A Nation or A Graveyard?

We are losing young people. 

I logged into Facebook and it felt like a funeral...obituaries of young people gone too soon. This can't be because its "God's time" and its definitely not as a result of war or famine. Sadly, this is the predictable outcome of leadership that does not prioritize healthcare. 

In this country, good hospitals are for the rich; they're treated as a luxury that can bankrupt you. Our primary healthcare clinics are becoming death traps with empty shelves and few professionals. That pharmacy down the street likely sold you "chalk", so even taking paracetamol has become a life-and-death situation. Instead of routine checks, we have turned to herbs and prayers. Hence that pain, that lingering headache, which is your body giving you early warning signs gets ignored. We hope and manage until it becomes too late.

Nigerians think that allowing leaders who do not care about us to run our affairs is a joke. We have turned systemic failures into skits, survival has become comedy we laugh over. We tribalize the rot in our system and aggressively defend incompetence because "he is our son" thereby downplaying the ripple effects which are almost at our doorsteps.

But, the joke will be on us when we finally realize that a country that buries her young is a country without a future. A nation where life expectancy is dwindling, where citizens fight genetic battles with zero State support, where doctors are fleeing in droves and fake drugs are passed off as originals is nothing but a graveyard with a flag. 

The bitter truth is this; Bad Leadership Kills. It does so not with guns but slowly with neglect. Bad leadership is a public health crisis and we all need to wake up before we run out of young people to bury. 

In truth, we owe ourselves a duty to vote like our lives depend on it because they actually do.