By Promise Adiele
One iconic biblical quotation that has catalysed the belief psychology of many Christians worldwide is found in the book of 3 John 1-2 and it states – “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth”. That quotation is symbolic and reassuring in all of its spiritual, reviving potential. Among Christians, the quote galvanizes those in despair and motivates the weary. Although the statement was made by Apostle John and directed towards Gaius, a church elder, for his hospitality towards Christian missionaries, many modern-day Christians have appropriated it as God’s declaration over their lives. Today, many clergy men declare the same statement over their congregation as an honest prayer of goodwill and empathy. However, successive governments in Nigeria have turned the statement on its head, declaring the opposite to the citizens to such grotesque dimensions as “Brethren, I wish above all things that thou mayest be in poor health and continually suffer till death”. The current government, through its attitude and official mannerism, has upheld the latter declaration over Nigerians with more devastating brutality never seen anywhere in the world. Yet, Nigerians continue to echo the amusing delusion – Nigeria is the giant of Africa.
Recently, Global Statistics released disturbing data indicating that Nigeria has the lowest life expectancy in the world. Global Statistical sources such as Worldometer, Statista, Macrotrends, Our World in Data, World Bank Open Data, and the World Health Organization are reputed to aggregate, analyse, and report data on a worldwide scale to release significant information across multiple fields. They all shun propaganda and misleading falsehood. Over the years, these statistical sources have acquired a reputation for accurate presentation of data and therefore, governments worldwide, including researchers, depend on them for policy making and research. They are all famed for their non-hysterical, objective presentation of data. The recent data, which designates Nigeria as the country with the lowest life expectancy in the world has reverberated worldwide and should embarrass the government of Nigeria. But one wonders if the Nigerian government still has any iota of shame or embarrassment. To be clear, life expectancy is the average number of years a person is statistically expected to live on earth based on several factors. It is a key measure of a population’s health and can vary significantly based on geographical location, historical period, and other socioeconomic variables.
According to the data, Nigeria took the ignoble first position as the country with the lowest life expectancy in the world. At the second position is Chad and the third position is occupied by war-ravaged South Sudan. The data further revealed that life expectancy in Nigeria is 54.6 years overall. A further breakdown of the data shows that life expectancy in Nigeria for men is 54.3 years while for women it is 54.9 years. In Chad it is 55.2 years. In South Sudan it is 57.7years. In Central African Republic it is 57.7 years and in Lesotho it is 57.8 years. Furthermore, the countries with the highest life expectancy are Monaco 87 years, San Marino 86 years, Japan 85 years and South Korea 85 years. The data also revealed that Nigeria ranks 161 out of 175 countries as the safest place for women to live. These statistics primarily testify to the low quality of life in Nigeria occasioned by a dilapidated, poor healthcare system, excruciating poverty, scarcity of food, wanton death through insecurity, suicide, unemployment, spiralling inflation, social decay, and leadership failures. It is a direct signal that Nigeria is immersed in economic stasis where the lives of the citizens continually lose value daily.
Nigeria, by any stretch of the imagination, is not a poor country. Therefore, when countries like Chad and South Sudan are better than Nigeria in terms of quality of life and life expectancy, it simply amplifies the degenerate leadership protocol that has captured the country over the years. Life is everything and if care is not taken, if Nigerians continue to condone criminal personnel in the corridors of power, gradually the life expectancy in the country will one day become 30 years. The current data where Nigeria took the first position as the country with the lowest figures affirms the progressive absence of government in the country for many years. One would have expected that a country that has witnessed an unbroken democratic journey since 1999 should guarantee a better quality of life for the citizens but it gets worse by the day. In 2020, life expectancy in Nigeria was 62.6 years and in 2021 it was 60.9 to 63.4 years. Instead of an improvement, the situation gets worse. Ordinarily, this information should provoke outrage across the country on all media platforms but unfortunately, Nigerians are too docile to notice or complain about anything and their leaders are aware of these realities. Therefore, the leaders continue to frolic in irresponsible behaviour, enthroning a culture of material vulgarity, ostentation, and self-glorification.
Nigeria’s health sector is in a shambles with derelict hospitals and medical facilities dotting the entire landscape across the country. From local governments to the states and up to the federal levels, hospitals are sorry sights to behold. They lack the basic facilities to provide adequate healthcare for the people. At the federal and state levels, most university teaching hospitals and general hospitals are in ruins. Private medical centres are thriving but also are not affordable for millions of Nigerians. Most of the private medical facilities employ unqualified persons and pay peanuts so that the lives of many people who patronize them are imperilled. Preventable diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and waterborne diseases continue to ravage the country as though there were no government here. However, the political class and their families fly abroad with their families for the slightest of ailments, sponsored by the people’s taxes and stolen patrimony. The result is that the quality of life in the country continues to depreciate while billions of dollars generated from the country find their way into the hands of unconscionable demagogues.
Many Nigerians have lost their lives to insecurity and those who are living continue to live in febrile anxiety with utmost trepidation. As the economic shelling continues in the country unhindered, many parents resort to selling their children to feed, while the youths embrace multiple dishonourable attitudes as survival strategies, thus the quality of life in the country continues to nosedive. Poor sanitation has also impeded the quality of life in the country. In most cities of the country, open defecation is a new normal and therefore, these cities stink with all the corollary health hazards. While the quality of life and life expectancy in the country decline, it affects only the poor and downtrodden who are left to their own devices. In Nigeria, survival, and not living, is the name of our existence. Life expectancy in the country respects no ethnic group or religion. Everyone is affected. In all of these, one may ask the all-important question: what has the Tinubu administration done to improve the quality of life of Nigerians since it came to power? At the risk of sounding pessimistic, the last two years in Nigeria can be described as the most economically gruesome period in the history of the country, except perhaps during the civil war.
It offends the moral fibre of anyone with an equitable conscience that while the world laughs at Nigerians, while war-torn countries in Africa have better life expectancy, the Tinubu administration is busy campaigning to retain power in 2027. The current global statistics designating Nigeria as the country with the lowest life expectancy validates an essay I wrote in June 2024 titled – 2027: On the grave of Nigerians. It appears that the intention of the current government is to ensure that the success of the APC in 2027, its victory flag, will be erected on the graves of millions of Nigerians. The recent claim by the federal government that it has disbursed N330 billion to 8.5 million vulnerable Nigerians appears to be spurious because it is not supported with any verifiable list of recipients. According to the World Bank, 139 million Nigerians live in abject poverty. The government across the board should react to these disturbing statistics. Budgetary allocation to health should be revisited. Medical facilities across the country should also be given direct attention by the government across all levels. The billions of dollars borrowed by the government and channelled to the frivolities of the ruling class should be committed to the economy and improve the quality of life of the people. The situation has become an emergency and the government can no longer continue to pretend that all is well, misleading the people with fake promises of a better tomorrow.
Promise Adiele PhD
Mountain Top University
promee01@yahoo.com
X: @drpee4
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