A virologist and former Vice Chancellor of Redeemer’s University, Professor Oyewale Tomori has said that President Trump’s reversal of U.S. aid for infrastructure projects, healthcare initiatives, and educational programme should be a wake-up call for developing countries to rearrange their priorities to guarantee a robust healthcare system that is not permanently reliant on outside assistance.
Tomori, the President of the Nigerian Academy of Science, declared that the reversal of the aids, which also happened in President Trump’s past administration, should be expected by nations that are heavily reliant on U.S. aid for its many programmes.
According to him, “What is happening in America shouldn’t be affecting what we’re doing in Nigeria if we are putting our money in the right place and spending our money where we can do without all these so-called conditional aid. And that’s the direction we should go.
“As soon as the alarm rings, we switch off the alarm. And that’s what is happening to us in many African countries. We’re too dependent on all these so-called foreign aid. And when you look at foreign aid, the man who is giving you the aids benefits more than the one who receives the aid. So what’s wrong with us?
“If our health system is working well, if we put the right amount of funding into health, and not spend it on frivolousness; we don’t need anybody to come and take care of malaria in Nigeria.
“Let me tell you about international aid, at least 60 to 70 per cent of whatever they bring goes back to them in one form or the other. They contribute all those little things, which we assume that we’re benefiting from. We’re losing. I don’t know why we have not been so sensible about foreign aid.”
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Prof Tomori said increasing budgetary allocations to health and creating an environment that will encourage people to stay and help their country are important ways to reduce dependency on international aid.
According to him, “They’re all putting money into all those places where we should be putting our money. But we’re so dependent on them. They’re not resource-limited. If we don’t get this wake-up call, we will not know exactly what our problem is.
“I hope President Trump doesn’t get this back. Let him keep his money. Let Africa wake up. Let Nigeria wake up, and spend its own money on its own people. That’s what we need to do,” he added.
