THE NATION FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 2012
19
EDITORIAL/OPINION Comments
EDITORIAL FROM OTHER LAND
Valiant hearts
Vanity fair • The ostentation of first lady’s visit to Oyo State is out of sync with poverty and violence in the country
I
T was a veritable vanity fair; a grand carnival of sorts, when the first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, paid what was described as a ‘peace advocacy’ and ‘thank you’ visit to Oyo State on Tuesday. First Ladies from Ondo and Ogun states joined their counterpart in Oyo, Mrs. Florence Ajimobi, to receive the visitor. Hundreds of school pupils temporarily abandoned their studies as they were made to line the streets in honour of Dame Jonathan. Thousands of citizens, who would otherwise have most likely been pursuing more productive activities, were mobilised to the Lekan Salami Stadium, Adamasingba, Ibadan, to give Mrs. Jonathan a rousing welcome. So intense was the urge to be part of the historic occasion that many prominent citizens of Oyo State, including the state chief judge, Justice Bolajoko Adeniji, Speaker, House of Assembly, Mrs. Monsurat Sunmonu and several commissioners had a hectic time gaining entry to the venue of the event. Ever mindful of the security of their Very Important Personality, the security agents even prevented many reporters from carrying out their professional duties. They probably had cause to believe that the pens, notebooks, cameras and recorders of the journalists could pose serious threats to the safety of the First Lady. We indeed appreciate the sense of gratitude that motivated Mrs. Jonathan travel all the way from Abuja to thank the people of Oyo State for voting for her husband in the April, 2011, election.
However, we believe that a much better and productive way for the First Lady to show her appreciation to Nigerians in this regard will be to cut down, if not totally do away, with the kind of ostentatious and flamboyant official visit just witnessed in Oyo State. The resources saved from such wasteful trips, no matter how meagre, will make some impact in mitigating the abject poverty in which most Nigerians are trapped. Indeed, it is the kind of carnival atmosphere that attended Mrs. Jonathan’s state visit to Oyo that gives the impression that Nigerians are quite content with their misery amidst abundance and thus rank among the ‘happiest people in the world’. Oyo is one state that suffered indescribably under the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) misrule for eight years between 2003 and 2011. The state’s infrastructure is decrepit. Business is comatose. Unemployment is rife. Violent crime and destructive social vices are also rife. It is only now that the Senator Abiola Ajimobi administration is trying to rebuild and rejuvenate a state that once set the pace for socio-economic and infrastructural transformation in Nigeria and indeed Africa. The best way for the Jonathan administration to appreciate the votes of the electorate in the last election is to shun frivolities and maximally utilise scarce resources to achieve the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. We somewhat commend Mrs. Jonathan’s ‘peace advocacy’ campaign.
Surely, at no time since the civil war, has the harmony and stability of the country been threatened as is the case today. Even though it is fast waning in strength as the security agencies are grappling better with the challenges of terrorism, Boko Haram remains a national menace. If her mission is to help stem the current violence and promote peace, however, Oyo State should not be Mrs. Jonathan’s priority. Her soothing presence will certainly be more urgently needed in such hotbeds of combustion as Borno, Kano, Plateau or Niger states, to cite a few examples. It is not impossible that some dazzling flashes of First Lady smiles in these places may be just what is needed to soften the hearts of murderous terrorists.
‘If her mission is to help stem the current violence and promote peace, however, Oyo State should not be Mrs. Jonathan’s priority. Her soothing presence will certainly be more urgently needed in such hotbeds of combustion as Borno, Kano, Plateau or Niger states, to cite a few examples. It is not impossible that some dazzling flashes of First Lady smiles in these places may be just what is needed to soften the hearts of murderous terrorists’
With hate from India • Nigerians going to that country for medical care must ascertain the state of specific hospital they are going to
I
NDIA could well be a first port of call for not-too-affluent Nigerians seeking quality medical care at pocketfriendly costs. For the superrich, they turn to the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and other advanced countries in search of treatment for their ailments. That explained the deaths, in recent times, of some prominent Nigerians, including the late Dim Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Prof Sam Adepoju Aluko, Chief M.T, Mbu, to mention a few, in various hospitals abroad. The summary is that if our hospitals had been elevated from the status of ‘mere consulting clinics’ that the soldiers who seized power from the Shagari government on New Year’s Eve in 1983 said they were, some of these people and many others who troop abroad for medical
‘Perhaps as a stop-gap measure, Nigerians who feel they must travel to that country for medical assistance have to do proper research and be sure of the state and standard of the hospital they are checking into. The fact that India is fast becoming a Mecca for people seeking good medical attention does not mean that all hospitals there are well manned and equipped’
assistance would have stayed at home and still get the best of medical attention. Many doctors would readily agree that they can only try and that ‘God heals’, in line with the motto of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos. Indeed, experience has shown that doctors too, as human beings are not infallible; and this is irrespective of whether they are in developing or developed countries. We have on record many instances of surgery items forgotten in the stomachs of patients after surgical operations in some of the best hospitals abroad. These notwithstanding, those with the means still prefer to go abroad for the slightest of ailments because they have more confidence in those hospitals unlike our own hospitals that are not only ill-equipped but the standards have also drastically fallen. It was in search of this better medical care at affordable cost that a 50-year-old Nigerian, Patience Uvaise, left Nigeria for India in April last year. Specifically, she had gone to that country for treatment of cervical spondylosis. Her first port of treatment was the privately run Hiranandani Hospital in Navi Mumbai, where she ended up paralysed after three surgeries. Uvaise, who choked with emotion, put it better, “A year ago, when I arrived in India, I could walk comfortably. Now, I will have to return home paralysed”. It is so sad and touching. The thought of returning home worse than she left, and as she put it, due to negligence on the part of the doctors at the private hospital made her to file a
case at Bombay High Court which referred her case to JJ Hospital for investigation and to see whether her case was reversible. The hospital sealed all hopes of this happening, saying she is a quadriplegic, having lost sensation below the hip and in the limbs. Now, the hospital has said it was not negligent and Uvaise has refused to leave the hospital, following her discharge. We leave the rest to the court to sort out. But her plight cannot but remind us of the parlous state of our hospitals and the need to make them work again. We are worried not only because we are losing hard-earned foreign exchange that we could have spent on the provision of more beneficial infrastructure in the country but also because some of these trips abroad, particularly to India, are beginning to turn awry, if not counterproductive. Perhaps as a stop-gap measure, Nigerians who feel they must travel to that country for medical assistance have to do proper research and be sure of the state and standard of the hospital they are checking into. The fact that India is fast becoming a Mecca for people seeking good medical attention does not mean that all hospitals there are well manned and equipped. Ultimately, Nigerians have to start looking inwards. For this to happen, however, our governments must start now to rebuild our hospitals that are mostly shadows of their former state. As things are, many of them can no longer stand the test of ‘consulting clinics’ that they were called in 1983.
