Boko Haram’s Sitting Ducks

I went walkabout this morning through Yabatech, Unilag and the Bruce family’s E-Center (Ozone) on Commercial Avenue and back home. I checked out the two Nigerian Army barracks on Commercial Avenue and at the T Junction that welds Commercial Avenue to Murtala Muhammed Way (MMW). I came back home ruminating that we, the Nigerian state and Nigerians, cannot win the war against the Godless viral epidemic called Boko Haram (BH) as long as we continue to do things the way we do them now.

At the WAEC gate of Yabatech I saw a fellow with a metal detecting wand manning the pedestrian path. I was abreast two apparent students, young men, with the usual backbreaking backpacks. The guard approached one of them but was brushed off with a ‘Don’t you know who I am?’. This in a school community approaching 50,000. It is great to see our youngsters picking up the typical naija bigman hubris so early even when it might just result in fatal own goals. The guard fell back and didn’t even bother to go near the other chap. I, in my sneakers, trousers and shirt with rolled sleeves but carrying nothing obvious, was not even looked at. I looked across at the guards manning the vehicular path and didn’t notice them using even the silly mirror device we often see our security people check the underside of vehicles with. I have often wondered how those mirrors detect the bombs carried in the boots and passenger compartments of bombers’ vehicles.

At Unilag’s University Road gate I did not notice any checks on pedestrians or vehicles. It was an enticing open door policy all the way.

From Unilag I went to Ozone, a mall and multiplex cinema opposite an Army barrack, and noticed two guards with wands – a male and a female guard. Even lady’s handbags I know get wanded at Ozone and beyond the gate you have the usual coterie of intimidating bouncers. Motor vehicles of patrons aren’t allowed into the premises.

Business done at Ozone I took a look at the barrack opposite and noted that the gate and vehicle barriers hadn’t been upgraded from the flimsy affair I had noticed when the BH mayhem first started. I realized though that this was basically an outfit that produces uniforms for the rest of the Army so maybe it is a low profile target in their view. Hopefully BH has a similarly dim view of the value of ‘bloody army tailors’. The barrack at the T Junction is a different affair though for it is an ordnance depot and not just any ordnance depot but one that is used for stockpiling UN materiel. This much is obvious from the white shipping containers labeled ‘UN’ in bold black stacked two high close to the MMW wall of the barrack. This materiel I presume is meant to service the UN mission deployed in Mali and other parts of West Africa.

From the very first time I noticed this significant fact three years back I have kept tabs on the security of the barrack. Yes the walls are at least 10 feet high and look well made. There are sentry towers dotted around the perimeter and more armed men at the gate and beyond. But the gate itself. And the vehicle barrier. If I lived in a robber threatened compound I wouldn’t feel particularly safe behind that gate and barrier. The barrier pole is slimmer than my arm and I am no Schwarzenegger. It wouldn’t stop a tricycle much less a bomb laden Golf (BH’s favourite kamikaze wagon) or the sort of heavy vehicle BH might just decide to deploy against its enemy number one. We all remember the extreme prejudice which with it took out the UN’s country HQ in Abuja in 2011. Back then the suicide bombers went through TWO barriers to kill 21 and injure 60. If BH decides to send a bomb laden vehicle barreling down Commercial Avenue against that silly excuse for a barrier nothing will stop it penetrating deep into the barrack before detonating and reprising the Ikeja Cantonment disaster of a decade ago for there is a good chance the ordnance laden in the UN containers and in the Quonset buildings could be set off by the primary explosion.

