Columns
UMTH: Increase in hospital bed space and the views of Bystander

UMTH: Increase in hospital bed space and the views of Bystander
By:Balami Lazarus
Bystanders often are ignorant of the realities around them. So it is normal for such to assume as much as they could about happenings around them. It was of these classic examples that the saying ‘ignorance is a disease’ perhaps was coined to depict such classes of ignoramus in society. Of course, the social media platforms had afford some of these clowns to put on pages dramatic assumptions in their imaginations as pen pushers.
Let me educate my friends who recently are attacking the CMD University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital over the recent slight in the increments of bed space in the hospital. Most of those who are speaking ill of the administration did not know what is the cost of running a hospital like the UMTH and also did not care to know. If one thinks he is educated and also falls within these classes of people, then I think education has not played any role in shaping such people’s ability to think outside their immediate views.

Worst of all it is rather pitiable for one who thinks he has the ability to write yet writing on the prism of false imagination and dunking on hearsay rather than taking the challenges to investigate with the chest of asking critical question from managers of organizations, in this case the management of the UMTH on what informed the slight in increments of bed space.
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I have decided to pick one out of the numerous online posts as my response to unkind assumptions by one Abubakar Hassan Sabo to reach others with wet- blankets. The recent slight and reasonable increment of bed per day in the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) by the Board of Management has not gone well with some persons within and outside the hospital who refused to see and accept the reality of our economic situation affecting every aspect of our social life including health institutions.
I felt moved when I met Professor Ahmed Ahidjo recently while he was explaining the situation and challenges of running the hospital against the meager resources. When I asked, he lamented: “You just met me discussing how to maintain and improve the consumption of our solar energy. Supposing the hospital is operating without any means of energy, don’t you think the attack and insults on my person could have been more than this? Well, the upward review was not done by me but by the Management of UMTH. My annoyance is how some people out there are heaping blames, insults, attacking and calling me names. People should learn to ask questions to understand the Why and How of things. However, as the Head you are always at the receiving end, good or bad”
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His words drop like an arrow in the heart of a wandering man. I know exactly the pain surrounding the circumstance of his dilemma. Professor Ahmed Ahidjo has done what many before him could not do to the hospital and we can only pray to have someone like him after his second tenure. Those who knew UMTH before now will understand my point and I am privileged to know a lot about the hard way he had to follow to make this a reality.
For Abubakar Hassan Sabo, If he is writing from a distance I invite him to the UMTH to see and compare notes to what is obtainable in other Teaching hospitals. Hassan Abubakar Sabo capitalized his reason hiding under the cloak of the economy to say it is unacceptable. But his reasons are porous and full of red ink which cannot be used as a reference point. Another of his friends on this side of the road is one Abba Haroon Ibrahim Chichi. His write-up portrays anger and lack of professionalism in which case I think he was never writing to correct issues but rather trying to settle a score if any or being a blind assumer like his friends who never see beyond their nose for news.
It should be known to these cowards with pens that the decision to increase bed space at the UMTH was collectively taken by the members of the Management of the hospital having considered the difficulties faced by UMTH. The inability of UMTH to cater for some of the immediate needs in the cause of daily health- care service delivery in caring for human health should be of concern to all and embrace the decision taken so as to meet the health needs of the people.
Bed space in some of the cheapest hospitals – I mean teaching hospitals goes between #6000 and #7000. What UMTH did was with human face in a circular dated 8th July 2022 signed by Amina Mohammed Bello acting Director of Administration. It reads: “This is to inform the General Public that the hospital Board of Management has approved the upward review of the hospital bed per day. The increments for Adult #2000 per day and for Children #1000 per day”. I believe if compared to other Teaching Hospitals, this is nothing to write home about.
Balami is a Publisher/ Columnist 08036779290
UMTH: Increase in hospital bed space and the views of Bystander
Columns
Osama, For Good Governance and Social Justice Through the Radio

