Wanted: Crazy politicians

SIR: Where are the crazy Nigerian politicians? I expect some of the not- too-popular political parties in Nigeria would be full of “crazy” people. I mean positively crazy like the Green Party of the United Kingdom for instance. Look at the Green Party. They state amongst other things they would abolish the monarchy in Britain and get the Queen of England a council flat. Herbert Hoover in the U.S. presidential campaign promised a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage and he meant it because he saw American capability. Chike Obi, maverick mathematician and politician, when he was campaigning in the early 1960s said he wanted to take Nigeria to the space age. That was quite ambitious because the space age only started in 1957 with the launching of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite in 1957. Bola Ige who made it to the point of being a presidential aspirant said he wanted to make Nigeria the first Black Super Power.

  In Nigeria if people think you are crazy they avoid you. Nigerians do not encourage what could be called a deviation from the normal. From what I have seen of Americans, they like people with seemly crazy ideas. You are enjoined to do something crazy. It’s what one of my professors, Ebun Oni, a physicist, terms “the inhibition of individualism in African society”. There is too much pressure to conform to the regular and ordinary; people do not like venturing into the unknown.

  It’s not exactly crazy for Nigerian politicians to talk about investing in neuroscience. We are in the golden age of neuroscience, the discipline that studies the workings and functions of the brain. We have a crisis on hand in Nigeria as there are an estimated 40 million Nigerians suffering from mental illness with an estimated 150 psychiatrists to 174 million Nigerians. In the United Kingdom there are 15,000 psychiatrists to 63 million people and people are still complaining at the UK standard. Nigeria would need more than 40,000 psychiatrists!  Mental health is said to cost the UK economy about $100 billion a year. 

What about Nigeria? 

Talking of public health, an estimated 119 million Nigerians are without toilets. 

  What are politicians going to do about it or are we leaving it to Bill Gates? 

•Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth, 

London, England.