₦airaland Forum

Here is a link to another very useful site for Doctors that has discussion forums for PLAB, USMLE, exams in Australia etc.

http://www.aippg.net/forum/

@ bongabiz,
I am assuming that you have either passed your PLAB exams or your are currently in the process of doing so. Am i right?

Okay, let me try to answer your questions;

1. Please could u explain briefly the different types of jobs that might be available.

You may be able to get the following types of jobs:
Trust Grade jobs, Foundation Years (1-2), Core Training (1-3), Staff Grade jobs.

Trust grade jobs are non-training jobs that are created to cover the clinical-service needs that are left open by those that are in training due to their having to take time out to 'train'. With the EWTD thing that you mentioned, there's probably going to be a lot more Trust Grade jobs available in the NHS. These jobs are usually done by people who are just entering the system, who have minimal NHS experience and are trying to get into training posts.

Foundation Year (FY) jobs-These are the equivalent of our house jobs in Nigeria. They are training posts that rotate every 4 months for a total of 2 years, hence FY1 and FY2. If you're just finishing your housemanship (and the NYSC thing) then it would be advised for you to try for the FY jobs. You may be able to get into training much more quicker, as the 2 years will allow you to acquire the 'competencies' that you need to compete for the Core Training posts.

Core Training (CT) Post-this is the 'residency' equivalent. Here you spend 3 years doing your basic specialist training. Ideally the individual would have used the FY jobs to identify which specialty that they are most interested in, so would have developed the 'competencies' relevant to that specialty. People coming from overseas can still get shortlisted for CT posts now and then, especially outside of London (which is very competetive) and in Specialities such as Psychiatry that people don't seem so enthusiastic about. In most of the training schemes in London there were unfilled CT1 posts in Psychiatry for this August.

Staff Grade jobs are open to those who have a bit of NHS training experience, so you probably will not be targeting them!   


2. What does 'trust grade' mean.

See above

3. Would I be able to get a FY1 or FY2 job?

Yes, if you've passed your PLAB exams and have gotten your registration with the General Medical Council

4. And how will the EWTD affect salaries?

I am not quite sure, but it's most likely that the salaries will drop for those Trusts that have not been EWTD-compliant. Doctors salaries here are made up of the basic and the 'banded' salary. The banded salary is a percentage of your basic, which is determined by how much oncalls you do on your rota. When i was in training, my banding was between 40-50% of the basic. Our Trust was EWTD-compliant.

Mind you all this EWTD thing only affects those in training.

5. On average like how much would an average doctor be able to save?

It's a difficult question to answer. There's nothing really like an 'average' Doctor, if one must be honest. But if i attempted to answer that question, i'd say that given you would earn anything from £2,400-£3,200 after tax, you could spend anything from £350-£1200 on rent, depending on where you live (London vs out of London, bedsit vs flat vs house etc). You should also remember to throw in your feeding, transport, obligations to people at home etc. At the end of the day, if you are single you may be able to 'save' anything from £200-£1,500 monthly! It's a vague answer  i know!

6. Is it possible to get a locum job as the first appointment?

Yes.

Good luck in your final exams and in your career!

The future should be bright.

Dav.e

I can empathise with your frustration. Honestly.

Our health delivery  (lack of ) 'system' is pathetic. Unfortunately, the way things are currently on ground cannot in any way sustain an increase in the salaries, without there being a clear structure in the system. Doctors in Nigeria are underpaid, humiliated, frustrated etc etc. To make matters worse, when you complain, some misguided individual will throw up the 'humanitarian' card, as if any one will go and spend 6-8 years in the first instance just to become a charity worker!

Our agitation should be for there to be a proper system in place. Once that is in place, economics will drive up the incomes of health practitioners. Without a system in place, the government is burdened with paying salaries ad infinitum. With a functional system in place other potential funders will definitely start to factor into the picture. That's my belief. Until then, guys should build up their CV's by going for further training and acquiring more skills and expanding their horizons.

When i finished my house job and was confronted with the reality of our plight as Doctors in Nigeria, my first 'missionary' journey to change my destiny was a trip i made to the Gambia. I didn't want to settle with the pervading stench of mediocrity that i was finding around me at the time. When that journey failed, i set up a health related NGO in Nigeria to do the things that i want to do, before finally leaving for the UK to live with respect and dignity.

