Life is the most precious of all assets. Till this moment, accountants still find it herculean to estimate the value of life in monetary terms. As obvious and explicit as this may sound, the paradox of value as explained by Adams Smith in his book is still very functional. The paradox of value basically means that we humans tend to spend money on less essential commodities such as diamond while the most essential of all commodities, air, is free.
This very paradox is applicable to the Nigerian valuation of life, and the reason why policies made are “specifically useful” in solving only current situations and leaving a puzzle in the long run. Hence, we are made worse off.
We know the number of loved ones we’ve lost as a result of the “mal-using” Police Reports, doctors ask for. We also know that this has caused the life of innocent ones, especially those that were involved/victims of robbery, kidnapping, etc.
Let’s consider two important questions here:
How justifiable is the report from police before treatment?
If life is the most precious asset, why do we engage and stay euphoric on policies that diminish its value?
There are “r” possible ways of getting out of “n” farrago of problems. We know that while permuting (theory of permutation), the condition for a proper permutation is that n≥r, but the Nigerian policies are recommending a unitary “r”; an aberration.
There are many ways of doing things and achieving a better result.
You cannot refuse to treat somebody because you think he/she might be a thief, a kidnapper, a miscreant, or whatever. No, you just can’t because you’re not sure.
I wish to proffer some solutions to this problem, which if implemented, a positive multiplier becomes imminent. These include:
- A new health plan should be designed to mandate hospitals to create small prison yards and employ strict and experienced officials such as the Police, Army, etc to control that section.
- Grant subsidy to hospitals in their start-up stage while those in their rapid growth stage should be left to function without subsidy.
- Casualties of this very case are to be treated at the hospital prison yards and would be emancipated after necessary conviction must have occurred.
DO THIS AND WATCH A BETTER NIGERIA EMERGE!
Okolinta, Sampson Ifeanyi
Department of Economics,
Imo State University.