Maybe my self interest in not having a missile from such a disaster coming through my nearby roof finally got me to write this piece. On a more serious note though, our government must begin to spend the N1 trillion annual security budget on something more reassuring than ‘pepper soup’ for the big boys in and out of uniform. It isn’t rocket science or inaccessible military wisdom to know you simply don’t situate the gate into ANY military barrack at the top of a T junction. It is trite to note that vehicle barriers at the gates of military barracks must be made of something stiffer than recycled three inch metal pipes. It might make sense to not advertise the UN materiel at the Yaba Ordnance Depot to the whole world by stacking the UN labeled containers two high right along the fence. You don’t need the stars of a general to realize that a pedestrian bridge shouldn’t be built against the fence of the same depot. Yes, a pedestrian bridge was started across MMW and it would have ended right against the fence of the depot with all comers given a great view of what should ordinarily have been one of the most secure places in Nigeria. The project appears to have been stopped after too many millions had been wasted but I was almost having nightmares while it continued. I kept imagining a BH team armed with rocket launchers and machine guns simply sauntering to the top of the bridge and taking out the whole barrack without suffering a single casualty itself. It was almost a gift from the gods of hell. I believe the civil and military authorities who came up with the idea of that bridge at that particular point and who allowed it to progress so far before it was stopped should answer a few questions and be made to refund the resources wasted.

We must begin to carry out proper threat assessments at all our military and government facilities. We must rank their sensitivity and harden them appropriately. During the cold war era the gates at the Berlin Wall had tank busters built right into the road and I believe major military facilities in more serious nations still have such robust defenses. With the number of barracks and police stations BH has obliterated with next to zero resistance when are we going to start valuing the lives of our men and officers enough to provide them with a fighting chance in this increasingly unequal war? When are the generals going to stop pocketing the multi million naira budgets meant for these defenses and start erecting structures with the stamina to do the job? And not just the generals: when are the Vice Chancellors, Rectors and similar heads of educational and other institutions going to realize that they are some of the most attractive targets for BH? Have they forgotten the multiple attacks on schools in several states across the North of the country? Why are they ignoring the fact that what is forbidden by BH is the boko they claim to teach? As citadels of higher boko when are they going to put the needed resources in place to at least stand a fighting chance if BH ever assaults them or to even deter BH as, like all terrorist organizations, it prefers soft to hard targets?

My kids attend a school where beyond the security men at the gates I have to swipe a card to access the school premises. I work in an office where cars are sniffed for explosives by a device and all parcels including phones are passed through xray machines while staff themselves must pass through metal detectors each time they come into the premises. As for the crash barriers at my office; even an 18 wheeler would be hardpressed crashing through them especially as it must approach them at snail’s speed since they are parallel to the street and not at the end of a race track as we have at the Yaba Army depot. These are private enterprises that seem to better appreciate the times we are in. They lack trillion naira security budgets and have to be conscious of the bottom line yet they use judiciously what they have and attain a significant hardening of their establishments. BH might still assault them but it wouldn’t be a walkover as it has been at so many so called military and para military installations across Nigeria.

We must stop doing BH’s dirty work for it by making our critical facilities such tempting targets. Each time we are tempted to share the budget for guns, drugs, schools or roads we should remember that the naira we are sharing is equivalent to the blood of citizens that will be shed from unbuilt roads, comatose hospitals, easy BH targets etc. When the official wife of the President cried plaintively about the blood she and others are sharing I bet it didn’t occur to her and her handlers that each time 10% or 100% is stolen from official funds they are indeed sharing the blood of Nigerian citizens. You will note that I avoid using the word ‘innocent’ to characterize Nigerian victims. This is deliberate as the unfortunate reality is that more than 90% of the victims of every form of official and private evil in Nigeria would happily carry out the very acts that victimize them given the chance and most cannot even bring themselves to condemn the evil that stalks the land in various forms. Thus there are very few ‘innocent’ Nigerians and I shall not speak a lie but enough said about this as it is itself enough grist for many essays.

For now permit me to stick to a main thesis of this essay which is: the corruption that pervades our land has turned us all to sitting ducks to the mindless anarchy levied by BH against our country. I refuse to accept that the generals, professors in charge of universities etc are too dimwitted or unaware of the threat from BH to do the needful. I am convinced instead that, as always, the necessary funds have been allocated and have been shared among the ‘stakeholders’ with a token deployed to the actual task of securing those establishments. In sharing those funds I accuse all stakeholders of sharing the blood of those that will potentially be slaughtered by BH whenever it decides to cast its baleful glance in the direction of the prostrate institutions. Even as BH and the budget eating potentates share the blood of Nigerians the populace must not tire in pointing out that BH has unparalleled enablement from those who began sharing our blood the minute they decided to share our trillions.