We (Doctors) are highly skilled individuals in every country of the world and in every language. Every where i go except for Nigeria, Doctors working in the profession can afford a decent lifestyle. They can afford the peace of mind to carry out their duties with a sence of responsibility with the understanding that that 'responsibility' has earned them the privilege to a life much better than the average person.

So your frustration and that of so many leaving medical school every year in Nigeria-who gradually lose their self esteem and pride bit by bit with the humiliation they are subjected to by the way things are-is valid. But much as one would want to blame the visionlessness of government for our impoverishment, it is clear that those from among us who do make demands on the government on our behalf have also lost their way.

The way i see it is that, if the boat is sinking, leave it. You are of better value alive than dying with a sinking boat.

@eben 28,

I think you can do part of the USMLE papers as a student, at least the paper 1.

Here is a link to a forum that some people, i know, have found very useful. You can post the questions you have regarding the USMLE there http://www.usmleworld.com/Forum/default.aspx

I hope you find it relevant to your needs at this moment.

All the best

PS: You don't get answers if you dont ask questions, so never be afraid to ask questions, no matter how 'silly' they may seem. That's my experience anyway, and in my time i have asked lots of 'silly' questions, believe me!

@Dr I,
When you say a 'career in the HMO', what exactly did you have in mind?

Any person wanting a career in that sector, should either be thinking of a role in health management, in which case they should be thinking of getting an MBA or something along those lines for the 'paper' qualification and the exposure it provides, or they may be more ambitious and think of actually becoming a service-provider to the HMO's i.e. set up a specialist clinic or hospital under the HMO umbrella. The ultimate would be to be part-owner of a HMO!

The future of healthcare in Nigeria is most likely to be a variant of the Health Insurance thing with the HMO's and the NHIS calling the shots. The Ministry of Health would probably oversee a parastatal that will liaise with the NHIS to articulate guidelines of practice and safeguards.

When those involved with the whole NHIS thing become serious, a proper health system will begin to evolve. And once that happens, the HMO's will become increasingly more inclined to work with people who have finsihed their residencies. The lot of those that haven't finished residency will not change much under any system unfortunately!

So you have to be clear what role you want to actually play and at what level, when the whole thing becomes more structured. I would advice exploring getting your residency under your belt, if you can. It opens up a lot of opportunities. If you can't then try to get skills relevant to your future ambition. Explore qualilifications in Health management, which should put you in a better stead to land a job as a manager of an HMO.

@Tudor,
If you get into a training post in the UK, for instance, my understanding is that the basic specialist training in Surgery (general) should take you about about 3 years, following which you would go for further 'higher' specialist training, which i believe is another 3 years. However, plastic Surgery is one of those specialties that have a 'name', so is very competetive. The chances of an Overseas Doctor getting into the training would be very very slim. I am not sure about the US. My friends there have spent 4 years in their training then another year or two doing what they call a 'Fellowship' whatever that means! I think the latter is supposed to make them highly competetive.

If you want to become a plastic surgeon, your best bet would be to target the US. Score very high in the USMLE and then try to match for Surgery. Of course it's also highly competetive there but i think the system is much more accessible for an Overseas Doctor than the UK. In the UK, you'll end up probably as a middle grade A&E Doctor.

All the best

On a serious note, why is this forum so-what's the word-boring?

Though the gentleman a few posts earlier raised the issue in his somewhat uncomplimentary style, the truth is that nothing is really happening here. The question is 'are we just too busy or just too uninterested in this site'? Or are there too few Doctors that use it?

Let's make suggestions on how to make this site useful for us. Information is a strategic tool for personal and collective growth. Let's share information. One suggestion is for guys to start telling us of the challenges and perhaps also the opportunties in practicing or training wherever they're located.

I'll start. Most of the information i'm about to give, i've already posted some posts above, but i suppose there's no harm in repeating myself.

In the UK at the moment opportunties for training for Overseas Doctors are very limited but do occasionally pop up here and there. Most overseas Doctors who pass the PLAB exams these days are likely to veer towards General Practice or Psychiatry, if they want to progress in their careers. For whatever reasons, the indegenous population until recently didn't choose these specialties as their first choice of career, even though the life offered during and after training in General Practice or Psychiatry is of no less quality. In fact General Practice is becoming more and more lucrative therefore making it increasingly more competitive. Whereas Psychiatry however is still burdened by the stigma of an ignorant public even here in a supposedly enlightened society. Most who get into it find the quality of life it offers (i.e. job satisfaction, work/life balance etc) to be actually very high. I wouldn't swap it for any subspecialty. But then, that's what i wanted to train in.  My enthusiasm may not be echoed by somebody who wanted to be an Orthopaedic Surgeon, for instance, but got muscled into the profession. 

