Health
Tag: health, politics, culture
Keyword: Mental stress, life expectancy, poverty, diseases, health
The invisible death Nigerian’s and African’s has been experiencing even before COVID-19
With the rise in cases of COVID-19 all around the world, Africa is seemingly getting its share of high rates of COVID-19 new cases with more deaths but at the same time with some level recoveries. As people tend to practice social distancing and lockdowns in different parts of Africa and globally, it’s seemingly creating new ideologies and new ways of life that are unfortunate, I must say.
The drastic change is generating a new kind of stress, especially in countries like Nigeria and 3rd world countries, where the standard of living is generally poor, with poverty being part of life’s lifestyle. Now that there are mandatory lockdowns, cities and countries in Africa which were not independent would face even stricter periods as supplies will become over-demanding, limited supply, price rocketing and a higher poverty level. It is sad not that with the low life expectancy experienced in many African countries even before the COVID-19 pandemic as an indication of an inadequate standard of living, this new life pattern may only worsen the case.
When it comes to life expectancycompared to countries in the first world,Africans have a far lower life expectancy, according to worldmeter.com. For instance: Cameroon is having about 60 years of life expectancy, South Sudan (58.7), Nigeria (55.7), Central African Republic (54.3) in contrast to countries like China (85. 2), Italy (84), Canada (82.9) U.K. (81.7) and the united states (79.11). The question is, why are Nigerian’s and African’s having a lower life expectancy?
Some Reasons?
- Poor Hygiene and diet
Due to poverty, most Nigerians and Africans live on a low diet, living with less than 1 dollar a day. This causes most Nigerians to struggle for survival in harsh environments, exposure to germs and diseases and no treatment to alleviate the potential accumulating health hazards in the body
- Poor health facilities and treatments
It’s still alarming that Children, youths and even older people are dying when they fall ill of malaria because of no proper medical facilities, drugs and attention. With the rising rate of exposure to different kinds of diseases like COVID-19, diseases likeAIDS/HIV, Meningococcal diseases, Hepatitis B and C, Rabies, Tuberculosis, Viral hemorrhagic fever, Ebola virus, cancer, Lassa fever, Rift Valley fever, pneumonia and organ failures.The extreme conditions, exposure to germs and microorganisms, unprotected sex and general poor health, contribute to these illnesses
- Mental health
Another very critical area that has is not really being looked upon in Nigeria and many African countries is the state of mental health. Due to the low state of living coupled with the difficulties in making financial ends meet and now with the lockdown, the probability of increasedmental health challenges is predictable. Mental health on its own subjects people with several challenges like rapid heart rate, feeling overwhelmed, Increasedblood pressure, fatigue and many more, including the fear that the situation will never get better. This can cause Chronic stresses that can link to high blood pressure, heart attack, stokes, and suicide. Most men in their 50s-60s experience heart attacks and strokes, younger people who lost their only means of survival, either in business or academics, have been reported to commit suicides. The increasing the mortality rate and further reducing the life expectancy is something to worry about.
- Basic amenities
Just as stated before about Mental stress, another contributor to this is the Government’s inability to provide the people’s necessary amenities. It would surprise you that Nigeria still experiences black-outs (unreliable electricity), insufficient accessible and drinking water, bad road, sanitation, education, public health, employment, transport and many more. Apart from its ability to further increase people’s mental stress and frustration, the exposure to accidents from the bad road, more exposure to diseases, inadequate security, increased environmental, social and economic problems result fromfast-paced urbanization. This will eventually lead to a threat to sustainable development and lack of peace.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
How can Nigerian’s and Africans still live their lives? I mean, people have endured living without electricity and basic amenities, trying to manage and hope for the future. First, it is comparative that the people are appropriately sensitized to exposure to such threats, especially during the pandemic. Talking and communicatingwith people right now might be one of the best medicines in helping, especially in mental health. You might never know who is having mental stress and needs you desperately. We can only try our best and making sure that we get this over. Suppose the Government and institutions can take an extra step and making sure we provide some of the basic amenities like electricity and access to portable drinking water. In that case, I mean different activities can be created in this period to lessen the Mental stress and hardship being faced. Most importantly, is electing a government for the people who know their problems and can find ways out for the people is what matters. This will ultimately help in improving the life expectancy of the average Nigerian and African citizens.
POLL
What do you feel is the major contributing factor to very low life expectancy in Nigeria and other parts of Africa?
- Exposure to deadly diseases
- Mental stress
- Social-economic challenges like armed robbery
- Fake drugs and inadequate health facilities
Education
Tag: education, politics, socials, science
Keyword: Primary education, secondary education university, technical skills, practical, Government, Enterprise
After 16 years and more, are Nigerian graduates competent enough? What could be the problem? Lazy youths?
