The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday Magazine

  • Africa’s Next Top Model search begins

    Africa’s Next Top Model search begins

    OLUCHI ORLANDI (nee Onweagba) made Africans proud worldwide when she won the prestigious title for the model competition, “Mnet’s Face of Africa”, in 1998 which was organized by the South African subscription channel, Mnet, in collaboration with Elite Model Management which then awarded the natural beauty a three-year modelling contract that led to the beginning of whirlwind life as a highly-sought-after fashion model.

    With over a decade of experience in fashion, Oluchi has graced the covers of Italian Vogue, i-D, ELLE, Untold and Surface. She was also featured in Nylon, Marie Claire, Allure and other national editions of Vogue around the world and has served as the face of campaigns for Victoria’s Secret, Gianfranco Ferré, Gap, Express and Banana Republic to mention a few.

    Oluchi is a African fashion icon. In 2007, she launched a modelling agency in South Africa called O Model Africa with the Shine group, an agency dedicated to exposing, developing and delivering select portfolios of African models to South Africa and international clients for catwalk shows.

  • Jades ups the ante in Abuja

    Jades ups the ante in Abuja

    Within the last couple of years, the Nigerian hospitality industry has witnessed a kind of steady growth with the current atmosphere of peace under a democratic polity.

    With the robust hospitality climate, the drive to acquire a certain per cent of the market share has seen some of the unbranded hospitality outfits coming up with new and innovative services.

    The latest is a new hospitality outfit,Jades Hotels, billed to open today in Wuse Zone 5, Abuja.

    The opening of the 60-room hotel, according to the management of the hotel, would be performed by Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State.

    However, knowing the competitive nature of the hospitality market in Abuja, the hotel general manager, Mr. Varun Sivanandan, said Jades was set to revolutionize the industry with certain innovative signature services.

    The hotel general manager, who was upbeat about the official opening ceremony, said it would offer the hotel the opportunity to showcase its new approach to customer satisfaction and the running of hospitality business.

    Sivanandan, an Indian and graduate in hospitality management with added exposure of managing top rated hospitality outfits in India and Dubai, spoke on his desire to take Jades Hotels to the next level.

    He explained that even though he was new in the Nigerian hospitality industry, he said guests satisfaction was the key thing, anywhere in the world in the hospitality business.

    His words: “I have had experience in a four-star hotel in India and at the international level. I can take Jades to the next level. I am a degree holder in the hospitality.”

    The hotel is a mixture of luxury and business. The hotel’s facilities cut across different categories just to cater for an eclectic market.

    Many believe that the hotels in Abuja are too many, leading to cut-throat competition.

    On this, Sivanandan disagreed. He said: “There is what we call segmentation in hospitality, and competition in the industry is a welcomed development. It is difficult for the customers to get value for money with services in the hotels without competition. The mere fact that you have hotels being in short supply when you have major events in Abuja has to do with hotels being in short supply. Still the market is open. Operators of hotels would always find their on level when it comes to services and tariff. We have a class and we have out target market here in Abuja.”

    According the manager, the hotel intends to build a solid reputation based on personalized service.

    “We serve each of our customers, according to his or her needs. We will not serve the way we serve the other person because you have different personalities. So it is segmented according to the needs of every guest. That is why we go an extra mile to serve you.

    “One of the things we do to give you personalized service is gueridone service, that is, we can prepare a mile with the chef standing in front of you. For example, you ordered for eba, they will just prepare the meal right in front of you. These are part of the innovations we are bringing to the industry.

    “There is a certain level of satisfaction for you to see that the food you are going to eat is not being brought from the back of the house, but it is prepared right in front of you.

    “We also have special delicacies from the different parts of the country. We will also celebrate Nigerian cuisines. We have delicacies like isie ewu, ugba and pepper soup of all kinds. We will also do continental cuisines. We will have specialty dishes from different parts of the world.

    “We are planning to do different theme nights at the pool side areas. In Abuja, we have all types of customers. The theme nights would try to cater for different segments of the market at any given day. One, for example,during India Night, the cuisines and setting for the night would be Indian. The same applies to other nationalities.

    “There are many hotels in Abuja, but there is still space for more. The market is not saturated as some people wrongly believe. Once you are ready to offer something special to the industry, there would be room. That is what we intend to do.

    “We also have a Wifi for our in-house guests. We also have free gym for in-house guests. There is a certain category of massages that is free for in-house guests. We really want to make the difference in Abuja,”he said.

    He vowed that Jades would not be a flash that would fade off a few years after throwing its doors open. This, the hotel intends to achieve through aggressive training of its staff and maintenance of facilities.

    “We are embarking on the training continuously to make our staff understand the need to maintain the facilities.

    The hotel is tastefully designed. It gas extensive facilities for guests like specialty restaurants, bar gymnasium and conference and banqueting facilities. You should know that the hotel the art of relaxation. That informed are going out of our way, to create a new hospitality experience that we are bringing to Abuja.”

     

     

  • AFRIFF: three connoisseurs join festival train

    A Zimbabwean and two Nigerians, noted for their rich knowledge of the African cinema have been listed among the impressive line-up of the African International Film Festival (AFRIFF) team. The new additions include: Keith Shiri, world renowned international film curator and writer on African cinema; Andy Amenechi, President of Directors Guild of Nigeria (DGN) and Norbert Ajaegbu, President of the Film and Video Producers and Marketers Association of Nigeria (FVPMAN).

    Founder of AFRIFF, Chioma Ude is optimistic that the build-up towards a successful third edition could only be achieved if the right people are put in the right places and at the right time. With four months to the festival, her group, she noted is poised to put relevant human and material resources together to ensure a competitive outing. AFRIFF holds in Calabar, the Cross River State capital from November 10 to 17, 2013.

