Wednesday, 5 August 2020

BORN TO LIVE AND NOT TO DIE

I had heard about serious bribery, corruption, economic malpractice, fraud, mendacity and stifling bureaucracy in Nigerian, but I did not know it was so bad until I read Professor Hippolite Amadi's account of these appalling crimes and manifestly evil deeds. Professor Amadi had to wade through layers of iniquity and incompetence in defence of neonatal life. The situation he describes is woeful and shameful. Medical professionals in Nigeria that caused the avoidable deaths of neonates should be ashamed of their actions and attitudes. The high levels of neonatal fatalities in Nigeria were horrendous. He put his life at risk to save the lives of babies. Through terrible times of adversity and opposition, Professor Amadi managed to save countless neonates, put procedures in place and establish best practice in order that excellent neonatal care would be carried out for years to come. 

 The Nigerian medical service is considerably in his debt, and now he should be rewarded for his ground breaking work, truly an outstanding contribution to neonatal care, which has resulted in  the vastly improved management of well maintained incubators. 

I hope and pray that his book, Born to Live and not to Die, will have the impact that Professor Amadi intended.  It is published by Mereo Books, Cirencester, 2020, an imprint of Memoir Books Ltd. 
www.mereobooks.com
www.memoirspublishing.com

ISBN 978-1-86151-952

Today there are many people still involved in the bribery and corruption in Nigeria. It has sadly even permeated the church and Christian fellowships who have been complicit and active in various forms of malpractice and mercenary money grabbing schemes. Some of these fellowships should look to the enormous mission field in northern Nigeria and in the opportunities among very needy Nigerians who have suffered from the tide of corruption and mismanagement of funds. Professor Amadi once told me that when he travelled in certain areas of Nigeria these prosperous and successful preachers, pastors and prophets are nowhere to be seen. They seem to go where the money is rather than where the need is. 


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2 comments:

  1. John Plater8 August 2020 at 10:55

    Sadly, it is not just in Nigeria. Africa generally seems plagued by greedy and corrupt leaders.

    I have just read an article on the BBC website about South Africa in relation to the Covid pandemic and lockdown, which states,

    The vuvuzelas have fallen silent. Hunger and unemployment are soaring. Listless men drift through the suburbs, begging for food.
    The alcohol ban is being challenged, indignantly, in court, and entirely ignored by most people, who simply buy their booze from a thriving black market.
    And above all, a fleeting sense of national unity is being whittled away, not so much by frustration, or impatience, but by the obscene corruption of South Africa's political class.
    It's been a problem here for years.
    A bloated, politicised civil service feasting on government contracts. Using friends and family to bid for lucrative tenders.
    Looting the state with almost total impunity. Increasingly, the corruption has come to seem not like an aberration, a flaw in the system, but rather the system itself.

    How is it that most of the African leaders (including many church minister) are filthy rich, but the populations are so poor.

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  2. Johli Baptist11 May 2021 at 17:11

    Thanks John. Well said and clearly stated. There are Nigerian prosperity preachers who travel in their own Lear jets while children in their homeland starve, beg, borrow and fight to get basic food, shelter and clothing.

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