2015 Nigerian presidential election is just around the corner. I am waiting to hear from the two political parties lofty political ideas - even if such ideas and promises are malarial dreams. All I hear are rancorous diatribes and jibes with no substance. Few months to go, the INEC boss is being accused of open inclination towards APC. Posts portraying Buhari as harbouring islamisation doctrine are everywhere. Press should invite Buhari to finger him on this uncomfortable sectarian agenda. GEJ rode on the back of the Igbos to Aso Rock and promised to proceed on exile if he did not build second Niger bridge. Some of these facts are germane questions candidates should be made to sweat under their armpit by the press. The quality of debate and candidates are so poor. I do not believe Buhari is too old to rule. What I am not sure about is that he has the neutrality to govern a pluralistic nation-state like Nigeria. If the quotes attributed to him as sharia law mastermind and advocate is true, then that in itself disqualifies him to be fielded by any political party. He enacted decree 4 in 1984 in the wake of accusation that he masterminded disappearance of N2.8billion while he was minister of petroleum under OBJ in the 70s. Nigerians should expect GEJ to be on stump defending his records in office and why he needs a second term. I am not sure he is doing so. These individuals sit and colonise oil wells, infect the polity with misery and are getting away with it. The saddest thing is that those who should know better are out in numbers defending them. We need not break up into GEJ or Buhari apologists. Our role should be to hold the candidates and their political platforms accountable. They must defend their records and explain their policies. That is how democracy grows and develops. The only agenda that should concern all political parties remain IGBO QUESTION. Since the end of the war, no concerted efforts have been made by successive governments in Nigeria to fully integrate the Igbos. Igbo enclave remains neglected without any federal presence. No industries and federal roads are death traps. One time vice-president of Nigeria admitted that he once opposed Dr. Alex Ekwuemes proposal for no other reason than Ekwueme was Igbo and he sensed Biafra in his comment. How daft can he be? At least this one time VP was honest to admit all we knew already. My greatest disappointment goes to Igbo political and intellectual class for being naïve. The Igbo elites and political class are day by day demonstrating they are hollow and shallow in reasoning and thinking. They have cleaved into splinter groups rooting for GEJ, PDP and Buhari and APC. The duties they owe Nigerians and Igbos should be to get those they are supporting to tell us how they will deal with IGBO QUESTION. Back to Nigerian issues generally, there is still high rate of maternal and infant mortality and morbidity during child birth. Malaria and other curable and preventable diseases are still claiming lives of Nigerians. Nigerians are still dying every three hours on Nigerian roads. 60% of Nigerians live below poverty lines. Corruption is still at unacceptable level and the road map for Nigerian future is still in disarray. Average life expectancy of people living in Nigeria is still pegged at 54 (barring luck). Nigerian doctors are still migrating out Nigeria. For me the greatest challenge of living in Nigeria is poor health facility. Few of standard are out of reach of 80% of Nigeria. What we see is proliferation of hotels where the evil politicians that loot our commonwealth defile our girls. 70% of Nigerians simply exist but not living - yet health projection in civilised world show that people are now living longer into their late 90s healthy. A man born in 1916 walked into my clinic early this month, unaccompanied and without walking stick and so healthy. His is 98years 2months. From his physical appearance he is set to live for another 5years in perfect health. He is not on any medication. There are many like that where I practice. Martin Luther said that when the gods want to punish a nation, they deprive them people of wisdom, old men, honest men and all other good men. Perhaps it is the case with this populous black nation called Nigeria.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 09:27:39 +0000
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