The problem that Doctors coming to the UK today from overseas would have, would be in progressing beyond the basic specialist training. For General Practice its slightly different because there the training is just for 3 years, following which you get your certificate of completion of training (CCT). In other specialties, that would be you, just finishing your basic specialist (that's if you've been able to pass all your exams, which in Psychiatry is now 4 in all). Other specialisties take 5-6 years to get the CCT, following which you can get a job as a substantive Consultant and start earning mullas. Not that you can't earn mullas before then, but some people just want to be called 'Consultants'. You don't have to have finished your CCT to do locum Consultant posts though. You can stop at doing middle grade career locums or substantive specialty posts. You'd still be called a Specialist though, if that's what tickles your fancy.

This problem of not progressing to Consultant level has made the UK increasingly less attractive for people who want to become Consultants. The result is that the number of Overseas Doctors coming from places like the Indian Subcontinent, who if truth be told, form the backbone of the NHS, have dwindled over the last 2-3 years, leaving a lot of posts now unfilled. For those that are already here, what's it's created is a big market for those who want to locum and then do other things with their lives other than become a 'consultant'. Some make money from the locums and then relocate to USA where the training is just 4 years (some have negotiated 3 years). Australia, New Zealand and Canada are no longer attractive. The first two, because you'd be pushed to work somewhere in the bushes, without much opportunties for further training while Canada, being very protective of their own, you'd probably end up as a taxi driver for the rest of your life. That's if you pass the driving tests!

What else can i say? For those interested in coming to the UK to work as Psychiatrists, a profession that i happen to be in and actually enjoy a lot, here is a link to a very useful forum that discusses everything from training opportunties to locums to interview techniques.http://www.superego-cafe.com/forum/YaBB.pl

The bottom line: let's share information. We end up as better people, individually and collectively, that way.

@ Adrenaline,
From the two posts you've made on this forum, I get the feeling that you're not particularly in love with Doctors! I wonder why.

Anyways, my candid advice to you is that you should go get a life before you pop a vessel. And while at it, try to brush up on your manners.

davidif:
benelli,

It is your fault for not teaching your child to be proud of his heritage and his culture. Instead of telling what a great name he has, you simply succumbed to peer pressure just like others. If you cannot stand up for your identity, then you are not a man, sorry for being blunt but that is the truth.

Like someone said earlier, you would never see an oyinbo person EVER give there children a Nigerian.

My son is only 5 years old, my friend!

Thanks for your lecture though. I didn't find it well thought through nor relevant.

PS: I HAVE seen Oyibo people give their children African names.

When we use the word 'free', it means that it is, well, FREE!

But to the best of my knowledge somebody always has to pay, even in those societies where healthcare is supposed to be easily accesible. So what you have wouldn't really be considered free healthcare would it, as the taxpayer pays for those who don't have the money.

'Free' healthcare is a misnomer and cannot work in any society least of all in a developing nation like Nigeria where even with the current none-free services, Doctors and other health workers are impoverished and frustrated.

Perhaps what we mean when we talk about 'free' healthcare is 'funded' healthcare. If that is what we are looking for the words for, then the question would be 'do you believe in a funded healthcare for Nigerians?', to which my answer would be 'yes'. Then the next questions should be 'funded by whom and how?'

Now that's where it get's tricky. People in Havard and other such places, do Doctorate degrees trying to answer that question, but nobody seems to be clear what the answer should be and how to apply what they've come up with! Most people agree that the taxes or health insurance system should provide the funding, so let's go with what 'most' informed people say.  

In Nigeria our taxing system is not working. That's a fact. So it may be difficult to use it, as currently managed, to fund health care for everybody. Another option is making the already available Nigerian health insurance scheme to work and to become accessible to all Nigerians, including the formal, informal sector and the vulnerable population.

My thoughts are in favour of the latter because though imperfect, it still has more potentials for working than the currently porous tax system. But for either of them to work there has to be a properly articulated framework through which these taxes or health insurance contributions can be channelled to reach the health providers both in the poublic and private domain. The HMO's currently in place need to become better regulated private sector service providers with clear guidelines of practice and quality assurance mechanisms in place for the clinics under their reach. 

