In my first year in secondary school, I participated in the heat, ahead of the inter-house sports competition. In the 100 meters race, I came last. In the long version, I came last. Then, I tried the long jump, I was average because I was above average height. But in the second year, I was last again. Quickly, I forgot about competitive sports, and focused on one sports I was really good at: academics.
Our school football captain would always remind me: “on this football pitch, I am the captain; you wait until we get to the class for you to assume your own captainship”. He called me “Momen” for helping in the moments when mathematics needed solutions. It was a great experience: deep respect especially as we later became school prefects.
That takes me to the situation in Nigeria. We are in a position where no one respects anyone. Today, doctors are on strike: “The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) commenced an indefinite strike on Thursday despite meeting with a federal government delegation on Wednesday night.” As the government was trying to get its playbook, the judiciary has kicked off its own party: “Judiciary workers, under the aegis of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), have declared an indefinite nationwide strike to press home their demand for the financial autonomy of the judiciary.”
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The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) commenced an indefinite strike on Thursday despite meeting with a federal government delegation on Wednesday night.
“We commence strike 8 a.m. today while we are still trying to evaluate the federal government’s offer,” the president of the association, Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, told PREMIUM TIMES Thursday morning.
The decision was reached after NARD’s extraordinary National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held last Saturday, according to the president.
He said the ultimatum given to the federal government to meet the association’s earlier demands expired on March 31, with no significant achievement.
Simply, there is no respect for any institution – and that is a big problem. The government does not really show in actions that it respects these doctors and lawyers, and these professionals also do not show that they care especially when the president is meeting doctors in London!
So, everyone thinks he/she can win on the football pitch and in the academic pitch, creating tension. If you check well, that is a sign of a weakening institution. No one cares what happens to Nigeria; that should concern you because it takes great skills to make doctors and lawyers angry at the same time!
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We make too much demands from Lady Nigeria, who’s actually poor, unfortunately her handlers keep selling the false impression that she is rich; a problem.
A country whose annual earnings is less than $40 billion, yet we keep giving the impression that Nigeria’s annual budget runs in hundreds of billions of dollars, but the reality is that it’s under forty billion dollars. There’s really little you can do with such amount, even without anyone stealing a kobo. We are talking about a landmass of close to a million square kilometres, a population of over 200 million, with excess of 35000 kilometres of federal roads, which are obviously inadequate. A country whose annual earnings struggle to pay workers salaries, yet we still don’t get the memo.
Ask any average Nigerian about the wealth of the country, the likely response is that, there’s plenty money, just that politicians are stealing it. But is that really true? Pick your calculator, run the numbers in sources of income in the land, then match against the deficits across sectors, you realise that we don’t really have anything to brag about.
Why the distrust? Well, when you hear few people stealing billions and living larger than life, you cannot tell anyone there’s no money.