Akinbode's BLOG on Faith, Politics, Science, Engineering, Education and Health

It is disheartening when you read about young people in Nigeria dying from mysterious ailments. This speaks volumes about the state of healthcare delivery in the country.... it is practically non-existent for poor and middle-class Nigerians. .. Hospitals have been Undertaker houses for decades and successive governments have done nothing to help the situation.... People die of sicknesses that will cost a few hundreds or thousands of naira to treat... where are those hospitals, where are the doctors and nurses (most of them have left and some are boarding the plane as I am writing to leave), and where are the supplies to treat, where is the ethics - many are prioritizing money above their oath, where is the compensation for healthcare workers, where are the modern equipment, where is the power to keep the hospitals afloat, where are other utilities.....? There is a deep connection between access to qualitative healthcare and the prosperity of a nation. A healthy workforce is a productiv...

  ECOWAS has played itself to the corner with its threat of war against the Nigerien junta. They have drawn the battle line in an affair they should have mediated and managed with caution. If they back down, they will lose face and credibility. They will be seen as toothless bulldogs by other Russian prompted would be juntas who are considering ceasing power in other African countries. The same can be said of the coup plotters who have sworn times over that they will defend every inch of their country against outside interference. Can they and for how long before they replace France with Russia and China in their quest for true independence? Africa has become the new play ground in the fight of dominance and supremacy between the Western block and the Russia-China alliance. The brutal Russia backed Wagner militias has been disrupting the stability of countries on the continent for a while now, strategically helping rogues to topple democratically elected government in exchange for ...

Nigeria should be careful not to plunge itself into the Western nations' proxy war... We have no business going to war with the Niger Republic and its allies in Burkina Faso and Mali. They should let France, the U.S., and entire Western countries who have a strategic interest in Niger's Uranium reserve (25% of the global reserve is in this country) should fight the war themselves... Nigeria as a nation has no strategic interest or benefit in Niger. In fact, Tinubu needs to cancel the $1.2 billion wasteful rail line being built by his predecessor because he has cousins in Niger.. Nigeria is in a state of economic chaos. Fighting a war while we are living on borrowed money is the most stupid decision any country like ours will ever make... We will be fighting against countries that most of our loans are coming from.....and most of the burden of the war will be borne by Nigeria, and West Africa could be destabilized by this war for decades from now and we will impoverish our peopl...

If race-based admission violates the American constitution, so also is LEGACY admission that favors the majority of Caucasians. Almost half of admitted students to Columbia University (an IVY league school) are legacy admission (meaning, someone in their lineage had attended the school - father, mother, aunt, uncle, grandfather, etc....). What is good for the GOOSE is good for the GANDER......otherwise, the decision yesterday by the US Supreme Court comes short of being racist. It is going to perpetuate exactly what they claim they want to stem out....They are creating space for "white kids" whose generation has dominated admission to top schools in America and preclude those who the system has deliberately deprived of opportunities for centuries from enjoying the benefits of going to the same top schools or going to school at all. Perhaps, the SCOTUS should also abolish Minority Serving Institutions on the same premise they scrapped Affirmative Action - America in 2023 is CO...

One way to quickly gauge the "empathy quotient" of a government is by its policies. Irrational removal of subsidy, the purported plan to increase electricity tariffs, and proposing student loans to students who have less than 10% chance of gainful employment after school is nothing but cluelessness..... You need to think before you suggest or implement life-changing policies... Tinubu and his appointees will receive a 114% increase in salary and benefits while ordinary Nigerians are paying over 156% more for a liter of petrol. They said it is FAKE news after testing the waters of public reaction, and it was too hot to handle. There is no fire if there is no smoke... Politicians in Nigeria have perfected the art of impunity because many times, they get away with doing stupid and crazy stuff that doesn't make sense and won't be tried where the power to elect and unelect resides with the people. A government just hikes the price of petroleum products, one of the most e...

Majority of Nigerians agreed that fuel subsidy is a fraud forced on us by wicked Nigerians who destroyed four refineries and then began to siphon billions of dollars annually in the name of petroleum products importation. (What we did with cash crops, pre-petroleum discovery, we have resulted in the same. How will the rest of the world not think we are idiots?) Many did not import one gallon of anything but they have become billionaires from subsidies. All leading presidential candidates in the last election agreed we must rid ourselves of this 'agbana' (blood-sucking idols), but how do you do it in a way that will not further compound the suffering of already beating down Nigerians who were barely scraping by under the last president? Here comes the new man, on day one, he removed subsidy without a plan, without consulting the stakeholders, without addressing the people on his strategy on how the monumental effect of subsidy removal will be cushioned. He acted with impunity an...

In conservative communities, showing any sign of what is perceived as weakness is looked down upon. Being open about your bad situation is sometimes considered a sign of entitlement and attention-seeking. Mental health is one of the ailments many suffer in silence and don't get help for. It has reached an alarming rate among young adults . Science presents many reasons as the causative factors: 1. Change in socio-cultural behavior instigated by many things 2. Change in lifestyle of caregivers - parents. It is commonplace now that both parents are professionals and are often not available enough to supervise the upbringing and meet the emerging needs of their wards. 3. Technology - the internet, smartphone, tablet, laptops, Nintendo , X-box, etc are drawing time away from young adults (even adults). The time they should spend socializing by playing with their siblings, friends, and parents is spent playing games and surfing the web looking for what is not lost. 4. Peer pressure fr...