Making healthcare accesible to everybody in Nigeria requires innovation. The systems in place in North America and in Europe will be difficult to be replicated here, even when modified to take away those things about them that don't quite work. Having said that, it is possible to have our own unique system that can work!

There are a lot of Hebrew names with meaning that are not found in the bible. A little googling will convince you. The important thing for me, however, is the meaning of the name. How it sounds is also very important (obviously).

At the end of the day, the names we choose for our kids must be justifiable. If you're into only African names. Good for you. If you prefer Englsih, Italian, Native American, Hindi names etc. It's your choice. I have learnt that it doesn't neceassarily make anyone more or less authentically African.

sugabelly:
So I don't believe you should have given your son a Hebrew name. There are no Hebrews, and I repeat there are NO Hebrews that would even dream of giving their children an Igbo name.

Sure, you might say insecurity is not the reason you gave your son that name, but it all boils down to the same thing: Why are Africans so ever-willing to give their children foreign names when foreigners would laugh at you in disgust if you even suggested an African name for their child?

And by the way, it is only if people insist on using their African names that foreigners will learn how to pronounce our names properly.

You raise a lot of thought provoking questions there, my sister. And some of the things you say cannot be faulted, especially about no 'Hebrews' dreaming of giving their children Igbo names. Like my friend beaf wrote some posts above 'a persons name is the first line of their identity', so the names we choose to give ourselves or to our children, must reflect in some way our identities and our beliefs.

Let's focus a bit on this 'identity thing.

Let me start by saying that who we are is not only about our biology and the 'culture' of our parents. Our identities are made up of so many other ‘blocks’ and debris and mortars of life,  put together during the process of our forming that whether we want to accept it or not  we cannot hinge our self-image only on traditional concepts. Our individual and collective identities must be dynamic yet retain those things that are fundamental to our existence. Those things that are not so important must change as we become better informed and more secure in who we are becoming.

So to respond to your comments about not believing  that I 'should have given (my) son a Hebrew name', you better believe it, because I did!

I have many reasons for this, some of which are too personal to share here. But let me just say that i believe in the God that called out Abraham from the rest of his Hebrew kinsmen. Though my convictions about traditional African deities are not strong enough, I still retain my surname, which contains within it the name of such a deity. My surname goes back many generations, perhaps to the time when the peoples that make up my clan started to come together. So it is part of who I am, in spite of who I have become. .

But my beliefs also form who I am. The promises fulfilled and dreams broken as I stumble through the maze of self-awareness and in the becoming of the man I am today, forms a platform on which I will spring into the future from the past. The God I have come to believe in has played a pivotal role in the fulfilling of those promises and in shepherding my soul in the valley of those broken dreams. So my choice of meaningful Hebrew names for my children is in a way my own testament to my belief, my convictions about God and the victories He has wrought for me.
.
What I am trying to say, is that there is nothing wrong in being Afrocentric, which I am, and still believe in an un-African God. I see no contradiction in it. Honestly.

@ Beaf, i choose to respond to you, personally because of the fact that you used a phrase of mine ('the shame that Africa has become') in a context which doesn't do me a lot of justice. Much as i am not obligated to defend myself, i will do so anyway, because i have the time on my hands!

Having said that, i appreciate your contributions and have much respect for your thoughts here and in other posts.

Beaf:
The parents are to blame.
A persons name is the first line of their identity. If a child reacts negatively to their name, it's just a projection of how they've been made to feel inside; more than anything, it is a reflection of their parents insecurities.

You would generally find that kids who do this come from a background were they constantly hear things like "the shame that Africa has become". If we can be positive, our kids will have the inner strength to stand up for their identities. We can address our issues without condemning everything African.

I don't completely agree with u there, my friend. To blame is not the 'parents', but the much wider context within which the shame that we are referring to evolved, and also to blame is the ignorance and lack of support from individuals (perhaps the parents) and the communities that are meant to protect their self-esteems. It is not as simple as asking the parents, as you advised to 'be positive etc' The context is a lot more complex and varies with each individual.

I'll give a personal example. The reason i do so, is that you used my phrase in the same sentence where you talked about 'parents' insecurities', thereby suggesting your assumptions about me. It may not have been conscious, perhaps a 'freudian slip' as we say in psycho-babble, but you do have assumptions about me, from my post which may not be entirely true. So here goes.