Abraham Maborukoje Idowu

Where are FG estates? At least Shagari and Jakande used to compete in this area back then? Shari bungalow was N8k while Jakande 3BR flat was N6k. As a teenage clerk in a Federal ministry I was aspiring to a bungalow then. Virtually every LASG teacher got a flat then with payments deducted over many years from their salary. There was indeed a country.

The truth was always obvious to those of us who taught there even as far back as the mid 80s. Don't know why anyone got deceived.

TribalEAST: feel free to console your self . I thought you guys claim your region is educationally ahead just cos of you produced the highest number of successful result in waec, neco and jamb just recently. Well, now we know better.

Does this explain the anomalous exam success data that continues to emanate from the region? Will other states have the courage to follow suit?

On timely delivery: I am paying for a 4 bedroom semi detached unit at LG Ph 2 with payment to be complated in April 2015. My unit was roofed, plastered etc with work starting on the POP when I last visited in June. I am not necessarily saying my experience holds through for all subscribers or all of their developments but that has been my experience. I have a colleague who paid outright last year for a unit in Ph 3 but is yet to get her house. I guess a major problem for the company has been getting a proper handle on back office stuff and hedging its critical supplies. They spend so much on marketing and pretty damsels and they do a decent job with the buildings (I was lucky to witnes the foundation and decking stages of my unit) but they don't attend to something as simple as matching payments to allocations. With a good administrator in charge i believe he can get through these teething problems.

Can anyone give the lowdown on Amoda's church? I am thinking of worshiping with them and would like a sneak preview. I have been to its website and the message appears consistent. Thanks.

You can believe this if you believe the fiction that Igbos are a majority in Lagos. Even if you ignore all other tribes and count just Yorubas and Igbos in Lagos, the Igbos cannot pip the Yorubas. Umeh should realise that Nigeria is in a delicate situation and certain views might trigger unpalatable reactions. Would he dare voice the same aspiration in Rivers? Even Delta that they are indigenous to; they cannot secure governorship there in the next 20 years.

2015: Igbo Will Rule Lagos, Says Umeh
Posted On 15 Jul 2014By : News CorrespondentComment: 0Tag: 2015, Igbo Will Rule Lagos, Says UmehThe leader of the All Progressives Grand Alliance in Lagos State, Mr. Campbell Umeh, in this interview, says the party will win the 2015 governorship election

Do you think it is possible for the All Progressives Grand Alliance to take over the governance of Lagos State?

I need to let you know that I was the Lagos State governorship candidate of APGA in 2003 and APGA came third in that election after the Alliance for Democracy and the Peoples Democratic Party. So, we are not newcomers in the politics of Lagos State. The standard has been set. This time around, we are going to take over. If you ran a state race and you came third, then you can hope to win the race the next time you compete. We defeated the All Progressives Congress, the PDP, and the Labour Party in Anambra State. These are the only political parties that can win election in this country.

In Lagos, the APC is the number one party followed by APGA, because the PDP has collapsed in Lagos State. They are only being sustained by the support from the national leadership of the party. It is similar to what has happened in Kano State. The PDP no longer exists in Kano State going by the last local government election in Kano, where the APC won 44 local government councils and 482 wards; none for the PDP. I’ve told those who are lobbying for President Goodluck Jonathan to be re-elected that the only way he can get votes in Lagos is through APGA because we have the capacity.

You talk about capacity; how many supporters does APGA have in Lagos?

If democracy is about the electorate, APGA has what it takes to win elections in Lagos. The Igbo in Lagos today are more than 10 million, not to talk of other non-indigenes, who are not loyal to the APC. Although not every Igbo man will vote for APGA, but those who we know as our potential supporters and sympathisers are more than five million. If what is required to get to Alausa is about two million votes, which no one has surpassed, APGA will get it. Election is not about the elite; it’s about the ordinary people who will go out and cast their votes.

But APGA defeated the APC in Anambra only because it’s the South-East and the incumbent was APGA.

