Opinion

Nigeria And Tuberculosis Burden

Published

3 years ago

April 12, 2023

The recent disclosure that the Africa region has achieved a 26 percent reduction in Tuberculosis mortality rate in six years is cheery.
With this development, the region is on the verge of reaching a 35 percent Tuberculosis death reduction rate.
However, despite this landmark achievement, one million people are still living with tuberculosis in the region and have not been detected.
According to the Regional Director of World Health Organisation in Africa, Matshdiso Moeti, because of delay in diagnosis and testing there is a notable gap between the estimated number of new infections and case notifications.
40 percent of people living with TB did not know their diagnosis or not reported in 2021.
Another challenge is that TB has a link with HIV, as approximately 20 percent of people newly diagnosed with HIV are also living with TB. In Africa only 26 percent of all people living with multi-drug resistance are receiving appropriate treatment.
Nigeria however, managed to significantly increase national TB case funding by 50 percent in 2021 using innovative approaches such as the expansion of the daily observed transparent protocols, use of digital technologies, Community Active Case, Finding and Enlisting Public Private Mix Initiatives.
But it is disheartening that Nigeria does not make the list of countries with reduced death rate caused by preventable and curable disease.While South Africa and East African countries like Eswatini, Kenya Mozambique, South Sudan, Toga, Uganda and Zambia have pooled resources to free their countries from stranglehold of TB.
Tuberculosis is fast becoming one of the leading causes of death in the sub-Sahara Africa, including Nigeria. Tuberculosis is airborne disease and is transmittable through ways that are air-related. The disease which was superstitiously associated with evil spirits was viewed as a bad omen by traditionalists and some locales. But modern science has revealed that it is preventable, treatable and curable when patients follow the prescribed drug administration or usage directions.
In recent times, the rate of Tuberculosis inflections and related deaths pose great concern to many people. This is despite the advancement in medical research that has led to the manufacturing of drugs for the treatment of the disease.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently reeled out estimates and statistics on tuberculosis infection rate in Nigeria and Africa. According to the statistics volunteered to Journalists, tuberculosis claimed 156,000 lives in Nigeria and afflicted about 452,000 in 2020. The World Health Organisation further said the global target of ending the disease by 2030 is being hampered by inadequate funding and investment in the control of tuberculosis which is an airborne disease.
Executive Director of Stop TB Partnership, Dr. Lucica Ditiu posited that more than 450,000 people in Nigeria are infected with TB yearly. According to him, the number of people developing the disease increase every year. Besides, 28,000 of the tuberculosis fatalities are people living with Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV). The Africa region is home to 17 of the 30 high burden Tuberculosis countries in the world. The estimated 2.5 million cases in Africa in 2020 accounted for a quarter of the global burden with more than half a million African lives lost to the curable and preventable disease. These, no doubt, are terrifying, startling and spine-chilling revelations.
To say the least, the disclosure is a dangerous phenomenon and a threat to public health, taking into cognisance the fact that tuberculosis is not just transmittable but can be contracted by air. Airborne diseases are potentially dangerous because air is free, always in public domain, thus is available to every body within an environment. So it is easy for an infected person to transmit the disease to others. It is a belief of most people that when air is infested a greater number of people are affected than when water is polluted.
This is why the Federal Government must brace up to address this grave challenge at a time when Nigerians are going through the excruciating pains of unpopular economic policies of All Progressives Congress- led Federal Government.
The colossal amount of 1.3 billion dollars required to effectively detect and control the disease, according to WHO African Regional Director, further heightens the fear of Nigerians on an avoidable spread. Though Tuberculosis is preventable and treatable its prevention and treatability depend largely on the availability of funds.
Remove funding, all effort to curb spread and end the disease will, no doubt, translate to exercise in futility.
I am tempted to believe that the Federal Government is not being proactive enough in curbing the spread of the disease because of a funding that is disproportionate to the burden of the disease in Nigeria.
When will Nigeria, the Giant of Africa in population rank high in what is good even amid her abundant human and financial resources.
The Transparency International Corruption index on Countries in the world, ranked Nigeria 150 out of 180 countries on the 2022 Corruption Perception index.
The Corruption Perception Index I learnt is the Transparency International’s tool for measuring the level of corruption in the System of the 180 countries of the world based on prevalent indices.
In 2021 Nigeria, obtained 154th position with a growing population of about 200 million people, Nigeria is one of the countries in the world where its citizens live below one dollar per day.
It is one nation that is yet to break the jinx of failed electoral systems since independence, despite a whopping amount of taxpayers’ money injected into the processes.
Power supply is near-zero. From the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration who promised to end the problem in one year, to the present administration of General Muhammed Buhari, power supply is epileptic.
For any Government that has the welfare of the people at heart, making her counterpart contributions to meet the World Health Organisation 2030 target of ending the Tuberculosis scourge is not too difficult a commitment to make.
Every project on human health and welfare is a priority. No amount of money is worth the value of human soul. In fact if roads, schools, are built for humans, then the people should be helped to remain healthy to enjoy those infrastructure and facilities.
Russian philosopher and educationist, Lao Russell once wrote, “In vain you build the city if you don’t first built the man”.
Every project should have the face of human because the ultimate beneficiary of any project are (or ought to be) the people. If human welfare is not factored into the policy and programme of Government, then it is anti-people. Government derives its legitimacy from the people. And those in government are stewards who by reason of the people’s mandate, should hold the resources of the people in trust.
The Federal Government and State Governments across the country should rise to the brazen challenge of the tuberculosis burden on Nigerians before we experience another wave of avoidable epidemic.
Already, the country and other African countries are not free from greater infection if there is no sustainable plans.
According to Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organisation’s Regional Director for Africa, South Africa, has steadily increased her domestic funding to fight the disease by allocating 81 per cent of her financial resources while Zambia has increased her funding seven-fold since 2015.
However, the commitment of South Africa and less economic viable Zambia country to end the threat of the disease gives a flicker of hope that the problem is surmountable if other African countries, including Nigeria will borrow a leaf from South Africa and Zambia.

