When a minister chases shadow

 

Medical tourism is a major source of capital flight from Nigeria. Many citizens have no confidence in medical facilities at home. Nigerians spent $1 billion on mostly unnecessary foreign medical trips in 2013, according to Osahon Enabulele, a former president of Nigerian Medical Association. Most of these were by government officials.

During his campaign for the 2015 elections and thereafter, President Muhammadu Buhari promised to end medical tourism and ensure the government’s hard-earned cash would not be spent on treating officials overseas, especially for illnesses that Nigeria has the expertise. In breach of this, Buhari on June 6, 2016 travelled to the United Kingdom to treat an ear infection, attracting public opprobrium.

On January 19, 2017, Buhari embarked on a 10-day working leave to London which ended up as a 51-day medical trip. He returned on March 10 and jetted out again on May 7. Today is about the 70th day and he is yet to return from that trip.

Beyond medi-care, everything else in Nigeria is outsourced. Politicians steal public funds and stash the money in foreign banks, then turn around to organise road shows in the same foreign countries canvassing for foreign investments.

The country relies heavily on imports for most of its needs, from cars and machinery down to match sticks and toothpicks. Ogbonnaya Onu, Minister of Science and Technology, has promised that the country would begin to produce pencils by 2018. We wait.

Petroleum products consumed in Nigeria, the world’s 10th largest producer of crude oil, are refined abroad; the country’s refineries are either moribund or working sub-optimally. The green passport is hardly available at Immigration offices because it is printed abroad, much like a wide range of other security documents, including the naira notes.

Politicians and academics, having run down our schools through years of neglect and mostly needless strike actions, respectively, now send their children and wards to foreign universities and even secondary schools. Ordinary citizens with the means have joined the bandwagon, with some sending their children to even neighbouring Republic of Benin. All because employers in Nigeria show open bias for applicants with foreign degrees!

Wealthy folks holiday abroad, in Paris, New York, London, Dubai, Ghana and co. They go to see London Bridge and co while Obudu Resort struggles to stay afloat owing to low patronage and Tinapa, where Donald Duke sank billions of dollars, is yet to even take off.

So effectively, Nigeria is an appendage, an outpost, a vassal state, a periphery of some foreign centres in the model of the age-old metropole-satellite relationship begun by slave trade and its successor, so-called legitimate trade, and cemented by colonial rule and globalisation. A former governor, now a serving minister, once said in a public even I attended, “Our children now see London, Paris and New York as their home and Nigeria as a place they visit from time to time.”

But these realities are not enough bother for Minister Lai Mohammed. His interest, rather, is in putting a stop to Nigerian musicians and filmmakers going abroad to make films and music videos.

The Minister of Information and Culture had, during a visit to the headquarters of the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) in Lagos on July 15, announced that in a bid to develop the local entertainment industry as well as boost the economy, the government would move to discourage production of Nigerian music and films outside the country.

“This government has agreed that henceforth, whatever we consume in Nigeria in terms of music and films must be made in Nigeria. We cannot continue to go to South Africa or any other country to produce our films and then send them back to be consumed in Nigeria. The Broadcasting Code and the Advertising Code are very clear on this. For you to classify a product as a Nigerian product, it must have a certain percentage of Nigerian content,” he said.

Mohammed also said Nigerian artistes were often flown outside the country to make their recordings and as a result, they help in developing the economies of whatever countries they work in.

Barrage of criticisms

Many Nigerians, particularly entertainers, did not find it funny. Charlie Boy, Kcee, Ruggedman, Yemi Alade, PSquare, Shakar El, Jude Okoye and a host of other Nigerians swooped on the minister, saying it was sheer hypocrisy for government to contemplate such an action while government people go abroad for medical attention, vacation abroad and send their children to schools abroad.

Ruggedman (@RuggedyBaba), in a series of posts on social media said the entertainers were merely learning from those in government, saying, “Just like a London hospital has our major content right now.”

