By Polycarp Onwubiko
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To state that Nigeria is a mass of incurables in all sectors of governance is merely stating the obvious. Ironically, the top echelon of the country's elites, unquestionably the members of the Editorial Board of the print and electronic media, are not helping matters by sinking into the depths of self-chosen crass ignorance.
The Daily Sun Editorial of
December 9, 2023, titled "Unbridled migration in the health sector,"
laments the following: "The exodus of Nigerian doctors has hampered
healthcare delivery. The situation is worrisome and requires remedial action.
The government can halt the exodus of Nigerian health professionals by paying
them competitive remuneration. Medical doctors and other health workers need a
conducive work environment to perform optimally."
What irks this public policy
analyst is the flawed and impossible, yet senseless suggestion by the Editorial
writers to the Federal Government to "increase annual budgetary allocation
to the health sector."
This is where the pragmatic
roadmap for Nigeria to reinvent itself and join the league of sane and
sanitized federations worldwide comes in, as advocated by an erudite and
scholarly columnist, Olu Fasan, in his piece in Vanguard on December 7, 2023,
titled "Liberia practices true democracy, why can't Nigeria?"
He postulates as follows:
"Nigeria needs a new political and constitutional settlement. Nigeria
needs restructuring. It faces a dire future without it." The question
remains: Can President Tinubu clear the fog befuddling his eyes and immediately
convene a National Conference of ethnic nationalities to brainstorm on a
People's Constitution similar to the original Federal Constitution fashioned by
the ethnic nationalities before they arrived and agreed on the principles of a
federal system of government (this is my considered pragmatic definition of
"true federalism") that birthed the 1960 Independence Constitution
later renamed the Republican Constitution of 1963?
Unless this pragmatic roadmap
is recognized and followed, forget about Nigeria because it is headed to Stony
Golgotha.
Polycarp Onwubiko, a public
policy analyst.
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