For the most part of my life, I have never experienced power ever run uninterrupted for 24 hours except maybe when abroad. And here therefore, we rely on power generators as instruments of self-help and an as metaphors of comparative betterment. But increasingly, the noise irritates and annoys, and worse of all is that we use diesel power generators to contribute our bit to hurting our environment.
[dropcap]I [/dropcap]would like to join millions of Nigerians to welcome Mr. President back from the UK. Our beloved president had been recuperating after treatment in a UK hospital. Many of us who were praying for him to get well would have loved to know what the illness was, so that we did not have to pray amiss.But well, the Lord is faithful and he directed our prayers at Mr. President’s illness so that after getting well, he needed to recuperate or convalesce. I have had cause to rebuke some of my friends who are complaining that Mr. President no try at all in not practicing what he signed on to in the UK in May last year, the Open Government Partnership, where a National action plan based on zero tolerance to corruption, citizen engagement and access to information has already been activated.
They say his not giving us information about his illness led stormy petrels like the chap in Ekiti to engage in all manner of insinuations. But I tell them: matters of state are matters of state security. Mr President is a matter of state, and you don’t go telling those kinds of stories.
Many years ago, I was reading a very interesting article in a medical journal. The top gist in the journal is that from age 50, we gradually begin to fall apart – the meter of our eyes appear all used up, our joints quiver and our vital organs like the heart, liver and lungs begin to give us problems.
According to that journal, there is almost nothing anyone can do about the gradual disintegration of these organs and tissues, except perhaps to undertake a maintenance regimen which involves regular exercise and a diet devoid of ‘sweetness’.
A regular visit to the doctor for routine checks will not hurt, and I say this with reference to our pseudo-religious inclination which arrogates regular visits to the hospital to be one’s evidence of poor health.
To that extent, after age 50 it is perfectly normal to take ill occasionally. Where the problem is, is that life expectancy in Nigeria is just a little above 50.
Just so that we get a bigger picture of the situation I am trying to describe here is that whether you are of means or not, the chance is that there is nothing much you can do, apart from regular exercise and a strict diet from having prostrate, arthritis, diabetes or high-blood pressure.
But often, the problem is that the regular Nigerian does not have access to those little things – health facilities, good food and access to self-maintenance facilities, which make functionality of life after age 50 a bit steady.
Our hospitals are still little more than mere consulting clinics for ailments like prostrate, arthritis and high-blood pressure. Good food is hard to come by, and those which fob off some of these ailments are beyond the reach of this regular Nigerian.
The interesting thing about these ailments is that even though most first class Nigerians may often have access to these foods, an unhealthy lifestyle – a chauffeur-driven car as cold as Siberia takes them in and out of homes and offices equally as cold as Siberia.
Added to this is a retinue of aides who make it very easy for Oga to become sedentary. And of course, we all know that it is a sedentary lifestyle which increases the chances of anyone enjoying this ease of life in an austerity to come down with prostrate and respiratory issues.
Which is why many of them seek treatment abroad. Recently in the news, we heard that one of ours sacked as many as 20 or so aides. What most of us deduced from that news item is that apart from having to wash himself, eating and talking, and perhaps taking care of the individuals in their other rooms, there would be no other physical exercise or active domestic chores to which these big men carry out.
As part of our culture, children are accustomed to asking their father for gifts after they return from a journey. We know that our father, President Buhari did not embark on a pleasure trip and we would be insensitive to be asking him to give us gifts. That he came back well should have been enough gift.
But we do know that he was in a place where the medical facilities work, and where there is power 24/7, which is why we are asking him to work on our power needs. By that we too can enjoy uninterrupted power supply at least in our lifetime.
As part of the reasons most Nigerians travel abroad for treatment of undisclosed illnesses is the absence of power supply I believe. Power is everything and where there is no power there is no life.
The economy is power. Health is power. Education is power. Industry is power. Everything is power, and if we cannot get our fingers around this, we will all be running hither and thither to take care of these little ailments in the Western world which they have conquered with a regular supply of power.
For the most part of my life, I have never experienced power ever run uninterrupted for 24 hours except maybe when abroad. And here therefore, we rely on power generators as instruments of self-help and an as metaphors of comparative betterment.
But increasingly, the noise irritates and annoys, and worse of all is that we use diesel power generators to contribute our bit to hurting our environment.
Fed up, most Nigerians are subscribing to the noiseless MTN I-better-pass-my-neighbour solar power generators. Cashing in on our failures to make power available, the South Africans have roped us in – yes, you get the power 24/7 but it is at great cost to the subscriber.
I believe the Nigerian government can add the provision of power to Nigerians in addition to its anti-corruption fight. It can do this by understudying what the South Africans are doing with those mini-power generating sets. The future is about the development of human potential and how it can harvest the elements for people development.
Etemiku writes from ANEEJ, Nigeria
