Strictly Personal

That slave trade bill on medical doctors, By Suyi Ayodele

Published

2 years ago

April 13, 2023

Barring strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) or the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), medical students spend an average of six years in the university. Upon graduation, they go through one year of Horsemanship. Thereafter, they observe the one-year compulsory NYSC programme. So, to become a medical doctor in Nigeria, one must have spent a minimum cumulative eight years! Eight years in the present-day Nigerian environment is closer to hell and its fiery furnace. Now, after the rigours of the eight years, some efulefu in Abuja are saying that an additional five years will be added before the licence to practice will be given. The proposed five years, in labour euphemism, is called labour bond. But the real name is pure Forced Labour or, better still, Modern Slavery.

My late father was 86 years old when I gained admission to the university in 1989. After I left the university and completed my NYSC, I looked for a job for three solid years. When there was no hope, a cousin obtained a postgraduate form for me and paid the initial deposit. I saw hell at the University of Ibadan (UI), undergoing my Masters. I could not go home to ask my parents for money because I knew the condition at home. Thankfully, as I rounded off the programme, I was employed as a reporter by the Nigerian Tribune, which posted me to Benin, as the Edo State correspondent.

I arrived in Benin and nursed the hope that by the time I would be paid my salary, I would take the whole money home for parental blessings as tradition demanded, then. Lo and behold, before the salary was paid, I got a call from the Vicar of our All Saints’ Anglican Church, Oke-Bola, Ikole Ekiti, that my good, old, loving father had died. He died precisely on November 3, 1999. I was not able to give him a dime before he died at the ripe age of 86! Sad! The two of us were victims of the hopeless situation a failed leadership imposed on the country. Pa Solomon Fafunmiloni Obajusigbe Ayodele died without eating the fruits of his labour on me. This is exactly what the Abuja lawmakers are planning for most parents, who toil day and night to train their children and wards in the medical faculties across the country! May God forbid bad thing!

This is the year of the Lord 2023. But our legislators in the National Assembly, particularly the rancorous House of Representatives, are still living like fossils. Pity! Nigeria is a huge amphitheatre. We churn out lots of comedy daily. If anyone has ever wondered why nothing moves in the right direction in this country, such a person should visit the National Assembly and see the jokers there who make laws for the ‘common good’ of the nation. You cannot put anything perfidious past the ‘honourable’ men and women who live in Apo village. There is no grisly legislation they are not capable of decreeing. One of such is last week’s “Bill for an Act to Amend the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act, Cap. M379, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, to mandate any Nigerian-trained Medical or Dental practitioner to practice in Nigeria for a minimum of five years before being granted a full licence by the council in order to make quality health services available to Nigeria”, sponsored by Ganiyu Johnson,who represents the Oshodi-Isolo II Federal Constituency of Lagos State in the lower legislative chamber. The Bill seeks to arrest the current brain drain in the medical circle, so, Johnson told us. And look at the ‘novel’ way the Rep member from Lagos State put it. Everyone who trained as a medical doctor in Nigeria will mandatorily practice for five years before he/she will be given the full licence to practice medicine in the country before venturing into other lands to practice.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines Forced Labour or Modern Slavery in its “Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (N029) as; “All work or service which is exacted from any person under the threat of a penalty for which the person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily”. The international body in its The Forced Labour Protocol (Article 1(3) expressly affirms the definition above and goes ahead to expatiate the key elements of the definition to mean: “Work or service refers to all types of work occurring in any activity, industry or sector including in the informal economy. Menace of any penalty refers to a wide range of penalties used to compel someone to work”, adding that “Involuntariness, “The terms “offered voluntarily” refer to the free and informed consent of a worker to take a job and his or her freedom to leave at any time…”. It, again, in its “General Survey on Forced Labour, ILO Committee of Experts, 2007” states what constitutes “Exceptions” to the definition in Article 2(2) of Convention No. 29, and gives five exceptional cases to include: “Compulsory military service, Normal civic obligations; Prison labour (under certain conditions); Work in emergency, situations (such as war, calamity or threatened calamity e.g. fire, flood, famine, earthquake), and, Minor communal services (within the community)”.

