Isaac Adewole, a former minister of health, has pleaded with lawmakers to spend just as much money on healthcare and education as they do on building new roads, hospitals, and bridges.
Former University of Ibadan vice chancellor Adewole was a guest on Channels Television’s sociopolitical show Inside Sources with Laolu Akande on Friday.
The former minister expressed regret about the “undue emphasis on infrastructure” without corresponding investments in human resources. According to him, politicians construct flyovers for exhibitionism so they will have something to show the public when their terms are up.
A ‘Show Off’
The professor contends that is not necessary for Nigeria’s development. According to him, funding for infrastructure cannot come at the price of funding for effective healthcare delivery and education.
“The idea of infrastructure investment is a crucial tactic. Politicians that make eight-year or four-year plans do so primarily to flaunt their accomplishments.
“A political figure would prefer to spend money on flyovers than on healthcare and education. They intend to construct new educational institutions, universities, and hospitals with no faculty, no access to medications, and no lab space.
“All we want is for people to know that I built 200 kilometers of roads and a flyover connecting Kano and Kaduna during my administration. Politicians want to flaunt it, but that is not what our nation needs to advance.
The speaker clarified that quality infrastructure, including highways and flyovers, is essential to facilitating trade and fostering economic progress. “I am not saying we should not invest in infrastructure but let us be balanced,” he said.
During the first term of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Adewole, the health minister for Nigeria, made the argument that investing in education solves certain health issues, like maternal mortality.
“If you invest $1 in immunization, you can reap between $18 and $44; if you invest in agriculture, the return is either zero, minus, or at best $1 to $3,” he stated. Investing $1 in anti-tuberculosis control programs can yield returns of up to $70. For heaven’s sake, there are so many things you are getting rid of when you engage in school.
A few days ago, my colleague and I looked at the rates of maternal mortality and discovered that the number of women who die during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period is at least ten times lower in those who have received at least a secondary school education.
“This multifaceted poverty we are talking about will go when you educate the people and invest in human capital development.”
‘Apostle of Federalism’
As a minister, he claimed that persuading state governors to fund effective healthcare delivery was the source of his most aggravation.
The former minister claimed that it was a waste of money for states to establish teaching hospitals in order to compete with the federal government.
He asserted that state governments could create functional hospitals with effective and driven staff at the district level instead of competing with the federal government.
Adewole supported the ongoing demand for restructuring and asked governors to permit local council areas to operate as a separate level of government.
“I am a proponent of both fiscal and physical federalism,” he declared, adding that while a return to regionalism was unlikely, states like Abia State need to be permitted to develop independently in the field of power generation.
