The Nation Newspaper

Category: Health

  • Some knotty questions on the day of the ram (1)

    Some knotty questions on the day of the ram (1)

    Hundreds of thousands of rams must have ended up in soup pots last Wednesday and Thursday. They had no choice. Thousands of years ago, their fate was woven into allegorical injunctions of faith which, in my view, grew to literal proportions. The peoples of the Middle East gave humanity two great religions anchored on FAITH in the existence of an ALMIGHTY CREATOR of OUR UNIVERSE who governs CREATION with INFINITE WISDOM and INEXHAUSTIBLE POWER and rewards adherence to His Laws with boundless goodness and ETERNAL LIFE IN PARADISE.

    Christianity and Islam agree with the story of Abraham (Ibrahim) Isaac (Ishmael) or (Ishaq) (or their corruptions of Isiaka or Ishaku) and the ram (lamb), of which Moslems reminded us of last week in the (FESTIVAL OF FAITH). I call it the festival of faith, although many persons see it as the FESTIVAL OF SACRIFICE, because LIVING FAITH, which should grow into CONVINCTION, is the foundation of living relationships with the Almighty Creator and obedience to His eternal, unchanging or unswerving Holy Will.  For whatever reason(s), Christianity does not celebrate this story, which, in my view, is an allegorical rendition of reality. I was under 18 at Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo, when I asked my Baptist Training Union pastor (BTU) why The Almighty Father would tempt Abraham when he was supposed to be All Knowing and could determine one’s disposition towards Him from one’s birth. Is it not reported by Prophet Isaiah that he knew us before he formed us in our mother’s wombs? All his reply was that inscrutable were the ways of God. I would later learn that the incorporation of FREE WILL into the essence of the HUMAN SPIRIT makes him or her an unpredictable creature. It was my English Literature teacher who later taught me the differences between delivering messages as hard and impregnable as the kernel could be, and softening the message for easier understanding by using simple, pictorial stories in allegorical forms.

    The story of Abraham and Isaac is that the Almighty Creator Who “knows everything and can do everything” wished to know if Abraham really believed and had faith in Him! So, he asked Abraham to sacrifice unto Him his only son, Isaac, born in old age, as a burnt offering in a test of his faith. But as Abraham, completely trusting, set to put the knife on Isaac’s neck, the Almighty Creator stopped him from killing his son and showed him a ram nearby, which He had provided to take Isaac’s place on a slaughter slab. I do not know why Christians do not celebrate this event but merely teach it in the church and Sunday school classes and why Moslems emphasise it. 

    It is like the story of JOB. I remember asking questions about JOB and about ADAM AND EVE in the CONFIRMATION CLASS. I wondered as an under 20 about why the Almighty Creator who knows everything would accede to Lucifer’s request to cause grave material destruction upon JOB only to prove to the evil one that JOB unswervingly believed in Him! I also wondered if the Almighty Creator and Lucifer could ever have such conversation. Do light and darkness ever meet? If JOB became materially rewarded several folds for being a man of FAITH, how fair was a just and loving God to Job’s children, whose earthly lives were wantonly destroyed, just to prove a point? In any case, did Jesus, from out of THE LIGHT, not teach us in the allegorical story of His temptation by Lucifer that the Almighty Creator does not condone temptation? Did Lucifer himself not fall because he tempted the human souls he was meant to guide, tend and groom with supporting love? If The Almighty Creator condemns temptation, why is it ascribed to Him? Could it be that we must nullify some Old Testament teachings in the Bible with more enlightened versions in the New Testament? We should not forget that both Testaments are the history of a people in motion, and that, as they kept growing in the knowledge of their Creator, their perceptions of Him continued to enlarge and become more clarified or purified.

    The truth we humans always fail to recognise when we stand before ALLEGORY in the presentation of basic spiritual facts to us is that we were babies, spiritually speaking, when these teachings were offered to us in PICTORIAL FORMS. Otherwise, how do we explain the Adam and Eve story? If they had two children, Cain and Abel, and Cain killed Abel, where did Cain find a wife to marry who helped him to populate the rest of us? Some scholars say Adam and Eve must have had a daughter whose existence was not reported in the Bible. If they did, would Abel not have committed incest? If, today, sane Christians world-wide consider incest a sin because the Almighty Creator forbids it, are we saying He is an imperfect and, therefore, changing Creator, who made a mistake at the beginning of creation and has now amended the Basic Law to ban incest among human beings? With regard to the missing link about the possibility of Adam and Eve having a daughter who was not mentioned in the CREATION STORY, are we to understand that THE BIBLE may not be a complete work, irrespective of the many GRAINS OF TRUTH it conveys to us?

    Other Bible scholars who seek escape from allegory refer to a statement of Abel after his murder by Cain. Deeply moved that he had committed grievous crime, Cain asked the Almighty Creator to put a seal over his forehead so that inhabitants of a nearby settlement may not kill him. Where did these other people come from? What produces these jerks and gaps is our penchant to take these stories as literal, rather than, as allegoric renditions.

    The Challenge

    The challenge before us is whether an Almighty Creator exists Who we cannot see but in Whose existence we must believe and in whom we must have faith and whose Will we must unconditionally fulfill. My response to all these questions is an ABSOLUTE YES. I step further to say we no longer are spiritual babies, that, by now, we should have grown FAITH INTO CONVICTION THROUGH RECOGNITION in the language He speaks to us every day, when we encounter or experience THE LAWS OF NATURE.

     It is on account of this that I rejoice with the Moslem celebrants and their wellwishers on the FESTIVAL OF FAITH (eid-el-kabir) last week.

