Columns
My Binoculars: Memo to Governor Zulum on the state of emergencies in the Borno health sector and the perceived interventions of development partners in ending the war
My Binoculars: Memo to Governor Zulum on the state of emergencies in the Borno health sector and the perceived interventions of development partners in ending the war
By: Bodunrin Kayode
Your Excellency, I must congratulate you for the myriads of achievements you have recorded in the entire state since you assumed duty. Your development of Borno regardless of the saddening insurgent war tormenting residents is quite remarkable. For me as a watcher of this kind of persistent social engineering, the health sector comes to mind as one that has literarily risen from dry grass to grace. My binoculars cannot forget in a hurry, your nocturnal visits to the hospitals when the guards of some of the medical managers were down. Many of them were shocked when caught napping at home instead of working while some accused you of barging into general hospitals without notice when you were sworn in. You did this obviously at very odd hours to find out how you can turn things around for the common man who has nowhere to go but those existing battered facilities when sick. A template has been set for the pretenders among them and they now know you don’t get pleased by eye service.
Before your first term of intervention as Governor, almost every thing regarding this sector was done haphazardly. Principal Medical officers (PMO’s) lacked the basic equipment to average at least 3/10 marks in terms of efficiency. Patients were told to buy 95 percent of their drugs outside the hospitals while the non governmental organizations (NGO’s) feasted on the ignorance of the generality of the residents. They were seen as the only saving grace within the emergency sub sector in the ministry of Health. Some humanitarians criminally feasted on the ignorance of the people by making huge harvests by way of corrupt blood money from a war which had no reason to have lasted till this day. Some of them came in as mere money mongers claiming to want to eliminate diseases like polio which have tormented residents long before you started your first tenure. No wonder some of them rent homes for three to four years for themselves because they don’t expect the war to end very soon. They are clogs in the wheels of the non kinetic which the military insist entails 75 percent of the efforts to end the war. Many benefitted immensely from the last flood which ravaged the city of Maiduguri one year ago.
BOACSDHR’s role in managing duplication and rouge NGO’s who lack the interest of the people
And this is why you set up an agency of accountability to streamline particularly the international NGOs who did what they wanted and felt they were untouchable and cannot be criticized.
Prof, you brought accountability within the health sector when you set up the Borno State Agency for the coordination of sustainable development and humanitarian response (BOACSDHR) in 2019 as part of government strategy to streamline the influx of some of these NGOs with twisted mindsets into the state. And I must tell you some of us watchers are very proud of the cerebral inputs into its steady growth by your Chief Adviser and coordinator Dr Mairo Mandara. She has actually been whipping them into line. No cow is sacred under her watch. They either conform with your visions and agenda or are shown the way out. Indeed within the 15 years of this pogrom against the Borno people so many unexpected woes have been unleashed on residents. The last one was the bursting of the seams of the Auno Dam which supplies drinking water to the state capital.
Sadly, while many of the NGOs meant well and came in with deep empathy to help the people, some others were just out to exploit the vulnerabilities of residents by converting resources meant for their well being to their fat pockets. Some carried a puritanical air of importance as if they are even above their parent bodies in Europe and America. Some of them are so full of themselves that they forget that the government should be on the drivers seat even if they are the ones paying the piper.
Compromises within the system
Sadly your Excellency some of your appointees are also bootlickers who worship international bodies because of what they gain at the sidelines from them. They see some international bodies as angels not made from dust like the rest of us as such they cannot make mistakes. But thank God you had the political will to create the BOACSDHR to coordinate humanitarian and development activities in the state towards efficient and effective use of resources to achieve the Borno state development aspiration to restore the age old honour, dignity and prosperity of the state, while ensuring all citizens and future generations have access to basic necessities and thrive in every stage of their lives. This has also assisted in elimination of deliberate duplication of activities between the international, national and local NGOs within the health sector. With this, the mindset of your appointees are being adjusted intermittently so that the Borno residents will become the ultimate winner. We may not all be perfect but there is always ample chance to move closer to the realm of excellence which some of us can decipher that you long for in the system especially now that the state teaching Hospital is on the way.
