A few days ago, the Nigerian Public Health Network posted a synopsis of the presidential debates’ discussion on the public health sector. The debates featured all major candidates except the current president, Goodluck Jonathan who is also a candidate. He was the only candidate who deemed it more important to campaign than to participate in a debate of the issues of the day.
Mr. Jonathan’s absence is a separate issue from the quality of the responses when candidates were asked about their vision for the health sector—particularly in the face of striking physicians which has had terrible consequences to date. Since I did not watch the debates, I relied on clips and a partial transcript. The responses, in sum, were shallow, poorly constructed, and at times indicated that the candidates had not given any serious thought to the issues at hand. It bears repeating: presidential candidates had not given any serious thought to health issues in a country with the following statistics for 2005-2010.
Country | Life expectancy at birth (how many years can one expect to live, on average) | Infant Mortality (infant deaths per 1000 live births) | Under 5 yrs old mortality (deaths under age 5 per 1000 live births) |
Nigeria | 47.8 | 109.4 | 187 |
Cameroun | 51.0 | 86.9 | 144 |
Cote d’Ivoire | 57.2 | 86.8 | 123 |
Brazil | 72.3 | 23.5 | 29 |
Even among African countries, Nigeria is at the bottom of the list of a myriad measures of the public’s health status. And yet, not only does the current president (also a candidate) skip a presidential debate, the ones who showed up gave miserable answers to how they would address problems the country can ill-afford to ignore. But I digress—I actually didn’t mean to focus on public health exclusively here.
As we all watch the events unfold across the Middle East, what I feel like I’m witnessing is a call for change. Except it’s more than a call, they are essentially revolutions in the making. What makes it so powerful is that they are occurring in a region of the world where one would least expect such monumental shifts in the status quo. Egypt? Tunisia? Libya? Major agitations in Syria, Bahrain, even Jordan? Granted the more successful revolts have happened in countries with stronger national identities i.e. Egypt. However, these developments have proven --yet again, that anything is possible.
But who--if not a dictator who knows of the certain outcome of an election--can elect not to participate in the presidential debate process? Who chooses to ignore the voting public if they know their election rests upon how they respond to the pressing concerns of the day? On the other hand, what people continue to put up with the miserable numbers on child and infant mortality, economic insecurity, motor accidents, and lack of infrastructure? Who puts up with their leaders’ total lack of vision about how to improve the lot of the many not just for the select few? Who puts up with these things year after year after year?
Which brings me to my point. Nigeria is a victim of her own democratic government charade. The government stands on paper as a democracy, but there is almost nothing democratic about Nigeria. People have not had the right to self-determination for as long as anyone cares to remember. Even eventual political leaders are not really selected by free-thinking people in fair and free elections. Have you heard anything about the recent round of murders leading up to this election? It’s all a charade: but one can’t make the argument that they are being led by a dictator because of what’s on paper. This, I believe has contributed somewhat to the silence about (and tolerance of) the egregious indignities citizens of this country have had to bear certainly in my life time. Case in point: the statistics on health mentioned earlier.
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