OWN YOUR OWN LIFE!

Today, I am inspired to speak to you about how you can actually own your life and be free from the encumbrances of trying to be what others want you to be.  One of the greatest undoing of our generation is people who want you to be what they figure you should be.

They look at you, size you up and come up with a verdict that you cannot go beyond certain limits.  That is a lie from the pit of hell.  For many people who respect those who pass such verdicts on them and they have not attained a measure of independent thinking and living yet; this piece is for you.  If you are afraid to break free from the bounds of such blockade that keeps you tied to the apron strings of people who think they own your life for you, you must pay attention here.

You are the ultimate decider of what happens in your life

At birth, between infancy and when we attain the age of accountability, decisions are made for us by our parents, guardians, school teachers and tutors.  By the time we cross the threshold of 18 years and above, our decision really should count.  In sub-Saharan Africa, you find a 40 year old man still hovering around his father's house waiting to be told what to do!  That is madness with a new coloration to it.  When are you going to be the driver in your destiny?

Many times, we tend to confuse respect with responsibility.  I will respect you but I will not allow your opinion to overrule my destination - that is my personal responsibility.  You may make suggestions and I will listen to counsel but the ultimate decision is mine!  

Many destinies have been ruined by people who left decision making of crucial issues in their lives to people they claim to respect.  It happens all the time; someone has to tell you what profession to go into, what course to read in school and who to marry - without taking your own personal uniqueness into consideration.  I believe an individual must be taught sound principles and be left to apply those principles in his life as he or she deems fit based on such person's individual uniqueness and personal drive in life.

In the next couple of days, I will take some time out to examine some critical areas of an individual's life that destiny decisions are critical and how it should not be left at the hands of others no matter how much you respect them.  I shall also be sharing some personal experiences and how I eventually broke lose from such malady and now own my life with God as my ultimate guide.

Keep a date with me.

WANTED! A comprehensive Health Package for the Common Nigerian

I turn my attention to the ailing Health Sector of Nigeria today in continuation of my x-ray of the critical areas the incoming administration in Nigeria scheduled to be inaugurated on May 29 should look into.

Health is one major area every national government should pay very close attention to.  Like Defense, Foreign Policy and the Economy, Health is one of the major responsibilities of the Federal Government anywhere in the world. The sorry story of the Nigerian health sector dates back to decade ago.  During the military intervention of General Muhammadu Buhari on 31st December, 1983, he described our hospitals as "mere consulting clinics".  20 months later, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida still described it "as still consulting clinics".  Nearly 30 years after those critical analysis were made of our health sector, the situation has deteriorated and our hospitals are no longer consulting clinics but death chambers!  This assessment may be a hard knot to crack for people who are eternally patriotic and blind at doing so.  But, whoever has a reading eye should pay close attention to the plight of the real Nigerian.

Over the last 20 years, private hospitals sprang up across the nation because the government hospitals became real death chambers!  Like in the education sector, the private clinics were like a rescue mission but the reality is that it is way out of the reach of the ordinary Nigerian because they charge high consulting fees!  Over time, their services also began to dwindle in quality as they were constantly overwhelmed with patients since government hospitals now exist only in names.  

I had nasty experiences on three occasions when I lost three children on the day of their births and government hospitals were culpable.  Many excuses were adduced but there cannot be a good enough explanation for allowing three consecutive still births by one woman without locating the real reason for the phenomenon!  God just saved the life of the mother otherwise she would have gone the way of her babies!

Besides having the latest hospital equipment in place which appears to be the emphasis of the Federal Health Ministry in most of its gigantic Teaching Hospitals where they teach nothing; the people who run the system are some of the most callous human beings one can find anywhere.  Imagine a pregnant woman being literarily verbally abused by a nurse who should help her in the delivery room!   At one time I in company of a friend had to trek a distance of over 1 kilometer within the precinct of a Teaching Hospital to get blood from their blood bank for transfusion for my baby because one of the nurses who should run the errand was feeling "sleepy"!  Of course, because of the delay in the transfusion of the blood, we lost the baby by noon the next day!

There are hundreds and thousands of cases of mismanaged situations in the health sector.  Doctors don't keep to surgery schedules, patients are kept waiting and bills running for days... and in many cases, when deposits for consultancy and treatments are not made, the patients even in emergency situations are left to fate!  Health Insurance?  Nigeria has a Health Insurance by the name of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) which took off a little over 6 years ago.  It only covers a small percentage of the population and this is less than 20% of the population.  Some of the compliant clinics of NHIS are still grappling with the technicalities of how the scheme runs and the end users who are the Nigerians suffer in the process.

Primary Health Care is in shambles at the local level.  In my native village, there are two "clinics" but run by quacks!  They are untrained medical practitioners!  They just operate on guess work and treat innocent villagers who submit their lives as it were to them.  Health Inspectors?  That appears to be a strange phenomenon around this part of the world.  Nobody checks anything... and when it is done, it is bedeviled by bureaucratic idiosyncrasies that amount to nothing at the end of the day.  The sorry state of dispensaries set up to score cheap political gains litter all around the country with no sufficient and effective dispensation of medical services.

