WHEN DEATH CAME FISHING - Pat Utomi It came in the form of a Liberian American who arrived Lagos and became a neutron bomb, it still comes in the form of guns and bombs in the North West and it threatens to come in the health sector crises that is supposed to result in the termination of all Resident Doctors; and in the manner partisan wrangling were raising the stakes in a zero - sum high pitched war of words on which party plants bombs, that is deepening cleavages and looking set to unleash the anarchy predicted for our region of the world by Robert Kaplan. Everywhere you look the putrid smell of death seems to be in the air, stalking life, and challenging the promise of Nigeria. As the National conference wound its way to a close after many controversies, what was determining the future seemed not so much the issues the conference quarreled so much about, before a last minute compromise, but a set of issues that a little more tolerance, sense of history and rigor could not have averted. Let us begin with the Ebola scare. The Liberian- American Patrick Sawyer became “Dr Death” taking some medical personnel who take risks, with hardly any protection in terms of physical equipment and insurance for their loved ones, should they fall in the line of duty. The questions raised by the coming of Patrick Sawyer which has not just put so many in harm’s way but has raised panic and nervous responses to the possibilities of an epidemic of the magnitude bubonic plague epidemic in Europe several generations ago. This is good reason to wonder how much rigor went into the counsel of firing all resident doctors, and killing the one way we build specialties in medicine. It is easy to be critical but it is also important to raise effectiveness challenge issues so that things are done better and differently next time. When the Ebola virus began to run riot around Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone it should have been easy to imagine it could quickly get to our shores. I have travelled quite a few times this year on the West Coast, flying from Banjul. It is easy to tell that free movement of persons that ECOWAS guarantees, and the porous borders, were there to be no ECOWAS protocol, that it could and would eventually reach our borders. The question has then to be what did the people on whose watch the defence of our health lay, do. If we were slightly more rigorous in our ways, drills should have been started months ago on how to manage eventualities if they come. Among those that should have been first on the drills should have been border post officers like immigration people at the Airport and medical personnel. That failure has cost us a few good people. But see how the quarantine was made ready. Most are complaining. It seems easier to die from conditions at the infectious disease hospital than from Ebola, they say. Then Sawyer became the bearer of the angel of death. Since then, thanks to the capacity of escalation of small matters through poor communication the world thinks that to come from Lagos is to be fully contaminated by Ebola virus. With just Sawyer and two others, obviously three too many, dead in a city of nearly 20million people the world is given the impression we are a Nagasaki after the nuclear bomb was dropped. Like the neutron bomb, the ultimate capitalist weapon which kills people but spares property, Sawyers ailment has brought death and fear to us. As we can see, this poor state of information, and even disinformation, has created a climate in which Nigerian Athletes are now withdrawing from international competitions because they are being treated badly on account of the fear of Ebola. It is highly infectious but is Ebola an epidemic in Nigeria? You would not know if you followed the global media. There are corporate executives cancelling trips to Nigeria even though people are living and loving as before in Lagos except that they are washing their hands so much it is more like a fetish. As we face the deaths of omission and commission by Ebola we are watching state actors accusing parties of being responsible for bombs going off. When that happens there should be automatic arrest of people causing such devastation through the bombing campaign. If no arrests are made it must be that there is no such evidence. If there is no such evidence then comments insinuating such, by state actors from sensitive agencies of state should be discouraged. That is very inappropriate. The result of partisans in power or opposition, and state actors going toe to toe in a manner that increase tensions and erode legitimacy of the democratic process may be open invitation to the forces of anarchy which Robert Kaplan forewarned on in the Coming Anarchy. Nation building sometimes require that political actors look beyond themselves to the future of a people, to avert the unpleasant. We saw an Al Gore who could have fought on to claim a mandate he could have laid claim to after the presidential elections in which his republican opponent George W Bush cost the popular vote and there were questions about the Florida electoral College votes. Even as we write, Nuri Al Malaki had agreed to step down as Prime Minister of Iraq. As Nigeria tethers on the brink, in spite of potential so alluring, we must wonder why we are unable to act like others. What is it about power that is so consuming, people who have had it for a long time are willing to jeopardize the future of so many and the dreams of a race, just so they may wear titles. What Nigeria needs now more than anything are statesmen who realize that a zero – sum approach will hurt all, and that win – win play in which sometimes leaders have to swallow the Al – Malaki pill, may be necessary Also PU
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 20:38:08 +0000
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