Rethinking the Clean-up Exercise in Nigeria
August 14, 2008 by 
Guest Writer · Leave a Comment
The practice of designating one day in a month as a general clean – up day has assumed the status of a culture in this country. It is the day we try to do all the cleaning we failed to do in the past one month. On such a day all the rubbish that was dumped inside the drains are scooped out to make room for the ones we plan to deposit there right after the clean-up exercise. All the obscure corners of markets and open places that have served as dump sites are emptied out. On such clean-up days, the roads and streets are blocked with refuse from all nooks and crannies of the city. The original concept is that pay-loaders and refuse trucks will be handy to cart away the refuse as they are being generated. What is on ground however, owing to the endemic corruption in the system is that adequate arrangement for the carting away of refuse is not made before announcing a clean-up day. The result is that the state of the city on clean-up days and many days and even weeks after is indeed a sorry sight.
The problem of rapid generation of refuse is one of the evils of urbanization. The rural communities manage their refuse much better than the urban areas. The reason is simply that the population in such places grows naturally, mainly through birth. They can afford to manage refuse in the same way their forebears managed theirs because the population is stable. Urbanization is characterized by the massive influx of people into an area that is already saturated with inhabitants. This astronomical and abnormal increase in the number of people living in a place affects every aspect of life. Advanced nations of the world are so called because they factor these evils of urbanization into their plans for their cities. They plan these cities to make them truly habitable.
Urbanization takes people out of their natural habitats and forces too many people to complete for too little space. Without adequate planning a lot of catastrophe could result from such an arrangement. This is why the so-called third world countries are grappling with all kinds of man-made catastrophes. Hardly anything is actually planned in these countries. There is no effort made to regulate the number of people that troop into the towns on a daily basis, and yet every public utility sector is in crisis. Power supply, water supply, accommodation, transport sector and road maintenance agencies are all problematic.
One of the worst effects of urbanization is environmental degradation, which directly affects the health status and life expectancy of urban dwellers. Poor management of solid waste, unhealthy disposal of human waste, improper disposal and channeling of liquid waste, misuse and abuse of drains that encourages the breeding of mosquitoes and harbouring of rodents and vermin, all contribute to make urban areas in the third work uninhabitable.
I am strongly of the opinion that governments that are not yet ready to tackle the solid waste problem should stop escalating the environmental degradation problem by conducting baseless, plan less and aimless clean-up exercises. It is obvious that the only people that benefit from the half-hearted fire-brigade approach we call sanitation exercises are those who use such shams to make money from the public treasury.
Nigeria has produced quite a substantial number of experts in the field of environmental health sciences and other related fields. We do not need to hire expatriates to help us manage our environment when we are sincerely ready to undertake this all-important task. In essence, any sincere administration within this nation has at its disposal all the human and material resources required to provide a lasting solution to the menace of solid, liquid and even gaseous waste. What is lacking is the will-power and the sincerity of purpose to do what ought to be done.
It is high time we rethink the way and manner this exercise is carried out. Rethinking it will help toward enthroning a culture of cleanliness rather that the routine exercise which it has become. What do you think?
Guest Writer: Perpetua Ihebom
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Reagents and Water Drought Hits National Hospital Abuja: Patients treated without proper diagnoses.
August 13, 2008 by Felix Ashimole · Leave a Comment
On Monday, we reported that there was drug drought in National Hospital Abuja. As at Tuesday August 12th 2008, most patients were not given their test result. The lab technician claimed that there was no water and reagents to conduct the required test(s). It follows that National Hospital Abuja have been treating patients blindly without a proper test to know what the patients are suffering from and diagnose properly in order to prescribe the right drug or other therapy.
As a follow up, I visited the hospital to check on the boy. To my greatest shock the specimens taken for test two days ago has not been glorified with a test result to ascertain what the boy is suffering from. Another shocker was the attitude of the nurse and doctor on duty. The morning ward round was done by 43 minutes to 12 noon. While the team of doctors were conducting inspection, a particular doctor’s GSM kept crying and this doctor constantly abandoned the patient to answer her call. I was beside myself with anger but the mother of the infirm child’s plea held me back.