    “As part of our vision to constantly improve standards in the industry and provide the best services at all times, we are delighted to have several illustrious and acclaimed personalities join the AFRIFF team for the 2013 edition of the Festival. Messrs Keith Shiri, Andy Amenechi and Norbert Ajaegbu have agreed to lend their expertise and commitment to the aspirations and values of the Africa International Film Festival.” Ude said in a statement.

    Shiri, will be joining the AFRIFF platform as Festival Programmer and Jury Coordinator. Founder and director of “Africa at the Pictures” and the “London African Film Festival” and Visiting Research Fellow for “Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM), University of Westminster, London, Shiri has served as jury member on a number of festivals including the Berlin International Film Festival, the Dubai International Film Festival, Pan African Film Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), Tampere Film Festival and many others.

    Amenechi on the other hand, has been listed as Technical Director of AFRIFF. A pioneer member of Nollywood, Amenechi has over 25 years cognate field experience in TV, Film and Radio production, with over 180 directorial credits. Amenechi, it would be recalled was Chairman, International Jury at the inaugural edition of AFRIFF which held in Port Harcourt City, Rivers State in 2010.

    Coming in as Strategist for AFRIFF is Ajaegbu, a dynamic personality, he holds degrees in accountancy and law and a master’s degree in business administration. Ajaegbu who is also a certified script writer and producer from Deustche Welle Training Institute, Germany, is the CEO, Ocean Movies and Music Studios which has produced over forty movies including titles like Dog of War, Fatal Mistake, Hear my Cry, Broken Dreams and Secret Mission among others.

     

  • Obasanjo was a blundering general –Alabi-Isama

    Obasanjo was a blundering general –Alabi-Isama

    Wars end but the memories last forever. This is the object lesson to be gleaned from a new war memoir, The Tragedy of Victory, by Brigadier-General Godwin Alabi-Isama. This is an on-the-spot-account of the Nigeria-Biafra war as fought from the Atlantic front. Alabi-Isama, then a colonel, was the chief of staff of the 3rd Marine Commando Division (3MCDO) of the Nigeria Army which was led at various times by Generals Benjamin Adekunle, Alani Akinrinade and Olusegun Obasanjo. Only 27, energetic and full of derring-do, Alabi-Isama was the tactician, footman and engine room of the 3MCDO which was pivotal to the eventual conquest of Biafra in 1970.
    The Tragedy of Victory is significant and different from previous books on the same subject for numerous reasons. First, it is the first major account of the war from a foot soldier. It is a 670-page tome with over 300 war photographs which will be presented to the public in Lagos, July 18. Coming 43 years after the end of the war, it is expected to have taken into account and corrected the mistakes and misconceptions in earlier books especially My Command, authored by Olusegun Obasanjo. It is indeed, a rich trove of history of the Nigerian Civil War and attendant crises of nationhood. Alabi-Isama rose to the rank of a Brigadier-General in the Nigerian Army upon his retirement in 1977. In this interview with SAM OMATSEYE, STEVE OSUJI and FEMI MACAULAY, chairman and members respectively, of The Nation’s Editorial Board, Alabi-Isama was particularly unsparing of his former commander, Olusegun Obasanjo whom he considers clueless about war tactics, blundering and cowardly. He also spoke about the Black Scorpion, Benjamin Adekunle, Alani Akinrinade, the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon and the blunders made by both sides of the divide, among other issues. Excerpts:

    The war ended in 1970. This is 2013, how come it took you this long to write this book?

    First of all, I didn’t know I had what it takes to write a book. And secondly, I did not really want to write the book. As soon as I left the military in 1977, I went to the United States where I lived for 35 years. I came home for my 70th birthday, General Alani Akinrinade (rtd) was there and we got talking about the war and I said well this (Olusegun) Obasanjo’s book My Command; he said if you read it, you will have stomach trouble. It is not worth reading. I said well let me just read the book, he brought me two copies. And with those two copies, I tell you even till today when I read it, I get sick. First of all, the pictures in the book are wrong. Then the maps in the book are also wrong. He drew the map of places he didn’t know and had never been, he didn’t ask questions. If he had asked questions, he would have learnt. He didn’t do that. Luckily for me, because I was renovating my mother’s house in Ilorin, I saw a big box and I opened the box thinking my mother left me some money. I opened the box to find my old uniforms, my cane, and plenty of war pictures. She didn’t arrange the pictures, she just poured them into a bed sheet, you know how these old women tie things, and she poured them into the bed sheet, tied the bed sheet, put it in a box and covered that box with a cello tape. Except for two pictures, everything else is still crisp clear.

    How did I get around taking the pictures? We were looking for a crossing point at a place called Eki, in Anang area, we wanted to cross into the main land and I went on patrol with the troop, it is not normal for a chief of staff to go on patrol with the men but I wanted to see it myself, so when we got there we found there were no (enemy) troops there; we didn’t see anybody so we decided: well let’s move forward. So we moved forward. We didn’t know that we were surrounded. By the time they opened fire everybody ran and so I ran. At school I used to run 100 and 200 meters; that day I ran 26 miles. I sat down under a tree and I was panting, then I saw my orderly, Effiong, “You made it!” I exclaimed. “Yes,” he said, “I made it sir.” And I said to him that I wish somebody would see us now and see how we are suffering, we could even take the pictures and go show them in Lagos how we are suffering. He said, “Oga, am a photographer but because of the blockade, I had no film, I was out of business, but I have a studio and I have the chemicals and everything but no films.” I told him to write the specification of the film his camera uses. He wrote it and I sent it to my mother in Lagos. My mother went to Kingsway and bought large quantities of Kodak films and sent to me at the war front. I told Effiong, If I stand, take my photo, if I sit take my photo, if I cough, take my photo, fortunately he was a professional photographer. He took professional pictures. He took the terrain, the bridges, in fact, all the movement, the strategies; as a matter of fact I just discovered some pictures that he took of my war room. Since I had warned him never to enter my war room, I think he took them from the key hole.