From the foregoing, what Johnson introduced to the House of Representatives last week falls under the ILO’s definition of Forced Labour or Modern Slavery. Hear his incomprehensible verbiage emitted on the floor of the house: “Government has invested so much money in training these medical doctors, on average. Recently, the United Kingdom opened healthcare visas to people, they were all going to the UK, USA, Canada so should we fold our hands? So, to give back to our society after training you, the least we can get from you after your Housemanship. Before you are given full license you practice for five years before you can go”. Even when Nkem Abonta, Ukwa East/West Federal Constituency of Abi State, countered the Lagos legislator, pointing out that such a legislation is “offensive” and “not obtainable in any clime”, the stone-age Lagosian would not have any of that. Expectedly, the Bill was put to a voice vote and most of the lawmakers supported it. That was the Second Reading stage.

There are two issues that Johnson and his co-travellers threw up. One is the issue of brain drain of medical personnel in Nigeria. That is worrisome, no doubt. However, it is rather funny, and even more unfortunate, that the very people that would turn up to legislate our children into modern slavery are the very set of individuals who created the problem of brain drain in the first instance. Can Nigerians ask Johnson and his gang how many of their children, wards and dependents are in our Medical Colleges in Nigeria? How many of their children, who they sent abroad to go and study medicine are back in Nigeria to practice? Again, can we ask them how many of our legislators, executive council members from General Muhammadu Buhari to the least Supervisory Councillors in the various local government areas, patronize Nigerian hospitals for their health issues? Where for instance, is the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu? Where has he been receiving medical attention for the list of ailments that trouble his frail frame? Will he end medical tourism after his swearing-in? From which government hospital does he receive medical care in Lagos, where he governed for eight years and, we are told, he ‘transformed’?

What do the Abuja legislators think we are? Were they not the same legislators that killed the “Bill for an Act to Amend the National Health Act 2014 to Regulate International Trips for Medical Treatment by Public Officers to Strengthen the Health Institutions for Efficient Service Delivery”, which sought to amend Section 46 of the National Health Act, 2014 to regulate international trips for medical treatment by public officers and to strengthen the health institutions for efficient service delivery? When the Bill came up for debate then, hear what Lasun Yusuf, the then deputy speaker of the House of Representatives said: “This bill is against my fundamental human right. There are two fundamental wrongs in this bill, it is against human right, and it is discriminatory. Do not let us debate this bill”. End of story! Where is that Bill today? If stopping our leaders from seeking medical attention abroad is against their fundamental human rights, how has compelling medical doctors to work for five years before being fully licensed enhanced their own fundamental human rights?

The second issue is Johnson’s sickening claim that “the Government has invested so much money in training these medical doctors”. Where and how much? How many medical students are on government scholarship? What about those children in the medical colleges of the various private universities? The body who should know, the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), described the Bill as “discriminatory, harsh and not in the interest of the people” and, “an excellent example of modern-day slavery”. MDCAN, in a press statement endorsed by its President, Dr Victor Makanjuola, and Secretary-General, Dr Yemi Raji, said: “In fact, this bill has the possible effect of doing the exact opposite: aggravating the exodus which we have been working with the Executive arm of Government to mitigate… Perhaps, a simple consultation with the primary constituency to be affected by the bill would have afforded the honourable member a clearer understanding of the hydra-headed nature of the problem he is trying to solve”. Indeed, Johnson must have been very ignorant of the nuances of brain drain in the country. MDCAN asked if there would be “another Bill to mandate the senior doctors to stay in the system for 10 years”? it added that the bill “violates the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as Section 34 (1) b states that “no person shall be held in slavery or servitude” while Section 34 (1) c states that “no one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour”. The association submitted that “bonding medical doctors who never benefited from any public sponsorship is, therefore, an anomaly, and a clear attempt to reap from where one has not sowed”. It dismissed the notion that doctors received heavily subsidized education as gravely fallacious!

