Blaming the Led for the Failures of The Leadership is Always Unfair: The Poju Oyemade issue
By: Dr. Motunrayo J. Adetola
In the past week, a clip from Mr Poju Oyemade’s pulpit message titled “Clarity through God’s Counsel in Prayer” went viral. The viral clip was par for the course motivational message now regularly peddled as the Christian gospel but this time, grated many Nigerians roughly. The comments have drawn wide condemnation from physician groups, social commentators. Mr Oyemade essentially questioned the patriotism of Nigerian Physicians seeking greener pastures after benefitting from cheap medical education. Many have also commented on my page after my cryptic post on the issue.
More than one thing can be true at the same time. Mr Oyemade was right in his observation that tertiary Education in Nigeria (especially of health professionals) remains heavily subsidized.
I have an M.Ed with a focus in Medical Education. I have been a medical educator for 3 decades and one of mine is in medical school at this time. I however got my medical education in Nigeria back in the 80s and therefore have a clear idea of what obtains in Nigeria and North America when medical education is invoked. I understand how so much expensive medical education is elsewhere compared to Nigeria. I also know how immaterial this topic is when prosperity is pushed steady from the pulpit. The mission of the Church is to proclaim the gospel and not the propagation of motivation. I digress.
The observations made by Poju about the continuing skills loss to the nation following the massive investments the government has inserted into training a workforce for decades are valid. I disagree with the innuendo that the criticism directed at Mr Poju are indirectly aimed at the current administration. All the preceding administrations in Nigeria are guilty of the same policy failures concerning tertiary education and workforce planning which has caused wastage of billions dollars to the Nigerian taxpayers.
The letter by NARD and most others who were critical of Pastor Poju focused on the national malady of systemic failures, poor planning in general and the inability to hitch together the wagons of tertiary education to workforce development.
The physicians in Nigeria are poorly remunerated and lacking support both for work and skills development. The Nigerian physician working according to the NARD letter for a salary of about $200 monthly itself is a great “push factor” when it is well known that physician services are so much better appreciated elsewhere.
If Mr Oyemade were to need healthcare services in Nigeria, it is doubtful he or any in his family will get close to the portals of a public hospital where the healthcare professionals are poorly paid and have in most cases obsolete and often, no other supports to carry out the life saving mission they are employed for. Over 98% of Mr Poju’s church members wouldn’t dare venture into the jet-setting private hospitals that the Oyemade’s patronize!
In a video clip that went viral 2 months ago, one Mr Komaiya, an acolyte of Mr Oyemade gave a testimony about his teenage son with ruptured appendicitis. The young man had surgery in a private Warri hospital but then developed multi-organ failure. Another Oyemade acolyte, Mr Ibiyomie donated N40 million for air ambulance transport to take the teenager to a well resourced hospital in Lagos. By my reckoning, a minimum N120 million spent on this acute illness. How many congregants of Oyemade, Komaiya, Ibiyomie can afford such a hefty bill? How many Nigerian can? These are issues that emigrating Nigerian to North America which Oyemade was comparing Nigeria won’t have to deal with.
The government has for decades not done enough by merely subsidizing tertiary education heavily when it also woefully failed to provide an enabling environment for those skills to be deployed for the common good. Successive Nigerian administrations have failed the nation by literally setting funds on fire to train workforce for other nations.
Nigerians should not be blamed for seeking a better pathway when clueless government can provide education but not the facilities which makes modern societies function. Everyone is a victim in such a perverse arrangement except the top 0.1 percent who it turns out are politicians and their associates.., the politically connected clerics and businessmen who uncritically through motivational talks submit pathways to success for the struggling class which they have never trod.
May Naija not happen to you.
Motunrayo J Adetola
26 April, 2025
@highlight
Dr. M. J. Adetola is a Nigerian physician who lives and works in Canada.
Share this: