SAM OHUABUNWA'S PARADIGM

My dear professional colleagues It is my great pleasure to send this goodwill message to all Nigerian Pharmacists on the occasion of the celebration of the World Pharmacists' Day holding today, 25th September 2018. It is exciting that the different branches, technical and interest groups have outlined several programs to commemorate this day. I pray that as we reach out on this special day to the community, the Good Lord will empower and enrich us all greatly and grant us very successful celebrations. Taking into cognizance the theme of this year's exercise: PHARMACIST, YOUR MEDICINES' EXPERT, I must say that the time has come indeed for us to push this subject as we face competition from all and sundry in the handling and management of medicines in Nigeria. Despite the great efforts of our leaders over  90 years that the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria has existed, there still exists some confusion in the minds of the people on who the real experts and custodians...

Nigeria is an intriguing nation. A 58- year adult nation that is still crawling like a toddler, while most of its mates are running on sure feet. Many people including political, traditional and religious leaders have expressed their bewilderment with Nigeria's chronic inability to truly rise. Never mind that a tiny minority including some who earn 12 billion Naira as annual dividend will argue differently that Nigeria is rising. Many ordinary folks in Nigeria have raised their hands in desperation as they find themselves daily pushed into poverty despite their best efforts.This is evidenced by the fact that Nigeria the seventh most populous nation with a 'tiny' population of about 198 million People has become the global poverty headquarters,beating India( with a population of over 1.2 billion ) according to the Brookings Institution. Nigeria is said to have  87 million of its citizens in extreme poverty as today and according to Melinda Gates foundation, this number may...

Recently, it was reported that Vice President Osinbajo (VPO) had a different view from former Vice President Atiku (FVPA) concerning the type of restructuring that Nigeria needed. While VPO only wanted fiscal restructuring, FVPA wanted both fiscal and geographical restructuring. I must say at the outset, that it is a good thing that both political leaders are agreed that Nigeria needs restructuring, unlike some other political leaders who say all is well and do not see any need to restructure. For me, I do not only agree that Nigeria should be restructured geographically and fiscally but I believe that Nigeria should be reinvented. This is because a broken bottle can not be repaired, patched or amended. It just has to be re moulded. The breaking of the Country did not start today. It did not start with this Government, nor the one before,not even the one before that, though some elements in these governments have contributed in some way in the breaking of the Country. In my view, the...

The giant telecommunication company MTN has been in the news lately. Of course it is good for a corporate organization to be in the news, but it must be for good reasons. A few days ago, MTN was on National news for illegal money transfer. The CBN accused MTN of transferring foreign exchange illegally out of the Country and asked it to refund the sum of 8.1  billion dollars it allegedly transferred. When I first heard this news of illegal transfer, I shuddered. How did this happen? Was it possible that they bought this huge sum of forex from the Mallam or the unlicensed Bureau De Change? Later I heard the CBN sanctioning some banks for aiding MTN to transfer the money illegally. Then my worry got worse.    How come that banks which are licensed to deal in Foreign Exchange are being accused of aiding illegal transfer? Is this a case of illegal transfer of money or a case of the transfer of illegal money? I think that one of these or both of them soun...

I believe that I am not alone in feeling distressed about the situation of healthcare in Nigeria. Everywhere you look, the  problems stare you on the face. In the public healthcare space, you face poor infrastructure, old or inoperative equipment and generally poor attitude. Even skill and competency levels are often suspect. If you have taken a seriously ill patient to our public health facilities - be they primary, secondary or tertiary institutions, you will have known that many more people are healed by faith in Nigeria than by medical care. If you go to the private health care institutions, may be infrastructure and equipment may be better but attitude and skills are subject to national averages. Additionally, in all cases, affordability remains a key limiting factor. Since managed care and health insurance are still in their infancy or rather has remained in a state of stultified growth, most Nigerians have to deposit cash before they can be attended to or admitted in hospita...

