In this op-ed Icheoku asks, is what Professor Omo Omoruyi currently going through, after 40 years in public life with many of them devoted to a meritorious service to Nigeria, worth the sacrifice? Professor Omo Omoruyi, 70, was a founding father and former Director-General of the now defunct Nigeria Centre for Democratic Studies (CDS), Abuja. His effort at the CDC which he founded in 1989, culminated in the Option A4 electioneering system that successfully engineered the election of M.K.O. Abiola as president, from the first ever free and fair election conducted in Nigeria. Several years after the said election was mischievously annulled by Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, this professor of Political Science is in a very sorry state of health and the government of Nigeria which he dutifully served seem to have told him, you are on your own!
This elicits the question, "what is then the incentive for serving Nigeria honestly, if such a past "good-servant" is now so desolate that he cannot even afford to pay his medical bills? Icheoku says, this may be the reason why public officials in Nigeria are endemically corrupt because they know that nobody will ask about them once they are out of power. Put in another way, does this mean that Professor Omo Omoruyi was not corrupt, otherwise his stashed millions of dollars/pounds would still be available at his pleasure? It is also instructive to note that the Professor is from Niger Delta area of Nigeria and yet, despite their natural resources, his state of Edo cannot afford his medical treatment while virtually all his counterparts from the north who similarly served Nigeria, are swimming in abundant wealth assisted by their states. Now Professor Omo Omoruyi has prostate cancer and needs financial assistance to fight it. The government is lukewarm in providing assistance. The Professor acknowledged there is a health-care delivery crisis in Nigeria where he spent a week at the National Hospital at Abuja, misdiagnosed and being giving ordinary painkillers and muscle relaxers for his excruciating pain symptoms. Prior to which he was an off and on outpatient of the hospital manifesting pains with leg pain, back pain, body pain etc. The Professor noted that nobody at the National Hospital was able to correctly diagnose his seething body pain and his inability to move his legs as something more serious than requires mere pain relieving drugs. Continuing, Professor Omoruyi lamented that even the doctor who admitted him did not bother to see him again throughout his one week admission at the hospital? Sounds scary, you bet; but that is the Nigeria way! Professor Omo Omoruyi also regretted that he was still poor at 70 and after so many years of selfless service to Nigeria. Icheoku now asks Professor Omo Omoruyi, would he have stolen to his heart's delight knowing then, the realities of his life today? It is also important to point out that the Professor took some bullets in Nigeria in a 1994 failed assassination attempt in Benin, from bandits who possibly targeted him for his perceived role in the 1993 annulment. Icheoku says that the feeling of abandonment which Professor Omo Omoruyi is experiencing today is not encouraging at all; as this will only spur corruption amongst public servants who will become more desperate to stash away enough money for their own rainy days. Such experience breeds corruption and something must be done to checkmate it, in the spirit of fighting corruption. The Nigerian government must find a way to provide for the health care needs of such "patriotic" elder-statesman who was willing to forsake the cushions of life abroad to return home to Nigeria to try to help out. If the government cannot provide for the primary and secondary care needs of such deserving citizen, at least it should be able to under-write his tertiary catastrophic health care needs.
Icheoku says, dialysis, cancer, HIV/AIDS, open heart surgery, brain surgery and such other high-dollar cost medical needs, that are too crushing for an individual's pocket, should be borne by the government. Professor Omo Omoruyi has cancer and so ordinarily, is eminently qualified for such government assistance, especially in view of his contributions to the development of democracy in Nigeria. The Center for Democratic Studies which he founded and nurtured was a success, admitted it later went the way of so many other things in Nigeria.
IBB Betrayed Me – Omoruyi
ReplyDeleteFrom Adibe Emenyonu in Benin, 01.30.2009
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Former Director General of the Centre for Democratic Studies (CDS), in Bwari, Abuja, Professor Omo Omoruyi has accused former Head of State, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, of betraying him saying that IBB never honoured the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which he said was agreed upon before he took up the consultancy job to work for IBB’s presidential ambition in 2004.
Omoruyi who disclosed this in an exclusive interview with THISDAY said that the deal to do consultancy work for IBB’s presidential ambition was negotiated and sealed by a reputable Nigerian on behalf of IBB at the Four Seasons Hotel, Downtown Boston, USA in 2004.