    Observations

    1) President Bola Ahmed TINUBU pulled a string of the cord of my soul in his good will message. He said something to the effect that the Almighty Creator does not place on the shoulders of anyone or of the nation any burden heavier than he or the nation can bear. This is a deep spiritual statement, which time will not permit exploration today. Permit me to say, nevertheless, that I see it from the perspectives of the Laws of Creation, sometimes called THE LAWS OF NATURE. We exist in an automated UNIVERSE. Whenever we pull a lever in it, we are given what the pulling of that lever is automated to deliver as results. We sow hatred; we reap hatred several times over. Ditto if we sow goodness. We are in the season of maize. Count the ears of corn on a cob. One ear of corn sown in the soil may bring up a stalk of about five cobs. A cob probably has 400 or 500 ears of corn. In all probability, we may harvest 2000 ears of corn from only one! If we plant maize, hoping to harvest yam but we cannot harvest yam, did we not pre-set the burden of disappointment or failure? If we sow corruption in the land, and we are too weak to challenge the sowers and condone the corruption, who are we to blame at harvest time, when all that is false must inevitably collapse, threatening to entomb us? Did the Almighty Creator place the burden on the shoulders of the nation? Did the citizens not permit it? From the shop girl to the houseboy and the mechanic to the political leaders, who is not corrupt? Are the Nigerian owners of mouth-watering property in Dubai unknown to Nigerians? What did they do about these fellows? Very soon, when normalcy returns to the pump petrol sector, we would forget all those fellows who allowed other countries to milk Nigeria dry.

    2) At the praying ground in Osogbo last Thursday, Osun State Governor Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke and Senator Ajibola Basiru literally contested who would sit, where. This was disgraceful. Both gentlemen are supposed to know they should be well comported not just in public but also when they believe they stand before the holiness of the Power of the Almighty Creator, if their FAITH in his existence is genuine and not grown merely out of habit. Let me illustrate what I mean. When I go to church, I do not exchange greetings or other pleasantries with anyone in the building. All banters end outside the building, when I begin to compose myself inwardly, for the surrender of my soul inside the building to the Almighty Creator Whose Power suffuses everywhere. I may not sing any song in the hymn book the pastor calls for singing, if I do not believe the lyrics tally with the TRUTH. How can I tell a departing one to “sleep on”, when I know that Moses and Elijah did not sleep on in any grave, but were working with and around Jesus as shown in the story of His Transfiguration? 

    Did Jesus Himself not appear to his disciples after his dastardly murder? Did he not tell us what He could do, we, too, could? If the President of the United States came visiting, and Adeleke and Bashiru were among his guests, would they squabble for vantage sitting places before their visitor? Many of us have no faith that the Almighty Creator exists. We only bodily and habitually follow the teachings of the religion we were born into! Who taught Governor Ademola Adeleke and Senator Ajibola Basiru that their earthly positions or money would guarantee them respectable positions in Paradise? Did they not hear of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus the poor beggar? The rich man hosted the high and the mighty to great feasts almost every day. Lazarus, with sores all over his body, and flies all over them, sat at the rich man’s gate, begging for alms from the guests, while he ate crumbs from leftover food. Both died. Lazarus was the first to die. He was admitted to blissful life with Abraham in Paradise. The rich man came next, and was shown the other side, perdition. Although we are not to judge our fellow human beings, I cannot help believing Governor Ademola Adeleke and Senator Ajibola Basiru DISRESPECTED their CREATOR before Whom they had come to submit themselves in humility. Who, between both men knows if he will make Paradise? Isn’t it absurd that, without such assurance, the Governor and the Senator, like school children, would struggle for vantage view on the praying ground?

    I AM not a Moslem, but I am brought up to respect wherever human beings dedicate as a place for the worship of their Maker. This may be a church, a mosque or a shrine of traditional religion. Near one of the gates of ILUPEJU MODEL MARKET, by the express way, there is a small praying ground. The place was revered during prayers, but not after. I often corrected many people who walked across it in the late evenings or at other times during the day. The long and short of my observation is that Governor Adeleke and Senator Ajibola Basiru behaved like unschooled children at the praying ground. Neither knew where the AFTER LIFE would find him. Neither would take his earthly position to Paradise. Prophet Mohammed (May the peace of Allah be upon him) taught humility before men and REVERENCE before Allah all his life. So, from which backgrounds are Governor Adeleke and Senator Bashiru coming ?

    3)PDP and APC: What is all the bickering over? Should we be dragging religion into politics and vice versa? Yes, the 2023 Sallah was a bleak one. The removal of fuel subsidy pushed all prices up. Many faithfuls could not afford rams, rice and other foodstuff. PDP came blowing the trumpets that this was the handiwork of the APC. The APC bowled the “tennis ball” back. The game went to and fro. What is all this? Is the Eid El Kabir meant to be a social revelry OR  given to the faithfuls as a stop over from bread and butter race to search the crevices of their souls if they would find faith in the Creator therein? Many of the sermons preached by the Alfas last week advised the faithful to not kill themselves over revelry. Did we not live through COVID 19? Did anyone blame anyone as the precursor?

     Is the PDP saying Nigeria’s economic drift towards perdition should not have been averted? Could not averting it not lead to civil unrest sometime in the future? It is not all the time that a political party, hungry for power, should lead a gullible public by the nose to the cliff and prompt it to jump over. A mature political party would acknowledge at this time that many things are upside down not only in Nigeria but globally, and advise that the pummeled faithful make do with whatever they can afford. After all, the presidential candidate of the PDP, like the other presidential candidates, promised to remove petroleum subsidy. When would he have done it: when the hot metal was at its hottest, or when it becomes so cold that it cannot forge a new shape or would he have again postponed the doomsday?