Without manipulation or rigging, APGA has no rival in the South-East. APGA defeated former governor Ikedi Ohakim, an incumbent PDP governor in Imo State in 2011. APGA has defeated Senator Chris Ngige three times in Anambra. APGA defeated him in 2003 and they were in court for three years before Peter Obi recovered his mandate. APGA defeated the Action Congress of Nigeria in 2010 and defeated it when it became the APC in 2013. Were they all by chance?

Do the victories of APGA in Anambra and Imo states automatically translate into victory for the party in Lagos?

I’ve told you that the population of the Igbo in Lagos is more than the population of any state in the South-East because they are combined here. But this is not an Igbo agenda; I’m only saying it because every party has its sympathy base. The APC has Yoruba sympathy. However, a Yoruba man can also run on the platform of APGA. We also have the sympathy of those who believe that one man cannot control Lagos because it’s a cosmopolitan state.

Considering the clout of the national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in Lagos, do you believe anybody can become governor of the state without his support?

You are giving much to whom less has been given. If you are talking about democracy, then you should not be talking about one man. Of course, one man can own a party and run it the way he chooses. If I establish a company, I will run it the way I like. But the question is; do the public believe in my company? People have the right to seek alternatives. APGA is coming as an alternative to rescue Lagos from the people who are bent on subverting people’s will.

Is there room for APC aspirants who may feel sidelined to actualise their desire to contest the governorship election in APGA?

People should not continue to live under an illusion. Bola Tinubu and his group have antecedent. In the 1999 AD primaries, Funsho Williams won, they imposed Tinubu. In 2007, 25 aspirants bought nomination forms under the Action Congress, and fulfilled all the requirements and somebody who did not run for the election, Babatunde Fashola, was picked. With that, any right thinking person in this race should act wisely. APGA is ready and willing to accept them. We will welcome them. The earlier they join APGA the better for them.

Do you really believe an Igbo man can become a governor in Lagos State?

I believe it 100 per cent. I was born and raised in Lagos. If you are born and bred in a place and you see that the place is not well run, what do you do? You go for the government. That was why I ran in 2003. It was my candidacy that made them pick two Igbo people to be part of the government in Lagos – Ben Akabueze and Joe Igbokwe. It was just to deceive novices that Igbo people are in government. Except the Awori, nobody owns Lagos. Most of the people claiming Lagos came from nearby Yoruba states.

http://hotnaijaupdate.com/2015-igbo-will-rule-lagos-says-umeh/

“We have all the documents which Moniaye has submitted to us. He will get a redress of his case with a little patience. We ourselves could feel his pulse with facts on the documents. But you know for now it is still one sided until we get the other side (from the UK church).”

UK-based Nigerian tackles church over marriage breakdown


JULY 14, 2014 BY SAMSON FOLARIN


A United Kingdom-based Nigerian, Ayadi Moniaye, has accused the Jubilee Parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Manchester of turning his ex-wife against him which eventually ended their marriage.

Moniaye, who said he got married to his wife in 2000, said the marriage packed up in 2009 after years of domestic violence.

The father of three alleged that a group in the parish taught women how to get the support of the UK immigration policy by abusing their spouses.

He said, “Nigerian women in the UK were brainwashed by the group to abuse their husbands so they can claim their husbands’ property and exploit the UK immigration policy to their advantage.

“I challenged the church, telling the coordinators of the programme that the Bible did not support such practice. Unknown to me, my wife was part of it.”

He said his wife assaulted him on many occasions, but he did not retaliate which got her frustrated.

Moniaye said, “On one of such occasions, she injured me. She later called the police to drive me out of the house. When the police got to our home, they met the children around me, consoling me, and because of what they saw, they could not drive me out of the house.

“After series of such unprovoked attacks, my wife admitted that she was maltreating me to get me out of the house.”

Moniaye showed our correspondent documents detailing his ordeals in the UK, including an alleged accusation by his wife that he was mentally unstable.

The allegation of mental instability was, however, rejected by a document dated June, 2010 and issued by one Dr R.A. Jones of Manchester Mental Health.