My 5 year old kid is one of 2 of African heriage in his class. The others are some 8 Caucasians, a mixed race kid and an Asian. You might say that his is a decent middle class prep school. I don't mind the investment because i understand the value of a proper education. At the moment he is going through the phase in his life where he is not too proud of his long African surname. Not too long ago we (my wife and i) were called to his school because he had gotten into a slight altercation with a group of other boys who had been making fun of his name. After that incident i noticed that he started to become irritated with the way people struggle to pronounce his surname to the point where he now just gives his middle name (which is Hebrew by the way) when anybody asks him his name. He mutters, if asked about his surname that 'you won't be able to pronounce it anyway'.

My choice of Hebrew in his name is personal and has nothing to do with issues of 'insecurity'. I have done that 'insecurity' journey a long time ago and have prevailed.

It would be patronising for me, even as a parent, to assume that my son is not an individual who has already started on his own life journey. I won't patronise him because i understand his burden, having spent most of my growing up years in different countries, experiencing racism to the point of having my head broken in and spat at by others because of the colour of my skin before i even turned 10! I too have gone through the phase of being ashamed of my name and of being African, so I understand his burden and will guide him in his journey of self-discovery in a way that is both sensitive and informed.

Most of our children who struggle under the burden of the 'shame that Africa has become' do not have sensitive and informed parents. They have instead people (uncles, older brothers, 'patriotic' individuals etc) who are in denial and who do not understand the problems of navigating the tumultous paths of growing up and becoming socialised in societies that are very hostile to them; uncles and brothers who are so detached that they blame it on their parents 'insecurities'.

These children are engaged in psychological battles, which they are not fully equipped to win without support and so to survive they are having to adopt all sorts of strategies just to fit in, irrespective of how 'patriotic' their parents are or how loud the parents and uncles shout at them. They are having to be in places where these older more secure people cannot be to protect them. What the children need is for those that would scold them to first attempt to understand where they are coming from and then to try to help them into a more healthy frame of mind.

My friend Beaf, I will not apologise to you for the embarrasment i feel at the 'shame Africa has become'. If you are not ashamed of what is going on in Africa, it's your choice really not mine.

What are your thoughts on the issue of the so called '5-star hospitals' that the govt is said to be talking about? See a link here https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-294058.32.html


Much as the concept is a good one, i still have my reservations about it.First of all, i think that the problem with the Nigerian Health sector is the lack of a proper health system in place.

I doubt that much have changed since i left Naija over 6 years ago, when we were still practicing 'cow-boy medicine'! In those days all u needed to do to open a private clinic/hospital was just to go ahead and open a private hospital! There were no clear standards to be met, no proper guidelines for clinical practice and excellence, no regulations or safeguards etc!

The 'primary care concept' though popularised by Dr Ransome-Kuti, never really kicked off. People hardly understood what primary care entailed, so nobody ensured that it did what it was supposed to do-act as the first point of call to service-users, deal with uncomplicated cases and then refer on to secondary care. The secondary care providers (i.e. the general hospitals) did not seem to understand their limitations or scope of service delivery, while the tertiary health providers (i.e. the teaching hospitals) where essentially general hospitals but for the name.  Perhaps in the last 6-7 years things have changed. But i doubt it, having visited Naija several times since then and spoken with some of my friends that i left behind.

I think that what the health sector in Nigeria needs is a system in place. The NHIS would have been a veritable strategy to drive the development of some sort of a health system. Perhaps something inbetween what is obtainable in the UK and the US. 

In the UK, there is a gradual movement in the direction of more private sector involvement with a strong role for private health insurance companies. The public health insurance provider (the NHS) remains the foundation of the health system here, but it is not quite meeting the needs of everybody. In the US, my understanding is that the system is driven by the private health insurance sector (any US based guys can help us out here).

For Nigeria, the vulnerable population (children, elderly, physically and mentally unwell, preganant women) should be covered by a public health insurance system structured on that of the UK, especially for problems that can be dealt with at primary and secondary care level. The informal and formal sector (and their families) should be able to access private health insurance for all levels of care. Putting such a structure in place would not be rocket science and would not even be as expensive as the current (lack of) system we practice!

My thinking is that the government should focus on giving us a health system. The private sector can then come in at what ever level they can and will be the ones providing us with the '5-star hospitals', if and when it is deemed necessary. The issue of salary structure, progression in training and so on would neatly be resolved once a clear system is put in place.

