Oludare: Nigeria Needs Leadership, Not Power Shift

US-based Nigerian medical practitioner and Convener/National Coordinator of Social Rehabilitation Gruppe (SRG), Dr Marindoti Oludare, in this interview, speaks on expectations of Nigerians from the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Excerpts:

How would you like the President-elect,  Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to improve on Nigeria’s health sector when he takes charge?

Asiwaju Tinubu is the man with the juice. He’s got the panacea for all ails that afflict Nigeria, including the malaise in the health sector.

While there’s no one pill that fixes the totality of the problems faced in the health sector hence, we will have to continue innovating, I believe we need to make up for what we lack in desired material resources in required creative resources.

The most important factor in healthcare is financing, because healthcare has never been free. As a finance guru, Asiwaju will bring his expertise to bear, we need to create a more robust health insurance scheme.

The federal government needs to not just invest in doctor/healthcare worker’s training but be interested in its investment in their training and ensure it yields the desired outcome.

Some of the infrastructure needs of the sector are general, like electricity, good roads. Others are specific like CT scan, MRI etc.

The current hospital financing structure is not sustainable, there’s need for a greater accountability in the sector.

Eradication of common diseases like malaria is a smart economic move that will need environmental reforms. And most importantly, the president should not sign that asinine doctor five year licence ban bill. I can bet my life fortune that he will veto that bill should it be passed by the National Assembly.

The bill in the House of Representatives calling for a mandatory five-year service in Nigeria for all medical doctors before they are licensed has caused so much controversy. As a Nigerian-born medical doctor in the US, what is your assessment  of it?

Simply put, this bill is STOOPEED. Forrest Gump told us “stupid is as stupid does”.

So let’s examine the aims and premise of this bill for its flaws and “stoopeedeetea”. It aims to ban Nigerian doctors from being given a permanent Nigerian medical license for a period of five years. It is called a Nigerian medical license for a reason, that’s because it is only valid in Nigeria. The UK, US, Canada, Germany, UAE, etc, don’t need your Nigerian license. You’ll have to take multiple exams and interviews and apply to get their own licenses in order to practice in their own environment. So this bill won’t hurt migration.

The only people who need the Nigerian medical license are those who intend to practice medicine in Nigeria. Hence it will only end up punishing those who want to stay because they are the ones that will be offered half salary and can’t progress with their career because they don’t have a full license hence there are legal implications for allowing them practice unsupervised.

Honorable Johnson and his cohorts in the Green Chamber committed a fallacy of causation called “post hoc ergo propter hoc”. Because doctors left after housemanship, they assumed doctors left because they were waiting to get their permanent license hence they hoped in denying them that license it would prevent doctors from leaving but they are dead wrong.

I hope these politicians are smart enough to accept the fact that they are wrong and change course. I often say “smart people have the humility to acknowledge their stupidity while other people have the temerity to disacknowledge theirs”. In order words, one must be smart enough to feel stupid because in feeling stupid you’re being smart while in feeling smart you’re being stupid.

What is the philosophy  behind your group, Social Rehabilitation Gruppe (SRG) which worked relentlessly for the Tinubu/Shettima presidential campaigns?

SRG aims to change the mindset of the average Nigerian and educate our citizens on a constant basis on what is going on within their environments. This is why we supported Asiwaju and campaigned vehemently for him.

We saw the deception in Lagos too and strategically intervened. We believe Tinubu’s lifelong political struggle has always been and still remains the way out for Nigeria.

I for one never really intended on participating actively in politics until I saw a video where Asiwaju lamented on the acerbic nature of the person insults he receives constantly on social media to the point where if he read them, his blood pressure will rise.

That was a man who’s around my father’s age complaining about unfair insults and criticism, I just couldn’t take it. I seldom fight for myself because I believe I’m tough but I don’t take lightly to bullies. And I’m happy I got in the fray because for one, I won the intellectual battle online and Asiwaju won the electoral victory. 

Before the election, Asiwaju shared the questions, after the election his opponent shared the tears, at least we can say they learnt the art of sharing from him.

What should  be the urgent priorities of the incoming administration?

Restructuring. Decentralization of democracy.

Our current democratic structure is an existential threat to the Nigerian economy. You cannot ask a relay team to run at the pace of its slowest runner. Each member of the team needs to be allowed to explore their God given abilities to run the race as fast as they can, doing this is the only way the country being represented by the team can hope to achieve victory. Restructuring the democracy will also bring about effective policing which will give us the security of lives and properties that we yearn for.

Asiwaju told us he wanted to compete with Russia, there’s no competing with Russia while Nigeria is a member of the OPEC cabal, whose disruptive actions in the oil sector has twice destroyed our economy in the 80s and their actions in 2014 has led us to the point we are today. We need to pull out of OPEC and allow foreign investment in our oil production.

Asiwaju should use his vast mind to deal with the subsidy cabal. An unsubsidized oil that is available and affordable is a million times better than a subsidized one that is neither available nor affordable.

Some agitators in the East feel power should have been ceded to that part of the South, alleging marginalisation.  How would you rationalise such agitations?

 These agitations are based on the premise that a leader only represents the niche constituency where he originates.

These agitations are of a people dejected, who have lost hope in government and what it portends. The centralized structure of the Nigerian democracy also makes people feel they don’t really have the power over their own fate unless they get to the center.

With á decentralized democracy, these agitations  will slowly but surely dissipate. The political leaders are trying to exploit there demographic identity for political gains. That’s why they throw religion and culture in the mix, we even had one candidate caught on tape calling the last election a religious war.

While answering a question about the multiple exchange rate at the Lagos Business School, that same candidate said it was á necessary measure. This candidate hails from a region known for its business exploits, these multiple exchange rate policy has damaged the business prospects of Nigeria(hence his tribesmen) yet this candidate got over 90% of the vote from that region.

Can it then be said that this people have made the right decision in supporting their kinsman who supports a policy that has imperiled their own bottomline!? Did they make the right decision for the future of their own economy?

Your state, Ondo, has the highest percentage of votes given to Tinubu. What are the expectations of your people?

Our people are smart, we supported Asiwaju because of his lifelong political positions and his commitment to them. What we want from him is to follow through with his promise of decentralization of democracy.

We should be able to exploit our resources and protect our farmlands and the lives of our people. Ondo State people are not beggars, we are proud and self sufficient. We want to continue helping Asiwaju achieve his goal of turning Nigeria into a viable global economy. We just need our hands untied, we need to be free of the shackles of the current Nigerian system and thank God, Asiwaju has broken the shackles so we will run on our own.

Already, ahead of the 2024 governorship election in Ondo State, a debate has begun on where power should  shift to. Where do you stand?

 When it comes to power shifting, that’s one thing that I’ll agree to. Power should indeed shift but not in favor of any geographical region.

I agree that power should shift to the people from the politician. There’s no difference between an Akure man and an Akoko man or an okitipupa man. However, the politicians will try to divide based on this geographical differentiations for political expediency.

What the people want is a good life, politicians should focus on enacting policies and creative ideas that’ll give their people good things of life, create jobs, re-engineer education and reimagine the health sector.

We have all been endowed by our creator with some inalienable rights among which include life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. The next government of Ondo state needs to do its work hard to secure these rights for its people. There’s no geographical definition of these, it is universal amongst all people of all ethnicities.