The document read in part, “As far as I am aware, our Team Manager, Emma Hinchcliff, has also contacted the Children and Families Social Services to outline our thoughts that there is no evidence of you suffering with a major mental illness at present.”

Another document by one Mama ‘Toro, an elder in the community, dated February 2011, read that Moniaye had been beaten several times by his wife.

Moniaye told our correspondent that although he had been separated from his wife, he was concerned about the negative impression such incidents were creating for Nigerians.

He said all efforts to get the matter to the attention of the General Overseer of the church, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, had been rebuffed by protocol officers.

“I am deeply concerned about the way women are portraying the image of this country to the outside world. And it is unfortunate that the church would be used as a platform for this. My concern is how we can correct this impression,” he added.

PUNCH Metro contacted Jubilee Church, Manchester, through its official telephone lines.

An official of the church told our correspondent that the pastor would not respond to the allegation.

The official, who did not give his name, said, “I can tell you that the pastor will not want to talk about it. But I appreciate the call and will pass your message across to him.”

It was learnt that police in Manchester, which investigated the case, sent a feedback to Moniaye.

The reaction reads, “Inspector O’Reilly followed up the allegations you made, and on one occasion he attended the church on Hyde Road to verify your story. He spoke to the pastor, who told him that they found you to be intractable and not only did they not confirm your account, they stated that they were concerned for you and prayed for you.”

PUNCH Metro visited the national headquarters of the RCCG at Oyingbo, Lagos, where he met one of the church pastors.

He directed our correspondent to the Redemption Camp on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, saying matters of such magnitude were usually addressed there.

The Chief Legal Officer, Pastor Ayodele Oladeji, said, “Yes, a letter has been received at our office here, written by Moniaye, requesting to see Daddy G.O., and we are treating it.

“I want to assure you that even those who write to Daddy G.O. on ordinary piece of paper receive attention. We will investigate this and know what happened.

“We have all the documents which Moniaye has submitted to us. He will get a redress of his case with a little patience. We ourselves could feel his pulse with facts on the documents. But you know for now it is still one sided until we get the other side (from the UK church).”

http://www.punchng.com/metro-plus/uk-based-nigerian-tackles-church-over-marriage-breakdown/

Nehemiah confirms that it is the Levite who pays a tithe on his tithe to the treasure house referred to in Malachi. Xtians are turned to mugus for lack of knowledge.

laudate: Mr. Moderator, please kindly move this thread to the front page so that more folks will be able to view it . Hopefully, they will read, repent & go forth to sin no more by creating posts that will enhance the level of objective discourse, on Nairaland.

And it would be reparation for the damage nairaland itself is unwittingly contributing.

This is happening somewhere in Edo apparently. Are there nairalanders in the house who can track down the location and intervene? Is the Comrade Governor still alive and KICKING?

This is a pretty common occurrence in our blessed nation. Evil permeates this land from end to end. This also highlights the risk in using relatives as estate trustees.

‘Dustbin man’ yet to be removed

Posted by: Osagie Otabor, Benin in News 9 hours ago

A 25-year-old man, Danjuma, who was dumped on a refuse heap by his uncle, is yet to be removed.

The Nation broke the story of his plight last week.

Danjuma, a physically challenged orphan, was left in the care of relatives by his mother, who reportedly left money for his upkeep.

Sources said the money was not spent on him as he has been living off the gestures of kind hearted neighbours, who had been giving him food secretly.

He has reportedly spent over three weeks on the refuse heap before his plight was brought to public knowledge by the Coordinator of Forum of Nigerian Women in Politics, Mrs. Florence Igbinigie.

It was learnt that neighbours removed Danjuma from the refuse heap after The Nation’s report but his uncle threatened to deal with anyone who cared for him again. He threw him back on the refuse heap.

Mrs. Igbinigie showed The Nation copies of letters sent to the Ministry of Women Affairs and the Commissioner of Police.

She said the divisional police officer in charge of the zone said it was not within their responsibility to take Danjuma from the heap.

The letter reads: “I wish to draw your urgent attention to a 25-year-old cripple who was thrown on a refuse heap by his uncle, Mr. Arase.

