PEBBLES, with Igbotako Nowinta.
“Sadly enough, dialogue has been sentimentalized in the Nigerian context as norms, mere paper talk and no action. Conferences have lost their true meanings. We no longer need kind words but firmer positive action in order to save Nigeria from the throes of insanity. Elections are supposed to be about the people, about their collective resources, but today existential problems persist among the masses in the polity.”
Quoted in NOWINTA‘s book-WHERE WE ARE (Page 135)
To be very candid, the proactive and spirited efforts so far put up by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Health in combating the dreaded Ebola virus, since its entry into our clime is commendable.
As a social critic and commentator on public affairs one should be able to always know when and where to apply the brakes and be blunt about saying the truth as honestly as possible.
The truth of the matter today is that never before has the Jonathan presidency confronted an issue of grave emergency accurately and intelligently like the way the Ebola virus menace has been handled.
Probably luck has equally been on our side, giving the bravado and reckless manner Patrick Sawyer stormed our shores knowing fully well that he was carrying the Ebola virus in his system.
I am commending the Minister of Health and other stakeholders who sprang into action and have been able to track the route of the Ebola virus down to Port Harcourt, where it has claimed the life of a medical doctor, outside Lagos recently.
So much for the efforts in curtailing Ebola virus. Now, what is wrong if the Federal Government declares a state of emergency in the health sector, because things are not working the way they should at all?
The Primary Health Care delivery system is an area that needs to be overhauled nationwide; there are rickety and dilapidating structures across the federation, along with dearth of qualified doctors and health personnel.
Has no one bothered to ask why medical doctors, under the auspices of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) etc frequently go on strike?
I am not a medical doctor, but I have had several opportunities to thrash the crises in health sector with comrades in the medical profession, especially, with a longtime friend and immediate past president of the NMA, Dr. Osahon Enabulele.
With what I have seen and heard, I am brutally frank that President Jonathan should declare a state of emergence in that sector; I will fully discuss this issue on another day.
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu is in the news again! The other day he simply dumped the All Progressive Congress (APC), the party with which he pitched his tent after dumping the the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
That Nuhu Ribadu decamped from the APC is not the new thing in town, after all, Tom Ikimi, a Chieftain of the APC, who had dreamt fantastic dreams of becoming the national chairman of the party, has equally dumped the APC.
Well, from what we know, Chief Ikimi lost to Chief John Odigie Oyegun (former Governor of Edo state) because his selfish, inconsistent and narrow antecedents worked against him.
If the APC had picked Tom Ikimi as its national chairman, the party would have been in for real trouble.
Since Nuhu Ribadu joined the PDP, things are no longer at ease with the party in Adamawa state.
The fuse smoking around Adamawa today is about the candidacy of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu for the governorship primary of the state that has been slated for September 6th 2014, in Yola.
I want to believe that it is only in this country that one political “lone ranger” will wake up and want to be governor of a state where others have labored so much to keep going.
There is nothing wrong in the ambition of Nuhu Ribadu, for instance, to be governor of his state of origin. What is wrong and absolutely wrong is the timing of his desires.
Has Mallam Ribadu dreamt all along to be governor of Adamawa state? I don’t think so.
Why now? I am sure he has seen the hand writing on the wall within the APC that, the presidential slot will not favor him, this time around.
Therefore, he has to keep going, and clutching at any political office straw as he goes on.
This is the tragedy of the Nigerian nation, everything is about power; the masses are nothing.
They are simply inconsequential because at the end of the day the electoral process will be manipulated against the greatest number of the eligible voters.
Today, the National Working Committee of the People’s Democratic Party has been broken into factions because of Nuhu Ribadu’s governorship ambition.
Ahmed Fintiri, the present Acting Governor of Adamawa state, who played a major role in the impeachment exercise against former governor Murtala Nyako, is eyeing the Government House in Yola.
After all, he deserves to continue giving the massive role he played in the removal of Governor Nyako.
One Alhaji Mohammed Modibo equally formidable for the Governorship throne in Adamawa is posing serious threat to Ribadu too, not to talk of Mohammed Buba Marwa, former Military Governor of Lagos state.
I am not interested in who eventually gets the governorship primary of the PDP on September 6th.
What I am really interested in is the need of the people of Adamawa state to look between the lines and choose accordingly during the Governorship election proper in October.
What the Adamawa people need now is a man who can take them to the next level of accelerated development.
For me, Nuhu Ribadu’s present quest is ill-timed, opportunistic, parochial and reckless, he should wait for another time.
Even if the PDP waiver favors him, who says he will win the governorship election in Adamawa state?
