From history, it is easy to observe that the attention of the average Nigeria is to the self – a trend which in my part of the country is popularly known as ‘cut for me, cut for me.’ To be able to garner much wealth in life, the average citizen who finds himself in a public office or privileged position struggles a lot to remain affluent which explains why some people want to be in one appointment or another even at age 90.
Those who are public servants that must retire at a specified date use affidavits to continue to alter their ages so as to extend their stay in office. Whatever is attained through such aggressive hustling is often used for the betterment of the proverbial ‘me, myself and I.’ Occasionally however, a few hustlers try to extend some favours to other people who are usually their family members or those with whom they share same ethno-religious affiliations.
Bearing in mind that in developing societies government is the greatest spender, all efforts are on politics because that is the sector where looting or extortion is least difficult to accomplish. Wealthy politicians spend heavily on politics rather than business or philanthropy. They keep their resources in safe firmaments to buy over opponents and other interest groups in order to be assured of electoral victory. For those in government whose primary purpose is supposedly the security and welfare of the citizenry, attention is really not on the people. Instead, capital projects such as the construction of bridges and roads are the priority of government simply because the capital-intensive nature of the sector accommodates massive kickbacks.
Of recent, we are able to find a few public-spirited citizens among them Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Nigeria’s current First Lady, who think differently. For the latter, the best security and welfare for fellow citizens is good health. It is not difficult at all to appreciate the logic in her thought process because one needs to be alive to be able to enjoy other benefits of democracy and good governance. In 2024, Remi Tinubu donated one billion naira from herRenewed Hope Initiative (RHI) towards the eradication of Tuberculosis (TB) in Nigeria.She made the pledge during her investiture as the Global and National Stop TB Champion. This year, she has again donated another one billion naira during a community outreach in Sauka, Abuja as part of activities marking the 2025 World TB Day.
In a country where politicians are usually busy acquiring expensive items for personal comfort, not many are conscious that TB has remained a leading cause of death in Nigeria. Yet, our country records more infection and deaths than any other African country. Indeed, Nigeria is ranked the 6thmost affected country globally and with the ailment being an airborne disease caused by a bacterium that mostly affects the lungs, anyone can be a victim. It is indeed, the second deadliest infectious killer disease (after COVID-19) and among the top 10 causes of death worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) report in 2024, over 1.6million deaths consisting of mostly the vulnerable were recorded in our clime the year before.
A significant effect of Mrs Tinubu’s donation is the likelihood that her approach would draw greater attention to the most fundamental need of humanity- the right to life. While preparing to write this piece, I tried to gather information on how people felt about the development. Majority of those, I interviewed dismissed the First Lady’s effort arguing that her donation initially belonged to us anyway. It took some persuasion before an insignificant few saw the perspective; I was projecting that even if the allegation that the donation was originally stolen from the public purse was correct, it is perhaps the only ‘stolen’ fund that was being ploughed back to save many people who have no relationship with the donor. How I wish every Nigerian politician could become that selfless and humane to make it a priority to save fellow citizens from pain, disease and deaths.
The major reason I decided to make this subject my topic for the week was the protracted caution by one of my respondents not to waste my energy commending Mrs Tinubu because he was sure no one would buy my point. He asked if I didn’t hear how some student-nurses embarrassed her last week in Delta state when she went there with the same health campaign? With this I became convinced that perhaps the First Lady’s Renewed Hope Initiative needed a greater support from those of us in the media because of its utility value to Nigerians. Our people need to be better sensitized on how to react to governance issues in our society. First, Mrs Tinubu was in Delta toattend the flag-off ceremony of the campaign for the elimination of HIV/AIDS, syphilis and hepatitis in Asaba – an advocacy initiative led by the African Union, the Organization of the African First Ladies for Development and Global Partners.
Second, the response of Delta authorities to a song on social media reportedly against Mrs Tinubu was an overreaction. Did the students behave differently from any known generation of students? Neither the First Lady nor other leaders involved in the type of humanitarian scheme launched in Asaba last week are the ones to be rejected. Instead, local and state leaders in our communities who divert development funds to themselves should be the first to be rejected. Of course, part of why our health care is in shambles is because our politicians across board are too corrupt. Last year for instance,Nigeria’s Independent Corrupt Practices Commission ICPC discovered the theft ofN13billion from our public treasury.The chairman of the commission, Dr. Musa Aliyu (SAN) revealed that the money was stolen in just one month. How much could have been stolen in other months which would have been better used to reduce the sufferings of our people?
Every year, we hear different stories of how our federal legislators perfect the act of budget padding. The last of such alarms was raised by a ranking senator, Abdul Ningi who revealed a budget padding of no less that N3trillion. Although he was quickly cowed and even suspended for allegedly not having credible evidence, Senator Abdul Ningi, who was at the time, the Chairperson of the Northern Senators Forum (NSF), had told BBC that the lawmakers sought the service of a private auditor who discovered irregularities in the budget. As usual, Nigerians did not believe the senate which has become known for its tendency of being a judge in its own cause. On its part,BudgIT – a foremost financial research group was able to find a total of 7,447 projects culminating in N2.24tn that were indiscriminately inserted in the 2024 budget by the National Assembly.
Based on this revelation, it stands to reason that the First Lady’s Renewed Hope Initiative cannot stop at just its own donations. A different additional intervention is for the First Lady to mobilize wives of state governors to individually and collectively lobby their husbands to pay more attention to health care. Last year, Nigeria recorded 214 deaths from Lassa fever. Evidence that the epidemic had risen far more than previous years is seen from the latest report which says that within the first 3 months of this year alone, more than100 Nigerians have already died from the same fever. According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) the states with the highest casualties are Ondo, Taraba, Edo, Benue, Bauchi, Gombe, Kogi, and Ebonyi.
One of the latest deaths from Lassa fever was that of a young medical doctor aged 31. He was said to have contacted the disease and died within 4 days at a private health facility in Ondo state. To have lost such an asset suggests that our leaders have not done well at all especially as the state where he died including the neighbouring state of Edo are well known to be most vulnerable. Yet, healthcare is not in the front burner of governance in such states. What seems to attract public spending in our states is politics where illiterate party chieftains have become the most valued citizens. One can only hope that the attention which Mrs Oluremi Tinubu is drawing to the nation’s devastating epidemics will yield some results soonest. For that to happen, there is no better time than now for all patriots to aggressively focus on Nigeria’s dilapidated health care system.
The post Humanity: Remi Tinubu redirecting public attention, by Tonnie Iredia appeared first on Vanguard News.