“As we tried to approach the house, the uncle attacked us. Due to his attitude, we suspect more harm could be done to the boy. Hence we write you to please intervene to seek justice for this inhuman treatment.

“Please use your office to help rehabilitate the boy. We have been caring for him since we learnt about the incident.”

Photo

Man dumps ‘crippled’ nephew on refuse heap

Posted by: Osagie Otabor, Benin in News Update 5 days ago

A 25- year old physically challenged man identified as Danjuma has been allegedly dumped on a refuse heap by his uncle apparently to die.

Danjuma is the only child of his deceased mother and no family member could locate his father’s whereabouts.

The Nation gathered that the mother, a former staff of Nigeria Telecommunication, left money for his well being but family members kept it to themselves.

The refuse heap where Danjuma was dumped is high and our reporter had to climb it to get his photograph.

Also, journalists were forced to shout in order to talk to him.

The young man demanded for a plate of rice and stew and said he was kept there by his uncle.

The wheel chair used by Danjuma was at the refuse heap.

Neighbors said he was taken up the refuse heap by the uncle after he was left in the rain and sun for many weeks.

They said the uncle threatened to deal with anybody that gives him (Danjuma) food.

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/man-dumps-crippled-nephew-on-refuse-heap/

We have all shouted ourselves hoarse since the 1980s to our masters to no effect. You, the NMA, have even sacrificed collaterally a few thousand lives in an attempt to move the immovable but those lives have been sacrificed in vain as the need for your current strike proves. To avoid being diagnosed as insane using Albert Einstein’s famous paradigm (Insanity = doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results), I ask you to consider thinking outside the box by rousing the voices from the rest of the world. We all know that our masters have the foreign gods that they worship. We know that even the oga patapata dare not respond cavalierly to a query from CNN’s Christine Amanpour much less ignore Michelle Obama or Hilary Clinton’s views. We know he won’t wait to hear from Cameron or Obama before doing the needful in any situation. With that fact established all we need do is bring to the notice of such foreign worthies the plight Nigerians in general and doctors in particular have labored under in the last three decades. How do we go about this?

https://www.nairaland.com/1799547/how-nma-secure-trillions-nigerian

We have all shouted ourselves hoarse since the 1980s to our masters to no effect. You, the NMA, have even sacrificed collaterally a few thousand lives in an attempt to move the immovable but those lives have been sacrificed in vain as the need for your current strike proves. To avoid being diagnosed as insane using Albert Einstein’s famous paradigm (Insanity = doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results), I ask you to consider thinking outside the box by rousing the voices from the rest of the world. We all know that our masters have the foreign gods that they worship. We know that even the oga patapata dare not respond cavalierly to a query from CNN’s Christine Amanpour much less ignore Michelle Obama or Hilary Clinton’s views. We know he won’t wait to hear from Cameron or Obama before doing the needful in any situation. With that fact established all we need do is bring to the notice of such foreign worthies the plight Nigerians in general and doctors in particular have labored under in the last three decades. How do we go about this?

https://www.nairaland.com/1799547/how-nma-secure-trillions-nigerian

We have all shouted ourselves hoarse since the 1980s to our masters to no effect. You, the NMA, have even sacrificed collaterally a few thousand lives in an attempt to move the immovable but those lives have been sacrificed in vain as the need for your current strike proves. To avoid being diagnosed as insane using Albert Einstein’s famous paradigm (Insanity = doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results), I ask you to consider thinking outside the box by rousing the voices from the rest of the world. We all know that our masters have the foreign gods that they worship. We know that even the oga patapata dare not respond cavalierly to a query from CNN’s Christine Amanpour much less ignore Michelle Obama or Hilary Clinton’s views. We know he won’t wait to hear from Cameron or Obama before doing the needful in any situation. With that fact established all we need do is bring to the notice of such foreign worthies the plight Nigerians in general and doctors in particular have labored under in the last three decades. How do we go about this?

https://www.nairaland.com/1799547/how-nma-secure-trillions-nigerian

Until they are paid enough and the facilities are decent we all would be taking our lives in our hands each time we visit the hospitals. We have doctors who became accountants because of the money. Can you imagine that happening in the US? Why would a US doctor abandon his very well paid passion for anything else? We even have a lady doctor who became a Nollywood actress. Am not sure Hollywood can boast of such. Going through the grueling training and even more grueling practice only to be paid an amount that can't get you a new car, put your kids in decent schools or get you accommodation in a decent neighbourhood isn't the way we should treat some of our brightest and best people in whose hands the lives of we all lie.