By: Igbiki Benibo

Opinion

Agony In Ivory Tower

Published

18 hours ago

March 9, 2026

The Tide

Quote: A university that tolerates missing scripts, result manipulation and ‘sorting’ is not merely failing students—it is quietly destroying the moral foundation of education itself.”

The sad cases of missing scripts, compulsory Sorting, inputting of wrong results and other obnoxious practices in some public universities, leave much to be desired. One cannot imagine how a student will be compelled to suffer consequences of the flagrant negligence of a Head of Department, a lecturer, Department staff or an ICT staff.Many academic and non academic staff in several public universities seem to be performing far below standard, thus unproductive to the university system. The unacceptable cases of sorting, missing scripts, missing results, inputting of wrong grades to students, should not be mentioned in a university, not even in any academic community. This is because people who are employed to work in various positions should have cognate work experience and unquestionable competence. They should not be seen as certificate welding illiterates but people who have been proven to be worthy in learning and character, diligent and competent to carry out assigned responsibilities with minimal or no supervision.

The university as a citadel of learning should boast of men of integrity, people who are repositories of applied knowledge and competence to drive the much desired holistic development in a nation that functions on quality teaching and learning. A situation where a student having gone through the crucibles of learning and written a prescribed semester examination or class-based evaluation test, is told that his or her script is missing or that he or she did not participate in that academic exercise, or must sort to pass, is an unpardonable error and a height of callousness. In fact some lecturers and staff of Departments are using the seeming systemic defect (which is their architecture) as an opportunity to extort students. Sometimes it is discovered much to students chagrin that the supposed missing script was later discovered when a ransom was paid.

Since a lecturer, or Head of Department has in their disposal both Yam and the knife and determines who takes what (if they wish to give without strings), students have no alternative but to submit to their importunate demands in order to graduate at record time.Such practices should be unheard of in an institution that should be a vanguard of moral and ethical values and conduct. What people learn in school constitute their behavioural patterns in the society. Where the school as an agency of socialisation cannot drive positive change first in its immediate environment, then the objective of education as a bedrock for the development of society, is inevitably compromised and counter-productive. The German Reformer, Dr. Martins Luther was quoted as saying, “I advise parents not to put their wards or children in any school where the Bible is not being used as a rule of life because such institutions will unnecessarily be corrupt”.

Gleaning from Luther’s sentiment one can deduce that the lack of respect and regard for values as well as the absence of the fear of God is the greatest undoing of most public schools. Another major challenge is that lack of Information, Communication and Technology literacy or compliance on the part of some lecturers and heads of department, may have informed the decision to give students’ scripts to secretaries to compile and input students results thereby making the secretaries the determinants of students’ fate. It is not saying a new thing that some of the secretaries in the process of compiling results have inputted wrong results, omitted names or down graded some students or given unmerited grades to others.Society today is ICT-driven and ICT-literacy enhances efficiency, speed and a reasonable degree of accuracy if the person behind the computer is level headed, articulate, competent, alive to responsibilities and is aware that negligence on his or her part is not only tantamount to a disservice to the university but to the students who may not graduate at record time because of his or her (computer operator’s) gross ineptitude or carelessness.

The ICT era makes the carrying of hard copy of results obsolete as lecturers through the Heads of Department can log on to the central server of the Exams and Records (if any) or ICT unit and input students’ results directly. By so doing the incessant cases where result on spread sheet is different from the one published online, more often than not, caused by abject negligence, will be avoided. The process will also end the intermediary services of some staff in the universities’ Information, Communication and Technology Department which has become a money spinner-a lucrative source of income to many of them. In fact some ICT staff reserved the power to award grades to students depending on students’ degree of compliance to terms and conditions. They can dubiously make or unmake a student. The university community should be considered too lofty to have careless, negligent, immoral and academic or professionally deficient people as academic or non-academic staff.

The Governing Councils and Senates of universities should be proactive in addressing the menace of missing Script, inputting of wrong results and sorting. This is necessary to end the slogan “Education is scam” so the system can produce quality students who are truly found worthy in learning and in character by operators who exemplify diligence, moral and ethical values. The much-needed reform must begin within the institutions themselves, because the future of any society is shaped in its classrooms.

By: Igbiki Benibo

Opinion

Strength of Emotional Equality

Published

18 hours ago

March 9, 2026

The Tide

Quote: “Love thrives not when one gives more, but when both give fully — not in competition, not in performance, but in partnership.”

In every healthy relationship, there exists an invisible balance. It is not measured in grand gestures, expensive gifts, or public displays of affection. It is measured in something quieter and far more significant: emotional equality. When couples stand on equal emotional grounds, love becomes less of a negotiation and more of a partnership. Emotional equality does not mean both individuals express love in identical ways. It does not require matching personalities or mirroring temperaments. Rather, it speaks to balance — a shared willingness to invest, to communicate, to be vulnerable, and to grow. It is the difference between two people walking side by side and one person constantly trying to catch up.

In many relationships, imbalance begins subtly. One partner initiates most conversations. One apologizes more frequently. One carries the emotional labor — remembering important dates, managing conflicts, sensing tension, and attempting reconciliation. Over time, this uneven distribution of emotional effort breeds exhaustion. The partner who gives more begins to feel unseen. The one who gives less may grow comfortable in emotional passivity. Love, in such a space, starts to tilt — slowly at first, then significantly. Resentment can creep in quietly, disguising itself as patience. Silence may replace honest dialogue. What once felt effortless begins to feel heavy.

When couples stand on equal emotional grounds, responsibility is shared. Both people are accountable for the health of the relationship. If conflict arises, neither hides behind silence nor dominates through control. Instead, they engage. They listen. They speak honestly without weaponizing words. Equality creates safety — and safety strengthens intimacy. It allows both individuals to express needs without fear of ridicule or rejection. One of the most overlooked aspects of emotional equality is vulnerability. True connection requires courage. It demands that both partners risk being misunderstood. But when vulnerability is one-sided, it becomes exposure rather than intimacy. If one person consistently opens up while the other remains guarded, trust cannot fully deepen.

Equality ensures that emotional risks are mutual. Where one shares fears, the other shares too. Where one admits weakness, the other responds with openness rather than judgment. In such a space, authenticity flourishes. Another crucial element is validation. In emotionally balanced relationships, both partners feel heard. Their concerns are not dismissed as “overreactions.” Their feelings are not minimized or compared. When couples operate on equal emotional ground, they acknowledge each other’s experiences as legitimate. They may not always agree, but they always respect. Validation does not mean surrendering one’s viewpoint; it means recognizing that another’s emotional reality matters.

Equality also protects individuality. Contrary to popular belief, healthy love does not erase personal identity — it enhances it. When both partners are emotionally secure, they do not feel threatened by each other’s independence. Personal ambitions are encouraged, not resented. Friendships are respected, not restricted. Growth is celebrated, not feared. Standing on equal emotional grounds means neither person shrinks to accommodate the other. Instead, both expand, knowing the relationship is strong enough to hold their evolution. Power dynamics often expose emotional inequality. When one partner controls communication — appearing and disappearing unpredictably, withholding affection, or using silence as leverage — imbalance emerges.

Emotional dominance weakens intimacy. It creates anxiety instead of assurance. But when couples share emotional power, there is consistency. There is clarity. There is no need to decode affection because it is offered freely and intentionally. It is important to understand that equality does not imply perfection. Couples will still disagree. They will face stress, miscommunication, and moments of frustration. However, when emotional footing is equal, conflict does not threaten the foundation. Instead, it becomes an opportunity for understanding. Both partners approach challenges as teammates rather than opponents. They choose resolution over ego and repair over pride.