    Then they transferred this young man (pointing to an elderly photographer in the room), and he said he was also a photographer. You are a photographer too, o ti ya! (jolly good, join the show!) So this man also took part of the pictures that you are seeing here today. I was lucky. They took over a 1000 pictures. I never thought they were anything, just one of those albums. My mother didn’t like where you see dead bodies, she would throw the picture somewhere here and there. But after reading that Obasanjo’s book, it would have been my words versus his words but for these pictures. The pictures told the story. I have 650 pages of scripts here with 450 pictures, 35 war maps and 19 documents. It has not been equalled anywhere. Many of the civil war books were written by Biafran officers and men. The Nigerian ones, I think only Obasanjo wrote; the rest didn’t write about tactics or strategies of war. Even now, the book by (Adewale) Ademoyega wrote about the problem of genocide but he was in jail so how would he know where the genocide happened. Anyway, I got this pictures, I started writing. By looking at one picture, I knew where it was taken and what happened there.

    Talking about books, you must have read other Biafran war books. Which of them do you think was a little bit close to what happened: Madiebo, Ademoyega, etc?

    Only two of them, (Alexander) Madiebo’s is correct, absolutely correct. And I mean the word absolutely correct. The other one was by Achike Udenwa, I understand he was a governor somewhere. In the book, he wrote why there was starvation. Moving people away from their villages; they left their goats, they left their cows, they left their chickens and everything and we were eating the chickens….and they were starving. How far will you go, and what will you carry? How many cows will you be dragging along? You know, so Achike Udenwa and Madiebo, I think those two books are very reliable accounts.

    But they are books that take it from the Biafran perspective? Yours is viewed as the first major book that tells it from the federal side?

    True

    Now having been as you related, you served in two of the divisions. At the beginning you were supposed to be with Murtala Muhammed and then you also served under Benjamin Adekunle. What would you say were the blunders or mistakes of Biafra?

    First of all, starting from August 8th 1967, Biafra should not have gone to the Mid-West at all. Their going there shocked even the federal government. Because (David) Ejoor at that time wanted the place to be neutral because more than half of the Mid-West was Igbo speaking people, the other half is non-Igbo speaking people. But all of them together were killed in the north. Be it Yoruba or Ibibio, you were dead! Now, there was that neutrality in the Mid-west. Breaking that neutrality was like Hitler in ‘Operation Barbarossa’ when he went to Russia. Now, what clearly happened to them was that they got to the Mid-west, they looked at Ore, it’s a large expanse of land and they were defeated by the large empty space. Like the Germans who saw endless land but wondered what are we going to do here? That was even enough to have finished them. And when Nigeria counter-attacked at Ore, they, Nigerians had to run away, the Nigerian troops ran way. And that’s why you have Oleku ija Ore. Ha, this one wahala dey o…everybody scattered. But you see, from there on, when Nigeria re-organized and they started counter-attacking, why was Nigeria successful? It was because the Biafran troops had gone too far. They were now exhausted, they have had a battle, how many people did they put on the road? Let’s say for instance they had about 10 vehicles, what happens if there was a puncture with one vehicle. It means the troops inside that vehicle would cease to advance. Or for whatever reason they had a fan belt problem. It was a complete blunder. It shouldn’t have happened at all, but it happened. And when Nigerians had the upper hand the Biafrans were tired and they were now running back. It gave the Nigerians the confidence that when we attack these people they would keep running, so they kept chasing them. That was what happened. Not that Nigerians were better, no! The Biafrans were exhausted, they had seen large expanse of land, how far could they go to the right or left or forward? There were few of them. There was no back up, there was no reserve, there was no planning. And then plus the situation where they said Banjo had deceived them. Look this type of situation had always happened in military history. If you look at 281 BC, there was this General Pyrrhus, that’s why you have what is called Pyrrhic victory, he exhausted himself. And that was what happened to Biafra. The strategy was wrong, the tactics applied were wrong.

    What route should they have taken if they didn’t go through Midwest?

    Alright, if I were in their shoes, what I would have done was to ask: what was the aim. It was important to know what the aim was, let me give you’re an example of what I mean. Many people always miss it. In military you can’t afford to miss it. Let’s say we are going to attack Lagos, what is the aim, when we get to Lagos what are we there for? You say to collect tax, if you are advancing from Ibadan and you got to Victoria Island, you really have not got to Lagos because your aim is to collect tax. You must stop the people from going away, the people you are going to collect tax from. If your aim was to get to the sea and say yes I have captured Lagos, you will miss that aim. Your troops will go to the border to make sure nobody will run away, then you’ll make sure that you pamper people so that they will understand why you are there. If you kill them, who do you collect tax from? So it is your tactics and strategies now, your aim will dictate the tactics and the strategies applied.

    Why were they (Biafrans) going to Lagos? What was the aim? If it was to scare them, if it was to capture Lagos, whatever you are trying to achieve, get the aim and then you will know the tactics. How many vehicles do they have coming to the Midwest? The Midwest officers, the Igbo officers they depended on ran away, they didn’t stay with them. Nwajei was not there, Okwechime was not there, those that were there were like Oche, Eziche, they were junior officers so they told those ones to carry on and they stayed back. We are still talking about the blunders. When Biafra entered the Midwest, I was commander at Asaba guarding the Asaba Niger Bridge. They first went to Ogbe Hausa at the cable point like Sabongari. They killed all the Hausa there and I mean all, children, women, everybody. Those that escaped swam across into Onitsha, and they were killed. It’s in Madiebo’s book; it is in Emma Okocha’s book. Emma Okocha is from Asaba and he wrote this story. I was lucky, not that I was clever when they attacked me, I had grenades ready. Because I was staying at the Nkeffi Guest House which today is Grand Hotel; it was a glass door, they had shattered the glass. Through that, I threw the grenade, it landed well. So the fact that I was able to overpower 20 people was not because I was clever, I was lucky. It’s like David and Goliath. When David shot his slings it went the right way. It is God that directed it for us to meet today.

    So that’s one blunder. At that time, you don’t need more than 15 people to capture Lagos. There was no GSM, five people will go to the border, five people will stay at the airport and five people would wait at Dodan Barracks. You could do that at that time because there was still movement. People where still moving, there was no restriction because of the neutrality of the Mid-west, so he could have just infiltrated into the place and then once he has taken over the airport, control towers, and you stopped all planes coming in you simply commandeer all the planes to Enugu to bring in your troops, depending on what aim you want to achieve. You know what, their blunders were too many and then they alienated the natives, the natives of Anang, the Efik, the Ibibios, remember this story, that war story did not start during the war. Eyo Ita was supposed to be the Premier of the Eastern Region. They didn’t let him, he had that in mind I have his picture. These people where actually waiting for a day like that day and they supported the federal troops. The Biafrans did not recruit these people into their army and those who went into their army did not like to be with Biafra. Udenwa wrote about that in his book. We recruited the natives because they could swim. Without Isaac Boro we wouldn’t have got Port Harcourt, that’s a fact. He taught me (I was his commander) how to walk on the marshy area. He would say ‘ Oga make you use your toes as if you are dancing ballet.’ And then I will use my toes and he would say Oga, you are not moving well and I will say oh shut up! But he taught me and we were successful. I am giving him the credit because that is what he deserves. I kept asking the same question, were the people Biafra or was Biafra the people in the book? If Biafra is for all of you and you have that calibre of politicians in the place, you have that calibre of engineers you had, you needed to have all hands on the deck. Whether you are from Bayelsa or anywhere, you all suffered during that killing in the north, during the unrest. All you needed to do was call back your key politicians and tell them to go and campaign. Zik and all of them; but Ojukwu put Okpara in jail. He jailed Okpara, he wanted Zik himself to fail, all his businesses were taken from him, and so they already had been defeated before the war started.

    The issue of believability is central to this account because it is a historical work and from the federal side, apart from Obasanjo’s book this is supposed to be another major work, why should we believe your own narrative? Two, you spoke of Obasanjo’s wrong pictures and wrong maps. I don’t know what you mean by wrong pictures. Three, you seem to have relied more on the power of memory in your recollection of events; there was no diary, why should we trust your account?

    You don’t have to trust me. I have 450 pictures in the place. For instance, Obasanjo said we had an Officers’ Mess, his picture is in the book, eating with bare hands without fork and knife and cracking chicken bone and there is no dining table. I am talking about facts and figures. If somebody is talking about your village for instance and he is telling you that there is a statue of Gowon in your village, you who own the village will say Na lie, na there them born me, na leg I take walk around pass this place and there is no statue like that. You will be talking facts and figures. I, Alabi-Isama commanded the troops that captured Obubra, the entire Cross River of today. I captured the entire Akwa Ibom of today, I led the troops that captured the Rivers State of today. I led the troops that captured the Bayelsa of today. I was there with my feet, the soldiers asked Oga, we go go again? I said we dey go. Eh I get blisters, I will remove my shoes, look at my own blisters and we were there together. My pictures are there in the book.

    They say pictures don’t lie, you said Obasanjo had wrong pictures?

    Yes the wrong pictures, for instance in his book he said I was at Itu and he was talking about Ikot Ekpene; he said that he was at Ikot Ekpene and he had a masterly briefing, the picture was Obeya at Itu, it was not Ikot Ekpene. And then there was another picture at Uli Airstrip where he said alright, all soldiers move out and he took the picture alone at the centre of Uli Airstrip. When Adekunle came to the war front after we had captured Port Harcourt, he said he would like to advance five miles with us. We showed him the map, we showed him where we were going, we showed him where we were and the type of enemy we would meet. He advanced with us and when we came back he announced, “everybody come, photographer, Alabi photographer come and take this picture.” There was a bit difference and I am saying so. I was there, he wasn’t there. He could not be writing about where he was not.

    This photographer was there with you?

    He was there. His picture is there in the book. So when I say a map is wrong, for instance, we went to close a border. Cameroon border at a place called Nsakpa. I can mention the name because I was there. And then he drew the map to show that we went through a road. We didn’t go there. I infiltrated 7000 troops and came out behind them when they were on the road. I told them I didn’t need casualties. I didn’t need dead bodies; I needed to capture the place. If I had followed the route, we would be fighting Biafran soldiers. I would have had casualties. How did you think we would have captured Port Harcourt in 30 days advancing from Calabar, 480 kilometres? We did not enter any town.

    So you are implying sir that Obasanjo’s work was a huge misrepresentation of what happened?

    What work did he do?

    The book

    Every part of the book.

    Hold on sir

    This is the book

    Was a huge misrepresentation of what happened?

    Yes.

    Apart from your centrality to the event, I am sure there are other senior people like yourself who perhaps for the sake of this question, who perhaps had the same idea of what happened contrary to what Obasanjo published. How come they had not come out before your own book to tell the federal story?

    They don’t have the pictures; it will be your word versus my word. Obasanjo was the president of the country he was the head of state of the country. Alabi was nobody; you never fight anybody standing when you are lying down.

    So the strength of your book lies in the pictures?

    That’s it. That’s all. Otherwise it would be my words versus his words.

    Still on the blunders, you also said that the Biafran troops spread themselves unnecessarily in the Midwest so they wasted troops?