See: How NMA Can Secure Trillions From The Nigerian Governments

https://www.nairaland.com/1799547/how-nma-secure-trillions-nigerian

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/how-nma-can-secure-trillions-from-the-governments.html

How NMA Can Secure Trillions From The Nigerian Governments

https://www.nairaland.com/1799547/how-nma-secure-trillions-nigerian

How NMA Can Secure Trillions From The Nigerian Governments

We started the month of July with yet another ‘general’ strike by medical doctors under the auspices of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA). They have ‘indefinitely’ withdrawn their services from public hospitals until their demands are met. On television I saw the NMA president mouth such words as ‘instruct’ in referring to the media, government and the general populace. I listened for the charter of demands and wasn’t struck by any of the items chosen to headline the 29 or so items despite being a long-term defender of the rights of medical personnel to comfortable and rewarding terms of employment similar to what is obtainable by their counterparts globally. I have been struck in the last few decades by the naija anomaly that renders doctors and allied professionals near beggars in a nation that confers comforts and luxuries on accountants, bankers, engineers, oil workers and of course politicians. I have engaged with doctors at almost every opportunity on the need for them to present their case in a way that will leave the government with little choice aside from bridging the yawning remuneration.

Beyond the peanuts we pay medical personnel in Nigeria is the issue of highly insalubrious and ill equipped facilities we expect them to practice their craft in. Even if all we expect them to do is split logs we should be able to provide better facilities than we currently see in our general and Teaching hospitals nationwide. We all have had the misfortune of spending time in public hospitals in recent decades either as patients or visitors and few of us have come away from those soul deadening encounters quite the same. At the oldest hospitals we find grand structures that were built by our forebears with the funds from cocoa, groundnuts and palm oil in the 50s and 60s which we have been unable to maintain with the trillions we now make from oil and gas. It is so obvious that the problem is not the lack of funds but what we have chosen to do with the sea of cash sloshing about in public coffers. The little we do not steal is spent on office holders and top civil servants and, in our scale of values, a professor of medicine deserves to be less remunerated than a possibly illiterate councilor!

This state of affairs has been lamented over the years with multiple strikes victimizing millions of citizens achieving next to nil improvement. Today I find myself counseling young ones NOT to study medicine no matter the passion or aptitude displayed. When asked the reason for my curious advice, I make them understand that you cannot practice medicine in naija without having the blood of countless innocents on your hands. You did not steal the money meant for drugs, equipment, the power sector or anything else but you are the (wo)man on ground that superintends the dispatching of the taxpayer to the great beyond in the pretend hospitals we call ‘centres of excellence’. That must do violence to a (wo)man’s soul and even the very best of us must be much diminished spiritually and emotionally after years spent in the abattoirs we claim to heal in. How in good conscience can one watch or encourage any young person to step into such a stream filled with ghouls and the spirits of those killed before their time? I offer but one caveat: study medicine if you intend to only practice outside Nigeria. In that case you will save many lives, will be among the best paid persons in your society and will be well regarded by all. At the end of June the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released a list of 820 professions http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/06/the-best-and-worst-paid-jobs-in-americain-1-ludicrously-long-chart/373192/ that showed that medical professionals dominated the top echel on so I would counsel any aspiring doctors reading this to ‘Go west, young (wo)man’.
170 million Nigerian patients cannot go west however so we must find a lasting and bloodless solution to this enervating problem. Those lucky or just crooked enough to have sufficient funds do their healing and dying in India and various other points of the globe with even sprains and split nails being treated in Germany. For the sake of the 99% who can but dream of such solutions I have an idea to sell to the NMA.