Time often reveals whether emotional equality truly exists. In the early stages of love, intensity can disguise imbalance. Enthusiasm feels mutual. Effort appears equal. But as routine settles in and novelty fades, the structure of the relationship becomes clearer. Who still initiates? Who still invests? Who still shows up consistently? Sustainable love requires sustained balance. It is built not merely on attraction, but on deliberate reciprocity. Standing on equal emotional grounds requires intentionality. It demands honest conversations about needs and expectations. It requires both partners to examine their habits — whether they withdraw during tension, avoid accountability, or rely on the other to carry the emotional weight. Emotional maturity is not about avoiding conflict; it is about handling it responsibly and returning, again and again, to shared ground.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of emotional equality is peace. There is no constant anxiety about where one stands. No guessing games about commitment. No fear that affection may suddenly disappear. Instead, there is stability. There is reassurance. There is mutual effort. In a world where relationships often blur the lines between attention and commitment, equality offers clarity. It reminds us that love should not feel like competition or performance. It should feel like partnership. When couples stand on equal emotional grounds, they build something resilient. They build trust that does not fracture easily. They build respect that does not depend on mood. They build a connection rooted not only in passion but in balance. And in that balance, love finds its strength — not in who gives more, but in how both give fully.

By: Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi

Opinion

NDDC: Time To Illuminate Homes

Published

1 week ago

March 2, 2026

The Tide

Quote:“Twenty-five years on, the Niger Delta cannot celebrate illuminated streets while families sit in darkness. Development must begin inside the home — where children study, businesses grow, and lives are built — before it glows on the roadside.”

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was established in 2000 with a clear and urgent mandate: to facilitate the rapid, even, and sustainable development of Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta region. The creation of the Commission followed decades of agitation over environmental degradation, infrastructural neglect, and socio-economic marginalization in the region. Its core mandate included the development of roads, bridges, electricity, water supply, health facilities, education, housing, environmental remediation, and economic empowerment initiatives. At inception, expectations were high that the Commission would transform the Niger Delta into a model of regional development. Over the years, the NDDC has indeed implemented numerous projects across the nine Niger Delta states. Roads have been constructed and rehabilitated in several communities, easing transportation challenges.

Schools have been renovated, and new classroom blocks have been provided in underserved areas. Health centres have been built or upgraded, improving access to primary healthcare services. The Commission has also awarded scholarships to students, including foreign postgraduate scholarships, empowering thousands of youths academically.Skills acquisition and youth empowerment programmes have helped many young people gain vocational competencies.Through various interventions, the NDDC has contributed to job creation and local economic stimulation.Solar-powered street lighting projects have been widely implemented in urban and semi-urban communities. These streetlights have improved visibility at night and contributed to enhanced security in some areas. Markets, highways, and public spaces illuminated by solar lights have experienced extended business hours.

For these efforts, the Commission deserves acknowledgment and commendation. However, development must always align with foundational mandates and pressing grassroots realities. A growing concern among residents is that while streets are illuminated, many homes remain in darkness. Rural electrification and household power access remain inconsistent and inadequate across large parts of the region. In riverine and remote communities, families still rely on generators, kerosene lamps, or complete darkness after sunset. The irony of brightly lit streets juxtaposed with powerless homes cannot be ignored. Electricity at the household level directly impacts education, health, and small-scale enterprise. Students cannot effectively study at night without reliable indoor lighting.Families cannot preserve food or power essential appliances without stable electricity.

Micro and small businesses struggle to grow without dependable energy access. While street lighting enhances public aesthetics and security, it does not substitute for domestic electrification. The proverb “charity begins at home” is especially relevant in this context. True community development must first empower households before beautifying public spaces. The Commission’s original mandate emphasizes integrated and sustainable development, not isolated infrastructural gestures. Balanced development requires that energy interventions prioritize homes alongside streets. Solar technology presents a unique opportunity for decentralized household electrification in off-grid communities. Extending solar solutions to individual homes would have a transformative social impact. Home-based solar systems could power lights, fans, small appliances, and communication devices.

Such interventions would reduce poverty, improve living standards, and stimulate grassroots productivity. By broadening its energy focus, the Commission would better reflect the spirit of its founding legislation. This is not a call to abandon street lighting projects, which have their merits. Rather, it is an appeal for balance, inclusivity, and alignment with core developmental objectives. Strategic planning should ensure that rural electrification and household access form a central pillar of ongoing interventions. Community engagement and needs assessments can help determine priority areas for household solar deployment. Twenty-five years after its establishment, the NDDC stands at a reflective moment in its institutional journey. The people of the Niger Delta say: thank you for the efforts so far—but not very much—because true appreciation will come when development begins at home and radiates outward, not merely when streets shine while houses remain in darkness.

By: King Onunwor