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Why You Should Not Marry Your Age-mate Reno Omokri
~3.7 mins read
News_Naija
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News_Naija
From Patient To Hostage, A Health System In Bondage
~2.6 mins read
NIGERIA’S healthcare system is in bondage. This was buttressed by the detention of a couple and their newly born baby by the authorities of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital over unpaid delivery bills recently. The system requires an urgent rescue by the local, state, and federal governments. The couple, Umoru Abdullahi, his wife, Happiness, and their newly born child were detained for 21 days by UNIBEN, Edo State, for their inability to pay the balance of N200,000 of the N530,000 charged for Caesarean section. It took the intervention of some Nigerians to pay the balance and free the couple and the baby from hospital detention. The Abdullahi case is just one of the hundreds of detained patients in the country. Akpesiri Ojiko, 36, was delivered of a set of twins at a public hospital in Delta State in November 2022, but one of the twins had to be referred to a private hospital for lack of bed space. The adventure to a private hospital cost N383,500, which she could not afford. The baby was detained and separated from her mother for one month before a philanthropist came to her rescue. The two scenarios above highlight the harrowing experiences of many Nigerians, whose capacities have been grossly eroded by the sordid economic realities and the gross irresponsibility of the leaders. The detention of indebted patients explores legal, professional, and humanitarian responsibilities of the physician. The three grounds compel doctors to engage in fair play in health matters and patient management. While doctors must stay in business to render their services to the people, there is a need for them to conduct their business within the confines of the law. Doctors complain of abuse of privilege by patients discharged on compassionate grounds. This is most uncharitable. Patients should desist from attitudes that will stand in the way of patients in need. However, doctors must strike the delicate balance between keeping hospitals in business and performing their duties of rescuing lives, especially the indigent ones. A WHO report says Nigeria is one of only three countries where out-of-pocket health spending exceeds 70 per cent of current health spending in the country. A survey indicates that malaria treatment in some hospitals costs N100,000. This is N30,000 more than the monthly minimum wage. It has pushed Nigerians to quacks and alternative medicine practitioners. The government’s neglect of the sector creates needless fatalities. A 2023 WHO report ranks Nigeria with the second-highest number of maternal deaths globally. Less than six years to the deadline, Nigeria is still nowhere close to meeting the 2030 SDG target of reducing maternal deaths to less than 70 per 100,000 live births. The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Ali Pate, said the country loses $2 billion annually to medical tourism. It is sheer selfishness that leaders will fail to build the health sector but travel abroad for medical treatment at will. Under this hopeless situation, medical practitioners have fled the country in search of greener pastures and a better working environment. A Gavi estimate says a mere 55,000 doctors are serving over 230 million Nigerians. The failure of the government to fix the three tiers of the health system is at the heart of the chaos. The National Health Insurance Scheme, which should have handled minor ailments and drugs for the poor and the middle class, is dysfunctional. A 2024 study by the Journal of Global Health Economics and Policy says, “Less than five per cent of Nigerians are enrolled in NHIS, while 70 per cent still finance their healthcare independently.” The scheme should be revitalised and made accessible to the low-income earners with a free premium for the indigent, the aged and the vulnerable.
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News_Naija
Privatise Ajaokuta Steel Company Now!
~2.7 mins read
FOR over four decades, the Ajaokuta Steel Company in Kogi State has stood as a silent, rusting symbol of Nigeria’s consistently inept leadership. Sixteen presidents and heads of state have ruled Nigeria since the idea of setting up steel rolling mills as the fulcrum of Nigeria’s industrial future was conceived in 1958. 10 have been at the helm since the Ajaokuta plant was declared 98 per cent complete in 1984. Yet, it has not produced a single sheet of steel! Instead, it has consumed billions in public funds through maintenance, salaries, and legal costs. Nigeria imports over $4 billion worth of steel annually to meet its needs. Some of the Russian workers who erected the plant and chose to remain and died in Nigeria, waiting endlessly for the plant to start. The latest allocation of N6.21 billion in the 2025 budget for salaries underscores an absurd commitment to failure. That Nigeria continues to pay salaries and pensions to staff of a plant that produces nothing is textbook idiocy. This must end. Steel production contributes jobs and is a key economic driver, providing the basis for several industries including automobiles, shipping, railways, construction, manufacturing, and fabrication. Egypt produces about 10.6 million tonnes of steel a year, while South Africa records 4.9 MT per the World Steel Association. Japan depends on iron ore imports, but it produces 89 MT of crude steel annually. Nigeria, with over 3.0 billion metric tonnes of high-grade iron ore reserves, manages to produce 2.2 MT a year with scraps and billets imported mainly from China. Ajaokuta alone can produce 1.3 MT of crude steel, with the potential to scale to 5.2 MT. Yet, decades of political paralysis and insidious play by vested interests have kept the sector in limbo. President Tinubu must turn the tide if he is to stamp a legacy. Nigeria has wasted over $8 billion on Ajaokuta in the last 40 years. In 2022, the government paid $495 million to Global Infrastructure Nigeria Limited as an arbitration award for a dubious concession that was destined to fail. Between 2023 and 2024, N1.1 billion was paid as pensions and taxes for a non-functional entity. The financial haemorrhage is appalling. Every naira sunk into this industrial graveyard is a missed opportunity to invest in functional infrastructure, health, education, and productive, job-creating ventures. A complete and transparent privatisation of Ajaokuta is the only way to end this charade. Around the world, privatisation has transformed moribund or poorly performing industries into engines of productivity and economic growth. Brazil’s CSN became Latin America’s largest steel exporter after privatisation. South Korea’s POSCO, once state-owned, is now the world’s fourth-largest steelmaker. In Nigeria, the liberalisation of the telecom sector in 2001 ended the oppressive and inefficient monopoly of NITEL, created a $9.5 billion industry and plenty of jobs. Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals moved from operating at 25 per cent capacity to 100 per cent capacity within a year of privatisation in 2017. It went on to build the largest single-train urea plant in the world. Ajaokuta must follow the same path. The MoU was signed with Russia’s Tyazhpromexport, the original builders of the plant, in September 2024, and the commissioning of a comprehensive technical and financial audit of the steel complex and its key assets are steps in the right direction. The unknown forces that kept the company comatose for decades must not be allowed to derail this new process. Tinubu must make a firm commitment to follow through to the end. The GINL fiasco proves that half-measures and opaque deals ultimately do not work. Ajaokuta Steel’s privatisation must be conducted in clear and enforceable terms. Nigeria cannot achieve industrial self-reliance without domestic steel production. The government has no business running steel plants or any business at all. Its role is to regulate, not operate.
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Actor Kamo State Pens A Heartfelt Appreciation Note To Funke Akindele As He Welcomes His First Child With His Wife
~5.3 mins read
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