Osama, For Good Governance and Social Justice Through the Radio
By: Balami Lazarus
Osama. Does it ring a bell? Yes, it does on the Plateau. The Osama I am writing about is that individual who is known for his good works for humanity on the radio and outside the studio. Osama is a gentleman but is outspoken and has a mind of his own.
My Osama in this context is a personality, a brand, and a trademark. Osama is a broadcaster, radio presenter, and popular comedian on stage and in the entertainment industry in Jos-Plateau and beyond. Since the writing is sailing, I will later reveal the identity of who this young man is and why he is so passionate about good governance.
The fights for human rights, social justice, and good governance have been the cries and topic of discourse of so many Nigerians, especially good governance. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and human rights activists are the leaders in these struggles, whereby their roles cannot be overemphasized. The quantum of spoken words, public lectures/enlightenment programs, workshops, seminars, etc., has not brought many changes in our systems because there was little or no action by you and me as Nigerians.
I remembered when I was very active in the struggle for human rights and social justice. As Deputy Secretary General (DSG) of Democratic Alternative (DA), we were much concerned with democratic alternative processes and social justice with a whiff of good governance, and this has been the case for some NGOs, as I know.
I came to understand from my experiences that, as a country, we have good public-oriented programs, but our major challenges are implementation and follow-up that come with too many talks but no individual action or collective responsibility because many Nigerians are fearful, and this has made me a one-man advocate/crusader for human rights and social justice. Like the subject of this work.
Now back to the subject. Osama is a brand package, fearless advocate, and mouthpiece for good governance on the Plateau through Town Hall, a popular radio program aired by JFM 101.9 FM. Jos is widely listened to. He was born as Ehis Akugnonu. But Osama has overtaken his certified name. Therefore, my continued use of Osama is justified in this work because I realized that many times your other name (also known as) tends to dominate and overshadow your real name.
Osama is redefining the fight for good governance by personal efforts through follow-up and speaking on them, putting the government on their feet to improve and do better. ‘I am for good governance, and I will continue to speak on this matter.’ He is purposefully driven by his passion for good quality and better systems to have an enabling environment where the systems are working for progress and development.
Balami, a publisher/columnist 08036779290
Osama, For Good Governance and Social Justice Through the Radio
Columns
In Marriage Nest, Spouses Are Dying Ignoring Red Flags and The Panacea (2)

In Marriage Nest, Spouses Are Dying Ignoring Red Flags and The Panacea (2)
By: Balami Lazarus
I saw it coming. As a writer, my works and I have been verbally attacked several times. I raised an eyebrow at how some readers react by using bad language on issues, opinions, and views. Well, that is their way of expression when they are displeased, but I feel it is grotty.
And here is the conclusion of the “controversial piece,” as one caller puts it. For me, there is nothing controversial about this discourse but the truth of the grotesque happenings in married homes. And the way out, as I earlier wrote, is divorce.
Recently there has been an inflation of brutal murders in marriages; those killed are mostly women and children, and fewer men. What justification does one have to continue in a marriage where there are threats, violence, and unhappiness generated by the presence of either the husband or the wife? And unknowingly one becomes prey hunted by an in-house predator.
Sharks areamong the most intelligent aquatic animals. Their sense of smell is very sharp; they can smell and detect blood or any red object in water from a far distance and come for it at near the speed of light. Therefore, women’s body chemistry is like that of sharks; they sense and notice things easily. But what is wrong with many of them in marriage that they are unable to detect landmines or red flags early in their marriages? Where there is a threat to life with the intention to hurt, harm, and/or cause grievous injury or death, that is when they realize they are living in gross bondage if they are lucky to come out of it alive.
As students at Pluto College Sharam in Kanke-Plateau State, we were told and made to understand as boys to treat our girl students with love and care and be there for them when the need arises. That was one of the lessons that came from the late Dr. Sumaila Ndayako (Rector), as he was known and called. As boys, we dared not humiliate, insult, or threaten them in any way; rather, we were to take them as our sisters by extension. This has taught me to respect and care for the opposite sex.
Moreover, my association, membership, and experience with some human rights organizations have enlightened me with rights, liberties, and freedom garnished by respect for individual differences, rights and privileges, consent, and action. With this knowledge put together, I consider marriage never a do-or-die affair but a privilege with consent to be a husband to a woman who also has rights/consent to be a wife and live in matrimony. Why then humiliation, abuses, and domestic violence?
I have observed in my experience as a married man that if you take away some women from their husbands, they will die, and vice versa. Despite the domestic violence and abuses inflicted on either party, he/she is willing and prefers to die in such gothic marriage situations because one among them has a deep spiritual attachment to the marriage. This is common in Christendom, where “till death do us part.” My question here is, what kind of death? Intentional, accidental, or natural? This created injunction clause does not hold water in life-threatening marriages.
Living in a shark-jaws marriage, I always blamed women who had seen the red flags but refused to leave such marriages and the house-husband (husband). I further came to understand that patience and the pretext that all is well have caused damage to both spouses in terms of emotional and traumatic agonies and some to their graves.
Therefore, spouses that are trapped in this valley of death with its quagmire should know that marriage is a thing of choice. Likewise, divorce is permissible as a panacea for both to be alive to breathe freely.
Balami, a publisher/columnist, 0803677929
In Marriage Nest, Spouses Are Dying Ignoring Red Flags and The Panacea (2)
Columns
In Marriage Nest, Spouses Are Dying, Ignoring Red Flags, and The Panacea (1)

