APART from the fact that the power elite, irrespective of which faction is in the corridors of power at the moment, has proved itself completely incompetent in managing the commonwealth to the benefit of all of us, excluding themselves and their favoured ones, one aspect of life and living in our country that is exteremely bothersome, at least to me, is a system in complete distress. I mean, we are all living in a system that is rigged to work against the individual, unless such an individual is among the less than two per cent of our population that control all the wealth. Let me explain.

We have achieved a consensus that it is now a sin to fall sick in Nigeria. But fall sick, we must, as the human body is not a machine. And even machines do break down, now and then. If you fall sick, your next step is to seek medical help. You go to hospital, get diagnosed, and medications are prescribed. You’re on the right path, right? Until you you have to fill your prescriptions. That is when you begin to discover that you are a citizen in a system designed to work, not even for animals, but some lower forms of life whose life mean very little in the human order. 

In 2022, the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, which is charged with primary health welfare delivery under the Federal Ministry of Health, stated that about 70% of drugs distributed in the country are substandard or counterfeit. All of 70%! Not a few millions of people have been sent to their graves prematurely for using fake drugs to combat their illnesses. In our towns and cities, almost on every street, there is a “chemist” who sells medications — prescription, ethical drugs as well as OTCs (Over-the-counter).

These “chemists” usually may not even have studied elementary chemistry, talks less the specialist calling of pharmacy. Yet they dispense drugs, freely. It is in the costly experience of many Nigerians that a lot of the drugs sold by these “chemists” are fake, or substandard. People spend their hard-earned money on drugs they hoped, or were told will help them achieve a relief from the condition they are suffering from, only to sink deeper into it, or worse, come up with something far deadlier than what they initially set out to treat.

The problem is that the healthcare system, at the top of which are the federal and state ministries of health have failed woefully to regulate this all-important sector. There was a flash of hope during the Obasanjo administration, when the national foods and drugs regulator, NAFDAC (National Agency for Foods, Drugs Administration & Control) came under the late Dr. Dora Akunyili as Director-General. Then, the merchants of death who deal in fake drugs had a hot time as the woman fought all of them with uncommon determination. Since she left, NAFDAC has not been what it was under her, and the fake drugs menace has worsened, many times over!

Another take. Do you own a car, or motorcycle? Occasionally, these things break down and they need to be repaired. Of course, you’d need replacement parts. A first-time owner of a tokunbo vehicle will probably be flabbergasted when told by his/her mechanic that used parts are better than brand new replacement parts. How? I always asked, and I always got told that brand new parts are mostly fake or sub-standard. How can a brand new part be fake or sub-standard? The mechanics usually laughed and stridently advised that one should buy tokunbo parts. The only way it made sense to me is that tokunbo parts are not bad for tokunbo vehicles; they are all used and cast away before they got here to become treasures. In many cases, users buy a tokunbo part that gives up days after buying! Similarly, the same happens with so-called brand new parts!

My problem with these two scenarios is the complete absence of regulation in the healthcare and the automobile markets. Of course, most of the products in the healthcare and automobile markets referenced above are imported. But to safeguard us, we have pre-shipment inspection agencies engaged by our government at huge costs. The Customs also has scanners at the ports that cost millions of dollars. In addition, there are many agencies at the ports, like NAFDAC, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, and others. All these organisations have sprawling bureaucracies staffed with mandarins hugely paid at public expense. Why then should we end up with sub-standard products?

What I am actually driving at is that the system of governance as presently instituted in our country is not working to our benefit. The anything-goes attitude is evident in all sectors. A businessman marries a teacher, and to upscale his wife’s status, buys land, builds structures that look like classrooms, and boom, a school has started. They start hiring teachers, mostly badly trained or unqualified teachers, or even untrained, jobless school-leavers are employed as teachers. All these in a country whose states have ministries of education that have inspectorate divisions. Nobody inspects schools anymore, as it was in the days of yore! Same thing in the health sector.

Businessmen have been seen to open “chemist” shops for their wives who trained as nurses! The effect of this dysfunctioning system is what we are all battling today — depleted quality of living, fallen standard of education, low life expectancy, eroded values, and insecurity. In short, the nation is in a flight on autopilot to an unknown destination. And instead of the power elite — the politicians that manage our affairs, to rise to the occasion and avert the clear and present danger, they are fiddling, just as Nero did when Rome was burning, with looting, elections, defections, and re-elections being their major pre-occupation. What a country! TGIF.