We have all shouted ourselves hoarse since the 1980s to our masters to no effect. You, the NMA, have even sacrificed collaterally a few thousand lives in an attempt to move the immovable but those lives have been sacrificed in vain as the need for your current strike proves. To avoid being diagnosed as insane using Albert Einstein’s famous paradigm (Insanity = doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results), I ask you to consider thinking outside the box by rousing the voices from the rest of the world. We all know that our masters have the foreign gods that they worship. We know that even the oga patapata dare not respond cavalierly to a query from CNN’s Christine Amanpour much less ignore Michelle Obama or Hilary Clinton’s views. We know he won’t wait to hear from Cameron or Obama before doing the needful in any situation. With that fact established all we need do is bring to the notice of such foreign worthies the plight Nigerians in general and doctors in particular have labored under in the last three decades. How do we go about this?

I suggest we get out those cameras and camera phones we all own. Thank God that even doctors are paid enough to own smart phones. The NMA should set up public information teams in each public referral hospital. These teams should be given the mandate to go round the facilities of their hospitals: the wards, surgical theaters, toilets, kitchens, offices etc. They should create video documentaries of the physical and other rot that we all see and lament. The national NMA executive should employ a public relations firm, just the way our oga at the top has hired one for $1.2m to launder his image, and pass the raw footage to it for creation of an NMA Youtube channel showcasing how our masters kill us.

The NMA should also create a table similar to that published by the US BLS showing the relative wages of various jobs in Nigeria. I know I used to pay my driver more than a fresh doctor and Dangote probably pays his trailer drivers more than even medical professors earn. Particular attention should be paid to what political office holders, bankers and oil sector workers are paid. This table should be advertised extensively online and in our newspapers. The NMA should create a searchable database of such data on its website.

Then the NMA should go for the killer blow: get in touch with CNN’s Sanjay Gupta and arrange with him for an hour’s documentary on Nigeria’s failed health system. With his interventionist mindset I bet he will jump at it and even Al Jazeera and BBC wouldn’t mind a piece of the action. After the first screening of the resulting documentaries on those channels and the millionth download of the horror mini clips posted on Youtube by the PR company, the NMA executives should stand by for calls from Aso Rock for urgent negotiations. Please and please, do not go there with silly demands like those very forgettable 29 items on your current COD. Go big like ASUU: secure the trillions you need to rebuild most of the infrastructure and procure modern kit. Insist on benchmarking salaries and allowances of medical personnel with political office holders, banks and oil sector workers. None of these others contribute as much to our national wellbeing as you lot do even with all the current constraints. Do not accept the lie that the money simply isn’t available. Ngozi tried that with ASUU but they stuck to their guns and she somewhere ‘magicked’ the money out of thin air when water don pass gari. The economy somehow manages to find trillions to waste on councilors etc. The economy hands out a trillion to the armed forces every year for losing the war to Boko Haram. The economy finds about $100,000 to pay to every fresh graduate that joins the International Oil Companies from the very first year even as trainees. The economy should go and find the trillions you need to fix the hospitals and make your employment gainful.

We are tired of burying our young and lightly afflicted. We are tired of watching you patriots destroy your souls, minds and bodies battling against impossible odds. We are tired of losing our brightest and best to foreign hospitals and less noble professions. We are tired of the vicarious moral and spiritual responsibility of being part of a society where so many lives are needlessly wasted. We are tired of your strikes that achieve little more than accelerate the death by medical treatment or lack thereof of our compatriots. We are tired of life expectancy that is barely half the number in Japan. We are tired of having to go abroad to die. We are tired of doing the same thing without hope of a different outcome and appearing insane to the rest of the world. Please step up your game. Bring your unionism into the 21st century. Stop giving our oppressors such an easy out. May God’s grace suffice for us all and may even more effective tactics than the ones I have outlined be brought into this battle for our very lives.

'I have argued elsewhere that ethnic baiting and stigmatization often precede genocidal horrors. The free circulation of ideas of the inherent villainy of members of other ethnic groups and the inherent moral goodness of members of one’s own ethnic collectivity is a clear and present danger. '