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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