  address them.