NAIJAFEED

Friday, December 9, 2022

4,000 Doctors to Leave Nigeria

The National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD’s, recent alarm of a looming mass migration of no less than 4,000 of its members in the nearest future should call for an emergency meeting of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government with the medical service unions to discuss the stoppage of such a haemorrhage.

But, of course, no such a thing may happen because those we elected had for long abandoned the Nigerian healthcare system for treatment abroad. Successive presidential families since 1999 had turned treatment abroad into a fad, unlike the earlier practice where the State House Clinic was properly equipped to take care of them.

The late Mrs Stella Obasanjo received medicare abroad. The late President Umaru Yar’Adua received treatment in Europe and Saudi Arabia till his demise, and the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan also got medicare outside the country. The most celebrated presidential treatment is that of the incumbent president who once spent over three months in a London infirmary and goes there routinely for follow-ups.

The State House Clinic itself which used to receive more budgetary allocation than all the University Teaching Hospitals in the country, has altogether been abandoned because the people who are supposed to use it no longer have use for it.

Because of this neglect, our doctors have steadily been leaving. When the Buhari administration assumed office in 2015, the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, reported that Nigeria had 35,000 doctors out of the 237,000 required to serve a population of about 180 million then. Over seven years later, the number of doctors available in our health system dropped to 24,000 while the population rose to an estimated 211 million.

NARD’s announcement that 4,000 its members are leaving is not surprising. Health workers are in hot demand all over the world, particularly in countries with advanced systems. Two of them, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom in recent years, sent personnel to scout for, or opened their doors to employ our willing doctors. The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, despite the migration trend, insists Nigeria has enough doctors.

The consequence of this is that the few doctors who are still available, especially in government hospitals, are over-worked, underpaid and under-motivated. This, certainly, is a trigger for more migrations to places where they will get job satisfaction.

Nigerians have already lost hope that the incumbent regime can do anything about our healthcare system. It has only six months to go. Our attention should shift to the need to elect leaders who have the mindset to revive our health system. Adequately equipping our public hospitals and offering competitive welfare packages for our doctors and other health sector workers can stop and reverse the exoduses. This is in addition to squarely facing challenges in the training of more doctors for our teeming population.

Vanguard

Nigeria suffering from medical brain drain

Citizens of Nigeria Uneasy about Cash Withdrawal Restrictions

Nigeria's Central Bank this week announced a new policy that restricts large amounts of cash from being withdrawn from bank accounts. The announcement comes two weeks after authorities unveiled redesigned currency in an attempt to curb cash hoarding and check corruption and crimes. But some critics say the decision will have a negative effect on small businesses.

The Central Bank’s directive this week restricting cash withdrawals from individual and corporate accounts will take effect on Jan. 9, 2023.

According to the new policy, personal account holders will be able to withdraw only 100,000 naira, or around $200, per week while companies will be restricted to about $1,000 in the same period.

The policy comes ahead of Nigeria's election slated for February 2023, with authorities vowing to tackle vote-trading and corruption.

The CBN says the initiative seeks to address excessive hoarding of cash, help fight crime, give authorities control of the legal tender, and encourage more people to use electronic means for their transactions.

But economist and director at the Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, said it will have an adverse effect on small and medium scale enterprises, or SMEs.

"That is not the way to curb vote-buying,” he said. “Yes, it could restrict the amount people have in their hands but these amounts of money are too small considering the value of the naira, and in terms of small businesses particularly people in the informal sector who may not have gone fully cashless who have not gone completely cashless, it's going to cause them a lot of inconvenience, challenges and also may increase the cost of doing business."

The initiative allows for a monthly withdrawal above specified limits but that carries a 5% processing fee for individuals and 10% for corporate entities.

The CBN said it will sanction banks and other financial institutions that fail to comply with the measure.

In late November, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari unveiled the redesigned 200, 500 and 1000 naira notes initially scheduled for launch in mid-December.

Public finance expert Isaac Botti supports the move, saying it is the only way to ensure the new currencies are not stashed away.

"For me, it's a commendable policy because it's a way to also curb corruption and looting of public treasuries,” he said. “I don't have concerns over it affecting SMEs because they're not expected to carry out solely cash transmissions. The only concern I have is about making the system more effective to be able to accommodate cashless policy."

