Who will tell our politicians that none of us is leaving this planet alive?

They think they will live forever l guess or why fly abroad to enjoy the medical facilities provided by responsible governments of other countries.

This submissive mental and physical slavery is one of the several tragedies of the African race. Buhari’s medical tourism and vacation is treacherous. It is treason against the people and country.

Let’s Go And Die, Abroad (Part 2)

By Adeola Aderounmu

On August 3 2014 l wrote the first part of this essay. It was in the wake of Nigerian politicians travelling abroad for medical treatment and ending their journeys there. Since l wrote that piece, the trend has continued. Politicians and monarchs who should be symbols of national pride and patriotism continue to flock abroad for treatment. Some don’t make it back alive to Nigeria. Hence the title, Let’s Go And Die, Abroad.

Treason needs to be redefined. You let your people down by not providing them with essential health services that could save their lives. Then you fly abroad to another country to rest and enjoy the medical services provided by foreign governments. You fly to see your doctors abroad. You fly abroad for vacation. All in one. That to me is treason.

We all have loved ones who could have lived quality lives and longer lives if the people we entrusted our welfare and well-being upon had done their jobs.

This is 2017.

President Buhari of Nigeria travelled to the UK for vacation and medical treatment/check up. He is not a private citizen of Nigeria, so this is out of order and unbecoming of a first citizen. It is not ok. It is not right. For me, this is treason, to go get the services that you denied your own people.

It is also not excusable under any circumstances whatsoever. On more than one ocassion, the media aides and advisers attached to the presidency, tried to explain why Buhari always flew to London for medical check ups. They bring it down to doctor’s advice or Buhari’s doctors now living in London. Those reasons are childish and unreasonable.

Nigeria got her independence from Britain in 1960. It is extremely shameful, ridiculous and very embarassing for the president of an independent country to go and lie sick or resting in another man’s country after all these years post-independence. The idea itself is sickening. This is one of the tragedies of the African race.

Nigeria is estimated today to be around 170 m people. When the presidency in Nigeria remains attached to the apron strings of the slave masters in England, it is a show of shame and a voluntary submission to both mental and physcial slavery.

There are so many other message and weights attached to this disgraceful exploits.

• Out of more than 170 m people, Nigeria did not produce yet the medical doctor that can treat her political class in Nigeria.
• Nigeria’s hospitals are mere mortuaries.
• Nigeria is a very corrupt country and the presidency is the biggest symbol of this massive corruption.

Every year since 1960, huge funds and other allocations are budgetted and donated to the medical facilities attached to the office of the presidency in Nigeria. If the meedical facility is useless and dysfunctional, what is the purpose of the annual budget allocation? This is the second year of the second reign of president Buhari, what has his government done with the budget of the health institution at his official residence and around the country?

President Buhari is not the first Nigerian president to visit abroad for medical reasons. We have seen the head of state who went to Paris to treat a toe. We have seen a vice-president who went to London to treat a scratch. We saw a president who was a former governor for 8 years and refused to build a specialist hospital for his kidney problem. He was bundled in and out of Nigeria, shuttled between several countries until his last breathe.

Who will tell our politicians that none of us is leaving this planet alive?

Here is a pattern that is disturbing and irritating. These irresponsible people called Nigerian politicians should have been tried for crimes against humanity. They were/are supposed to provide medical facilities and solve health problems for (now) more than 170 m, but rather than do that, they fly abroad to enjoy the medical facilities provided by responsble governments of other countries. Nigerian politicians must be crazy and out of their minds. Totally!

President Buhari is spending his second spell at the helm of affairs in Nigeria. On his first exploit as a fierce dictator and tyrant, he could have (unstoppably) built the best medical facility in the world anywhere in Nigeria. He did not do that. This is the second year of his democratic reign, he has not made a public declaration of his willingness to build the best medical facility in the world in Nigeria even though the country has the possibility to do that so that all our shameless politicians can for all time stop their endless medical tourism abroad.

There is nothing wrong to invest in such a project to end this shame once and for all. But you won’t hear such debates on the floor of the Nigerian National Assembly where it seems criminals have been gathered just to share and spend monies on personal effects. Then, they are on the next flight abroad once they get sick. Total and absolute nonsense. Peculiar mess!

When these shameless rulers who think they are leaders don’t invest in their own health and well-being on the Nigerian soil, they provide a fertile ground for exploitations of the rest of the population. When private medical health providers fluorish, only the wealthy will be able to use their services.

The poor will beg from the atmosphere to the stratosphere in order to enjoy the services provided by private health institutions. They often die waiting for help. Even what is left of the public institutions is disgraceful and still out of reach of the downtrodden.

President Buhari’s regime under the APC mandate is today the worst regime in Nigeria’s history. The scorecard at home is heartbreaking. On the away front, the president added a new dimension to the medical tourism. We are told he is also on vacation! Really?

Here is the irony. Nigerians living abroad hurry home to Nigeria (and other West African countries) hoping to find rest at different places depending on where their favourite locations are. Now you have a president who cannot find anywhere in all of the 36 states under his watch where he could have a vacation. It’s amazing, the lies of this presidency!

This is the same government that claims to be promoting made in Nigeria things. This is hypocrisy of the highest magnitude. This government has failed and it will not make it. It will never be right to say you are promoting local things when you enjoy foreign things. What happens to leading by examples?

In November 2015, l argued for the establishment of at least 108 modern and standard public hospitals in Nigeria. No one has picked up the argument for a national debate. They are still sharing monies for cars and houses.

This country is going no where near redemption soon if these are the type of politicians and rulers we want to continue to parade. Is it any surprise that Nigerians are suffering in their millions while a few are basking in glory in the rat race co-existence?

For Nigerians, it’s still a very long walk to freedom when the praxis is I-before-others. It’s a long, long walk when all that matters is preservation of self rather than the well-being of humanity and nature.

Nigerian rulers,  politicians and even the people are selfish and when everyone is so concerned about their self-preservations, living as if we will live forever, caution is thrown to the wind and the survival of the fittest turn men to vultures. It makes irrationality the norm and falsehood the veins of the system.

It’s a sad situation and when the rest of Africa start to believe this notion that Nigerians are now hungry, it spells doom for Africa and the African race. If your president cannot get treated in Nigeria, how can you dispel the notion that you cannot even feed yourself in Nigeria?

Mortals are watching. The world is waiting.

aderounmu@gmail.com