In Marriage Nest, Spouses Are Dying, Ignoring Red Flags, and The Panacea (1)
By: Balami Lazarus
In the quite beautiful town of Zhimbutu, where men held sway, lording over their wives, some with brutality, few with love,
care and romance others in different ways. While some women are also lords over their husbands with impunity. Fear of getting married gripped young ladies seeing the ways their mothers were being treated and relegated to the background in the affairs of their homes as married women.
The home of Mr. and Mrs. Kwanchinkwalo Xhosa is full of regrets, anger, and bitterness, where Mrs. Xhosa has been treated as an object in the marriage partnership. The red spots were obviously fermented with bubbles ready for brewing.
Similarly, some good number of marriage homes are full of regrets where love, peace, and understanding
and harmony are strangers rejected and kept in a labyrinth of doom where one of the parties is placed in a perpetual tan of unhappiness surrounded by fear in the thickness of smoke, a forced resident.
Long before, now as a young man, a legitimate product of marriage. I took marriage as a mere secular social contract of partnership bounded in love and understanding where two have agreed to live together as husband and wife in matrimony.
However, I have never taken marriage to be a do-or-die affair, which has been the stock of some persons, even when and if the two—husband and wife—can no longer live together, having exhausted reasonable avenues to no avail. Here I am.
for outright divorce as a panacea for the final dissolution of the marriage.
To this day, I have been asking myself, why did I even get married in the first place? For sex, procreation, companionship, norms, tradition, or obligation? While marriage to a larger extent has deprived me and many others of some air of freedom and liberties to do or not to do at any space of time, I suppose. Moreover, the enterprise called marriage has taken away the ‘who’ in many men and
women and made them something else. It has further forcefully taken the lives of many spouses who ignored the red flags and fear of divorce. And besides, many have taken upon themselves to live or die in an unhappy/venomous venture of marriage that is infested with ‘dysentery’ and ‘cholera,’ where death is lurking because husbands or wives lack the guts, will , ability, and/or capacity to invoke the dead-end solution.
Let me now punctuate the work with some questions: Were you forced into it? Was it under duress? Was it at gunpoint? I believed the answers were all no. What will then prevent an individual from liquidating his unprofitable marital interest in such an intense business called marriage to be free from wahala that may likely result in crime?
In such a situation, I advocate for divorce as the only and final panacea, which has a comfortable place as a clause in my dictionary of marriage. Divorce is rarely used in some quarters, no matter what. While my wife and I have sincerely agreed in the course of our marriage journey that at any point in time, with or without any reason/cause, either party can quietly and peacefully walk out of the marriage to avoid who knows what?
In the history of failed marriages and crime findings, it has been shown that one of the parties is forcing his/herself on the other spouse because one of them has a profound and compounded emotional or spiritual attachment to the marriage. The case of the late Mrs. Osinachi Nwachukwu (2023), the gospel singer, was a classical example. Patience and excessive spiritual attachment led to her being killed by her husband, one Mr. Nwachukwu. The same is also applicable to men who fall victim in the hands of their wives. This situation has created two prime suspected killers living in a marriage cocoon.
Balami, a publisher/columnist. 08036779290
In Marriage Nest, Spouses Are Dying, Ignoring Red Flags, and The Panacea (1)
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