(READ): A wake-up call for Nigeria’s elite

* Farewell ceremonies ended last Thursday for
another one of us. Deji Falae was the son of a
former Minister of Finance, Secretary to the
Federal Government and Presidential Aspirant. He
got actively involved in Ondo State politics in
2009 and his final role was as the state’s
Commissioner for Culture & Tourism. He was
happily married with three children.
Deji died on October 3 on the Associated Airlines
flight that crashed shortly after take-off in Lagos.
A lot has been said about the state of the airline
and the aircraft, but what is clear is that Deji’s
death was probably needless; unnecessary;
avoidable. He didn’t like to fly domestically and
travelled by road commuting between Akure and
Lagos. He went by road to his meetings in Abuja.
This time, he was on official duty to accompany
the body of the late Governor of Ondo State,
Olusegun Agagu, to Akure for his funeral.
In the Dana Airline crash last year, we lost Ehime
Aikhomu, Innocent Okoye, Tosin Anibaba (nee
Odujirin), Dunni Doherty, and Ayoola Somolu to
name a few. Before then, we had lost Olukemi,
who was shot by car jackers in Ibadan and the
closest hospital had no blood, oxygen or
ambulance. We had also lost Imole. He was
involved in a car crash in Igbinedion University,
Okada, and the school didn’t have a functional
ambulance. He was taken to the hospital in a taxi
– lost time, lost blood, went into coma, and then
died. After Dana, we’ve lost Adeola Randolph who
died from an asthma attack because the nearest
hospital didn’t have oxygen. It was said the first
hospital Agagu was taken to in Yaba was unable to
stabilise him. He died enroute St. Nicholas
Hospital, Ikoyi. And, just last week, Prof. Festus
Iyayi died in an accident involving the Kogi State
Governor’s convoy.
Sons and daughters; fathers and mothers; cousins,
nieces and nephews; friends, peers and colleagues
– die daily because we refuse to get involved in
the system that shapes our very existence.
Instead, we are concerned about our ability to
give birth to our children abroad; get them into
the best schools outside the country and make
obscene amounts of money from the same
inefficient system to sustain this lifestyle. We are
consumed by our ability to stay relevant with the
requisite toys (cars, homes and trips to exotic
lands) in a system that has no value for human
life. We’ve turned being able to send our children
abroad into a status symbol forgetting that there
was a time in Nigeria where students went abroad
because they couldn’t get into Nigerian
universities. It is NOT a thing of pride that you
can’t stay in Nigeria for more than six weeks and
you have to “get out for civilisation”. It’s
madness!
However, we forget that as long as we are within
the shores of this great nation of ours, our
financial resources and our connections can
become so worthless. If you have an accident on
the Abuja – Lokoja Road, the Third Mainland
Bridge or the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway today, if
there’s no ambulance with the necessary
equipment to stabilise you and get you to a
functional hospital, you WILL die. That you could
have afforded an air ambulance to get you to the
best doctor in Germany, the US or anywhere in
the world becomes irrelevant. Yet, we keep
thinking we are immune to the madness that
engulfs the land. A dysfunctional system makes no
exceptions. It respects no one. Why have we not
learnt this?
Mrs. Goodluck Jonathan’s mum was in Germany
earlier this year for a medical checkup. She died a
few months later in a car accident on a bad road
in Port Harcourt. Ironically, the same road that
killed her was then repaired for her funeral.
Over the course of this year alone, Sullivan
Chime, Bola Tinubu, Timipre Sylva, Rochas
Okorocha, Liyel Imoke, Alhaji Balarabe Musa,
wounded Nigerian soldiers, Danbaba Suntai
(Governor of Taraba) and three subsidy marketers
being investigated for fraud have all travelled out
of the country for medical care. Nigerians travel
to India, Germany, England, Dubai, the US and
many other countries to get medical care that was
available in Nigeria 20 years ago. Mrs. Josephine
Okoye, mother of popular music duo P-Square,
died in India last year. The medical tourism
industry is conservatively estimated at N250bn
naira (approximately 1 billion pounds) annually.
That’s almost twice the budget of the National
Assembly that’s leaving Nigeria.
There’s at least one person you know who you are
sure beyond a reasonable doubt died because our
system is dysfunctional. They either had the
money and it was too late to travel or they
couldn’t afford to travel. Again, senseless and
unnecessary deaths. We’ve lost Josephine, Ehime,
Tosin and Deji. Which one of us is next? This is not
about government, this is about us; each and
every one of us. It’s about the loss of our
humanity and the paralysis that has overcome us
that prevent us from getting involved. I strongly
believe in the theory of six degrees of separation –
there are only six people between you and any
one you are trying to reach. We all know someone
who knows someone who knows someone who is
in government, but we need to begin to hold them
accountable! Beyond this, we also need to get
involved ourselves; get our hands dirty. But those
who come to equity must come with clean hands.
Are we ready for the sacrifices? Are we ready for
the discomfort? Because if we are not, we all just
need to shut up and deal with it! Accept that
planes will continue to drop; cars will continue to
crash; patients in hospitals will continue to die; our
children will have to go outside of the country to
maximise their potential and NO ONE will be held
accountable for any of this! As our loved ones
continue to die for absolutely no reason, we’ll
continue to gather together, pray and say “God
knows best”; sing and praise; cry, bury and move
on … until the next death.
As long as we are ready to play that game, then
let us stop complaining about what Nigeria has
become because we are ALL responsible for the
rot in the system – moral decay; impunity and a
complete lack of respect for human lives and law
and order – every single one of us, especially you
– Nigeria’s educated elite. We know and
understand; but we choose daily this Nigeria that
we have – an addiction of some sort – this Nigeria
that continues to stifle the best of the best. Unless
we are ready to make the changes that are
required, then this is the Nigeria we’ll bequeath to
our children, much worse than we met it.
Yes, there are pockets of excellence and despite
these challenges, some of us do manage to
succeed – innovating and excelling. But the
numbers are TOO SMALL!!! Furthermore, there’s
no reason for it. We deserve better, we can do
better and we can truly be the Giant of Africa.
I believe I deserve better. Do you? And if you do,
what are you willing to do about it?
The sacrifices can be simple or hard. From
supporting initiatives you believe in to actively
engaging in the political process – funding, holding
officials to account; complaining and not ignoring
shortcomings in service delivery; telling off
government officials instead of lobbying for
contracts. Sacrificing your time and not buying
your way through processes and challenges. We
should be vocal and take different arms of
government, including the judiciary, at the
federal, state and local levels to task. When
someone you know dies from neglect, you have to
be willing to demand accountability from
institutions and individuals not just say “God
knows best”. Yes, we’ll all die, but we need to
curb these needless deaths!
I believe I deserve better. Do you? And if you do,
what are you willing to do about it?
(For Olukemi, Ese and the hundreds of thousands
who have died or who have lost loved ones
because Nigeria is dysfunctional.)
- Ms. Adamolekun is the National
Coordinator of Enough is Enough Nigeria.
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