With the level of poor infrastructural development and human capacity development been experienced in Nigeria, some persons have argued that this problem is not really from the Government or rather it is from the educational sector. How can this be? Why should the educational sector be blamed for the poor level of infrastructure and the kind of graduates that is being injected into the society who ought to provide the human capacity for the development of any society?
Remember that the essential four factors of production are listed as Land (all-natural resources), labour (people with their abilities), capital (money, tools, equipment) and Enterprise (human resources- people with the knowledge to put things together). Although many concepts of why human resources are not being developed enough being based on the fact that we have poor teachers, some believe that the educational sector is too porous that creates unreliable students while some just probably say it’s the Government not providing their needs, policies and enabling environment. Here we have to try to look up where the problems are coming from.
PRIMARY EDUCATION
Most Nigerian children attend Primary School at the age of six (6),which takes a total of 6 years to complete and is judged by the successful completion of the common entrance exam to the secondary school stage.
Here, the basic nomenclatures or the basic teachings are being based on arithmetic skills, knowledge skills and fundamental skills on being a citizen in civic society. It further explains the understanding of parents‘ social responsibilities, the school, the community, and the Government. The attention leadsto speaking and communicating in good English and how to perform mathematical and arithmetic skills. These two form the basic foundation to kick start other knowledge subjects. At the tender age, various mathematics and English subjects are being exposed to the students to test their Intelligent Quotient (I.Q). These subjects are verbal reasoning and quantitative analysis. Verbal reasoning focuses on combining different verbal expressions and understanding the complexities of solving a problem,as this is a derivative ofthe English language. The second one is a derivative from mathematics, which is very important is the quantity of analysis, which tries to trick students on how to apply numbers and logic in understanding expressions of items and symbolsgenerally.
This particular subject helped the primary school students be bright to sharpen their I.Q. and become prepared for a higher level of learning.
SECONDARY EDUCATION
Secondly is secondary school education that focuses more based on technical skills and business skills.This positions the students in understanding career paths and creates an avenue for them to choose what they want. Here, the fundamental principles, theories, laws and ideologies are best known. Basic and straightforward problems are being solved, which creates a sense of purpose. Hence, subjects like chemistry, biology, physics, commerce,Government, accounting, agricultural science and geography are being taught. These subjects play a vital role in assessing the student’s capability in technical skills, and in several indications, it’s okay to have the knowledge of secondary school education. Here, the basis of practical experimentation of the technical skills attained theoretically is being achieved. It takes 6 years for a student to transit from junior to a senior level making it a total of 12 years.
TETIARY EDUCATION
Thirdly, is the university.The university becomes the bedrock of advanced technical skill which transits from secondary education. Further focus is geared to showing the ideologies and application of advanced technical skills. Professional disciplines like Law, Engineering and Medicine as career options are being treated here with other applied courses like accounting, physical and biological sciences, education, arts, commerce, entrepreneurial development are studied. These different areas subject the Nigerian students into better kind of understanding in being an enterprise. This takes 4-7 years depending on what you decide to study. Thus, it takes a student a minimum of 16 years to pass through the educational system. On a further note, students who graduate can decide to go further for Masters and PhD which helps to address two main points. Research & Development (R&D) and Community development services (CDS)
Now, why is it that students coming out cannot perform enough?Although there are a lot of challenges, some experts feel that the Government of the country has not provided enough funds for research and development. Some feel that and that of the educational sector has a faulted curriculum while others feel students are just being lazy. As the president of the nation says „Nigerian youths are lazy youths“. Although the Government has not provided enough jobs, for graduating students to work but the essence is cantered on the human capacity of the Nigerian youths after their education. So is it that the Government is not providing enough loans and funding for students to start creating jobs through entrepreneurship? Or is it that educational sector is not playing its role due to its lack of capacity? These we need to ask and know before a solution can commence…….
POLL
What is the main reason for unqualified Nigerian students that can create enterprises for production?
- The curriculum is too bad to equip students to become good enough
- Government is not funding the educational sector properly for R&D
- Lecturers do no know anything, universities would have been producing
- Nigerians are lazy youths.
Religion
Tag: Religion social, culture
Keyword: Mental stress, life expectancy, poverty, diseases, health
Did we need Religion?
Religion in Nigeria has taken a very drastic and all-pervading stage in the minds of the people. Religion has caught up with the reasons, changing the way we act and live. The two major religions in Nigeria are Islam, and Christianity backed up with the Quran and the Bible. However, the books hold some historical happenings in the world about GOD, some levels of knowledge, wisdom, guidance, and prophetic talks. These powerful contexts have greatly influenced people, be it real or not real
So, we cannot tell whether Christianity or Islam is needed in our very coexistence. The level of dedicated obedience is unimaginable with a powerful force. Islam prays five times daily dedicatedly and observes several obligatory rites ranging from the declaration of faith (shahadah), daily prayers (salat), fasting during the month of Ramadan (sawm), almsgiving (zakat), and the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) at least once in a lifetime. On the other hand, the Christians have a lot of pastors sprouting in different corners with the rapid growth of crusades, prayers, healings, deliverances, apostolic and prophecies.