    4) Jollof Rice

    Away from the frills of Eid el Kabir. Joyfully participating inwardly in the FESTIVAL OF FAITH, an opportunity arises yet again for me to respond to the question, MAN, HOW DO YOU STAND BEFORE YOUR MAKER, faithful and loyal or casual, a believer merely out of habit? My faith, growing into conviction on such an occasion as this, encourages me to enjoy the benevolence of my neighbours.  In one of the sermons I listened to on radio, the ram and other items of celebration are to be shared with

    A) The poor and needy who may ask for the benevolence

    B) The poor and needy who for whatever reason, perhaps out of dignity, would not beg and 

    C) Other persons the giver wishes to give a share of his or her benevolence.

    My household received the share of ram, Jollof rice and drinks. On an occasion such as this, my BEST MAN , Mr Dotun Akintoye, and I used to spend the day with a certain gentleman who was one of his uncles. It was an opportunity to share spiritual experiences with him and his guests and enrich our understanding of Islam. Such a cross border of religious events may have been difficult for me, had I not through personal search for the Truth been led to recognise that Prophet Mohammed (May the peace of Allah be upon him), was one of the FORERUNNER PROPHETS for the anchorage on earth of the forces of THE LAST JUDGEMENT. In my view, His other co FORERUNNERS were Budha and Krishna in India, Zoraster in Iran and Laotse in China. Thanks to the sheik of the Lekki Central Mosque, Sheikh Ridwanullah Kayode Jamie, Chief Imam of the Lekki Central Mosque in Lagos, who said in an interview on ADAMILOGO FM Radio station in Lekki that adherents of all religions should rise beyond bigotry and seek knowledge beyond their noses and national frontiers.

    Each time I drew a plate of JOLLOF rice nearer to my reach at table, chewing delicious ram meat, I did not forget a warning for this season of indulgence posted on the internet and forwarded to me by my wife, Dr. Matilda Adedayo Kusa, as a reminder that I should not loosen too much my dietary guard. The warning says: ‘Margarine is one molecule away from plastic & shares 27 ingredients with paint’…Bon appétit.

    What that means for this season and any others is moderation of the palate and DETOXIFICATION when it is all over. Meanwhile, congratulations to all those rams which survived  Eid el Kabir because many people did not have enough money in their pockets to purchase them. Poor rams and indeed chickens … were run over in the budget squeeze.

  • Ikeme tasks CPAN on leadership, value

    Ikeme tasks CPAN on leadership, value

    Former President of the Nigerian Association of Pharmacists and Pharmaceutical Scientists in the Americas (NAPPSA), Dr Anthony Ikeme, has urged clinical pharmacists in Nigeria to show leadership in the healthcare sector by developing relevant and game-changing value propositions that will help transform the country’s healthcare system.

    Ikeme, who is also the co-founder and Managing Partner of Pharmamedics Inc., USA, gave this charge in an interview after delivering the plenary address at the first annual scientific conference of the Clinical Pharmacists Association of Nigeria (CPAN) held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, recently.

    Read Also: People’ll be shocked if we further expose Mmesoma Ejikeme — JAMB

    Ikeme said there needs to be a paradigm shift in the current state of play in the industry where too many stakeholders are jostling for positions instead of seeking ways to improve their professions to make a real impact. He stated that the critical question that must be answered by healthcare professionals is essentially the value each stakeholder group brings to the table and not about hierarchy.

    Ikeme said: “It is not just your hierarchical position, it is your value proposition. What value do you bring to the table? Can you measure or quantify your value to the team, and the patients? Is your indispensability in the healthcare team clear and demonstrable?” 

    He explained that focus on such value propositions is necessary for improvements in the healthcare sector and will help shine the light on the critical role of the clinical pharmacist in a nation’s healthcare delivery. According to him, “Clinical pharmacists are not only the healthcare team’s medication experts but also the champion for patients’ education and overall wellbeing.”

  • Five tomato substitutes you can cook with

    Five tomato substitutes you can cook with

    There is rising anxiety over the worsening scarcity of tomatoes and peppers in most parts of the country.

    Consumers across the country have started lamenting the scarcity and high prices of tomatoes.

    If you’re looking for tomato substitutes, there are several options you can use to add a similar flavour or texture to your dishes.

    Here are five tomato substitutes that you can cook with

    *Red Bell Peppers:

    Red bell peppers are an excellent substitute for tomatoes, especially when it comes to flavor and color. They share a similar sweetness and provide a vibrant red hue to your dishes. Roast or sautéed red bell peppers can be used in sauces, stews, soups, and salads as a replacement for tomatoes.

    Read Also: Tomato scarcity looms as farmers lose N1.5b to disease

     *Tomato paste:

    One of the easy substitutes is tomato paste. Tomato paste is a thick, concentrated form of tomato puree that is often used in recipes that call for tomatoes.

    *Carrots and Beets:

    When you’re looking for a tomato substitute in recipes like marinara sauce or tomato-based soups, a combination of carrots and beets can work wonders. Grated or blended carrots and beets provide a rich color and a subtle sweetness that can replace the flavors of tomatoes.

    *Canned Pumpkin:

    Canned pumpkin can be used as a tomato substitute in certain recipes, especially in dishes like chili or soups. While it won’t mimic the exact flavor of tomatoes, it provides a creamy texture and a slightly sweet taste that can be appealing in many savory dishes.

    Tamarind Paste:

    Tamarind paste is a fantastic alternative for adding a tangy and slightly sour taste to dishes that typically call for tomatoes. It works well in dishes like Indian curries, chutneys, and some Mexican salsas. Tamarind paste can be mixed with water to achieve the desired consistency.

    Remember that each substitute may alter the taste and texture of your dish slightly, so it’s essential to experiment and adjust the quantities based on your preferences and the specific recipe you’re working with. Additionally, some recipes may not be as suitable for certain substitutes, so it’s best to tailor your choices to the dish you’re preparing.

