One Voice Coalition Laments State Of The Nation, Wants Sincerity From FG

A civil society group, One Voice Coalition has addressed the media on current state of the nation, calling on the Fedreal Government to be sincere to Nigerians.

The event which held at the Centre for Constitutional Governance, Ilupeju, Lagos, featured journalists and members of the civil society organisations who held a passionate brainstorming session addressing the current situation in the nation.

Lead speaker at the event, Pastor Adedeji Adeleye took participants through an extensive and well researched paper he titled, “Buhari, His Men And His Three Cardinal Programmes.”

According to Adeleye, Nigerians were full of hope at the inception of the Buhari-led administration but which hope has been dashed with the current state of the nation.

“When President Muhammadu Buhari took over on May 29, 2015, Nigerians were full of high hopes and expectations that he was going to fix many aspects of the nation requiring quick fixes. Unfortunately the President busted the bubbles of hope and expectations of many Nigerians,” Adeleye said.

On the appointments of the President, Adeleye recalled that it took the President 166 days to form his cabinet which did not meet the expectations of Nigerians as a government that was expected to hit the ground running immediately after inauguration.

“It took 166 days for Buhari to form his cabinet. Does it mean for more than ten years that he was contesting to be president he did not have a plan let alone a team to help him carry out his plan?” he asked.

Talking about the security in the nation, Adeleye is not particularly happy about the menace of the Fulani herdsmen which the President has not come out categorically against. “When Buhari came into office, Nigeria’s most pressing security challenges were the menace of Fulani Herdsmen rampaging farmlands in Benue, Nassarawa and Enugu States as well as some parts of Ondo, Ekiti and Kogi States; Niger Delta militants and Boko Haram.

“While the government was able to free many of the Chibok girls and also contain and diminish the Boko Haram insurgency through combination of factors, the fight is yet from over,” he said.

He however noted that, “Sporadic suicide bombing still take place here and there in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States, government cannot claim ignorance of this loss of lives and properties.”

The anti corrpupthin war of the President is one area Nigerians have exercised great hope at the inception of the government but the civil society has noted that there has not been any notable conviction.

According to Adeleye, “President Buhari’s much-lauded war on corruption is one area in which his hard-core supporters continue to defend him. In many respects, the defence is entirely understandable: at no point since its establishment in 2003 has the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) been seen to be so active in pursuing perpetrators of graft as it is at present. Yet there has been no high profile conviction till date. We only hear about arrest, interim forfeitures of huge cash and properties but no conviction.”

Adeleye also decried the government’s attitude over some of the allies of the President who have been indicted one time or the other who have not been shown the way out. Comparing with what obtains in the civilized nations, the civil society notes that indicted persons ought not to be in government for whatever reason Like it is in Nigeria where once indicted persons have continued to hold on to sensitive positions despite in a government that claims to have no tolerance for graft. Adeleye however observed that corruption goes beyond physical stealing of money as abuse of office is equally tantamount to corruption.

The speaker also decried the state of the health sector in the country reeling out depressing statistics from the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.

According to the statistics:

• Over 100 doctors have resigned from the UCH this year.
• 800 doctors have resigned from Lagos State hospitals over two years. 100 this month (November) alone.
• Kebbi State has been unable to employ a single doctor in two years despite multiple adverts for employment.
• Over 200 doctors and nurses have resigned from the Ladoke Akintola Teaching hospital this year.
• Nigeria has 80,000 registered doctors and more than 50,000 are practicing abroad.
• 92% of Nigerian doctors are making plans to leave for foreign land and are taking exams to that effect.
• 236 doctors wrote Primaries for West Africa College of Physicians in 2017 to gain admission to Nigerian Teaching Hospitals, five years ago over1,000 wrote same exams.

Participants took turns to contribute to the discuss as initiated by Adeleye’s papers, all proffering solutions to the woes of the nation and calling on the Federal Government to look into salient issues raised which are not making life easy for the common man.