    They did the same thing even in the main war itself because you see in the world war the Japanese were all over Mariana Island in the Pacific and the Americans would just touch a hole. I love General Paton. From Obubra, (I wished there is a black board here,) I would have drawn this map, I know the whole place, I was there. From Obubra to Port Harcourt is over 1000 kilometres, how many people will you put in every inch of the kilometre? Between one kilometre and the other, there is a gap. So let us say that they put 10, 10,000 you would have had more than a million in the army, they didn’t have it. Let’s assume for the purpose of this discussion that they had a thousand or 10, 000 in one point. I went to Port Harcourt with 35, 000, blew through the place. We knew the style, we went to the same military school and during those strategy discussions with Adekunle, he would be Biafran today, I will be Nigerian. If you do this, how will you do this? And invariably, all we discussed came to pass. For instance Biafra came to counter attack in Ikot Ekpene. They went as far as to a place called Ikpe junction. They had no more reserves. I had not even attacked them. They just saw an open place. Ikpe junction was a killing ground. They didn’t do all that and then, you know why we didn’t eat bush meat? If a soldier would kill bush meat he would have to shoot, the others, maybe Nigerians themselves would kill him because from the direction of shot we would open fire. We never ate bush meat and the soldiers know that. And so when our troops would fire somewhere, Biafrans would fire to the place. Ha! Now we know where they are. We had no intelligence report of where they were. We used to send ladies to go along with refugees and the ladies would tell us what they saw, how many they saw, which building they were staying in and so on.

    There is a question about logistics am worried about, 35 000 men is a large number so how were you able to manage and move that number?

    I am happy you asked that question because I was 27 years old. How much of it did I know? But one thing I was taught was that if your logistics is wrong you will lose the war. General Alexander Madiebo told me that central cooking was not possible for them after the first two, three months of the war. So they lived on the land. So the logistics was out of this world. I wrote about that as part of our challenges. First of all, you had to cook for 35,000 men, how did I do it? I divided them into sections of tens and they would go and cook. You’ll come to the central bulk breaking point, you collect your garri or your yam or whatever and you will go and cook for your 10 men. It was easy to manage 10 men and that means there are about 3,500 cooking places. Where was the firewood or where was the gas or where was the electricity to cook? We depended on the marine commando ladies we recruited. Many of them died of landmines looking for firewood, so you can see that even those ones on intelligence on radio and all that were not as important as those ones supplying us fire woods for cooking. The logistic was enormous. In the mangrove forest, in the water logged areas, it was enormous. For instance, we built pontoons to cross Opobo River. It’s all in the book.

    Certainly the logistical challenges must have influenced the duration of the war, what other things do you think contributed to making the war last as long as it did?

    Well, definitely not from Adekunle’s side. He wanted me to capture Obubra in 30 days, everybody running kitikiti, today if you start walking from Calabar to Port Harcourt, I don’t know whether you will make it in 30 days. Then we were fighting, we were advancing, we were moving and even Gen Madiebo in his book said that within one hour or so, we had captured about 50 miles. How was that possible, he asked? It was the tactics and the strategy. It worked; if it didn’t work we would have been drinking water at the Atlantic Ocean. Our backs to the Atlantic our chest to the Biafran bullets; we had nowhere to run to and if the logistics went wrong, the soldiers would starve, they will not be able to move. If the ammunitions were not enough, they will not be able to fight. If their shoes had blisters and no socks and no foot powder, they will not be able to advance. So many things were involved. The morale of the troops depended on the morale of the officer himself. The officer himself must be seen with the troops. The Biafrans didn’t do that.

    About how many men do you think you lost, just an estimate on your own side?

    In 3rd Marine Commando, I lost eight from Calabar to Port Harcourt.

    All through the war?

    I did not lose any single one in Obubra. Two officers – Captain Fashola at Bori and Isaac Boro at Okrika and I have records.

    I don’t think you have sufficiently addressed the question of why the war lasted that long?

    It lasted that long because Biafrans themselves did not just give up, it was their tactics and strategies that were wrong and they believed they were doing well. The amount of ammunitions and weapons with which they went to the Mid-west could have been used in defending Biafra. In this case the Biafrans put in

  • Celeb trend: Drop earrings

    Celeb trend: Drop earrings

    DROP earrings, especially oval ones, have been all over the red carpet lately. It’s a trend that’s always been around but is in full swing this season.
    Alhough the trend use is bound to come and go. But now people say it’s back to stay. And to cap it all, the earring would add a bit of glitter to any outfit.

     

    Drop earrings tips 

    Short dresses-Accessorising short dresses can be a challenge because you don’t want to add too much bulk in one place. When selecting jewelry to wear with shorter dresses, look for one statement piece and keep other jewelry to a minimum. A nice pair of drop earrings will do the trick.

     

    Long dresses-Long dresses are very fashionable at the moment because they are easy to wear and they are comfortable. When wearing a long dress, feel free to accessorise more heavily than you would when wearing a short dress. Elaborate drop earrings are fabulous with long dresses and empire-waist gowns.

     

    Modern dresses-Modern dresses are sleek and cool, and most are available in neutral hues, such as black, white, grey and beige. Fashion-forward dresses can benefit from colourful accessories. Vibrant drop earrings will go a long way in personalizing a modern dress.

    Vintage dresses-Vintage dresses and vintage-inspired clothing are a big part of the fashion scene right now. To keep a vintage dress fun and light, look for drop earrings with tons of personality.

  • Dressing your body type correctly

    Dressing your body type correctly

    ONCE you know what your designated body type is, dressing yourself is a lot easier and even fun because you know what to stay away from and what looks best on you. While there are a myriad of body type combinations, there are four main types that all women fall into in some way. They are:

    Apple: This body type is essentially rounded all over with thinner legs and arms. This body type also lacks a defined waist-line and a can alternate between a smaller or fuller bust area.

