Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FG grants citizenship to 92 foreigners

i have a question about these calls to return to teaching to nigeria, as an ethical obligation for the sons and daughters of nigeria.
in senegal and cameroon i know of u.s. trained ph.d.s, people i would consider highly qualified, being turned away at the door when they expressed interest in seeking teaching positions at home. the reasons seemed to be multiform. this is what i have heard: people trained at home (viz. in the home institutions), or who were sent abroad for their ph ds, be they in france, england, or the states, should get the jobs. those trained in the u.s. would come back with expectations that they should change things, thinking that they had a better education. those trained abroad are regarded as seeking to import non-african approaches. those returning would not be willing to defer to the authority of those in charge. etc
lastly, within the francophone system, there is a certain degree of apprehension about accepting scholars trained in the u.s. as outsiders lacking in the proper approaches and proper workings of french, which is still utilized.
i don't know what else might be at play, but these small points i have listed have been reiterated over and over.
so, i am curious about ola's call for ex-pat nigerians to assume the mantle of teaching at home, the obligation to society to do so, as if it were entirely their choice to get hired or not
ken

On 5/23/11 10:02 PM, olakassimmd@aol.com wrote:

If your analysis is intended to elicit positive feelings, however, I humbly submit that rather than being positive, such is only an indulgence in self-deceit. Let's tell ourselves the home truth, nothing works in Nigeria. It may require more than a revolution to change things, and become relevant in the scheme of things. Even professed revolutionists (read progressives) have internalized some of the negative values that draw us back. Everyone has internalized the tendency for quick and inexplicable wealth, the tendency for mind-boggling profits, the tendency for quick fixes at the expense of sustainable long-term developmental efforts, ostentatious life styles and show-offs, loquaciousness and glib understanding of issues rather than deep insights and appreciation, an unbridled thirst for power and fame and a readiness to acquire and hold on to such even if it means killing fellow human beings, the celebration of material acquisition even by religious leaders whose affection and focus should have been heaven. The list is almost endless. The case is almost hopeless.--Kola Onifade

Dear Kola:

 

I believe you completely misunderstood the basic thrust of the post that you referenced.

The aim of the piece was not to engender any specific feeling--either positive or negative

from the reader. My intention was to situate the current state of development in Nigeria--(using the health sector

as an example) within a global context. I believe that my consclusion was that we are NOT we are we should be

considering what we have going in our favour.

 

While using Mozambique as a comparator, I also referenced statistics from the WHO which showed how  Nigeria is far

from reaching the expected goals not only in the ratio of physicians to population but also in so many indices

of development (not discussed in the post) in which we are failing woefully.

 

As bad as things are in Nigeria, I believe strongly that we can effect positive changes if we are determined

to do so.

 

I do not believe that simply bellyaching and complaining endlessly about how bad things are in Nigeria

(and the reasons why we fled the country that nurtured us) --and doing nothing practical to effect a change in direction-

---(Dr Val Ojo style )--except wishing for

revolutions will lead to any meaningful positive changes. 

 

To some extent, I believe that many if not all Nigerians who live and work abroad could also be justifiably

charged with being also partly responsible for the slow pace of development in Nigeria. Have you ever considered

whether the precipitous decline of the standards at all levels of education in Nigeria could have been partially ameliorated

if more of those of us who were trained in Nigeria returned to impart some of the knowledge we gained

while studying in Nigeria and abroad for the benefit of the current generation of students?

 

I know; I know; I know--we all have our reasons for bailing out and not returning! What I am asking is that we also task ourselves

to find enough reasons why we must also make practical contributions in Nigeria in our fields of endeavour either

through temporary or permanent employment or mainly through volunteer efforts.

 

Like you, I do not believe in harping on Nigeria's potentials--considering that one can only go so far on potentials.

Potentials that are not actualized eventually become individual and societal burdens. I am frequently challenged

everytime that I write that Nigeria could not be considered a rich nation by any measure--regardlessf her so

called potentials-including human and natural endowments by those who think that such potentials contitute

in aggregate a true measure of wealth. In my books--Nigeria is a poor neighbour in the comity of nations worldwide.

Many others disagree!

 

I wrote about Nigeria being a land of opportunities and lamented about why we the natives fail to take advantage

of the opportunities while leaving the doors open to foreigners to exploit them. This fact is reinforced every time

I visit Nigeria.