Around the 11th century, Islam came into northern Nigeria and in the 16th century became well-known in the major capitals of the north region in 16th century. It started spreading into the countryside and toward the Middle Belt uplands. A government was created by Shehu Usman dan Fodio in Northern Nigeria even before the arrival of colonialism, which gave the north a structural framework to work with. This aided the British colonial masters in adopting the indirect rule in Northern Nigeria. Gradually Islam penetrated the countryside and came to the South Western Yoruba-speaking areas during Mansa Musa's Mali Empire. The Yoruba colloquially described Islam as "Esin-Mali".
For Christianity, In the 15th century, Christianity was introduced through Augustinian and Capuchin monks from Portugal, which wasn't so successful due to diseases. In 1842, the Church of England had its first mission in Badagry by Henry Townsend. In 1864 Samuel Ajayi Crowther, an ethnic Yoruba and former slave was then elected as the Bishop of the Niger and the first black Bishop of the Anglican Communion. Lagos became a diocese of its own in 1919. In 1940, Leslie Gordon Vining became Bishop of Lagos and in 1951, he became the first archbishop of the newly inaugurated Province of West Africa. He also was the last Bishop of Lagos of European descent. From there, these two religions keep spreading along with other Religions practiced by the various indigenous people.
Level of devoutness by Nigerians
When it is about devoutness, a simple example is when you get into a public bus, and a person starts preaching using the name of Jesus, the level of calmness and cooperation with the preacher is quite alarming. Even without knowing the intentions, previous records, and mission of this said person, everybody stops their activities and focuses as long as the name is called. The same is seen in Islam; a person can call the name of GOD (Allah) or the prophet Mohammed and all Muslims follow suit without knowing the intention, whether real or not. These total supplications show how religious we are to a great extent. Although this can be quantified, we can not ascertain its quality.
Influence of Religion in development
While we bring this issue to the front table, we have not said it is bad or good. Let's look at other nations that had Religion as their basis.
According to the Economic of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Indonesia has the highest nominal GDP of $1,152,889,600,000, followed by turkey and Saudi Arabia. The cooperation has a total of 57 member states, of which 53 are principally Muslim states. Those 57-member counties have a combined GDP (at Purchasing power parity; PPP) of about US$27,949 billion. When it comes to GDP per capita at PPP, the United Arab Emirates is the wealthiest country on. Then based on per capita GDP, Qatar tops with incomes exceeding US$133,357 per capita. According to a Salam Standard report, the GDP impact of the world's Muslim tourism sector is more than $138 billion in 2015, which generated more than 4.3 million jobs and contributed more than $18 billion in tax revenue.
Most first-world countries in the world, United Kingdom, the united states, Italy, France, Canada, Norway, all had their basis in Christianity, and their economies are doing fine. They used Religion and moved into or more steady-state of independence and a state of knowledge. They achieved this in several decrees, including the pursuit of learning and development. In other areas like Social services, Politics and advocacy (without Religion added into our politics, we can have an election in Nigeria), a long-term perspective, hope and inspirations for the future. These are elements that can drive a nation towards pushing for development.
What went wrong in Nigeria?
The problem is simple, power tussle. A severe outbreak between Christians and Muslims occurred in Kafanchan in southern Kaduna State in a border area between the two religions in the 1980s. This waspropelled by extreme leaders who were able to rally a young, educated group of individuals who feared that the nation would not be able to protect their religious group. The leaders were able to polarize their followers through speeches and public demonstrations. This ended up in burnt churches and mosques and left a lot of persons dead. These religious movements head by different leaders and persons have seen an increase in gun battles between religious groups and security forces, with loss of lives witnessed. Although direct conflicts between Christians and Muslims are relatively rare, tensions usually flare-up between the two groups headed by radicalized persons. This led to the conflicts of some preachers (Muslims & Christians) who went out of their territory to preach and speak about their Religion leading to conflicts and even death.
As it stands, Nigeria is regarded as a capital state of poverty in the world, and We have not still seen the level of development and growth as seen in other countries. Even other nations have started dropping their religious practices, yet their level of development is encouraging and growing at a fast pace. Africans and especially Nigerians who have attached so much to Religion haven't seen the level of developmental growth expected from a nation with a lot of natural and human resources. The same goes for countries that held Religion so tightly.
The question is, do we really need Religion or are we not understanding the basis of Religion? Were the rudiments of Religion not given to Nigerians in helping us understanding? If Religion was aimed at seeking God, then we ought to have grown in knowledge and understanding in growing our society and bringing us out of poverty. Is this not the aim of knowing God? [yop_poll id="1"]
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