When Heads of agencies play with mediocrity
Your Excellency, I had a strange experience with one of your political appointees name withheld who castigated me recently for criticizing the world bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). I will leave his name out so that he doesn’t earn reprisal form you. But he is of the medical sector and claims to have been made in unimaid. He sounded so subservient to the development partners in his comments that I started wondering if he actually went to a university as he claimed. He is of a completely different mindset from your orientation which is to look out for excellence at all times even as you crush mediocrity. I used to think that all who work for a particular principal like you will adopt most of your characteristics. But this young fellow is a complete sell out in health health system far different from Professor Baba Mallam Gana whom he works under. He sounded so mediocre for my liking that I started wondering if the civil service is all about eye service and yes sir. If not what is it about the WHO that we can’t criticize them if they stray away from your plan? Have they become gods or the anti Christ that we should begin to fear to tell them to fall in line when they make mistakes? How much money are they spending in Nigeria that we should pamper them like some holier than thou agency who do not make mistakes? The same applies to the UNICEF and the rest of them. If you could say no to the world bank in the acresal project in the Dala swamps and they finally reached you at a common ground, does it not mean that no agency is above being corrected if they do not flow with our indigenous way of doing things?
Need for an urgent law guaranteeing emergency care for all
After what I want to describe as the careless deaths of two women at the Umaru Shehu hospital about two years ago due to alleged abandonment by the Medical Officer in charge then Dr Philibus, I agree totally that we must create a law “guaranteeing emergency care” for all regardless of ability to pay. It is important too harp on this your Excellency because we have a lot of awkward emergencies cropping up in the health sector which we are yet to fix. And some of these challenges such as neglect of desperate emergencies of residents, cut across the primary to tertiary level not only in this state but in Nigeria as a whole. We may also have to exempt the health sector from too much politics which it sometimes suffer from depending on who is in charge. In saner climes medical practitioners like Dr Philibus would be defending himself against the medical council of Nigeria by now for neglecting obvious emergencies brought right before his nose. Even if the ministry did not supply him with common cotton wool, it was not an excuse to drive those crying ladies to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) where he insisted they should go to without any first aid to keep them alive. After the medical council ordeal, the families of those late politicians would have dragged him to court.for further damage no matter who he thinks he is in the medical sector. Health managers must be more vigilant to ensure some of these perceived harmful practices of negligence does not go on in any of the sub sectors outside emergency. Keen binocular watching of local and international partners like the NGO’s should be stepped up not only by health managers but even the surveillance pillar to ensure that the common man does not die like chicken because he lacks the resources to pay for a particular service especially if he is not registered in the national or state health insurance scheme.
Medical practitioners in the 36 state management levels should also realize that issues like emergencies in the government hospitals not carried out free should bother them. And they should not necessarily bother about less important issues within the sector. We should be interested in lives of the common man other than those with the ability to go for medical tourism in Europe or Asia. This is real food for thought that should bother all progressive health managers and you and your colleagues in the 36 States of the federation.
My Binoculars: Memo to Governor Zulum on the state of emergencies in the Borno health sector and the perceived interventions of development partners in ending the war
Columns
Medical and Health Developments Amidst Insecurity: The Case of University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH)
Medical and Health Developments Amidst Insecurity: The Case of University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH)
By: Balami Lazarus
Insecurity challenges have pervaded and taken over every inch of the Nigerian estate, spreading their wings, casting dark shadows stealthily in silence of ambush. The predator has created excuses against growth, progress, and development among ministries, departments, and agencies (MIDA’s), including health institutions where medical and healthcare services are needed.
Development means a different thing to many people. “An improvement in people’s living conditions inevitably contributes to higher productivity and to economic growth, subsequently development.” Therefore the needs of people in a particular area are their development. For example, health.
Moreover, development is essentially concerned with continuous improvements of the human life and condition right from time, in its capacity for qualitative and quantitative reproduction and capabilities to control and manipulate the environment for the betterment of mankind as a whole. Therefore, the purpose of development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy, and creative lives at all levels of their growth and progress.
But for UMTH under Prof. Ahmed Ahidjo, the CMD, medical and health development in infrastructure, human capital, and healthcare services is a continuous process amidst insecurity in Borno State and Maiduguri, the state capital.