 

Unlike Ambassadors Lyman and Campbell, I do not see Nigeria as a sinking ship. There is hope for the future

notwithstanding the dark clouds in the horizon..

 

Let us hope that we'll get good governance post May 29, 2011 considering that good governance

orchestrated by visonary and wholesome leaders is a sine qua non for positive development.

 

Wishing you a great week.

 

Bye,

 

Ola

NB:

 

Finally, I think you would not have used the analogy of the father with ten children he cannot afford to raise

if you are conversant with my views on the unsustainable pace of population growth in NIgeria which many in the audience

find quite controversial. There is no other topic that gets my juice flowing like that one!

 

---- Original Message ----
From: Kolawole Onifade <kol_onif@yahoo.com>
To: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, May 23, 2011 7:05 am
Subject: Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] FG grants citizenship to 92 foreigners

 

Dr. Kassim,   I wish to note that your analysis here is one major reason why Nigeria has not attained meaningful development in any sphere of human development: a fixation with minor and sometimes irrelevant factors and a penchant to present such as indicia of development and/or global relevance.   Let me quickly cite parallel assertions in the mould of your argument: we are a country of 150 million; one out of every blackman is a NIgerian; we are blessed with a virile and enterprising population; our land is very rich for agricultural purposes; we are endowed with strategic minerals like oil and any solid mineral you may think of e.t.c. In short, it is a fixation with potentials when the reality bespeaks the exact opposite. And, as Ambassador Princeton Lyman aptly puts it, the world is tired of hearing our recount of potentials when other less loquacious, less endowed and obviously less populated African neighbors are making small but measurable and tangible steps towards development.   You measure the development of our health care compared with Mozambique (a country just getting out of the throes of internicine civil war!) in terms of the number of doctors our medical schools have produced. Besides the number, what is the quality? What facilities are available to the trained doctors? Are health facilities really developed when our doctors are constrained to operate on patients using kerosene lanterns? What modern facilities have any of our physicians-in-training  been exposed to or been fortunate to train with?   I may not be able to speak on behalf of your generation. But the recent generation of physicians who emigrate to developed countries talk about seeing many medical instruments for the first time on getting to those countries! A medical doctor wife of my friend recently came into the United States to give birth. She commented that she was overwhelmed by the sophisticatio of gadgets used by the gyneacologist, the good-mannered nurses, the availability of beds and clean private rooms, the personalized services among others. How about that for development of the Nigerian health sector!   If we go by your premise, if you have two children who are well trained and gainfully employed, and your neighbor has ten children who are not trained but end up as miscreants and nuisances; your neighbor who has ten children is better off given the large number of children he sirred. I want to believe that you will not subscribe to that logic.   Unfortunately, you can relate this malaise to every sector of the Nigerian society, polity and economy. For instance, we have the largest number of Churches per capita in any country one may think of, but does this equate piousness? Also, we have more universities than all our West African neighbors combined. Unfortunately, the quality of our graduates compared to even less endowed countries like Togo leaves much to be desired. As recent as two weeks ago, Togo national soccer team (drawn from its local league) beat its Nigerian counterparts. The Togolese coach made a point that we are overhyped. All it took his team to beat us was his ability to read the game bettter than our overhyped Siasia. All their goals were score on counterattacks!   There are countless examples to cite. But I will not detain you further.    However, I wish to note your analysis of the paradox inherent in Nigerians leaving their country in droves, while foreigners are jostling to get into the same country! Rather than being an indication of any meaningful development in the country, it is an affirmation of the malaise that drove many out in the first place as well as a veritable indicia of leadership failure. Our leaders are ready to do business with a foreigner because he does not compete for local resources which the greedy leader is not willing to share with his people. Further, befriending the foreigner-investor provides a veritable avenue for stashing ill-gotten wealth. And, it is definitely those foreigners who are aware of the potential to make unrealistic profits from businesses in Nigeria given the lack of institutional frameworks, that jostle to do business here. To be sure, that is part of the problem we face. It is not a positive indication. And, it is definitely not a solution.   