  • Kwara govt, NMA meet to avert doctors’ strike

    Kwara govt, NMA meet to avert doctors’ strike

    Kwara Government, on Monday, met with the members of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) over the notice of strike given by the medical doctors working with the state government.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the medical doctors had earlier given the government a 21-day ultimatum to attend to their requests or face strike.

    NAN also reports that the truce was brokered at the meeting between the state government and the executive officers of NMA in Ilorin.

    While the state government was represented by the Head of Service, Mrs Susan Oluwole, the NMA team was led by the Chairman, Dr Abdulkadir Ahmed.

    Speaking at the meeting, the HoS, while acknowledging the demands of the doctors, however, said that most of the issues were not peculiar to the medical profession.

    She said that government was already taking steps to alleviate the problems and enhance the welfare of the entire workers.

    Oluwole enjoined members of the association to exercise restraint, stressing that the threat to embark on strike was uncalled for at this moment.

    Read Also: Kwara Gov tasks new Onijagbo on peace, unity

    “Government has massive plan for the revival of particularly the health sector and by the time it is concluded, nobody will have reason to go to Japan,” she said.

    Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr Abubakar Ayinla, acknowledged the efforts of the present administration at repositioning the health sector.

    He noted that the state government had made regular payment of the doctors’ salaries a priority, in addition to improving the working facilities in the hospitals.

    “Doctors were the first to enjoy the new salary scale before other sectors in the state and have been paid the CONSAS, while the government is also looking into the hazard allowance matter,” he said.

    In his reaction, the NMA chairman said that the workload on the medical doctors working with the state government was massive due to lack of enough qualified hands.

    He noted that there had been low response to the advertised employment of new doctors, attributing this to what he called poor take home of medical officers.

    Ahmed called on government to urgently look into the improvement of salary and hazard allowance of the doctors in order to make the state attractive for qualified health professionals.
    (NAN)

  • UNICEF targets 1.1m children for Vitamin A supplements in Anambra

    UNICEF targets 1.1m children for Vitamin A supplements in Anambra

    The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said over 1.1 million children in Anambra State would benefit from its Vitamin A supplements during the first round optimized Maternal, Newborn Child Health (oMNCH) week.

    The nutrition specialist at the UNICEF Enugu office, Ngozi Onuorah gave the figure at the flag off of the Anambra State weeklong campaign for material and child health programme at Umueri in Anambra East local government area of the state.

    The programme is organised by National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, in collaboration with the state PHCDA, Ministry of Health, with support from UNICEF, World Health Organization, WHO, and other partners.

    Onuorah noted that the campaign would bring primary health care interventions to the doorsteps of mothers and their children.

    She however observed that there is a lot of Iron deficiency anaemia in children in Anambra State, adding that out of 334,838 pregnant women in the state, 170,148, which is about 51%, are anaemic.

    She said: “It is a high impact programme anchored by Vitamin A supplementation and deworming, which are the two given to children by annually. Vitamin A alone has the singular potential to prevent all causes of infant deaths by 23-26 percent.

    “It boosts the child’s immune system and prevents a lot of infections, including measles attack.

    “The Vitamin A target is for children aged 6-59 months and they are about 1,106,080 in Anambra State. We have given the state a ceiling of 85% to achieve, which is over 998000, but we are hoping to achieve 100%.

    “It requires robust sensitization and UNICEF and government have supported town criers, jingles and many social mobilization activities to ensure that all communities in the state participate effectively. Our expectation is that all children in the state will be covered.”
    Also speaking, Chief of Field Office, UNICEF, Enugu, Mrs Juliet Chiluwe described the programme as significant milestone for the attainment of children right in Nigeria and also scaling up demands for PHC services.

    While flagging off the programme, Governor Chukwuma Soludo, represented by his deputy, Dr. Onyekachi Ibezim underscored the importance government attached to health of children, pregnant and nursing mothers.

    He said the outreach was in line with Soludo’s campaign promises on health, including completion of General Hospitals in the state which would be accessible to all, irrespective of political or religious affiliations.

    Commissioner for Health, Dr. Afam Obidike appreciated UNICEF and other stakeholders for their support to the state in various health interventions.
    He described antenatal among pregnant women as life saving, assuring close monitoring of the exercise to ensure the desired results were achieved.
    Earlier, Executive Secretary, ASPHCDA, Mrs Chisom Uchem said the outreach which would end July 2, was aimed at increasing access to, and utilization of essential and life saving interventions.

    “The exercise is also to strengthen routine system through updated knowledge and skills of health workers for service delivery, improved health management information systems as well as improve healthy household practices,” she said.

  • SFH empowers 853 adolescent girls in Ogun

    SFH empowers 853 adolescent girls in Ogun

    No fewer than 853 adolescent girls in Ogun state have benefited from Society for Family Health (SFH) Adolescent 360 (A360) programme aimed at reducing barriers to access and increase voluntary uptake of modern contraceptives by adolescent girls. 

    The initiative, implemented by SFH, was to improve the sexual reproductive health of girls aged 15–19 while helping them achieve their dreams and succeed in life.

    The Director of A360 Project, Roselyn Odeh, said Dubbed 9JA Girls program is holistic approach frames contraception within the broader context of life, love, and health by providing girls with access to sexual and reproductive health information and services.

    She noted that the programme seeks to increase the prevalence rate of modern contraceptives (mCPR) and ensure a brighter future for adolescent girls in Nigeria.

    Giving a brief on the A360 Economic Strengthening (ES) program, Odeh noted that the long-term impact of the programme is for Adolescent Girls to have improved agency and financial resources to lead the lives they desire.

    Read Also: Ogun assembly re-elects Yusuf as majority leader

    “Basically, evident in the girls’ ability to make informed decisions that involve the control and allocation of resources, financial independence and establishment of a sustainable business.”