What are your thoughts?




Declaration if Interest: I will soon be involved in private health insurance in Nigeria.

It is a very difficult question you've asked there, my sister.

The answer, though, will not be too far from the fact that these Nigerian children are growing up in societies where it's not too 'cool' to be African. It's not cool for them to have to identify with the images that are flashed across the TV about Africa in the news or movies. It's not cool for them to start spending time, trying to spell out their names to other kids who will only too easily inform them that the name is 'funny' or even bully them both physically or psychologically because of it.  

The reality is that these children, like all of us living in the diaspora, have their own burdens to bear from the shame that modern Africa has become. In their defence it's not only Nigerian children who shy away from those 'unusual' and sometimes long names. It's seen in all kids even among Asians and Latino's and even among the Caucasians. So let's not be too harsh on them. For a lot of them it's part of the rites of passage of being bicultural children.

Whether we like it or not, these children are growing up as bicultural individuals, but our responsibility to them would be to first empathise with their insecurities. And then to guide them into learning to be proud of themselves and about their African heritage, which does not start with slavery and end with colonialism and the poverty and famines and wars that Africa is associated with. Hopefully as they learn to accept who they are and learn of things to be proud of about their heritage, some will come round to carrying their African names, like badges of honour. 

The key word here is to show them why they should be proud of their heritage.

I have been reliably informed off-line that there isn't much going on with regards to diminished responsibility and crime in Nigeria, but i couldn't have guessed that it's this silent! Anyways the feedback (or in this case, lack of it) has actually been quite revealing.

@Lawyers on this forum

I wonder if you will be kind enough to answer my queries.

I am curious about the fate of offenders in Nigeria who have diminished capacity due to age or mental impairment. Specifically, i am interested in:
1. whether the plea of diminished responsibility is common in the Nigerian legal system and
2. the prospects for medico-legal work/Consultancy in Nigeria

Thanks

Seun:
Out of curiosity, why would you want to help the perpetrators of rape?

The 'why' is debatable but in some cases they are 'helped' by sending them from prison to a Forensic Psychiatry medium secure unit where they are 'treated' with drugs and stuff!

1. My favourite has to be 'The girl is mine'. It came out at the time when my hormones hard started firing and i had only just discovered the love 'thing'.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y96mdVTMByk

2. After that there are so many others that i can't seem to choose from!

SeanT21:



Like A Comet
Blazing 'Cross The Evening Sky
Gone Too Soon

Like A Rainbow
Fading In The Twinkling Of An Eye
Gone Too Soon

Shiny And Sparkly
And Splendidly Bright
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like The Loss Of Sunlight
On A Cloudy Afternoon
Gone Too Soon

Like A Castle
Built Upon A Sandy Beach
Gone Too Soon

Like A Perfect Flower
That Is Just Beyond Your Reach
Gone Too Soon

Born To Amuse, To Inspire, To Delight
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like A Sunset
Dying With The Rising Of The Moon
Gone Too Soon

Gone Too Soon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X6ry3BYInk

@ poster
You just shot yourself in the foot and have succeeded in winning SLS yet another admirer!

*jona:
Conclusion
I started this paper by saying that restructuring the Federation was not a simple task, and should be considered only as part of the process of nation-building. The message I have carried all my life is that all Nigerians have a right to maintain their diversity but this should only be on the basis of respect of the same rights for other Nigerians. No nation can be built on the platform of inequity, intolerance and selfishness.

I am Fulani. I am Muslim. But I am able to relate to every Nigerian as a fellow Nigerian and respect his ethnicity and his faith.  I am also convinced that we tend to exaggerate our differences for selfish ends and this applies even to matters of faith.

I have no doubt in my mind that the leadership of Nigerian politics in all parts of the country today, is in the main, reactionary, greedy, corrupt and bankrupt. Brought up in the era of tribal warlords, most political leaders are unable to think first and foremost like Nigerians. To this extent, any conference held today may be a waste of time.

But the audience may ask “Is there any hope for this Country”?  My answer is yes!  I rest my hope partly on personal experience. In every part of the country, I come across young Nigerians who do not agree with their elders. In the North, there is a new northerner, throwing off the yoke of irredentism, the toga of nepotism and the image of being a beneficiary of quota system. In the South-West, I find many young Yoruba citizens who frown at the rabid tribalism and provincialism of their leaders. In Igboland, we see young Igbos who regret the past and look forward to a brighter future. I have indeed received several letters from Nigerians, northerners and southerners, christians and muslims, encouraging me in the fight against the twin vices of religious intolerance and ethnic chauvinism.