She claims that any attempt at getting the nurses to be more humane, brings out the worst in them. In the children’s ward, there is no provision for the relation that is taking care of the sick. I learnt that that is an international practice. But what those conversing this failed to tell me is that in the international community, Parents don’t need to attend to their children once they have been checked in.
At National Hospital Abuja, parents not only dab their children with cold water to arrest rising temperature, they mix their own ORS with bottled water. The National Hospital Abuja has no measuring instrument to gauge the water level for a sachet of ORS, which the National Hospital does not have. The nurses rely on the last ring on the bottled water to get 50 litres.
Attempts to engage the matron in a civilised conversation to ram home my observations met the wall of Jericho.
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No Drugs In National Hospital Abuja.
August 11, 2008 by Felix Ashimole · 1 Comment
It was a sad reminder of the rot in the Ministry of Health, when our roving reporter visited National Hospital Abuja (NHA) on Sunday August 10th 2008. A child in the emergency paediatrician ward was given a prescription the NHA does not have in her pharmacy. It took the combined effort of fatherly love and perseverance for the drug to be gotten in a chemist shop about 15 Kilometres from the NH. The drugs that were elusive in the NHA Pharmacy were Vitamin A Capsule, Camoquine and Oral Dehydration Solution.
Apart from wondering why a ministry will return unspent money from annual budget when the required infrastructure and services have not been provided, our roving reporter pointed out that nothing has been heard of the Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello’s involvement in the 300 Million Naira Ministry of Health budget scam.
National Hospital Abuja is a shame of a nation, if routine drugs cannot be readily available. As a referential Hospital, one would have expected that drug drought will be the last thing to heat NHA. A curious aside to this draught of drugs is the sunrise punctuality with which the NHA kitchen provides meal and charge whether the patient eats it or not. It is the firm belief of our roving reporter that there is a racket going on in NHA and the bills coming from the kitchen is a quiet vehicle to midwife the fraud. A hospital should be more concerned with the stabilisation of a patient and not meals (the NHA kitchen provides swallow for patients that are so unconscious to swallow)
Another black leg in this national edifice, is their filing system. At the children’s ward, it took a careless nurse over 1hr 30 mins to locate an out patient’s card
As the poor father of the child in pain and high fever went about knocking at closed pharmaceutical doors (most have gone to church), our roving reporters concern was that the father should not finally find a chemist only to buy a fake drug. When hospitals have no drugs, one is left at the mercy of drug merchants who often sell adulterated drugs despite the war by NAFDAC.
Meanwhile the Nigerian Association of Hospital And Administrative Pharmacists (NAHAP) are demanding for an upward review of their members salary. Rising from the association’s 10th annual conference in Minna Niger State, the President of NAHAP Anthony Akhimien told newsmen that the association besides demanding for upward salary review, they also want a better career plan. According to him, the present career structure where a pharmacist’s highest attainment is level 15 as against level 17 of their counterpart in other professions is not palatable to the association. He appealed to the appropriate department of civil service commission to address the issue before it degenerates to industrial dispute.
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ROTARY – The Polio Challenge
July 24, 2008 by Uche Ohia · Leave a Comment
July is a special month in the convivial world of Rotary International (RI), undoubtedly the world’s largest and most influential humanitarian organisation: the Rotary year runs from July 1 to June 30 annually. For “Rotarians” (as members of Rotary in thousands of Rotary clubs and districts across the globe are called), July marks the automatic transition from one RI President, District Governor or club president and set of officers to another. To end each year, RI organises an international convention in a designated city. The first RI Convention was held in Chicago in 1910 and the 2008 Convention recently ended in the city of Los Angeles, California. Remarkably, this latest gathering of service minded men and women witnessed the presence for the first time under one roof of four spearheading partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative: the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF, the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and The Rotary Foundation (TRF) - the fundraising and grant making arm of Rotary International.