    She also noted that the intervention has two anticipated outcomes which include adolescent girls (aged 15-19) having the knowledge, agency, and support to pursue economic autonomy; and adolescent girls (aged 15-19) being equipped with adequate knowledge to make informed health decisions and choices.

    Speaking on the positives of the program, Odeh highlighted that the project impacted 853 girls as they participated in goal-setting moments, financial upskilling sessions, vocational skills-building activities, mentorship programs, empowerment collectives (savings groups), and community events (marketplace) where the girls are celebrated, certified and given the opportunity to showcase their newly acquired skills”.

    She stated; “Girls are being recognized as serious economic actors in the community. The graduation moment provides a chance for girls to be recognized formally for their contributions. Girls’ savings groups serve as a way to keep girls connected as the groups provide peer support and reinforce the importance of having an enabling environment toward the achievement of one’s goals. “

    “Motivations for girls’ goals include having financial independence, pursuing a career or furthering their education, starting or growing a business, and financial preparedness in terms of ability to support themselves and sometimes their family.

    “Skills acquisition is one of the most popular components of the program as girls understand the importance of having a skill and how it can transcend into financial stability for them in the future.”

    “The economic strengthening program in Ogun state recorded tremendous impacts as presently, 853 adolescent girls from Atan, Etere and Otun communities in Adodo Ota LGA have graduated from the program.”

  • NNMDA boss promises to revamp herbal medicine development, patronage

    NNMDA boss promises to revamp herbal medicine development, patronage

    The newly-appointed Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA), Prof Martins Emeje, has vowed to use his accumulated wealth of experience and several years of acquired expertise in drug research and manufacturing to reposition herbal medicine research, development and patronage with a view to integrating traditional medicines into overall healthcare delivery system in the country.

     Emeje, who was the head of Ultra-Modern Biology/Chemistry Laboratory in the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) before joining NNMDA as D-G in May, made the promise when Pharm Onyeka Onyeibor, Managing Director of Evans Baroque Limited, a leading pharmaceutical healthcare company with global partnerships and a vast presence in West Africa, paid a courtesy visit to the agency’s head office last Friday in Lagos.

     A distinguished professor of Drug Delivery and Nanomedicine, Emeje said he came into office fully prepared with a ready roadmap and action plan to help Nigeria reposition the traditional medicine sub-sector. After itemising achievements and breakthroughs NNMDA has recorded so far in herbal medicine research and development, Emeje said research findings recognised by the World Health Organisation have showed that nothing less than 70 per cent of people in the developing world rely on herbal medicines for their overall wellness. He added that, since millions of Nigerians depend on natural medicines because of affordability, availability, insufficiency of orthodox medicine, and religious/cultural beliefs, it means that herbal medicine market is a goldmine waiting to be tapped in order to improve people’s quality of life and boost the nation’s economy to the boot. The NNMDA boss listed products such as Amarus Herbal Tea for prevention and management of malaria, herbal mosquito repellant, dual action indoor residual spray and air freshener formulated as an insecticide and air freshener, as well as Ocimum Herbal Tea for management of diabetes, among others, produced by the agency for public consumption.

    Read Also: A boost for herbal medicine as NNMDA unveils ISO-certified laboratory

     In his slide presentation witnessed by Evans Baroque Limited team as well as the agency staff and management, the NNMDA boss said he applied for the job because  he passionately believes that the traditional medicine subsector holds the master key to the much-desired future of Nigeria’s healthcare delivery and economic greatness. While analysing the opportunities inherent in the sector, Prof Emeje noted that natural medicine, with its associated bio-resources, is a strategic sector that can be used as a tool for the overall development of the country, starting from the natural improvement of health, simulation of small and medium scale agro-business, small scale product  industries in health, raw materials and a feedstock to the global knowledge economy in research and product development.

     In his response, Onyeibor tasked the agency to work on some of the challenges impeding the development of the sector so that resources such as traditional medicine knowledge products and technology can be transformed into innovative and commercialisable products for the prevention of diseases and benefit of Nigerians. He also promised to collaborate with the agency in the area of product research funding and training, among other possible partnerships.

     Also, NNMDA, in another meeting with the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP), the agency scored the bull’s eye. The meeting ended with the USP agreeing to partner the agency in the development of dietary supplements using indigenous medicinal plants resources like Moringa and others; while NNMDA is to coordinate the development of phyto-pharmacopoeia in Africa as the agency plans to expand its ISO 17025 accreditation to cover more scope – all aided by the USP team, which vows to support the aforementioned plans and give all necessary guidance in achieving success. In another strategic engagement meeting with Aberdeen Commercial, the agency has secured a promise, which involves Aberden to develop standard operational roadmaps covering short, medium and long term goals, and also carry out intensive in-house training for all NNMDA staff on standard operation.

     The new NNMDA boss obtained his BPharm (with distinction) from Ahmadu Bello University, and MPharm and Ph.D. from the University of Nigeria (UNN), where he received the best Ph.D. award and was enlisted as UNN’s “Face of Research.” He established the first nanomedicine centre in Nigeria and was the pioneer head of the intellectual property and technology transfer as well as the WIPO’s technology innovation and support centre (TISC). The D-G, who has published more than 150 articles and patents, is also the Head of R&D at NIPRD; he holds a visiting professor position at Nnamdi Azikiwe University.

  • Health insurance: HMOs promise to work withTinubu to implement new Act

    Health insurance: HMOs promise to work with
    Tinubu to implement new Act

    Health Management Organisations (HMOs) have agreed to work with President Bola Tinubu to implement the new Health Act. The new Health Act stipulates that health insurance be made mandatory for all Nigerians. Consequently, it is expected that all Nigerians, including those in the informal sector, are enrolled on health insurance. The old Act only made it compulsory for those in the public sector.