Onyekpere also cites the lack of internet banking services as a major hindrance. More than 40% of Nigerians, mostly in rural areas, do not have bank accounts and rely on mobile money agents for their daily transactions.

Abuja bakery owner Eseoghene Eghove said the tightening of accounts will affect her business.

"As a business owner I go to buy flour, sugar, butter and many other things. How do you pay? It is not reasonable, they'll just make things more difficult for people," she said.

The old naira bills will cease to be legal tender by the end of January. The CBN has promised to monitor the rollout of the new bills and make sure not too much money is withdrawn.

By Timothy Obiezu, VOA

Attack aircraft, helicopters, and drones to be delivered to Nigeria

Nigeria is expecting to take delivery of 54 new air assets, including attack aircraft and helicopters as well as aerial drones, to boost its capabilities to fight insecurity in the country, Chief of Air Staff Marshal Amao said on Thursday.

A 13-year-old Islamist insurgency in the northeast and kidnappings for ransom by gunmen in the northwest are Nigeria's biggest security threats that will confront the country's next leader after a presidential election in February.

Amao said President Muhammadu Buhari approved the delivery to the Nigerian Air Force of m-346 attack aircraft, T-129 ATAK helicopters, Agusta 109 Trekker multi-role helicopters as well as Chinese-made Wing Loong II drones, among an assortment of air assets.

He did not say when exactly these would be delivered, how much was paid for them or which country or countries they were bought from.

Last year, Nigeria received 12 A-29 Super Tucano planes, four years after the United States agreed to sell the West African country the light attack aircraft to fight insurgents.

By Camillus Eboh, Reuters

Nigeria government denies Reuters report of mass ‘abortion programme’ of Boko Haram victims

Nigeria’s military has denied conducting a years-long illicit programme to carry out abortions among women and girls who have been victims of armed groups in the northwest, a claim reported by Reuters on Wednesday.

“Since at least 2013, the Nigerian military has conducted a secret, systematic and illegal abortion programme in the country’s northeast, ending at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls,” the news agency said.

It said many of the women and girls had been kidnapped and raped by armed fighters, adding that those who resisted an abortion ran the risk of being “beaten, held at gunpoint or drugged into compliance.”

The report was based on witness statements from 33 women and girls, five health workers, and nine security personnel involved in the alleged programme, and on military documents and hospital records “describing or tallying thousands of abortion procedures”.

Most of the abortions, Reuters said, were carried out without the woman’s consent and some were conducted without their prior knowledge, through abortion-inducing pills or injections passed off as medications to boost health or combat disease. The agency was unable to establish who created the abortion program or determine who in the military or government ran it.

United States Department of State spokesperson Ned Price said on Wednesday that Washington was looking into the report.

“It was a harrowing report. … It’s a concerning report and for that reason, we are seeking further information,” he said.

Northeastern Nigeria is the epicentre of a conflict spearheaded by armed groups, most notably Boko Haram in 2009.

More than 40,000 people have been killed and about two million people displaced in the long-running conflict, which has spilled into neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

In its reaction, the Nigerian army lashed the report as “a body of insults on the Nigerian peoples and culture. Nigerian military personnel have been raised, bred and further trained to protect lives,” it said.

“[The] Nigerian military will not, therefore, contemplate such evil of running a systematic and illegal abortion programme anywhere and anytime, and surely not on our own soil.”

Religion plays a core part in Nigerian life, with Islam as the dominant faith in the north of the country, and Christianity in the south.

Abortion is illegal in the country except when the mother’s life is in danger.

In the north, illegal pregnancy termination carries the risk of a 14-year jail term.

Al Jazeera

First Lady of Nigeria allegedly ordered the beating of student for calling her fat

Nigeria’s first lady ordered security operatives to detain a student and also supervised his beating at the country’s presidential villa, his lawyer has alleged.

Aminu Mohammed Adamu, 24, was detained by police in the capital Abuja over a tweet he posted on June 8 that contained what prosecutors said were defamatory remarks about Aisha Buhari, the president’s wife, his lawyer Agu Chijioke Kingsley told CNN. A defamation lawsuit brought against Adamu by the first lady has since been dropped.