    Pear: This shape is characterized by having a smaller upper body in comparison to your lower half. The waist area is defined and smaller than the hip and thigh area, while the upper body sports a small bust, arms and long neck.

    Hourglass: Widely known as the ideal body type, hourglass figures are highlighted by a very small waist area in comparison to their hip/thigh region. The bust area can be both average or full size. Generally, this body type is curvy all over.

    Rectangle: This is the body type that is commonly seen in athletes and runway models. Known as “the boyish figure”, rectangle body types have slim hips, thighs and waist areas. The rear area lacks curves and the bust tends to be on the smaller side.

  • Moji’s Top 10

    Nollywood actress and voice-over artiste, Moji ‘Mohips’ Oyetayo, popularly known as Mama Ajasco, reveals her favourite things to Kehinde Oluleye

     

    Favourite shoes designer

    Pierre Cardin

     

    Favourite bag designer

    Marc Jacobs

     

    Favourite wrist watch designer Breitling

     

    Favourite earrings

    Chandeliers

     

    Favourite car

    Honda Crosstour

     

    Favourite perfume

    Play Givenchy For her

     

    Favourite underwear

    Marks & Spencer

     

    Favourite Food

    Chinese

     

    Favourite fashion designer

    Gucci/Prada

     

    Favourite colour

    Pink & Orange

  • ‘The secrets of my success’

    ‘The secrets of my success’

    IYALODE ALABA LAWSON, the proprietor of Alaba Lawson Royal College.. and the current national vice president of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) is a woman that believes in the entrepreneurship acumen of African women and she does not pretend about it.

    She sits in the front row in the ECOWAS Federation of Business Women and Entrepreneurs (ECOWAS-FEBWE), an organisation that has been at the vanguard of promoting and facilitating trade for groups and individual women entrepreneurs in the sub-region.

    She was baptised into business by her mother at the age of nine. “Doing business has been my passion since I was a youth. My mother introduced me into real business when I was nine years. She was first into materials and later made herself comfortable with pap (ogi) business.

    “She made sure that I would see the maize or corn that was suitable for ogi because there are different grades of maize and corn. My mother would say, ‘go and sort it out because you have to be somebody in life’. That was how I started,” she said.

    So, when she started her own business, the tutelage she got from her mother became useful. Little wonder, the business she started 36 years ago is still growing.

    Many know her for her activities in the chambers, but her first major breakthrough was through a distributorship from West African Breweries owned by her in-law, an act which gave birth to other things.

    “But when you are talking about the chambers , it was my late in-law that introduced me into the chambers. That was the late Chief Adeyemi Olusola Lawson. That man was great. I really adore him for his prowess in entrepreneurship,” she said with a feeling of satisfaction.

    Though hard work is a sine qua non to success in business, the Iyalode of Yorubaland believes that beyond this, you must have a passion for something you want to do.

    Her growth in the association has been astronomical.

    She said: “I started from the Abeokuta Chambers of Commerce in 1982 and, from there, we started going to meetings together. We have a state chamber as well. I was the President of the Abeokuta Chambers of Commerce form 1995-2000 . Ogun State Council has five different city chambers, that is Abeokuta, Ijebu, Remo, Yewa and Ota/Agbara chambers of commerce.

    “From there, they noticed me at the national level. I was elevated and co-opted into the national level in 1992 as a member of the executive. But thank God today I have risen up to the post of second National Deputy President of the NACCIMA. By the grace of God, I will be the first female President of the NACCIMA in the next four years.”

    At the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN) building, Ikeja, Lagos on a Tuesday afternoon, she was vivacious throughout. Nobody would have imagined that she had passed through challenges, some were even life threatening.

    The challenges she had faced are numerous, from the one that was life threatening to the one that had to do with politics in the place of work.

    One of the numerous terrible experiences was when she walked through the valley of death and came out unscathed when unknown gunmen broke into her home on Quarry Road, Abeokuta at 2am and attempted to gain entry into her bedroom after killing her guard, Mr. Yusuf.

    The gunmen, she said, struck on the day she finished her two-day prayer and fasting to seek God’s protection, stressing that about a week or two before the gunmen visited, she had been “having goose pimples” and became afraid because of a strange visitor that kept calling on her guard.

    “Because of the strange feelings I was having then, I collected all my keys from my guard and started locking my doors by myself. When they came, they tried the door; they opened it, but couldn’t enter. I don’t know what they did to the four Alsatian dogs. They were not barking.

    “In the morning I discovered that the dogs which were earlier released had been herded into the cages and locked. My guard was gruesomely murdered. Only God knows what they would have done if they had seen me,” she said.

    She attributed her escape to divine intervention and telephone calls made to eminent Nigerians, including former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, which made the police to mobilise to the scene and caused the gunmen to flee after hours of siege.

    “I’m alive today, a living soul, but it is one incident I will never forget throughout my life. Though I walked through the shadows of death, I feared no evil. The staff of Jehovah comforted me. All those things are by-gone because it pleases Jehovah that I should live,” she said.

    She is a woman of many parts, and in recognition of her contributions to the development of Yorubaland, the Alaafin of Oyo made her the Iyalode of Yorubaland.

    She said:“I’m an educationist apart from other businesses I do. I’m into water bottling as well, but my main focus is my school. My school is 36 years old. That is a service-rendering organisation which trains the mind, including you the journalists.”

    The NACCIMA National Vice President will keep investing in her business, though she would not tell you how much she has invested so far. “On how much I invested in the school, I cannot say that. Leave that to God because I’m still investing. I’m still ploughing money back into the business because to keep you in business, you must make sure you keep the environment clean and keep maintaining your environment. I can not say definitely how much I have invested. Are you talking about money you’re paying to teachers which runs into millions every month or you are talking about keeping the environment and keeping the building clean?” she asked.