     Speaking at the annual general meeting of the Ultimate Health Management Services (UHMS), a leading HMO in the country, Dr. Lekan Ewenla, Managing Director of Ultimate Health, said HMOs are prepared to work with the new administration to ensure that the insurance scheme works. “We are going to, as an organisation and as a body in the health insurance space, work closely with the government to ensure that we support and we achieve what we are going to achieve. So what the regulator is doing now is developing the official framework to ensure that the managing nature of this law is not just left on the paper on the table. What the Federal Government has done in the last five years was to begin to address healthcare from the perspective of demand and supply such that now they have deployed fund on a yearly basis.”

    Also speaking at the event, Mrs. Angela Ajala, Chairman, Ultimate Health, said the organisation is working with relevant stakeholders to bring everybody on board. “We brought up the fact that the business is green and is doing well, especially with the bill, which has opened up the market for leading HMOs to make sure that every Nigerian is captured in the health management’s care and that no Nigerian should ever be sick and denied treatment because he/she has no money to access healthcare. And so we’re taking it beyond what it is now; we are reaching out to all the nooks and crannies. And we’re meeting with the relevant stakeholders to bring everybody on board – students, workers, professionals – but get to everybody; that’s our target.”

    Read Also: Five-point observations to President Tinubu

     The Tinubu administration inherited decades of failed promises to shore up national funding for health to at least 15 per cent of the annual national budget, with a primary healthcare system that is largely decrepit, general hospitals that are short-staffed and of poor capacity, and teaching hospitals that are badly hit by unabated exit of essential health workers out of the country. In Nigeria, roughly 90 per cent of the population are overburdened by out-of-pocket expenditure, a sad reality that manifests more when treating chronic illnesses with exorbitant cost of treatment.

     During the campaigns, President Tinubu had promised holistic actions that would focus on strengthening healthcare systems, promoting preventive healthcare, widening access to improved quality of care and ensuring access to essential medicines and skilled healthcare professionals. To achieve the goal of universal health coverage, he has set a target to cover a minimum of 87 million or 40 percent of Nigerians within two years by implementing the mandatory national health insurance scheme. The planned expansion in healthcare coverage, he said, would be achieved by increasing the financing available for the Basic Health Care Provision Fund and the Vulnerable Group Fund that was recently established by former President Muhammadu Buhari to insure the health of vulnerable Nigerians.

  • Inauguration: Guard your health, six mafia ‘wars’ likely (2)

    Inauguration: Guard your health, six mafia ‘wars’ likely (2)

    Please grant me one minute to talk about The Key to Peace And  Happiness. I coined this title from the advice of a wise one to suffering people who did not know their condition was caused by their thoughts. The Wise One said: “Keep the hearth of your thoughts pure. By so doing, you will bring peace and happiness”. The hearth of any thought is the foundation of that thought. In my speech making days,THE KEY TO PEACE AND HAPPINESS was my favourite subject for turning upward the listener’s gaze. I reasoned that keeping the thoughts pure at this time would be a Balm of Gilead when petrol price is above the roof and instigating a riot of other prices under its canopy.

    Before I proceed, please excuse another minute to quickly detour to the second of six mafia ‘wars” I mentioned last week  (June 8, 2023) were likely to follow the inaugural speech of Pesident Bola Ahmed TinubuI on May 29, 2023. This second battle field is the abrogation of the foreign currency black market.

     Currency war

    To avoid the currency war, there are three options…

    • Expand foreign currency earning,

    • Curtail foreign currency expenditure,

    • Confront the cabal or mafia which has created a black currency market out of the official currency market.

    I have been imagining for more than 20 years a bone breaking “war” in this area. This may involve hundreds of thousands or millions of persons who are knee deep in “black currency” business. Government success in this” war ” should enable foreign  companies who do business with Nigeria to have easier access to foreign currency on better terms. But it will be despised by Nigerians abroad who “sow” little foreign currency into the Nigerian economy but reap “bumper harvests” from them , in the local currency, the naira. Many of them emigrated just to be able to return in a few years to take commanding heights of the economy. Of what benefit will be their suffering abroad if their home  remittances amount to little or nothing? should the US Dollar begin to exchange for, say, N250, their dependants at home, too, may not wish the naira well. What about the bank managers who round trip foreign currencies? Can we forget those young Nigerians back home who, unemployed for years, have learned to do internet businesses which pay them in foreign currency? There are several armies the President is going to do battle  with within this sector. They all want Nigeria to become better. But do they realise that Nigeria becoming better means that the naira has to be rescued from the strangulation of other currencies and that, doing so, will pull the carpet from under their feet?

    About 32 years ago, I had the privilege of having lunch with Gen Aliyu Gusau (rtd) then national security adviser (NSA).

    I was Editor of The Guardian newspaper. Soon, Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’adua (rtd) showed up in the room. Gen Gusau introduced us. I knew they wanted to sound me out over election- season promises of presidential candidate, one of whom was  Gen. Yar’adua. The economy was in distress and the “black market” was a major cause of it. Was he ready to take on the “black market?” If he was, would he accept my suggestions? The police and the armed forces should hatch a secret crack down plan as follows:

    • Principal operational zones of the “black market ” nationwide should be pre determined

    • At zero hour nationwide, security operatives should crack down on them

    • Black market currency hawkers should be arrested, handcuffed and bundled into police Black Maria and other vehicles.

    • Next day, they should appear in magistrates courts on holding charges, pending further investigations. They should state the sources of foreign currency found on them, and these “sources” should be immediately arrested for prosecution

    •Regular and unexpected mop up operations nationwide should continue indefinitely.

    • The foregoing should sanitise the banks and the currency market. But the government should expect a backlash from the unseen “hands of Esau”. These persons are the currency “black market” mafia.

