Dr. Adetolu Ademujimi

Section c :   Recovery of Social Archi tecture According to forecast unemployment rate in Nigeria published by www.statista.com, “in 2022, the unemployment rate in Nigeria is estimated to reach 33%”. This alarming figure places unemployment as a chief manipulator of social order and recipe for the growing insecurity in the land. However, resolving this complex problem requires a multi-faceted strategy that includes the enhancement of private sector investments (industries, corporations etc.) in all areas of comparative advantage in each of the 36 States & FCT, empowerment of graduates & non-graduates with requisite career-building & entrepreneurial “knowledge and skills”, provision of grants and interest-free loans to business/enterprise starters and other creative initiatives. The reduction of unemployment should not continue via the flawed approach of overburdening the Civil Service at Federal, States & LGA levels with needless number of workers and creation of

  SECTION C : RECOVERY OF SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE Merry Christmas! Permit me to use this yuletide season to refresh our minds that population is not only a social determinant of individual & communal health but could also turn around to be a determinant of social wellbeing. Our tight hold on religion and culture as the two major excuses for our uncontrolled population explosion actually portrays ignorance and has resulted in an alarming 2022 population figure estimated at 206 million. Today, Nigeria’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 5.2 births per Nigerian woman is the second highest in the world, coming after Niger Republic (the country with the highest TFR in the world). The three nations considered “holy lands” by highly religious Nigerians have the following population-related statistics, according to the World Bank (2019); Israel has an estimated population of 9.45 million and a Total Fertility Rate of 3 children per woman; Italy’s population estimate is 59.3 million with a T

  SECTION C : RECOVERY OF SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE Nigeria may be dominated by Christians and Muslims but these two have no superior right to religion than traditional worshippers or even atheists. A secular nation such as ours is an embodiment of all religions and should neither discriminate nor be seen to do so, especially if unhealthy religious competition & oppression are to be discarded. As a matter of fact, religion ought to be an entirely private matter between a person and his/her God. Therefore, to enact a new social order of true inter-faith tolerance & harmony in Nigeria, our next President come 2023 should consider parliamentary bills and executive policies that favour an outright ban of the following needless religion-inclined social practices that I call “Public Display of Religious Affinity”; ·          Incessant noise pollution by Churches and Mosques through the e rection of speakers outside all worship centers; ·          Existence and Public funding of

  SECTION C : RECOVERY OF SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE Clearly, the anticipated year 2023 renewal of social contract at the polls is way beyond the mere award of infrastructure contracts. Nigerians’ candid aspirations that override the 2023 Presidential candidates’ ambitions include the recovery of elements of our social architecture that have been eroded. Apart from palpable insecurity, other fundamentals of our unaddressed social maladies that are as important as provision of physical infrastructure are; ·      i.  Public corruption ·      ii.  Population explosion   ·      iii..  Unemployment ·      iv..  Inter-religious competition, suppression and disharmony ·      v.  Out-of-school children ·      vi.   Stomach infrastructure ·      vii.   Cybercrimes/Internet fraud ·      viii..   Money-seeking ritual killings ·      ix.  Olosho syndrome (rising incidence of teenagers-turned-commercial sex workers) ·  ix.  Merry-making extremism that puts the average Nigerian un

  SECTION B : REVAMP OF PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE Granted that the exodus of both experienced and ‘freshly-baked’ Nigerian medical doctors and nurses to the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Gulf countries and other foreign lands is a national tragedy yet unrecognized by our leaders, let alone prioritized to be tackled by government at all levels, the dearth of physical infrastructure in our hospitals makes it a twin calamity. My piece published on 1 st of September, 2022 and titled “Effective healthcare exceeds edifices & equipment: Enlightening Obi, Tinubu & Atiku” notwithstanding, the inability of the acclaimed giant of Africa to have all her Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities equipped with basic outpatient gadgets, decent admission beds, solar power, cold chain equipment for vaccines’ storage, ultrasound scanning machines, nebulizers, basic laboratory reagents & kits etc. is shameful. Whereas, the duo of National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and