But I rest my hope on a much deeper and profound base than these fleeting impressions. The hope for this Country is founded on the existence of the very problems we have just examined. The people of this Country have a long history of being together. Yet each group jealously guards its own identity, be it ethnic or religious. This is so only because our cultures, our religions, teach us core values within which we find full expression of our humanity. If only we would look, we would find that the values that make a good Fulani, Yoruba, Kanuri or Bini man; the values that make a good Christian and a good Muslim; are the same. If only we had in each part of this country, a leadership with the vision to recognize this, to harness this, to bring together good Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Ogoni and Angas men and women; good Christians and Muslims; to run the affairs of this country, we would find peace.

I rest my hope, finally on my generation. A generation of young, educated Nigerians, brought up in luxury, weaned by the traumatic experiences of the last two decades, and ready to take up the gauntlet, and ignite the hopes, for a renewed Nigeria. This is the generation much maligned by the present administration of septuagenarians. The generation discarded and treated like a pack of potential thieves. The only truly marginalized generation. This is the generation that will pick up the pieces and by the grace of Allah, leave those coming behind with a legacy far more progressive than the one we
inherited.  http://www.ukpakareports.com/UreportsSanusiBigotSharist.html

@Oyinda

Thanks for showing me the 'tribal' man. I'm sure that underneath that loin cloth is a man battling with a lot of insecurities and unacknowledged self-esteem issues

@tpiah

You are right. The problem with 'behaviour' is that it is fundamentally determined by self-image. Show me a 'tribal' man and i'll show you a man battling with a lot of insecurities and self-esteem issues.

The re-engineering of our minds must start with the redefining of who we are. It is not primitive 'tribes' that populate the banks of the river Niger from the Futa Djallon mountains of Senegambia to the Delta regions of the bight of Bonny, but proud nations, each with histories no less significant than the history of the British monarchy. When we begin to see ourselves in that light, then we will begin to respect ourselves and 'behave' like the proud people we should be and not resign ourselves to being incompetent 'black African tribes' whose only legacy is slavery, colonialism and incessant squabbles over whose 'tribe' is better than the others. The latter, by the way, is how the rest of the world sees us.

Sorry if i sounded pedantic or patronising. I didn't mean to be.

ChinenyeN nwafo, the development of these kids follows a different trajectory from the ones you calculated!

A 5 year old Nigerian kid who i know, with a verbal IQ of 139 is currently working on developing his own 'search engine'. He says that he doesn't like google and yahoo! While his language skills is already that of an 8 year old, his computer skills (his passion) is a lot more advanced. But like all 'talented' kids he has his 'demons'. His emotional development lags behind those of his age mates.

There are actually a lot of very smart kids out there these days, doing all sorts of amazing things. Makes one wonder if we are about entering the so called mystical age of Aquarius after all!

If Elise's parents invest the required time and resources in her development, she will grow up to do great things and make them proud. If however they get exasperated by her emotional needs, which will be a lot more demanding than your average kid, she'll turn into a nightmare and grow up to be yet another wasted talent and a source of embarrasment to them.

It's a scam.

The arguement is not whether 'tribes' exist or not.

They sure do, going by the dictionary definition of the word. The arguement is whether it is still relevant when describing a lot of the 'ethnic' groups that make up most countries in the developing world. In the case of Nigeria, we are talking about the Bini, Esan, Hausa, Ijaw etc.

These peopes are not tribes. They, by virtue of their numbers, can lay claims to being 'nations' or whatever it is the English, or Welsh or Catalans would like to call themselves.

Why i dislike the word 'tribe' is the images it conjures up in the mind.

People who study the evolution of language know that language is not just about the communication of words. If it were that, then languages would not have evolved beyond the 'grunt' of primitive man. Language evolves because what is communicated includes the ideas and associations of the word. An example is the word 'wicked', which 10-20 years ago meant something entirely different to what it means to the sixteen year old teenager on the streets of Hackney today.

The images the word 'tribe' conjures in the mind, is also implied when it is used to describe African peoples. That is my point.

Abz:
@beneli
What is wrong with the word 'tribe'

I simply don't like the word and all that it connotes. But you are right about the breakdancing thing though!