    Understandably, Gen. Yar’adua did not warm up to the suggestions. Who would deliberately step on the tail of the cobra in his backyard? He looked at me, flashed a pretentious smile, nodding and puffing a cigarette and coughing.  Even garrulous President Olusegun Obasanjo, a retired army general, avoided the terrain as though it were a quagmire or minesfield. His successor, the younger Yar’adua was too sick to bell the cart. President Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan avoided brinkmanship and Gen Muhammadu Buhari, a retired general, was not a  man who could look his kinsmen or friends straight in the eyes and  square up with them. Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a “make or break man”. For 22 months as Governor of Lagos State, he defied the garrulous President Obasanjo who denied him of federal funds to run the state. But Tinubu found money elsewhere and Lagos State did not know a President Obasanjo existed in Abuja or in Nigeria! Was Lagos not robust enough to be a country? If it was, would it need  Obasanjo’s money outside its frontiers to survive? That is the man who, now as  President of Nigeria, has declared war on the “black currency” mafia! It is yet unclear if the suspension from office last Saturday of Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele had to do with other matters or a single market drive or both.

    Yet another interesting battle brewing is in the electricity sector. President Tinubu wishes to double capacities on electricity generation, transmission and distribution in a country where capacities are crashing almost everyday (more about this next week)

    The key to peace and happiness

    We are back to the advice to “Keep the hearth of your thoughts pure. By so doing, you will bring peace and happiness”. The HEARTH of your thoughts is the FOUNDATION of your thought.  This message is not original to me. It is the message of a wise one about 100 years ago to suffering people. It sprang from the knowledge that you are what you think. Many people erroneously believe that thoughts are free and that it is the tongue that we should always discipline. People who think like this may not realise that the tongue merely expresses abundance of the mind and that the starting point of any action, be it the spoken word or physical action, stems from the thought. There is fleeting thoughts which, like rolling stones, may gather no moss, as the English man says. There are also serious thoughts which may gather such large amounts of moss that they may become a VOLITION, the driving motif of one’s life, or a propensity which, like one’s shadow, may be difficult to detach from. I say “difficult” because propensities may also be the easiest things to knock off our lives if we understand them for what they are, where they come from, and if we have the courage and the will to shake them off.

    Many of us have the propensity for the blame game. We blame other persons for whatever befalls us. That is why the modern day priest smiles to the bank. If you listen to FM radio in Lagos from about 4.30am everyday, you may understand what I am saying. I never knew we would ever degenerate spiritually to the point that a so-called prophet would set up testimonials on radio, dictate his account number to listeners who want him to ask their Creator to expedite action on their prayers, even if they do not deserve what they are praying for. That’s not where I am heading.

    In the first part of this series, I outlined the possibility of the subsidy mafia exploiting the pains of pump price deregulation to defend their interests which is above N400 billion naira  every month.

    Thoughts

    We humans are wired up,  as though we are radio and television receiving sets or even the cell telephone sets on which we make wireless telephone calls or send text or voice messages. When we send astronauts to the moon, we communicate with them and they with us. This idea was borrowed from the universe, from worlds higher than ours.

    Read Also: Eko Electric partners institute on mental health

    In the universe, there are several spheres of existence which we may call Power Centres. We may call them so because the nature or characteristic of everyone in a power centre is homogenous or similar. Thus, there is a concentration of likeness in everything everyone does there. Grumbletonians stick together. So do murderers, thieves, kidnappers etc. On earth, there is a mingling of propensities, although we may sense tendencies towards homogenuity in families, tribes and unpolluted nationalities.

    When we  think, we connect with power centres homogenous with the nature of our thought. It is like when we switch on our laptops and we call out to GOOGLE, WHATSAPP or to PLANET, ZOOM, and now, OTRACKER Or O CONNECT or O VARSITY. The laptop takes us to wherever we connect with. If the network provider is not playing funny, my cell phone cannot take me away from Jide Ogundele, who is on my contact menu, when I dial his number and connect me with John Smith, who does not know I exist and who is also unknown to me. Should this happen, it means mankind or the internet service provider has not perfected an idea it borrowed from higher regions of the universe.

    What I am saying in effect is that our thoughts link us with those regions of the universe we are homogenous with.

    Subsidy aches

    Petrol price deregulation is provoking different thoughts in all of us and, accordingly, connecting us all to different climes in the universe. There are some persons who believe the deregulation will crush them. Each time they so think, they would generate thought forms of their worries and fears and these would team up with similar, ugly thoughts generated by other persons. The combined thought forms will re-enforce one another and, together, they will be sucked up by homogeneous power centres in the universe. These power centers must be  negative power centres which, in turn, connect with the negative souls, feeding them with negative ideas about why and how they must find existence more difficult than hitherto. If they are hateful, the hate in their souls will be reinvigorated. Poor, fearful soul, a supposed Lord in the universe who has been  giving  dominion over everything, including petrol prices and paper money. The negative power centre will re-inforce the worries, ideas, fears and self-created helplessness of such negative persons through feedback. Thus, they would be trapped in the quagmire of their thoughts which, through intensification by the power centre, would become larger, stronger, self entrapping and socially disrupting. It is of such persons the Yoruba elders say:TI A BA  GUN IYAN NINU ODO, TI A BA N RO OKA NI INU EPO EPA ENI MAA YO A YO! (If we pound yam in a mortar and make eba in groundnut shell, whoever will have the stomach filled will  have it filled). So, while the negative person delimit their potentials and enlarge their physical encumbrances and psychic entanglements, positive persons will be connected to power centres which would dispense positive ideas to them. Whatever their situations, our forefathers did not diminish themselves with negative thought. They did not know about Norman Vincent Peale and his books, The Power of  Positive  Thinking  and Amazing Results of Positive Thinking, before they deducted their knowledge of survivalism from the universe based on their experiences. Why are we such indolent souls in our generation, always dependent, hardly able to find ways out of a quagmire, always playing the blame game? Do lizards, ants, birds or butterflies talk about subsidy problems?