Another remarkable thing that took place at the 2008 Rotary International convention was a resolutuion by Rotarians concerning the sum of US$100m bequeathed to their organisation by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to buoy the global onslaught against polio. With thunderous unanimity, the over 25,000 delegates affirmed a resolution to launch Rotary’s US$100m Challenge – a three–year fundraising commitment aimed at marching the colossal US$100m contributed to Rotary’s polio eradication war chest by Bill and Melinda with another hefty US$100m to be raised by RI. What this means is that every dollar given to the Rotary PolioPlus Initiative during the next three years will be dedicated to matching the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation dollar for dollar.
And guess where the bulk of this hard currency is going? It is coming to Nigeria because our country, unfortunately, is one of the remaing four countries of the world where polio has remained endemic. The other countries in that league are India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. By a curious coincidence, the man who will pilot the Polio Challenge is soft spoken Jonathan Majiyagbe, a Kano based lawyer who made history in 2003 by becoming the first African to serve as International President of RI and who presently serves as Chair of Rotary African Regional PolioPlus Committee and the Rotary International PolioPlus Committee.
Rotary which has become a global phenomenon today had the most humble beginnings. A lonely lawyer named Paul Harris who lived in Chicago in the state of Illinois invited three business associates – Silvester Schiele, Gustavus Loehr and Hiram Shorey – one evening in February 1905 to discuss his idea of a new club that would renact the jocularity and trustworthiness of their childhood days which was missing in the dog-eat-dog environment of the big city. From Chicago, Rotary clubs spread to other cities of the US, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. From friendship, service to the community increasingly became the focus of Rotary. In 2005 Rotary celebrated a century of service. The Centennial Convention to mark 100 years of Rotary was held at the monumental McCormick Place Convention Centre in downtown Chicago in June 2005. For Rotarians it was a historic homecoming to the city where Rotary began. Today, the hallmarks of Rotary clubs all over the world are high ethical standards, fellowship among members, and commitment to service to the community without counting cost or returns. With a global membership exceeding 1.2m men and women who belong to over 32,000 clubs in more than 200 countries, Rotary boasts of a large pool of business and professional leaders in virtually every city where it exists who task themselves and their friends to build goodwill and peace across frontiers.
The story of Rotary and polio is a moving one. Poliomyelitis (polio) is an infectious, crippling and often fatal disease that attacks children especially those under the age of five. Since 1972 when Dr. Robert Hingson of the Rotary Club of Oakland, Pittsburgh gave a vocational talk on his invention called the “peace gun” which could be loaded with multiple doses of vaccine and used to immunize larger numbers of people faster than the traditional syringe method, the idea of a massive attack on worrisome health syndromes has been of concern to Rotary. Following a pilot vaccination programme in the Phillipines, Rotary envisioned a polio–free world and challenged the rest of the world to pursue that vision. The initial idea adopted by RI in 1982 was to immunize all of the world’s children against polio by the time of Rotary’s 100th anniversary. This programme which was tagged ‘Polio 2005’ was later changed to ‘PolioPlus’ in recognition of Rotary’s support of a global initiative to combat vaccine-preventable childhood diseases. At the 1988 RI Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the WHO proposed changing the goal from ‘control’ of polio to ‘eradication’ by the year 2000. Indeed, it was Rotary’s vision that inspired the 1988 resolution by the World Health Assembly which committed governments to the eradication goal. The combined efforts of WHO, UNICEF, CDC, TRF and various governments reduced the reported incidence of polio by 99% from 350,000 in 1988 to 2000 cases in 2006. Read more
Borno State Govt Recruits 30 Egyptian Doctors
According to THISDAY;
Borno State government has recruited about 30 medical doctors and experts from Egypt, to take charge of the newly commissioned Umaru Shehu ultra-modern hospital, Maiduguri. Nigerian doctors based outside the country are also appointed. The state government also directed all its 27 local government areas to recruit at least one medical doctor and two nurses, for each of the comprehensive health centres at all the local government areas of the state.
