One of the Nigeria’s renowned educationists, world acclaimed clinical expert and President of the West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists, Professor Fola Tayo, in this exclusive interview with sharpedgenews.com’s Steve Ogwu Chinuwa, blames Nigeria’s woes on corrupt leadership and other national issues.
State of the Nation
We are not doing well in this country. And we make a lot of noise and we don’t see anything. Our politicians and leaders are just good at noise making. I don’t see anything that is impressive about this country called Nigeria. If you go to Ghana, a next door neigbhour, the country is far advanced than Nigeria. Over there things work fine.
There is no good road in Lagos State and no good roads all over the country. Your car is in danger of been wrecked and yet you pay tax. Yet the government taxes everything you buy. How is the taxed revenue deployed?
That is why I keep on saying that there is no impacting leadership. Leadership is a great problem with Nigerian leaders; they see leadership as a means of amassing wealth and looting the treasury. Leadership is far from that; leadership is about service, leadership is about sacrifice, leadership is about positive impact on the people not on your own pocket. That is why some of us don’t respect them (treasury looters) at all. Leadership is not in how many cars or house you have built in Victoria Island, or acquired in New York, Los Angeles or London. No, leadership is in how much contribution you make for the empowerment of your people and for the advancement of your country. A leader leaving office should be able to look back and say I thank God. But of course you cannot blame them because the people are a bunch of idiots. They keep clapping for leaders even those who fail in leadership. I have been a teacher all my life, nobody praises me for teaching or when students graduate. If the man does not want to do work, let him get out. Why are you praising him and singing praises? It gets into their head and they become complacent. That is our problem in this country. All over the world a leader is servant, here in Nigeria, a leader is a Lord.
Medical Institutions in Nigeria
Lagos State Hospitals stand tall when you compare them to other hospitals in the nation. It is not that they are very good but they are still better than what you have elsewhere in Nigeria. At least the government is doing something for the people who work there. Having said that, it does not mean that things are okay; you see this is a nation that is full of self-deceit. We deceive ourselves in this country, we deceive ourselves a lot. We don’t face reality. Rather than face reality and tell our government the whole truth, we clap for them even when they are not doing well. That is problem. Maybe the health system is not good in the county but Lagos State is better than the others.
Islamic Banking System
I cannot comment on that because I am not an economist. Also, I am not a banker but from what I understand of it, I will need an economist to explain to me how you can do a business without interest and still remain in business. I don’t know and I don’t understand it.
Educational Sector
A lot needs to be done. If the government is involved as they should, they should come up with viable programs. They should not see education as something that can be toyed with. Education is the foundation of development and national advancement. So we still need to go back to the drawing board and revisit our education and come up with things that would move the nation forward. We don’t just want to copy American or British education. No, we want something that will be useful to Nigeria and move us further. Education that will inculcate into the people a sense of nationalism, not education that will make a Nigerian feel that he is a white man – that is not education. Education should make a Nigerian feel a sense of duty and obligation to this country. This is the way I see it.
What to be Remembered For
I would like to be remembered for my contribution wherever I work. For example, in the faculty that I just retired from. I also want to be remembered by my past students – as somebody who made a great impact on them. I would like to be remembered as somebody who speaks the truth, as a man who believes in integrity and hard work, not a praise singer – a man who has no respect for mediocrity; a man that will always advocate for empowering leadership in Nigeria, not this thing that runs around. It is very sickening the way you see people – the so-called leaders – brandishing wealth acquired from stolen money. I would want to see Nigerians resent them and let them know that they don’t deserve respect. There is no reason why we should have thieves or robbers in government. And people will still be hailing and praising him or her. They should be thrown into jail. That is the kind of things I stand for.
Advice to Nigerian Youth
My advice is to the youth generally is to work hard and not to follow the examples of our leaders because they are a failure. That those who are Muslim should turn to their Quran and those who are Christian should turn to their bible and fashion their life’s along what great man of old has done not what our leaders are doing. They are very bad examples to the youth. Very corrupt set of leaders and people who don’t have a good direction for this nation. If the youths follow them there is no hope for this nation.
Profile
I am Professor Fola Tayo, recently retired as a professor of Clinical Pharmacy from the University of Lagos, and an Assistant Chaplain of the University of Lagos Chapel of Christ and Light. I preach the gospel and teach the gospel all over the world and get involved in things that will benefit mankind and I have always been an antagonist of people who are crocked and unrighteous.