The global focus on Biafra increases
 

The recent medical emergency and evacuation of the PDP Presidential Candidate Governor Umar Yar’Adua to Germany has once again put a spotlight on the state of medical care in Nigeria. While all Nigerians wish him well and immediate recovery, one cannot help but ask why Nigeria, a country that earns about $35 billion from crude oil annually, does not have a first class and well equipped hospitals to treat Yar’Adua’s medical condition.

Speaking with BBC, the Katsina State Governor confirmed that he was in Germany being treated with Catarrh; according to him he developed the problem following extensive campaign trips all over the nation. While Yar’Adua was able to attain immediate medical treatment, how many Nigerians are able to go overseas for medical treatment? In my many criticisms of the status quo in Nigeria, I have systematically argued that what Nigeria needs is a leader/administrator/manager/ who can best utilize the vast riches of this country to positively impact the lives of Nigerians

One may argue that the Nigerian Federal government should not be in the business of building medical facilities, and that such responsibility resides largely in the domain of State and local authorities and other private interests. What about the General Hospitals in Nigeria one may ask? The Nigerian Federal Government is deeply involved in medical healthcare in Nigeria, but what the government has failed to do is to set an example for others to emulate. By building and equipping modern, first class medical facilities in the country, the government can save billions of naira on the yearly expenditures incurred by government and private interests in seeking medical treatment abroad. It will also help to save thousands of untimely deaths of unprivileged Nigerian masses, who can not afford expensive medical trips abroad. Nigeria has thousands of first class Doctors and Nursing practicing in numerous countries, from Afghanistan to Zambia, and from Saudi Arabia to South Africa and the United States.

What is needed is for the Nigerian government to lead in the reversal of the medical health brain drain which continues to impact Nigeria with negative consequences. Nigeria has the resources to implement such venture, what is lacking is leadership with the wisdom and fore sight to look ahead to see these options. It is simple for Nigerians to want to get in government, and my feeling is that many of such individuals do so for their own financial interest, but few of our leaders are getting in government as a means of helping to move this nation forward. Let me say here that this is not a blanket indictment of all our leaders, and bureaucrats, because I believe there are many progressive Nigerians in government. The decision to pursue such goals however has to come from the very top. Nigeria has enough money for such projects; after all we are paying China about$8.5 Billion for the Lagos/Kano rail line.

For those who see this as arm chair criticism let me remind them that the ultimate goal of constructive criticism is to influence positive change. Last year ANAC, NIDO and other Nigerian groups challenged CNN for its “How to Rob A Bank” report. ANAC criticized the Nigerian government f! or not challenging the western news media biased reporting on Nigeria. We also took the position that African States must not allow the western news media to define who they were, and that African States must embark on public relations agenda to re-define their countries to the global community. This year the Nigerian government through the Information Ministry began doing just that, whether it was the result of our criticism or coincidental I don’t know. For the first time that I recall, the Nigerian government challenged CNN for its report on the Niger Delta, canceling its media contract with CNN. This illustrates that the government does take note of these constructive criticisms. Hopefully the next incoming Nigerian administration will take the initiative of establishing a first class medical health system in Nigeria. It simply makes sense to do so.

Paul Okechukwu Oranika

Additional comments by Oguchi Nkwocha, MD.

“…Of course, the reason why you cannot solve Africa’s problems or Nigeria’s problems is rather obvious. You are unwilling to accept and admit that a people with natural loyalties to their natural nationhoods, a people following natural precepts of identifying with each its own biological relationships—you do not want to accept that such people—are doing the very naturally correct thing. Rather, you want them to continue to live by colonial balkanization constructs which first strips the people of their natural identity, then, forcefully takes away their natural sovereignty and nationhood, then coerces them to drop their natural loyalties in favor of loyalty to an abstraction of incompatible conglomerates created by the colonialists specifically to serve colonial interests, an unnatural creation violating all natural rules and human norms…” – Oguchi Nkwocha, MD

If Nweke’s “Baghdad Bob’s” international performance of lies and attempted whitewash of the alarmingly decrepit and despondent state of things in Nigeria is what you count as success for your group, Nigeria’s doom is only validated. It is groups such as yours which mirror the poor counsel Nigeria’s decision-makers receive and act on leading to the despicable state of affairs, an example of which you address very weakly early in your post. This is one more evidence that there is no end in sight for Nigeria’s suffering, pending its final implosion under the burden of its own ineptitude and un-workability.

If Nigeria and Africa do not have much to show in the way of sociopolitical progress and human productivity and progressivity (yes, truth be told, they don’t!), why can’t you just first admit it, then, proceed to do the right thing about it? The suffering masses in Africa and Nigeria do not listen to CNN nor do they care about your own face-saving anti-facts propaganda. They have never heard of “ANAC” or “NIDO” which they cannot spell or pronounce, never mind deciphering what they stand for. Nigeria and Africa’s masses only hear and taste hunger, poverty, thirst, disease, despondency, and all those things normal human beings would like to not be associated with.

Of course, the reason why you cannot solve Africa’s problems or Nigeria’s problems is rather obvious. You are unwilling to accept and admit that a people with natural loyalties to their natural nationhoods, a people following natural precepts of identifying with each its own biological relationships—you do not want to accept that such people—are doing the very naturally correct thing. Rather, you want them to continue to live by colonial balkanization constructs which first strips the people of their natural identity, then, forcefully takes away their natural sovereignty and nationhood, then coerces them to drop their natural loyalties in favor of loyalty to an abstraction of incompatible conglomerates created by the colonialists specifically to serve colonial interests, an unnatural creation violating all natural rules and human norms.

The most irony is that while you are today vigorously defending those colonial constructs in Africa, you pretend now to be fighting against the same colonial governments and institutions and their policies and practices because they point out factual poor results which you do not know how to handle. This irony is the result of sheer ignorance which can best be summarized by our people’s saying that: Onye a maghi mgbe miri jiri ma wa ya a gaghi a ma mgbe ahu gbakoro ya. (Rough translation: if you don’t know when and where the rain started beating you, you won’t be able to tell when you got dry). This saying basically speaks to Awareness of root-causes so that progress and solutions can be properly evaluated. If you could understand that colonialism leads to these poor results, then, you can easily first assign the poor results to the cause (colonialism and colonialists), turn the blame on colonialists, if you like, but more importantly, proceed to reverse such. You cannot defend the seed and program of colonialism and then, try to deny the obvious result, while trying to counter the obvious with propaganda.

What a confused state of affairs!

Thank goodness that new consciousness is getting stronger now compelling Africans to ask the questions: why can’t I answer my natural ethnic nation’s name and why can’t I identify with my natural ethnic nation? To which they are slowly realizing that it is in fact perfectly alright to understand, accept, belong to, be proud of, show loyalty to and identify with each his or her ethnicity. To be identified with your own natural roots is not a source of friction or a cause of wars, as the brainwashed groups want to tell us; it is not the negatively-connotated and derogatory label, “Tribalism” —No! The only cause of friction today in Africa is continuing the colonialism farce and forcing peoples to continue to deny and reject their natural identities in order to fit into impossible (non-)Unions. Understanding and reversing the latter is the only hope of Africa: that spark is now there.

Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
Nwa Biafra
A Biafran Citizen