I was just wondering the rational behind the decision and it really beats me. Read carefully the words in italic to show you that the Nigerians employed were just to make it up.
In the characteristic Nigerian way, I hope federal character was applied in the employement if not I hope there are subsisting labor rules that makes it imperative as obtains here in the UK that no UK or European citizen is qualified to hold such position before giving it to a foreigner.
To the best of my abilities, Nigeria ‘harvest’ more medical doctors than any other country in Africa to an extension the world. Talking about well trained, Nigerian trained doctors have proven themselves outside the shores of Nigeria. We are not talking about application of attendant technologies in medicine.
I think it is high time the North rid itself of this imperialist thinking that have perpertually under-developed it and hindered the overall development of Nigeria.
This brings me to this clip below. Does it really mean this policy of the 60’s by the North still exist in today Nigeria?
What do you think?
Please see this clip and have your say too; Remind us if you can who the first speaker on the clip was in 1964? ** Clip is not about FELA**
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Sick Yar’Adua flown to Germany
April 15, 2008 by Che Oyimnatumba · 1 Comment
President Musa Yar’Adua could not sign the 2008 budget with the attendant pump and pageantry yesterday due to ill health. Shortly after signing the bill behind closed doors, the Special Assistant to the president on Communication Segun Adeniyi briefed newsmen and said “the president will leave for Wiesbaden Germany later today to see his private physicians for medical review”.
A source at the Villa, claims that the president slumped and was revived by the doctors at the Villa Clinic and via a telephone conversation, the doctors in Germany demanded that his Excellency immediately fly into German for a review.
During the heat of his electoral campaign, Yar’Adua was whisked away to Germany for urgent medical attention, which PDP claimed was to cure cold. But reliable sources say that the president is not fit to withstand the rigors of ruling Nigeria. In close to one year of his assumption of office, President Yar’Adua has not toured the states to say thank you to the people that “voted” and see firsthand their plights.
Observers spoken to on the streets of Abuja lament that our president will have to be flown abroad for check-up despite the claims of PDP led government that the National Hospital Abuja is the best in Africa and can compete favourably with any hospital anywhere in the world. If the head of state of over 180 million Nigerians, who has a known history of “cold” cannot be treated in Nigeria, Nigerians are doomed said Mr. Tanko.
Beyond exposing the 300 million left over of the 2007 budget in the ministry of health, Nigerians want a quality health care, a functional hospital to save us the embarrassment of our president lying naked before a foreign doctor.
It was in a similar abroad treatment that the former first lady, Chief Stella Obasanjo died.
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Law Making Gone Awry
February 23, 2008 by OCI · Leave a Comment
Senator Ekaette of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria may not be alone after-all in this season of skewed law making.
The past few month in Nigeria have been awash with Senator Eme Ufot Ekaette’s proposed Bill for an Act to Prohibit and Punish Public Nudity, Sexual Intimidation and, Other Related Offences in Nigeria aka (Nudity Bill) before the senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Most commentators (sina, naijablog, saharareporters) have been up in arms for and against the proposed bill.
The Civil Societies and Feminist Group and all manner of groups have been pondering if our honourable members have lost it with this kind of bill when there are more pressing issues to contend with. Without mincing words, the crux of the matter remains with the process of electing/selecting people to elective positions in our polity. As long as this process is skewed; it will remain garbage in, garbage out’.
As if Senator Ekaette is not alone, in far away America precisely in Mississippi a lawmaker have proposed a bill that would revoke the business license of any restaurant that serves food to fat people. The statewide measure, House Bill 282, would prohibit eateries from serving food to “any person who is obese based on criteria prescribed by the state health department.” If passed, the bill would allow the department to monitor compliance and have the power to revoke any violators’ permits.
Via: OC Weekly
Obesity is a serious issue and requires the concerted efforts of everyone to help anyone that is suffering from the ailment.
Equally, there are better things to do about the treatment of women and children in Nigeria than a law that seek to out-law all manners of dressing. Indeed, law making in its totality have gone awry here and beyond. Who is to blame?
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