Ordinarily there should be so much going for Nigeria's economy. Production of crude oil at about 2 million barrels per day at a good price of about 70 dollars per barrel is yielding good foreign exchange for the Nation, helping to boost foreign reserves which today stand at about 47.25 Billion dollars. Inflation has continued to decline steadily over several months coming to the current level of 11.4% as the CBN and its MPC retain monetary policy index at a tight stance. Also some great effort is being made at the economic management level to pursue the Nigeria Economic Recovery and Growth  plan( NERGP). Additionally, some improved liquidity has been noticed in terms of funding Nigeria's infrastructure projects, combining oil revenue,tax heist with a large dose of debt from sundry sources. Though the trickle down effect of the budgetary expenditure and policy choices are yet to appropriately reflect on the quality of lives of most Nigerians or on the overall Human development...

I have been in the United States of America attending family events and attempting a vacation. Before I left Nigeria, I was really downcast with the turn of events in Country, especially the show of shame happening in the political circles: rumours of planned decamping, mass decamping and some des-camping; threats of impeachment and attempted impeachments in the midst of worsening insecurity and growing poverty. Nigerian politicians seem to be taking the people for a ride. For me the political environment in the Country was unpleasant especially the high display of impunity and rascality displayed by the security agencies and naturally many people were blaming President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) and his ruling APC Party for fouling the environment.     However, when I arrived the USA and turned on the TV and listened to what people were saying about President Donald Trump (PDT), I realized that the social and political environment in the USA was also agitated and fo...

Those who are familiar with how madness begins to manifest in a person, will tell you that no man becomes mad in just one day. Madness follows a sequence. Of course psychiatrists and those who work in the mental health area can easily notice when a patient goes through the stages or sequence. But for the ordinary folks like us, we also some times notice this sequence  more so when the subject is closely related to us. Signs of mental illness may start with the subject being unusually moody which could represent depression or in some cases the subject may become unusually aggressive and hyperactive called hyperactive disorder.    If the subject is subjected to treatment at these early stages, psychiatrists tell us, the mental health can be corrected but if not, the situation could deteriorate. Soon the subject begins to neglect his personal hygiene and then may begin to speak incoherently similar to what is called psychotic disorder. I am told that even at this stag...

    So very often, we pray for something. And sometimes when the payer is answered, a new problem emerges, that of managing the outcome. The problem is some times exaggerated when God decides to 'embarrass' you and give you more than you asked for or were expecting. There was this story of an Okada driver who had been praying for a child for seven years and eventually his wife became pregnant. Through out the pregnancy he was full of joy, but could not afford to pay for a scan for his wife and so had no idea what was on the way.Because the wife's stomach was very big, he suspected she could be expecting a twin. However on the day his wife was delivered, he was shocked to welcome six tiny children with their tiny fingers in their mouths gaping at him.     He went through contradictory emotional swings. First, he was happy that God had answered his prayers. Then he looked at the tiny girls with their tiny fingers in their mouths and the man burst into tears...

Nigeria has experienced a couple of incomplete military coup d'états. An incomplete coup is one in which the intended objectives are not fully accomplished in one fell swoop. In Nigerian history, we have seen all types of coups-attempted, aborted, failed, phantom, incomplete and complete. They are all different, though they all share a common foundation.     Nigeria's first incomplete coup was the one led  by the majors- notably Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Adewale Ademoyega and their co revolutionaries on the 15th of January 1966. Their critical objective was to overthrow Balewa's government, release Awolowo from prison and enthrone him as the Prime Minister. Due to the poor performance of some of the  team members and the resistance of some officers like Lt-Col Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu in Kano and the counter moves of General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi in Lagos, the coup became incomplete. Balewa was overthrown but Awolowo was not installed ...

  Last week, Nigeria's killing fields expanded North Westwards. Indeed the entire North seems to have been partitioned by three non state actors into three fiefdoms. On the North East, we have the Boko Haram insurgents bombing and snuffing out lives and occasionally making territorial forays into the Borno, Yobe and Adamawa areas. In the North Central, including parts of Southern Kaduna and Taraba, the Militant Herdsmen hold sway killing the innocent, destroying farms and property and in the Northwest a band of marauders are freely raining terror. For a while, it seemed they were only interested in Zamfara State. But last week, they expanded their theatre of influence to parts of Kebbi & Sokoto States and when they were finished on this first assault, 32 citizens of Nigeria were dead, compounding the increasing statistics of the violently dead in these times.   Naturally the President was distraught with this new development and was actually short of words. He...