He said before he took up the consultancy job that IBB through his proxy agreed to fulfil three-health plans namely: an annual medical check/treatment, air ambulance to take him to anywhere and any doctor of his choice and not IBB’s choice and that he (IBB) would bear the medical cost.
Omoruyi, who was operated for a cancerous tumour in the US recently said that IBB had reneged on the three-health plans.
On his next line of action, Omoruyi said “I leave that to the court of his conscience. I am not asking for a favour, a gift but an implementation of what contains in the memorandum of understanding, which was negotiated on his behalf by a friend that he sent and assented to.”
IBB Should Open Up More, Says Omoruyi
ReplyDelete•Abiola’s widow slams ex-president
By Omololu Ogunmade and Lola Adewoyin, 02.06.2009
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June 12
Former Director-General of the Centre for Demo-cratic Studies, Prof. Omo Omoruyi, yesterday said the recent interview of former military President Ibrahim Babangida was a good beginning of saying the truth about the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election.
Omoruyi, however, admonished the ex-military leader to say more; though he admitted it was a tough one to do.
Babangida had said recently on a TV programme, Moments with Mo, anchored by Mo Abudu and broadcast on MNet channel of DSTV, that he was compelled to nullify the election because of security threats to the enthronement of democratic government at the time.
It was the very first time the former military president would open up on the annulment of the election.
But responding to the interview, Omoruyi told THISDAY one thing that gave him joy in the interview was that for the first time, IBB made a categorical statement that the election was conducted in a free, fair and credible manner and that there was also a winner, “MKO Abiola and not Bashir Tofa”.
Omoruyi said: “In my book on June 12, I drew on my notes that I took after our meeting of June 21 which I reviewed with my Special Assistant then, late Dr. Sina Sambo, of blessed memory. I recall I mentioned some people in the way IBB named them in his meeting with me. In that meeting he summed up the real reasons why he could not continue with the election programme.
“Yes it was security. What this means was well discussed in my book. All these issues were well discussed in many seminar and lectures that I gave in different fora in the US especially at Harvard when I was pleading for understanding of the crisis of democratization in Nigeria. I tried to document what he told me when he bared his mind to me as to why he could not and would not want to continue with the last phase of the election process which was to formally announce the winner that was already known according to the rules governing the election.
”One thing that gave me joy in IBB's interview was that for the first time, he made a categorical statement that there was an election that was conducted in a free, fair and credible manner. That was not all; for the first time, IBB said that there was a winner, MKO Abiola and not Tofa.
“IBB and other bodies, the two parties and the two candidates also had the results. I recall that I went over the results with IBB daily as the process went on. This was why I granted that interview to Olusegun Adeniyi of the African Concord then that the ‘Presidential election was free, fair and credible’ on June 15 or thereabouts. This was the beginning of my ordeal with IBB's security agents who wanted me to withdraw the statement or issue a statement that I was misquoted.
“In fairness to IBB, he did not himself ask to do so because he knew I was speaking the truth as I saw it before he was forced to cancel the results. In retrospect, that I did not retract my statement especially when it was published after the cancellation of the election results was responsible for the telephone threat to my wife in Benin that they would shut up my mouth if I would not voluntarily do so etc. You know that still happened on February 3, 1994 when ‘unknown assassins’ attacked me. Incident-ally, February 3 was few days ago and was quietly observed as another birthday for me. That was the beginning of a second life of Omo Omoruyi.
”I am glad IBB is speaking out. It was a sore point that he was to deal with. What he was to do to come to terms with the matter should be left to him. We toyed with many ideas when I was consulting for him. He was still to decide on how he was to do it. All I can say is that he genuinely wanted to come to terms with the fact of June 12. He still has time. This interview is a good beginning. My advice to him is that since he would be the one who have to come to terms with how he would want to be remembered, he should take some steps to tell the truth.”
Meanwhile, Teju, one of the widows of the late acclaimed winner of the June 12 election, Abiola, has described the reason given by IBB for annulling the election as "very tragic".
Teju said in a statement that IBB came up with the lamest reason for the annulment, “which he said was to save the civilian government that was yet to be declared winner, talk less of inaugurated, from a coup d'etat that may happen six months into the life of the administration”.
She said IBB did not ask for Nigerians’ forgiveness for annulling the election and should be given none.