Our leaders are indeed far from the reality of our deplorable situation. I know of a family friend, whose son, after completing his six-year training as a medical doctor, stayed over a year at home before he could secure a place for his Housemanship. I know nursing graduates, who for over six months now have been looking for where to do their internship. How long then will a civil servant or a simple struggling trader who obtained loan upon loan from ubiquitous loan sharks in the country to train a child in a Nigerian medical school have to wait to eat the fruits of his/her labour from such a child? Yet in Abuja, we have absent legislators tinkering with slavery in the 21st century Nigeria! These are people whose children are in the best universities abroad. The same set of people, who will corner scholarship slots meant for public competitions and award the same to their children are now telling us about “subsidized training” for medical students. I asked a friend to send the preachings of Sheik Muyideen Hussein, the Chief Imam Agba of Offa to me. The ‘rascal’ that he is sent one titled: “Oselu Ika” (Wicked Politics), delivered at the Fidau prayers for a deceased APC chieftain, Alhaji Hassan Eleyingold in Offa. I listened to the one hour, two minutes and forty-three seconds message uninterrupted. I would like to close today’s piece by paraphrasing one of the prayers by the Chief Imam Agba of Offa for all wicked politicians: May all those in authority seeking for the common man to labour but not reap the fruits of their labour, also work and not be available to reap the fruits! God bless Nigeria!

Strictly Personal

Budgets, budgeting and budget financing, By Sheriffdeen A. Tella, Ph.D.

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The budget season is here again. It is an institutional and desirable annual ritual. Revenue collection and spending at the federal, State and local government levels must be authorised and guided by law. That is what budget is all about. A document containing the estimates of projected revenues from identified sources and the proposed expenditure for different sectors in the appropriate level of government. The last two weeks have seen the delivery of budget drafts to various Houses of Assembly and the promise that the federal government would present its draft budget to the National Assembly.

Do people still look forward to the budget presentation and the contents therein? I am not sure. Citizens have realised that these days, governments often spend money without reference to the approved budget. A governor can just wake up and direct that a police station be built in a location. With no allocation in the budget, the station will be completed in three months. The President can direct from his bathroom that 72 trailers of maize be distributed to the 36 states as palliatives. No budget provision, and no discussion by relevant committee or group.

We still operate with the military mentality. We operated too long under the military and of the five Presidents we have in this democracy, two of them were retired military Heads of State. Between them, they spent 16 years of 25 years of democratic governance. Hopefully, we are done with them physically but not mentally. Most present governors grew up largely under military regimes with the command system. That is why some see themselves as emperor and act accordingly. Their direct staff and commissioners are “Yes” men and women. There is need for disorientation.

The importance of budget in the art of governance cannot be overemphasized. It is one of the major functions of the legislature because without the consideration and authorisation of spending of funds by this arm of government, the executive has no power to start spending money. There is what we refer to as a budget cycle or stages. The budget drafting stage within the purview of the executive arm is the first stage and, followed by the authorisation stage where the legislature discusses, evaluates and tinkers with the draft for approval before presenting it to the President for his signature.

Thereafter, the budget enters the execution phase or cycle where programmes and projects are executed by the executive arm with the legislature carrying out oversight functions. Finally, we enter the auditing phase when the federal and State Auditors verify and report on the execution of the budgets. The report would normally be submitted to the Legislature. Many Auditor Generals have fallen victim at this stage for daring to query the executives on some aspects of the execution in their reports.