The wealth of Health Workers is another bane of the woes of the Health Sector in Nigeria.  Little wonder that Nigeria is amongst the highest exporter of medical practitioners in the world.  Brain drain in this sector is massive year in year out.  Constant strike actions by the Medical Union in the country is a further testimony to the fact that they are not treated well.

The buck rests squarely at the feet of the Federal Government led by the President and Commander-in-Chief.  It is incumbent on President Jonathan to take a critical look at the Health Sector and appoint a radical minded Health Minister who is a thoroughbred professional and not a medical politician.  He should recruit same-minded bureaucrats who will do a complete review of the health policy nationwide and come up with proactive and workable panacea that should restore sanity in the health sector and give the needed relief to the Nigerian.

Most Nigerians die needlessly because of poor health.  Many of them cannot afford the basic health care.  Drug peddlers who have no business being in health business should be swept away.  This task is huge but the lives of millions of Nigerians are at stake and this government cannot fail in giving us a revamped health sector.

God Bless Nigeria.

Nigeria: Good Infrastructure as a good platform for Poverty Alleviation

Poverty is as common a phenomenon as rice is to Thailand's economy.  In my introductory post some days ago on the NIGERIA's LOST PEOPLE, the subject of poverty featured prominently.  It is on record and practically true that over 80% of Nigerians are actually living below poverty line.  According to the UN definition of poverty line, anyone living below one United States Dollar (USD) per day is living below poverty line.  Vast majority of Nigerians are living in that state.

The world should not be deceived by the gleaming roads and skyscrapers they see on international TV networks showcasing the beauty of Nigeria - restricting their coverage to Lagos and Abuja.  The real Nigerians live in rural areas and the many slums across the length and breath of the nation.  These are the Nigerians without electricity supply, portable water and without basic means of livelihood.  They are half educated or not literate at all; they simply live every single day at a time without ambition and without a future.  That is poverty at its very best.

I have mentioned that before and at the risk of repeating myself, I want to re-assert that the Nigerian is about the most hardworking person on the planet.  In spite of the huge odds against him, given half a chance, he can survive and become a monumental success.  It is the reason why he is so frustrated when even the basic amenities required as platform for him to engage his entrepreneurial self in spite of his apparent lack of education are virtually not available.

One of such infrastructural necessities is electricity.  Nigeria is one of the most densely populated nations on the planet.  One out of every five black person on the earth is a Nigerian.  With a population of over 150 million people, Nigeria places 8th on the chart of the world's most populous nation.  A nation with such vast population is not generating up to 5,000 megawatts of electricity!  It is a disaster.  Over the last 20 years, multi-billion dollars have been spent on revamping the energy sector but all to no avail.  Corruption and lack of political will has continued to hinder the rejuvenation of this all important sector.  Today, Nigeria is the world's number one importer of generators. 

The advantages a regular supply of electricity presents to the average Nigerian is enormous.  He can power his house and live free from the noise and pollution of the generating sets; use electricity to power his small business premise and drastically reduce costs of overhead which presently brings his efforts to naught as a result of huge running costs.  This is how important the availability of electricity is to alleviating poverty for the "common man" in Nigeria.

The other crucial infrastructure is a good road network.  Nigerian roads have been classified as some of the worst death traps in the world.  Annual, huge budgetary provisions are made for road construction and maintenance but the real roads that should impact positively on the common Nigerian are left unattended.  Most truck roads and high ways linking cities that provide the most common transportation routes for Nigerians are littered with pot holes and are in a state of disrepair.  Rural roads are non-existent as most of them are untarred and mostly impassible especially during raining seasons.  Most communities are cut off from the real world as a result of erosion affecting these untarred roads because they are constantly eroding for lack of corrosion. 

Food supply from rural to urban areas are transported through the roads.  When the roads are in the state they are now, rural dwellers who live on subsistence farming cannot sell their goods and therefore are faced with the problem of further impoverishment.  Food security becomes a major problem when rural dwellers are discouraged from engaging in large scale farming for fear of having no means of transporting the goods to the cities where they are needed.  The cost of food items skyrocket when the farmers have to pay through their nose to transport goods to the cities through vehicles that ply the rough routes and have to charge high fares as a result of the wear and tear that becomes the lot of their vehicles because of bad roads.

I can only address bad roads and electricity here.  The infrastructures required as platforms for poverty alleviation in Nigeria are many and varied.  As the Goodluck Jonathan takes office on May 29, 2011, it is incumbent upon it as a government elected by the good and frustrated people of Nigeria to give them some good dividends of Nigeria.  They that have ears, let them hear what is being said.  It is time to transform Nigeria and turn Nigerians into the super stars that they are potentially at the moment.

God bless Nigeria.