Editorial
Unacceptable deaths in Nigeria
In 2021, Nigeria’s life expectancy at birth is 60 years. To be specific, this figure amounts to 59 years for males and 63 years for females. Life expectancy at birth in Nigeria is among the lowest in Africa and in the world, even with human and material resources at government’s disposal.
The Life expectancy in Libya is 73 years; in Ghana as in South Africa, it is 64 years. These are few of the countries far ahead of Nigeria.
Our concern is that the way things are going in Nigeria, if it is not checked by a welfarist government, the oldest person in Nigeria in 2050 may be just 49 years.
Nigeria was a promise to Africa in the early 1960s after political independence from Great Britain.
In the 1970s, 1980s to 1990s, Nigerians could eat decent meal in any humble home. But now most Nigerians eat for survival. The joy in walking to family table is no longer there.
Now news of natural death is a happy news, because it is the new normal to hear of deaths in the hands of kidnappers, bandits, insurgents and the like, where family members have no right to their corpses.
If a relation dies at home, people celebrate because it is better than to die in the hands of bandits, kidnappers or insurgents.
Life in Nigeria now is best described as Three for One Kobo; it is cheaper than mangoes.
Now the traditional cause of death from autocrash is no longer a reckoning force. Nigerians now die in their homes, toilets, or in their sleep after a spell of stroke, depression, diabetes, etc.
It is likely that if an average Nigerian could get a drug that will take hunger away for a month or more, he would buy it at all cost.
The nation’s labour market remains stagnant in public sector since 2015. Citizens are told that employment is put on hold while Ministries Departments and Agencies ( MDAs) clandestinely do replacement every day for family members, friends and associates.
Most graduates added to the labour market in the past five years, have gone past their ‘validity period’. They can no longer fit into any recruitment in the military, paramilitary and even public service for no fault of theirs. This is unacceptable to God and democracy.
The way forward is youth employment, employment and employment.