At UMTH, the story of growth and development has brought progress in health and medical services that are expected from institutional hospitals. The rate and level of medical and healthcare services through specialized medical centers equipped with modern state-of-the-art equipment second to none in Nigeria is a testament to health/medical development in the aforesaid hospital.
People have always examined the concept of growth and development from economic perspectives, refusing to align them to the objectives of human needs that will increase productivity to provide and satisfy these human needs to ensure good medical and healthcare service delivery that is available at all times in UMTH “Centre of Excellence.”
Prof. Ahidjo has no doubt facilitated the concept of health development through changes in the health and medical services provided by UMTH in spite of the ten security challenges staring us hard in the face.
Growth, progress, and development initiated by Prof. Ahmed Ahidjo is itself a concept of development in the health sector. The CMD has blended the concepts of development together through their aims and objectives, which are charted towards the improvements of the human standard of living in healthcare and medical services.
Prof. Ahmed’s efforts have therefore brought developments in the life of the hospital that have never been witnessed since the inception of UMTH, until the man with the Midas touch came on board with improvements and transformations of infrastructures and facilities.
Prof. Ahidjo had directed his development towards the satisfaction of the hospital’s needs, the primary objectives of UMTH, which translates to human capital development through teaching, practicals, medical research, and provisions of healthcare services to her immediate host community.
Therefore, development cannot be seen purely as economic, social, and political affairs but rather as an outcome of man’s effort to transform societal structures and institutions in the case of UMTH.
Balami, a Publisher/Columnist 08036779290
Medical and Health Developments Amidst Insecurity: The Case of University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH)
Columns
In Search of Our History Through Reconstruction and Restructuring of the Nigerian State for Peaceful Coexistence and Good Governance
In Search of Our History Through Reconstruction and Restructuring of the Nigerian State for Peaceful Coexistence and Good Governance
By: Balami Lazarus
This piece is an extraction from a paper I wrote years back intended to be presented to my society—the Borno Museum Society (BSM)—but it never saw the light of day. However, this is not the original title; I did some changes, putting in some terms to reflect the contemporary issues facing us currently as Nigerians.
Looking at the paper today, which had lain fallow since 1991, I laughed. Dr. Musa Hambolu and Mr. Kyari Bukar, as members, encouraged and urged me to make an effort and present the paper for onward publication in our newsletter, but it never happened. I believe this version will make sense to many more who believe in the Nigerian project as a sovereign nation.
And back to the main menu of the discourse.
One of the major historical developments in Africa south of the Sahara was the great Bantu migration that took place thousands of years ago. It was a mass exodus of the Bantu people, culture, and traditions; its droplets along the line of their migration gave birth to settlements, which had affected many ethnic nations’ language, culture, and traditions. What happened later is part of African history. We are now nestled between who are we? And what are we?
It is very clear that the reconstruction of our history through the restructuring of Nigeria and its state and conditions has long been toyed with, knowing fully well that it is the heart of our peaceful coexistence and good governance. It’s also the main bowl of our socio-political and economic growth and developments.
Our history, geography, and ethnology have drawn our attention to the state of sovereignty known, called, and addressed as Nigeria, a colonial creation, forgetting that we were here before.
the white man’s creation.
To trace the origin of the people that made up Nigeria, one cannot dismiss the substance of other disciplines like history, archeology, anthropology, geography, sociology, and linguistics, and other related subjects. These fields of scholarships have tremendously improved in the explanations of our history, artifacts, and cultural source materials of the people that were wrongfully and forcefully brought together to live and form Nigeria. Therefore,
There is the need for the restructuring of the Nigerian state for peace and good governance for the benefit of all citizens.
To achieve this, we must collectively agree with one voice to restructure our systems to find a lasting solution to our torn political garment, unity shredded with suspicion generated by us over the years. Because modernization is the process of change towards social, economic, and political systems.