    Charles Idehor

    In a long, long while, I haven’t listened to a positive interview as I did the Charles Idehor programme on Jordan FM radio in Lagos on May 4, 2023. Maybe the personalities of Gbola  Oba and Adeniyi Adesina made the difference. Gbola Oba is the son of a womanly fish seller now of blessed memory at the  Baba Oloosa Market in Mushin, Lagos. He has been the victim of kidnapping and spent several days in a forest. He supports principles, not persons or political parties. Adesina is the Editor of this newspaper, The  Nation.  Both were effervescent  and electrifying and positive, and the otherwise bellicose regular callers agreed with them. Adesina said we would never know why politicians take their decisions and challenged all of us to say our decisions are not survivalism propelled. Gbola Oba said we all needed to readjust our lives. He was spending  about N40,000 every week to entertain his friends at their Hangouts in Surulere. But since petrol prices went up , he had stuck more to his bed at the weekends. He challenged women in particular to adjust their lives. Nigerian women were spending as much as six billion U.S. dollars every year on Brazilian human hair. Indian women were cutting and selling their long hair for this market and regrowing them for more deals. To catch some of the market, says Gbola Oba, the Chinese are making artificial human hair from bamboo. The direction women are going is the direction the nation will follow. If Nigerian women are fashion spend thrifts and economy destroyers, women are no more than what men see in them and want of them.

    Beyond this, neighbourhood life is what we should encourage. Children should attend schools nearest to home, to cut transport costs. Young persons should find jobs that are walking distances from home. There is no point earning N40,000 a month 30 kilometers away, which transportation and stress will erode, when a N20,000 job is next door.

    Poor Charles Idehor

    He spends N17,000 in these subsidy days to arrange a telephone interview with Gbola Oba and Adeniyi Adesina. The credit finished midway and he had to recharge. I wondered if he had not heard of O connect from ONPASSIVE, which I have been informing my professional colleagues about. O connect is cost saving in these times. It is a telephone conference application which can host about one million persons or more. The credit purchase is once for life because the application is self crediting. O connect is so designed because Onpassive, the newest, biggest and best internet business company in my view, shares 50 per cent of its profit with users of its applications and recharges for them from this account. Therefore, subscribers to O connect would not only earn bonuses every month from ONPASSIVE, they would never have to recharge the credit from out of their pocket once they have purchased this application.

    Self confession

    I admit to being negative until 1994 when Gen Sanni Abacha upset my apple cart. I was director of publications/Editor-in-chief of The Guadian newspaper. Gen Abacha shut it for one year on claims of anti-government publications. I had three school age children and a wife to look after. She worked as an academic at the Lagos State University (LASU) which was on ASUU strike, one of the longest ever, during which she earned no pay. I was on half pay, and had to sell egg, chewing stick, ice block and palm oil, largely to mallams, for survival. I was helped by the story of Bhudah, the Prince who lost his throne and became a happier and more successful person as a truck pusher and snake charmer in foreign lands. Whenever I lost a customer or two, I had sleepless nights. Then, one day, the thought occured to me that there were more than 180 million Nigerians. Why should I be unable to sleep over one or two of them? I learned to pray to be connected to persons who needed my services. Mrs. Beatrice Oloyede, one of my family friends since then, introduced me to piggery. In under one year, I raised about 300 pigs and piglets. I sold about 300 crates of eggs every week to mallams who sell bread and tea at road junctions. I bought vegetable from farms and sold them to market women. I sold honey from Obudu Town and from Ago Are, near Shaki. I began to sell herbs, starting with Patminger, Bitterleaf, Vervain and Lemon grass which I grew in the backyard of my residence. Whenever I took my children back to their boarding house at Kankon Model College, after Badagry, I picked up coconut which I sold in the Lagos Market. What did I not sell? I learned from this experience that the average Nigerian worker needed a second stream of income. Many people are inwardly immobile or are too status concious to make them explore survivalism in the informal market. My children were never sent home on account of school fees. We ate whatever we desired and to cap it all, I began to build a house before General Abacha released The Guardian newspaper from under his jack boot.

  • Appoint seasoned administrator as Health Minister, AHAPN urges Tinubu

    Appoint seasoned administrator as Health Minister, AHAPN urges Tinubu

    The Association of Hospital and Administrative Pharmacists of Nigeria (AHAPN) urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to appoint a seasoned administrator as the Minister of Health.

    In a statement jointly signed by its National Chairman, Olabode Ogunjemiyo, and National Secretary, Oladele Obikoya, the association noted that the appointment of a non-physician as health minister would engender equity and fairness in the health sector.  

    The statement read in part: ‘’ President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, should appoint a seasoned Health Administrator to man the Health Ministry as applicable in the developed world. This will ensure equity, justice, and fairness to all professionals in the healthcare sector.

    ‘’The physicians have consistently enjoyed the largesse in the health sector to the detriment of other health professionals. This has been made possible due to their continuous appointment as Ministers in the Ministry of Health and in recent times at the Ministry of Labour making it easy to act the script of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA). The last time the health sector enjoyed relative peace was when a non-physician was appointed Health Minister.

    Read Also: What I told President Tinubu during my visit, by Bill Gates

    ‘’ The claim by physicians as the leader of the health team is not in doubt. However, a team leader is not expected to imprison and castrate other professionals in the health sector, but rather to cherish and nurture them. The selfishness of the physicians in the health sector is second to none and this is against the spirit of teamwork.’’

    The statement added: ‘’In going forward, Government should develop a single spine salary structure for all health care professionals based on the job evaluation report where each professional will come in at different entry points. Suffice to add that the Government of Ghana has adopted this single-spine salary structure for their health workers and it has engendered peace, harmony, and stability in the sector with the overall outcome of better health indices.’’