O
N Tuesday, six British soldiers rolled out on to the dusty roads of Helmand province in a Warrior armoured fighting vehicle
and did not return. They knew this might happen, and went all the same. Such bravery can only be belittled by the journalistic attempt to define it is in cold print. The British toll in Afghanistan, since operations began in 2001, now stands at 404. Each died for a reason. In the House of Commons yesterday, David Cameron described these sacrifices as ‘the human cost paid by our Armed Forces to keep our country safe”. This was no patriotic hyperbole. British forces – along with their Isaf and Nato allies – were deployed to Afghanistan in the wake of 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York to deny al-Qaeda a safe haven from which to plan further assaults in Britain and elsewhere. This, they have done. Al-Qaeda still exists, but the organisation is no longer what it was. Fragmented, incoherent and with a vast decreased influence, it fights now mainly for survival. Nato estimates that fewer than 100 foreign militants remain in the country. Like a handful of others across the Pakistani border, they exist at the mercy of local tribes, and are harried into inaction by frequent drone strikes. If there is another 9/11, it will not be planned from here. This is a success, but not a self-perpetuating one. The last 2014. Their role, until then, is as important as it has ever been. The Taleban is a resurgent power in Afghanistan, albeit one too weak to have much chance of controlling the whole country, even once Western forces have gone. The government in Kabul, meanwhile, is hopelessly corrupt and, as yet, incapable of existing without extensive foreign support. Control of much of the country has already been handed over to the Afghan Army, but this remains a force both smaller than it must be, and too often of questionable loyalty. A faction of the Taleban is probably responsible for Tuesday’s attack. As long as it remains operative and British troops remain in Afghanistan, that faction will be an enemy force. But the broader Taleban is too deeply rooted to define in purely military terms. Its adherents range from active militants driven by a vile and perverted ideology to Pashtun nationalists much more interested in stability than Sharia. A political settlement which embraces at least part of the Taleban is vital for Afghanistan’s future. Our troops have fought and died not to make that country pleasant, but to make it stable. This has always been in our national interest. In chaos, al-Qaeda will return. Afghanistan today is not chaos. Drone strikes, military action and the co-operation – albeit limited – of the Pakistani and Afghan governments mean that it provides a safe haven for nobody. Even the Taleban have learnt to keep their aspirations local. They know that relations with al-Qaeda carry many dangers and no benefits and ISAF and Nato troops are vital to this equilibrium. Neither David Cameron nor President Obama has yet explained how they can be confident that equilibrium will endure after the 2014 withdrawal. Nor has Mr Cameron set out clearly enough the advantages of staying in Afghanistan after deciding to leave and announcing the date of the departure. It is time to do so, and the explanation must go beyond pledges to train yet more Afghan soldiers. There will be more deaths before Britain’s troops withdraw. Between now and then, built on their sacrifice, is a window of opportunity for the political leadership of Isaf nations to create a settlement in Afghanistan which will keep our country and others safe in the future. This is an opportunity hard-won, and not to be wasted. – The London Times
TRUTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief Victor Ifijeh • Editor Gbenga Omotoso •Chairman, Editorial Board Sam Omatseye •General Editor Kunle Fagbemi •Editor, Online Lekan Otufodunrin •Managing Editor Northern Operation Yusuf Alli •Managing Editor Waheed Odusile
• Executive Director (Finance & Administration) Ade Odunewu
•Deputy Editor Lawal Ogienagbon
•Advert Manager Robinson Osirike
•Deputy Editor (News) Adeniyi Adesina •Group Political Editor Bolade Omonijo •Group Business Editor Ayodele Aminu •Abuja Bureau Chief Yomi Odunuga •Sport Editor Ade Ojeikere •Editorial Page Editor Sanya Oni
• Gen. Manager (Training and Development) Soji Omotunde •Chief Internal Auditor Toke Folorunsho •Senior Manager (sales) Akeem Shoge
•IT Manager Bolarinwa Meekness •Press Manager Udensi Chikaodi •Manager, Corporate Marketing Hameed Odejayi • Manager (Admin) Folake Adeoye