    Many complain of hostile business environment in the country, but Iyalode still has firm belief in the Nigerian nation. “I have never been discouraged by the business climate in Nigeria because I have passion for it. One thing about me is that I’m always positive and I don’t take no for an answer. I believe that I can surmount any challenge. I believe that there is no mountain that is insurmountable. I don’t believe that I have to sit down and regret. Any problem that might have come, I take it and look at how I’m going to find a solution. That is the way I’m built up and I thank God for it,” Iyalode said.

    One of the secrets of Iyalode’s success has been her faith in Jehovah God. While many business executives keep diaries of their itineraries, the Iyalode does not have one because she waits for God’s direction.

    “My sustaining power is my faith in my God. I don’t keep any diary. Anywhere He wants me to go,He will direct me. As I’m here having a Nigerian export promotion interactive session, if He directs me anywhere, I will go. If you live your life the way your creator has made you, definitely you will have no problem. It is when you are trying to put so many things together, and he has not given you any directive then you are making mistakes. But when you live by what he has given you, you will not have any problem,” she said.

    Iyalode would not overstretch herself. When she is tired she sleeps. “I relax with my cooking; it may amaze you that I still find time to do a little bit of my cooking. I tend my garden; I love gardening so much. When I see things grow in my garden, I love them so much. From the bud, then it opens up. I love it so much. I love listening to Christian music, gospel music, but sometimes I do sports, but time is no more there for me again. I love to go to the aged; I can’t stop listening to them, listening to their stories of success, listening to their stories of challenges. It is only after the church on Sunday that I have time to relax properly,” said.

    So when you see Iyalode hopping from place to place, don’t feel for her. She is living her passion because she sees travelling as part of leisure. “I love travelling, not just travelling, I love travelling to historical places, historical places of importance. Travelling is the way to relax because you are in a new environment. It depends on the way you handle it. To some, it is boring. To me, it is a welcome gesture.”

  • The painful world of children living with cancer

    The painful world of children living with cancer

    *They are the unknown few, eaten up by a cancerous cell and abandoned by
    government.  These children live in agonizing pains, reports Seun Akioye
    who spent time with many of them.*

    Chioma Ukanwa. She was light in complexion with a big, prominent facial
    features, black silky hair which some people say was unnatural for a
    nine-year-old girl. Her eyelashes were big and black adding a touch of
    beauty to her full face. She had large, clear eyes and when she focused
    them on an object for a long time they got moisture. When she smiled, and
    not too often in the last one year, she revealed a set of strong white
    teeth. It was not unusual to remark that she was a beauty queen in the
    making.

    On the evening of Friday June 14, Chioma’s remains were released from the
    morgue at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Mushin,
    Lagos mainland to  her parents, Charles and Kate Ukanwa for burial. The
    short ceremony was conducted under an ambience of extreme grief.  Exactly a
    week earlier, she had lost the battle she had bravely fought for five years
    against childhood cancer.  The afternoon Chioma died was one of the most
    shocking in the Pediatric Oncology ward at LUTH. A day before then, she had
    received the life saving platlet and had been on the road to yet another
    recovery. Hours after that treatment her condition deteriorated and in the
    early afternoon she died. Her death was sudden and shocking.

    “I still can’t wrap my hands around this. I am still in shock. I cannot
    just believe this had happened,” says Dr. Nneka Nwobi, the founder of
    Children Living with Cancer Foundation, a non-governmental organisation
    that caters for children with cancer. For some years, Nwobi had been
    involved in Chioma’s case, providing counseling to her parents and
    supporting them to offset her often heavy medical bills.

    Two weeks before her death, Nwobi had been involved in different activities
    designed to raise money for another round of chemotherapy for her. She had
    planned to go round schools to raise the much needed funds to save her
    life.  On May 30, *The Nation*  met Chioma and her parents at the
    children’s ward. They stood dutifully by her bed at the pediatric ward at
    LUTH. Chioma had exhibited no trait of someone about to die; she had
    responded to questions and expressed optimism to live. Her father told her
    story.

    It started in 2008, she developed feverish conditions, there were rashes
    all over her body, then her body began to swell, every external organ that
    could accommodate more fluid did. She was taken to the Lagos State
    University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) after she was referred to LUTH. She
    spent three weeks undergoing diagnosis, the result was crushing: Acute
    Lymphoblastic Leukemia or cancer of the blood. Her treatment began in
    earnest and after five months she was discharged with a warning to continue
    to come back for treatment.

    “Between 2009 and 2011, she was okay, she looked fine and we thought the
    worst was over so we stopped coming for the treatment. Also, our family has
    incurred a huge financial burden that we could not handle so we defaulted,”
    Charles said.

    But in January 2012, whatever hopes the family had evaporated. The rashes
    returned and the swelling began in earnest. She returned to her bed at LUTH
    and doctors say her condition had worsened due to her default. Chioma had
    maintained a permanent bed at the Ward D since July 2012 until her death.

    *Inside the cancer ward*

    Nineteen months old Esther Shedrack laid in  her cot at the paedratic
    cancer ward at LUTH. She had just finished a session of biopsies and had
    reacted violently to it. An oxygen mask was fixed to her head and there was
    a drip fixed on her hand, for several hours she stayed still without giving
    any indication that life was inside her. Her head was devoid of hair and
    she wore no ornament to distinguish her sex. Beside her, another baby slept
    peacefully in her cot, her mother also slept on a chair beside her. Ann
    remained motionless and her distraught mother, Ann Shedrack sat beside her
    cot, it was evident she had been crying.

    “The cancer is eating her up,” she said painfully,” then raising her voice
    she added: “ My baby’s condition is making me agitated, the chemotherapy is
    eating her up gradually. You go for a test, they need platelet, the next
    day it is plasma and red blood cells. Even as big as LUTH is, there is no
    facility for platlet , we go all the way to Island Maternity to get it  and
    it’s not easy, that is where the whole of Lagos go to, look at her she
    needs platlets, she needs blood. Since morning I cannot even get blood in
    LUTH here, I have been going to blood bank like somebody going to the
    bathroom.”

