Of Strikes, Wars & Faith.

Eighteen days ago, the Nigerian Medical Association embarked on an indefinite nationwide strike action to protest among other things, an agreement reached by the Federal Government with another group of health workers - JOHESU. The doctors refuse to share the appellation of 'Consultant' with pharmacists, laboratory scientists and morticians. I have shamefully watched each party pervade the print and electronic media with inane propaganda. I am not going to apportion blame as it really doesn't matter anymore. People will die. Whether they are called consultants or specialists, there's only one outcome. The coin pretty much has the same face on either side so it doesn't matter much how the toss goes. I have worked in four government hospitals since I qualified as a medical doctor and all four hospitals were headed by doctors. Did that stop the rot and the blatant daily human sacrificial rituals? The Federal minister of health has always been a medical doctor since Lord Lugard left us. What bearing has this had on the state of our hospitals? Like Nigeria's presidency and religious bigots, it really doesn't matter who leads, so long the job gets done. If the ambulance driver will put the hospitals in order and stop people from avoidably dying, then by all means, get the man a suit and let him start work. Ego tripping at the expense of human lives won't achieve anything. Well, except a depopulation, which the over 100 million abjectly poor Nigerians will briskly correct by procreating out of idleness, power failure and frustration.

I feel for the doctors though. I just completed a 28-day course of antiretroviral drugs this morning as prophylaxis for a needle stick injury I sustained during a Cesarean section on an HIV positive woman last month. It was interesting because aside the paltry N10,000 I got monthly as hazard allowance, the only other things I got were 'Eeya, sorry o'. Ah, yes, my Head of Department was gracious enough to give me a day and half off work to 'recuperate'. The risks are real. Pilots, armed robbers and kidnappers ply high-risk trades also but at least they get commensurate pay. Doctors are bitter they earn so little after the many years of study and grueling training and now, the only small thing they have going for them in the form of self-aggrandizement, JOHESU is coming after. Haba! 

It is also worthy of note that the strike has not even caught the attention of the occupants of Aso Rock after eighteen days. He's busy welcoming Malala, chasing after naughty Governors and scheming how to raise Nigeria's debts by an extra $1billion to fund 2015 elections....oh sorry, to fight Boko Haram. NUPENG & PENGASSAN only need to issue notice of a warning strike and the government listens. But, it is well...

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Human beings are funny. We spend so much resources -currency and human blood- on executing wars

when peace is actually significantly cheaper. We are the only species that commits so much resources into wrecking havoc on ourselves and shedding blood. Sometime while we watched the World Cup in Rio, Isreal and Palestine stepped up their acrimony and what has ensued is wanton destruction of lives and property. Interestingly, I can't recall now when last there was peace in the world and I doubt very strongly there ever will be. Russia-Ukraine, South Sudan, Somalia, Egypt, Libya, Central African Republic and Syria. The list lengthens by the day. Today, there's news that 'pro-Russia' rebels in Ukraine shot down a Malaysia airlines commercial plane killing 295 people on-board. We seem bent on running the human race aground.  Remember the admonition about wars and rumors of war? We're right on course. All the best ya'll. Michael Jackson's U.S.A For Africa's 1985 'We are the world' hit just came up on my laptop ironically.

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Finally, I will quickly site a caveat. I'm going to hit the Nigerian 'born-again' nerve and personally, I don't care whose ox is gored. You can bow every morning to a deity shaped as your 'Papa or G.O' if you wish, so long you sleep better at night. So, this picture

popped up on my timeline on Facebook repeatedly last week. I didn't take a close look at it as I am now accustomed to the cow-dung that has now pervaded social media. Somehow, this picture just didn't go away and so I took a closer look and regretted the action immediately. The header on the picture was a prayer supposedly from a popular G.O in the spiritual circles. The prayer suggested a supernatural blessing by way of a brand new car that will have a key just like the ones in the picture. The prayer further instructed those that believed such a miracle would be their portion in the month of July to type a big 'Amen'. Unsurprisingly, there were probably half a million Nigerian Amens and it then occurred to me why the picture didn't leave my timeline. I choose to believe that someone over-zealously put up such a prayer on Papa's Facebook account. Having read such a prayer, did any of the people who hurriedly type 'Amen' ask by what means this tear rubber Mercedes and Lexus cars will come? Have you done anything in the last month that you expect will yield a car or is it just your faith as small as a mustard seed? Be reminded that faith without works is dead and you must sow to reap because for everything under heaven, there is a season. I am quite sure that if that prayer had read 'You will fly your own private jet this week', the Amens would have been just as much. Diaris God!

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I know I said finally before but something just occurred to me. In my current location, I pass by a veterinary clinic everyday on the way out. In front of the clinic a nice green vehicle with the words 'Animal Ambulance' is parked. I guffawed in Yoruba. They have a functional air-conditioned vehicle designated to convey ill or wounded pets like dogs, cats, rabbits and squirrels. They also have vaccination schedules and routine medical check-ups for the pets.

I then remembered that NMA was fighting JOHESU in my home country and the image of the ambulance that brought my beloved Aunty Folashade to LUTH that cold January night came to my mind. I quickly continued humming the 'Konko Below' by Lagbaja bellowing through my earphones. 

#KoKanAiye