He asked the minister to extend the ban to governors’ and ministers’ healthcare, vacations and children’s education, adding a hashtag, #MinisterFaceYourWork.

Another music artiste, Shakar El, while explaining that Nigerian entertainers go outside to shoot videos most times because of the concept of that particular project and in some cases due to lack of logistics, admonished the minister to use his good offices to also push against medical tourism by Nigerian public officeholders “which appears to be a major problem to our economy and development as a country than entertainment tourism/exchange”.

The PSquare brothers, Peter Okoye and his twin brother Paul, lambasted not just the minister but the government he represents. Peter particularly said he was sometimes ashamed to be called a Nigerian because of the attitude of politicians whom he called “ndi ala” (mad people), reminding the Federal Government that it is the entertainers that have been covering up for government’s failure. He also said he was considering changing his nationality as government has been failing citizens since 1960.

Their elder brother, Jude Okoye, derided the idea of the government wanting to control an industry it “never encouraged, supported or empowered”.

Idongesit Akanimo Udoakagha of Federal Polytechnic Oko, Anambra State expressed disappointment in the minister, querying how Nigeria’s stolen funds stashed in foreign banks by politicians go to improve the local economy.

Chinelo Okechukwu told the minister to start with made-in-Nigeria petroleum products if he were serious about made-in-Nigeria products.

“Why don’t you refine your oil in Nigeria instead of refining it outside the country and have it sold to us as finished products? Why is it so hard to organize yourselves and refine all our oil at home? Why don’t you start buying ‘made in Nigeria cars’? I’m sure if I go into those politicians homes, I will not see made in Nigeria furniture in their living rooms!” Okechukwu said.

“On the strength of the statement of the minister, maybe you should bring Buhari back home to receive ‘made in Nigeria medical care’!…Oh! I forgot, it’s one law for the politicians, and quite another for the docile masses.”

But Ugochukwu Ofoegbu was critical of both the government and artistes.

“If the FG wants us to all stick to Nigeria, Buhari should come to FMC, Owerri and receive medical attention. Not running abroad for over 60 days,” he said.

“To answer the artistes. When Tubaba initiated a protest against the evils of the government, they (the artistes) withdrew from it because it would affect their businesses immediately. They neither supported nor promoted it. Some were unashamedly kicking against it like he started a taboo. Here is an off-shoot of that problem he wanted to protest against on February 6. We are in this together. PSquare can change nationality. Of course they have cribs in the US. But is it about you all the time? Make it better with what you have!” he added.

Unexpected backlash

But Peter Okoye’s reaction did not go down well with a group that called itself the All Progressives Congress (APC) youth renaissance group. In a statement, it called Peter a “son of darkness” and asked “the security agencies in the country to arrest” him “for disrespecting our government and bringing it to a disrepute”.

The statement signed by Collins Edwin, APC youths national secretary, claimed that the PSquare group was “dusted-up from the valley of obscurity” by the Federal Government’s local content policy and now they wanted to obstruct the Federal Government’s “job-saving policy in the entertainment industry”.

In his counter-reaction, Peter Okoye in a tweet asked the national secretary who signed the statement to not only order for his arrest but also order for egusi, pounded yam and goat meat.

Minister backtracks

But on Wednesday, the minister attempted to take back his words, saying his earlier statement was taken out of context.

“At COSON, I said that I would work to amend the National Broadcasting Commission’s code to ensure that if a product is designated a Nigerian product, it must be produced in Nigeria,” Mohammed said at a conference at Eko Hotel & Suites, Lagos.

“I didn’t say that henceforth all music and films would or must be produced in Nigeria.”

But even that explanation has not assuaged the anger of many Nigerians who insist that the minister goofed big time.

“It’s mere shadow chasing. They know what is wrong with the country, they should go and fix it. Where the artistes shoot their films or music videos should be the least of the government’s worries,” said a public affairs commentator who prefers anonymity.

 

CHUKS OLUIGBO