A new budget should contain the objectives and achievements of the preceding budget in the introduction as the foundation for the budget. More appropriately, a current budget derives its strength from a medium-term framework which also derives its strength from a national Development Plan or a State Plan. An approved National Plan does not exist currently, although the Plan launched by the Muhammadu Buhari administration is in the cooler. President Tinubu, who is acclaimed to be the architect of the Lagos State long-term Plan seems curiously, disillusioned with a national Plan.

Some States like Oyo and Kaduna, have long-term Plans that serve as the source of their annual budgets. Economists and policymakers see development plans as instruments of salvation for developing countries. Mike Obadan, the former Director General of the moribund Nigeria Centre for Economic and Management Administration, opined that a Plan in a developing country serves as an instrument to eradicate poverty, achieve high rates of economic growth and promote economic and social development.

The Nigerian development plans were on course until the adoption of the World Bank/IMF-inspired Structural Adjustment Programme in 1986 when the country and others that adopted the programme were forced to abandon such plan for short-term stabilisation policies in the name of a rolling plan. We have been rolling in the mud since that time. One is not surprised that the Tinubu administration is not looking at the Buhari Development Plan since the government is World Bank/IMF compliant. It was in the news last week that our President is an American asset and by extension, Nigeria’s policies must be defined by America which controls the Bretton Woods institutions.

A national Plan allows the citizens to monitor quantitatively, the projects and programmes being executed or to be executed by the government through the budgeting procedure. It is part of the definitive measures of transparency and accountability which most Nigerian governments do not cherish. So, you cannot pin your government down to anything.

Budgets these days hardly contain budget performance in terms of revenue, expenditure and other achievements like several schools, hospitals, small-scale enterprises, etc, that the government got involved in successfully and partially. These are the foundation for a new budget like items brought forward in accounting documents. The new budget should state the new reforms or transformations that would be taking place. Reforms like shifting from dominance of recurrent expenditure to capital expenditure; moving from the provision of basic needs programmes to industrialisation, and from reliance on foreign loans to dependence on domestic fund mobilisation for executing the budget.

That brings us to the issue of budget deficit and borrowing. When an economy is in recession, expansionary fiscal policy is recommended. That is, the government will need to spend more than it receives to pump prime the economy. If this is taken, Nigeria has always had a deficit budget, implying that we are always in economic recession. The fact is that even when we had a surplus in our balance of payment that made it possible to pay off our debts, we still had a deficit budget. We are so used to borrowing at the national level that stopping it will look like the collapse of the Nigerian state. The States have also followed the trend. Ordinarily, since States are largely dependent on the federal government for funds, they should promote balanced budget.

The States are like a schoolboy who depends on his parents for school fees and feeding allowance but goes about borrowing from classmates. Definitely, it is the parents that will surely pay the debt. The debt forgiveness mentality plays a major role in the process. Having enjoyed debt forgiveness in the past, the federal government is always in the credit market and does not caution the State governments in participating in the market. Our Presidents don’t feel ashamed when they are begging for debt forgiveness in international forum where issues on global development are being discussed. Not less than twice I have watched the countenance of some Presidents, even from Africa, while they looked at our president with disdain when issues of debt forgiveness for African countries was raised.

In most cases, the government, both at the federal and state cannot show the product of loans, except those lent by institutions like the World Bank or African Development Bank for specific projects which are monitored by the lending institutions. In other cases, the loans are stolen and transferred abroad while we are paying the loans. In some other cases, the loans are diverted to projects other than what the proposal stated. There was a case of loans obtained based on establishing an international car park in the border of the State but diverted to finance the election of a politician in the State. The politician eventually lost the election but the citizens of the State have to be taxed to pay the loan. Somebody as “Nigeria we hail thee”.

Transformation in budgeting should commence subsequently at the State and federal level. Now that local government will enjoy some financial autonomy and therefore budgeting process, they should be legally barred from contracting foreign loans. They have no business participating in the market. They should promote balanced budget where proposed expenditures must equal the expected revenues from federal and internal sources. The State government that cannot mobilise, from records, up to 40 percent of its total budget from IGR should not be supported to contract foreign loans. The States should engage in a balanced budget. The federal government budget should shift away from huge allocations to recurrent expenditure towards capital expenditure for capital formation and within the context of a welfarist state.