If your analysis is intended to elicit positive feelings, however, I humbly submit that rather than being positive, such is only an indulgence in self-deceit. Let's tell ourselves the home truth, nothing works in Nigeria. It may require more than a revolution to change things, and become relevant in the scheme of things. Even professed revolutionists (read progressives) have internalized some of the negative values that draw us back. Everyone has internalized the tendency for quick and inexplicable wealth, the tendency for mind-boggling profits, the tendency for quick fixes at the expense of sustainable long-term developmental efforts, ostentatious life styles and show-offs, loquaciousness and glib understanding of issues rather than deep insights and appreciation, an unbridled thirst for power and fame and a readiness to acquire and hold on to such even if it means killing fellow human beings, the celebration of material acquisition even by religious leaders whose affection and focus should have been heaven. The list is almost endless. The case is almost hopeless.   Regards.   Kola. --- On Sun, 5/22/11, OlaKassimMD@aol.com <OlaKassimMD@aol.com> wrote: From: OlaKassimMD@aol.com <OlaKassimMD@aol.com> Subject: [NIgerianWorldForum] FG grants citizenship to 92 foreigners To: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com, AfricanTalk@yahoogroups.com, nigerianid@yahoogroups.com, omoodua@yahoogroups.com, NIDOA@yahoogroups.com Cc: Participants.Group@pear.metrocast.net, usgemology@yahoo.com, vin_modebelu@yahoo.com, adenibaadepoyigi@yahoo.com.au Date: Sunday, May 22, 2011, 8:10 PM       Quote:   "Dr Ola Kassim   But isn't something terribly wrong in our psyche really? Here we are all running away from a place which other foreigners are dying to be part of. I just can't understand it?"   Adeniba Adepoyigi Australia   UnQuote Brother Adeniba:   Sometimes one needs to step outside of one's surroundings to appreciate what God has endowed one with. Nigeria is a land of opportunities relative not only to poorer African nations but indeed most of the world's nations. This is the reason most of the seats on aircrafts flying to Nigeria are almost always full. The passenger lists to Lagos and Abuja usually include no less than 20 to 25% non-Nigerians.   I had the opportunity to host a visiting academic team from the premier Medical School in Mozambique (one of only three medical schools in the country on Thursday, last week). The delegation was led by the Dean of the Medical School, Professor Ismail (a surgical pathologst) who is a native Mozambquan and the Head of administration at the Medical School.--one Dr Berner ( a Biologist by vocation) who is of Dutch descent.   The statistcs are daunting when compared to Nigeria. Mozambique has a population of 21 million citizens. There are only 900 physicians in the country to serve this huge population. The majority of the physicians are based in the cities even though the majority of the citizens live in remote villages. Most Mozambiquans, we were told still receive their health care services from native herbalists..   If we   extrapolate these figures to Nigeria's 150 million people--this will mean that there would be only approximately 6000 physicians to serve the Nigerian population. I am not exactly sure how many physicians are practising in Nigeria today--considering the tremendous brain drain over the decades but the figures are definetely much higher than 6,000. My alma mater--UI Medical School alone has graduated a total of 6,000 physicians since its inception (an accurate figure provided by the current Medical Director of UCH, Ibadan, Professor Ilesanmi during his speech at the NIDO World Conference held in Toronto May 13 to 15.) If we add the graduates from UNILAG, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University, OAU, UNIBEN and subsequent second generation medical schools--Nigeria would have produced in excess of 15,000 physicians since the inception of these medical schools. The number of physicians in Nigeria is further increased when we add the foreign trained physicians over the years.   Nigeria should ideally have a total of 300,000 physicians if we are to come near the recommended target of 1 physician per 500 patients (WHO recommendation) or 30,000 if we use the less demanding 1 to 5000 ratio.  Even though we are no where near this ideal, Nigeria remains better off than most of our sister African countres.   