Muhammad Al-Ghazali
I wrote this piece inside the Ethiopian Airlines aircraft
which conveyed us from Addis-Ababa to Abuja. As the clock ticked steadily
towards Nigeria's 51st anniversary 'celebrations', I had been lost in thought
on what had become of our dear nation in recent times; and, two hours into the
estimated four and a half hours flight time, I finally summoned the courage to
reach for my portable laptop - the eternal companion of most writers - to
document some of my thoughts.
I felt that even the fact that I needed another African
airline to transit to my country from abroad was a good starting point, and it
wasn't just the cold-blooded efficiency of the airline that set my pulse racing
with justifiable rage. My outrage derived from the shameful realization that
this same Ethiopia, ravaged by poverty and unspared by nature, ranks only
second to South Africa in the aviation sector in Africa.
The Ethiopians are punching well above their weight in an
area Nigeria had failed very miserably. They have shown the world they could
run an efficient airline to rival the very best in the world. The airport in
Addis-Ababa which is now a major hub of some sorts easily put the Murtala
Muhammad and Nnamdi Azikiwe Airports in Lagos to shame.
I may have issues with the airport's 'passenger
friendliness' in terms of available public utilities, but never its flawless
organization and efficiency. And by the way, none of the airline or airport
staff I encountered during the two hours it took me to transit through the
Addis-Ababa airport mortaged their self-esteem to beg me for money just for
doing their jobs.
There was also no poverty in the quality of their work or
the seriousness with which they dispensed their services to the endless stream
of passengers.
Since I was only transiting through Addis-Ababa, it is only
proper that I mentioned that I actually arrived from Dubai, in the United Arab
Emirates, a few hours earlier. I had seized the opportunity of my annual
vacation to do a routine medical check-up, like any living mortal beyond the
age of 40 should from time to time, at the Iranian Hospital in the Emirates.
Quite inevitably, my experience at the hospital brought
another brutal reminder of the total collapse of the healthcare delivery system
in Nigeria. Again, I was impressed by the brutal efficiency of the system in
place at the hospital and the speed with which I was attended to. It did not
help my temperament that I encountered several Nigerians at the hospital. We
are among the lucky ones. We could afford it. Millions of our fellow countrymen
back at home are not so fortunate.
They remain trapped in a vicious social cycle in which
greed, corruption, nepotism and abysmal leadership are prominent factors. They
are victims of Nigeria's broken system, which, in the space of just a few
decades, has created millions of internal refugees and exiled nearly as many
skilled professionals who could have contrubuted to our national development in
all spheres.
It is no longer a secret that the best of Nigerian doctors
have since fled the nation, taking their skills and expertise along with them,
and who can blame them? Many of the doctors and nurses in the hospitals of many
western nations hailed from Nigeria. A South African friend recently whispered
to me that if the Nigerian doctors and nurses at work in the rural areas of
that country were to be disenaged, the healthcare delivery system in theat
sector would collapse.
These days, people rush to India and other far-flung places
for routine and emergency medical attention. And yet we cannot question their
patriotism because our leaders and elites have reflected far lesser faith in
our system. Like the fast increasing stream of such Nigerians, I was also obeying
the first law of nature which is the need for self-preservation when I opted to
conduct my medical abroad.
The poor state of our facilities is one thing, but no one
wants to die from the wrong diagnosis which is the ultimate cause of many
fatalities in our hospitals today. No one wants to suffer in the hands of
quackes or half-baked doctors from a broken education system. I was not an
exception. Even as I wrote this the inevitable threat of another strike by the
Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities hung in the air.
The cumulative effects of similar strikes in the past have
adversely affected the quality of the products of Nigerian universities. Today,
a large colony of Nigerian university students are abroad including in
countries like Ghana, which has Rawlings to thank for speedilly arresting their
own drift towards the abyss in the 1980s.
In a single desicive day when he wasted his country's
corrupt Generals and former rulers, Rawlings made Ghaniains to realize that
corruption does not pay. The evidence of the positive outcome of his purge is
in the fact that Ghana has reclaimed its self-esteem and continued to eclipse
Nigeria in many sectors on the development index. When all seemed lost for
Ghana, Rawlings provided the sort of leadership it required to pull it back
from the brink. Nigeria has not been so fortunate. One reformist regime after
another only succeeded in outclassing the previous with its skill and
efficiency at looting the public treasury.
In Dubai, I also saw exactly what visionary leadership and
the unity of purpose could achieve with a vengeance. I saw how a sparse and
anynomous desert wastelands barely two decades was completely transformed into
a global marvel for all the right reasons. The metro rail system initiated a
few years ago is now in full operation with work still on-going on several
routes.
Its ultra-modern stations now count among the major
eye-popping landmarks of Dubai city centres. Among such landmarks is, of
course, the awe-inspiring Khalifa which is now the tallest building in the
world. I could go on and on but the mere fact of doing so is extremely
depressing.
It did not surprise me in the slightest that President
Jonathan chose to celebrate our 51st independence anniversary within the
confines of the Aso Rock Villa where he apparently felt more secured, no matter
what anyone may say to the contrary, apparently in mortal fear of the dreaded
Boko Haram sect. No further evidence was required by Nigerians as to the degree
of their social and personal insecurity.
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