Sheriffdeen A. Tella, Ph.D.

Strictly Personal

African Union must ensure Sudan civilians are protected, By Joyce Banda

Published

4 weeks ago

October 25, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The war in Sudan presents the world – and Africa – with a test. This far, we have scored miserably. The international community has failed the people of Sudan. Collectively, we have chosen to systematically ignore and sacrifice the Sudanese people’s suffering in preference of our interests.

For 18 months, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have fought a pitiless conflict that has killed thousands, displaced millions, and triggered the world’s largest hunger crisis.

Crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed by both parties to the conflict. Sexual and gender-based violence are at epidemic levels. The RSF has perpetrated a wave of ethnically motivated violence in Darfur. Starvation has been used as a weapon of war: The SAF has carried out airstrikes that deliberately target civilians and civilian infrastructure.

The plight of children is of deep concern to me. They have been killed, maimed, and forced to serve as soldiers. More than 14 million have been displaced, the world’s largest displacement of children. Millions more haven’t gone to school since the fighting broke out. Girls are at the highest risk of child marriage and gender-based violence. We are looking at a child protection crisis of frightful proportions.

In many of my international engagements, the women of Sudan have raised their concerns about the world’s non-commitment to bring about peace in Sudan.

I write with a simple message. We cannot delay any longer. The suffering cannot be allowed to continue or to become a secondary concern to the frustrating search for a political solution between the belligerents. The international community must come together and adopt urgent measures to protect Sudanese civilians.

Last month, the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan released a report that described a horrific range of crimes committed by the RSF and SAF. The report makes for chilling reading. The UN investigators concluded that the gravity of its findings required a concerted plan to safeguard the lives of Sudanese people in the line of fire.

“Given the failure of the warring parties to spare civilians, an independent and impartial force with a mandate to safeguard civilians must be deployed without delay,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the Fact-Finding Mission and former Chief Justice of Tanzania.

We must respond to this call with urgency.

A special responsibility resides with the African Union, in particular the AU Commission, which received a request on June 21 from the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) “to investigate and make recommendations to the PSC on practical measures to be undertaken for the protection of civilians.”

So far, we have heard nothing.

The time is now for the AU to act boldly and swiftly, even in the absence of a ceasefire, to advance robust civilian protection measures.

A physical protective presence, even one with a limited mandate, must be proposed, in line with the recommendation of the UN Fact-Finding Mission. The AU should press the parties to the conflict, particularly the Sudanese government, to invite the protective mission to enter Sudan to do its work free from interference.

The AU can recommend that the protection mission adopt targeted strategies operations, demarcated safe zones, and humanitarian corridors – to protect civilians and ensure safe, unhindered, and adequate access to humanitarian aid.

The protection mission mandate can include data gathering, monitoring, and early warning systems. It can play a role in ending the telecom blackout that has been a troubling feature of the war. The mission can support community-led efforts for self-protection, working closely with Sudan’s inspiring mutual-aid network of Emergency Response Rooms. It can engage and support localised peace efforts, contributing to community-level ceasefire and peacebuilding work.

I do not pretend that establishing a protection mission in Sudan will be easy. But the scale of Sudan’s crisis, the intransigence of the warring parties, and the clear and consistent demands from Sudanese civilians and civil society demand that we take action.

Many will be dismissive. It is true that numerous bureaucratic, institutional, and political obstacles stand in our way. But we must not be deterred.

Will we stand by as Sudan suffers mass atrocities, disease, famine, rape, mass displacement, and societal disintegration? Will we watch as the crisis in Africa’s third largest country spills outside of its borders and sets back the entire region?

Africa and the world have been given a test. I pray that we pass it.

Dr Joyce Banda is a former president of the Republic of Malawi.