Historically, Nigeria is a conglomerate of large ethnic diversities, and each represents a distinct nation with different cultures, traditions, and civilizations living independently before the forceful amalgamation of 1st January, 1914, carried out and executed by the British colonial masters. Sources available to political historians on our past underscored the necessity to shift from the present state of nationhood to a common ground that will provide us with equal opportunities to maintain and sustain our togetherness as one indivisible and indissoluble nation through reconstruction and restructuring.
The reconstruction and restructuring of our historical and political past is paramount; it will aid in checking the high rate of insecurity and criminal activities of bandits and kidnappers. And shall also clamp down on terrorists and the rise of insurgents. Restructuring will reduce sentiments and segregation in the activities of our national life.
History does not repeat itself. But people repeat history and then falsely accuse history of repeating itself.
We have consciously decided to polarize our country with Black Strike sentiments. And here we are, with agitations in different forms: Oduduwa, Biafra, Middle Belt, and Niger Delta.
Balami, Publisher/Columnist 08036779290
In Search of Our History Through Reconstruction and Restructuring of the Nigerian State for Peaceful Coexistence and Good Governance
Aspirations: A Compass for a Purposeful Journey of Life
By: Harmony Shimbura
A blueprint for a purposeful journey, the human experience is often defined not by where we are looking, but by having aspirations, a compass of purposeful life, and an act of claiming agency over one’s future.
My life’s aspirations are not merely a list of goals or a collection of ‘bucket list’ items. It is a living philosophy, a commitment to growth, connection, and the relentless pursuit of a life lived with intention. They are threads woven together for personal values and to give back to your community.
I believed the core of aspirations should be a desire for perpetual evolution. And I also believe that the moment we stop learning is the moment we stop breathing. Therefore, one of my primary goals is to remain a lifelong student where learning is a continuous process.
I aspire to deepen my understanding of the world through diverse perspectives, whether it is through traveling to places where knowledge is obtained by listening or observations, as is the case with the traditional Cherokee ways of learning.
I constantly challenge my own biases, spiritually and mentally. I aspire to reach the state of equilibrium where my peace is not dependent on external circumstances.
Do you know that aspirations transcend titles and salary brackets? Moreover, my true ambition is practical impact. I want to be engaged in work that I feel is the extension of my soul in it at whichever level. I also
I believe that work should be a contribution to the collective good of humanity.
As a young lady, I am on the self-push to achieve a level of mastery in my chosen field where my intuition is as sharp as my skills. I want to be known not just for what I did, but for how I did it with integrity, excellence, and a collaborative spirit.
Most of us neglect the vessel that carries us through life, but I aspire to treat my body with the respect it deserves. My aspirations for health are not about vanity but for sanity in purity.
These aspirations are not a destination I will one day reach; they are the fuel for a lifelong journey.
Harmony Shimbura writes from Zaria. 07033886918
Aspirations: A Compass for a Purposeful Journey of Life
AT ARMED FORCES CELEBRATION AND REMEMBRANCE DAY
Technology enhances immersive reading experience in Beijing
Rights Groups Condemn Demolition of Makoko, Call for Immediate Halt
Roger Federer’s Shock as DNA Results Reveal Myla and Charlene Are Not His Biological Children
THE PLIGHT OF FARIDA
FAILED COUP IN BURKINA FASO: HOW TRAORÉ NARROWLY ESCAPED ASSASSINATION PLOT AMID FOREIGN INTERFERENCE CLAIMS
-
News2 years agoRoger Federer’s Shock as DNA Results Reveal Myla and Charlene Are Not His Biological Children
-
Opinions4 years ago
THE PLIGHT OF FARIDA
-
News9 months agoFAILED COUP IN BURKINA FASO: HOW TRAORÉ NARROWLY ESCAPED ASSASSINATION PLOT AMID FOREIGN INTERFERENCE CLAIMS
-
Opinions4 years agoPOLICE CHARGE ROOMS, A MINTING PRESS
-
News2 years agoEYN: Rev. Billi, Distortion of History, and The Living Tamarind Tree
-
ACADEMICS2 years agoA History of Biu” (2015) and The Lingering Bura-Pabir Question (1)
-
Columns2 years agoArmy University Biu: There is certain interest, but certainly not from Borno.
-
Opinions2 years agoTinubu,Shettima: The epidemic of economic, insecurity in Nigeria