And the above is just about healthcare.   The differential will probably be higher in most if not all other aspects of human development with respect to Nigeria and other sub-Saharan African countries with the exception of South Africa, Botswana and probably Ghana.   The moral of the story--foreigners see Nigeria as a land of abundant opportunities while we her citizens are busy lining up every day in our thousands at the gates of foreign embassies to obtain exit Visas to other lands.   As you wrote there is definetely a major disconnect out there! Somethimg is askew in Nigeria. Something is wrong with our psyche! The place is not working at its should.   What do the foreigners see that we the natives do not? We might find the answer if we follow the footsteps of the foreigners once they land in Nigeria. Ironic? But it might work!   Bye,   Ola ---- Original Message ---- From: Adeniba Adepoyigi <adenibaadepoyigi@yahoo.com.au> To: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com; AfricanTalk@yahoogroups.com Cc: Participants.Group@pear.metrocast.net; usgemology@yahoo.com; vin_modebelu@yahoo.com Sent: Sun, May 22, 2011 10:21 pm Subject: Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] RE: || FG grants citizenship to 92 foreigners   Dr Ola Kassim   But isn't something terribly wrong in our psyche really? Here we are all running away from a place which other foreigners are dying to be part of. I just can't understand it?   Adeniba Adepoyigi Australia From: "OlaKassimMD@aol.com" <OlaKassimMD@aol.com> To: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com; AfricanTalk@yahoogroups.com Cc: Participants.Group@pear.metrocast.net; usgemology@yahoo.com; vin_modebelu@yahoo.com Sent: Mon, 23 May, 2011 7:28:56 AM Subject: Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] RE: || FG grants citizenship to 92 foreigners   Let them grow and multiply--as long as they are willing to contribute to development of Nigeria and remain law abiding citizens! -----Original Message----- From: Dr. Valentine Ojo <valojo@md.metrocast.net> To: AfricanTalk <AfricanTalk@yahoogroups.com> Cc: Participants.Group@pear.metrocast.net; usgemology@yahoo.com; vin_modebelu@yahoo.com Sent: Sun, May 22, 2011 5:28 pm Subject: [NIgerianWorldForum] RE: || FG grants citizenship to 92 foreigners   "Fellows Something is going on here. We are running away from Nigeria..but..these people are coming in and buying lands..and building...and employing a,..and paying people below minimum wage..." - "vincent modebelu" <vin_modebelu@yahoo.com> "*****The new citizens included nationals of Lebanon, United Kingdom, Canada, Niger, India, Italy, Philippine, Venezuela, Moroco and so on. ******punch" It is called NEO-COLONIALISM - the second wave of COLONIALISM! Hehehehehehehehehe! On Sun 05/22/11 2:44 PM , "Chief Gemologist" usgemology@yahoo.com sent: your brother gej is selling your future and you dey oyiboland dey blow amanjakiri grammars! when you return to orlu, you go rent a trailer the lebanese man brought to rent to you as apartment! mumu mugun ewu cambia! -----Original Message----- Date: Sunday, May 22, 2011 2:30:07 pm To: "OBSERVE YOURSELF" <NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com>,"val ojo" <valojo@md.metrocast.net>,"roth fash" <rotfash@yahoo.com>,rotimi_osunsan@yahoo.com,rexmarinus@hotmail.com,enyimocha@gmail.com,"Ola Kassim" <OlaKassimMD@aol.com>,"elombah daniel" <elsdaniel@yahoo.com>,"afis" <odidere2001@yahoo.com>,"Idowu Bobo" <idowubobo@yahoo.com>,adeajayi@aol.com,aighedosa@yahoo.com,nowa_o@yahoo.com,edoregeneration@yahoo.co.uk,"EDO sonman" <edosomwanlaw@gmail.com>,IgboEvents@yahoogroups.com,yaqman@hotmail.com,dipoeniola@yahoo.com From: "vincent modebelu" <vin_modebelu@yahoo.com> Subject: ||NaijaObserver|| FG grants citizenship to 92 foreigners *****The new citizens included nationals of Lebanon, United Kingdom, Canada, Niger, India, Italy, Philippine, Venezuela, Moroco and so on. ******punch Fellows Something is going on here. We are running away from Nigeria..but..these people are coming in and buying lands..and building...and employing a,..and paying people below minimum wage EFCC must investigate vin......../// Friday, May 20, 2011 FG grants citizenship to 92 foreigners Adelani Adepegba, Abuja No fewer than 92 foreigners received their certificates of citizenship from President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja on Thursday. advertisement The new citizens included nationals of Lebanon, United Kingdom, Canada, Niger, India, Italy, Philippine, Venezuela, Moroco and so on. Speaking at the presentation ceremony, the President stated that the beneficiaries had met all the prescribed administrative and constitutional requirements before their application for citizenship was gran

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