According to Kingsley, Adamu, a final year environmental management and toxicology student at a university in northern Nigeria, had been trailed by “plain-clothed security operatives” and arrested at the Federal University, Dutse, in Jigawa State on November 18.

“My client said he was arrested at school and taken to the presidential villa where he met with the first lady who told the security operatives to beat him … and he was beaten before he was detained at a police station in Abuja,” Kingsley told CNN.

Spokespeople for Nigeria’s national police and Department of State Services told CNN they were unaware of Adamu’s arrest.

A spokesperson for the Abuja police command did not comment when reached by CNN, while presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu did not return CNN’s request for comment on the allegations of assault against Adamu by the first lady.

The Nigerian first lady, Aisha Buhari, hasn’t spoken publicly about the incident.

Adamu was brought before an Abuja court last Tuesday (November 29), more than a week after his arrest.

“He was charged with criminal defamation, he pleaded not guilty,” according to his lawyer, who added he was in the process of applying for Adamu’s bail days after his arraignment when the charge was dropped by the first lady.

Adamu had earlier been moved from the police facility he was being detained to prison where he was remanded on the orders of the court.

“On Friday (December 2), we were called to move the bail application. On getting to court, the police said they were withdrawing the matter entirely because the first lady had decided to withdraw the case against my client,” Kingsley told CNN.

Adamu’s detention was widely condemned by Nigerians and human rights groups who called for his release using the hashtag #FreeAminu on social media.

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) also called for nationwide demonstrations while demanding Adamu’s unconditional release.

A police commissioner in Nigeria has also called for the first lady to be prosecuted.

“She did not only have him arrested but he was also beaten and tortured in the (Presidential) Villa … This is not acceptable,” said Naja’atu Mohammed, a commissioner in the Police Service Commission (PSC), an oversight body of the Nigeria Police Force.

“There are laws governing every offense in this country, so why is she not abiding by the law? If indeed he defamed her character, she should follow due process and take him to court. Mrs. Buhari should be prosecuted for taking the law into her hands,” Mohammed told CNN.

Last month, two TikTok comedians were publicly whipped and ordered to wash toilets in northern Kano State for making a video that a court ruled had defamed the state Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.

The Nigerian branch of Amnesty International says it is concerned that freedom of speech is being eroded in Nigeria.

“Amnesty International is concerned by the growing number of attacks on freedom of expression in Nigeria. The authorities are increasingly using unlawful arrests and ill-treatment to stifle those who criticize the state. This must stop now,” the human rights group said in a tweet on the day Adamu was released.

It also tweeted that “the heavy-handed mistreatment of Aminu Adamu Muhammed is a clear attempt to strike fear into the hearts of young Nigerians who use social media to hold the powerful to account. The Nigerian authorities must urgently respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression.”

After two weeks in detention, Adamu was freed and reunited with his family. His uncle Shehu Azare told CNN he is now focused on writing his final exams and would not speak out about his ordeal.
‘Apology to oppressor’

Adamu received a hero’s welcome when he arrived at his university shortly after his release and later posted a tweet apologizing to the president’s wife, saying “it was never my intention to hurt your feelings … I will change for the better … I’m also grateful for your forgiveness…”

In a video that followed the tweet, Adamu reiterated his gratitude to the first lady, which angered many Nigerians who criticized him for “apologizing to his oppressor.”

“I’ll like to thank the first lady of Nigeria … for finding me worthy in her heart to forgive my recent actions and for her moral advice that I should change for the better … I’ll abide to those words,” Adamu said in his video.

Reacting to Adamu’s apology to the first lady, one Nigerian tweeted: “I don’t even understand him, (he) left everyone who stood by him, and he is apologizing to an oppressor?? How come?!!!”

Some other commenters said Adamu had “done the right thing” by apologizing to the president’s wife.

“To me, it’s not in order, because we’ve been pleading with the first lady (to release Adamu) before he was taken to court, but she refused to accept the plea and took him to court where he was arraigned and remanded in prison. So, there’s no point for that (apology),” his uncle Azare told CNN.

“Many people have been complaining about that (apology). People look at it as very wrong to be asking for forgiveness from someone that beat you and inflicted harm on you,” he added.

By Nimi Princewill, CNN

Student in Nigeria Arrested After Calling President's Wife Fat on Twitter