    Esther’s troubles began in January 2013. Her mother discovered a side of
    her abdomen was hard and swollen, when touched the baby cried out in pain.
    She acted fast and took her to a private paedriatic clinic in Ikeja , a
    scan was done and the result brought life to a halt for her parents. She
    had cancer of the ovary. Subsequently, the family was referred to the Lagos
    State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) and finally to LUTH in March,
    but her problems were far from over.

    In March, Esther was operated upon to remove the tumour in her abdomen but
    the doctors “found out the mass is large and is lying over critical organs
    in her body”.  The operation failed and the patient had to be covered up.
    Part of the mass was taken for biopsies and she resumed her chemotherapy
    which caused a violent reaction. Then she stopped eating and had
    experienced various degrees of dehydration, currently she is being fed
    through a tube passed over her mouth.

    The nurses in the ward work round the clock seeing to the wellbeing of the
    children, for some of them who had been there long enough, they had seen
    many of the children succumb to the cold hands of death. “ Our children are
    doing fine, we do lose some of them but as you can see we are doing our
    best to keep them happy while they are here,” a nurse who pleaded anonymity
    said.

    Timothy Olaonipekun was a known face to all the wards in the pediatric
    centre, most of his time was spent cheering up other children too weak to
    play and who are restricted on their beds. His journey to LUTH began in
    July 2012. He was struck with fever and taken to Sacred Heart Hospital,
    Abeokuta where he was treated for fever and tuberculosis.  When he showed
    no improvements, a cocktail of tests followed, eventually on November
    2nd2012, a test result said: Axillary Lymph node-High grade non-Hodgin
    lymphoma diffuse large cells or Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma.  Two days
    later, he was rushed to LUTH where he underwent three agonizing, but
    successful chemotherapy.

    Timothy is on course for his 4th therapy but has been hampered by lack of
    funds. While waiting for a miracle that would enable him complete his
    treatment and return to his friends at the Baptist Boys High School,
    Abeokuta where he was a senior student, he spent his time spreading joy and
    happiness among the children who happened to be in the same boat as himself.

    The children’s ward at LUTH has been designed to give comfort to the
    children. According to Adebola Akinsulie, a professor of Paediatric
    Haematology and Oncology, who is also the Head of Paediatrics at LUTH, the
    ward can accommodate about 20 children, a far cry from the demand as the
    hospital admits between five and six children every week.

    The rooms have between three and four beds and they are kept clean. There
    is a reception area with a television and a playing section equipped with
    toys. All over the wall, there are paintings of animated creatures which
    lightened up the ward and brought some sunshine into the otherwise grim
    circumstances of the children who lived there. The paintings *The
    Nation*learnt has been done by children of the American International
    School Lagos
    while the ward has been furnished and equipped by Children Living with
    Cancer Foundation.  Out of the children admitted for cancer in the blood,
    only 20 percent will survive the two year treatment period.

    *An underreported malady*

    Chioma was one of the hundreds of Nigerian children who die each year as a
    result of childhood cancer. Although, childhood cancer accounts for less
    than 10 percent of children’s illnesses, but for the children who have been
    afflicted and their families, the consequences are dire. Unlike adult
    cancer which has received worldwide awareness and funding, childhood
    cancers are largely unnoticed, statistics scarce, treatment expensive and
    equipments non-existent.

    In Nigeria, over 95 percent cancer actions were focused on adult cancer. In
    August 2011, the Federal Ministry of Health inaugurated a technical
    committee that would draft Nigeria’s position on Non -communicable Diseases
    (NCD) for the  United Nations High- Level Meeting on NCD which held in
    September 2011. While cancer was a recurrent feature in the technical
    committee action plan of reducing NCDs, childhood cancers were ignored.

    Consultant Paediatric at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital
    (OOUTH) Sagamu Ogun State, Dr. Folasade Adekanmbi said the neglect of
    childhood cancers transcends government apathy.

    “ The general attitude towards dependants is awful in Nigeria, many
    parents are not totally committed to the treatments of their child with
    cancer, some of them will say if this child dies God will bring another
    one. But if it is an adult everybody will be running around.”

    But it is not just the parents who generally disregard treatment for
    cancer, very few government hospitals are adequately equipped to deal with
    childhood oncology. For instance in the entire South West region of
    Nigeria, only the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH)  and the
    University College Hospital (UCH) have dedicated  wards to paediatric
    oncology in Nigeria.  The two hospitals also get patients from outside the
    South West. Consequently, resources and equipments are put under tremendous
    strain at the two hospitals thereby making them unable to meet up with the
    demands for drugs and other treatments.

    This situation has forced many parents into seeking alternative means of
    cure-often from traditional healers- with often devastating and fatal
    results for the children involved. In 2010, Chioma was reportedly taken to
    the village to consult herbal healers and was only returned to LUTH when
    her condition showed no improvements.

    *Treating cancer*

    No one could pretend that treating cancer is fun or cheap in Nigeria and
    Dr. Akinsulie was not about to start.  According to him, cancer can affect
    any part of the body but the most common are cancer of the blood and the
    kidney. The treatment for the two differ in time and cost, while kidney
    cancer can be treated in six months and has a survival rate of about 80
    percent, treatment of leukemia could prolong for two years with the
    survival rate hovering between 20-30 percent.

    Treating cancer is both emotionally draining and expensive. For Muyiwa
    Olaonipekun, father of Timothy, a cancer patient, the one-year experience
    has left him drained both financially and emotionally. “My wife died in
    April last year just after that this sickness began, the money left by my
    wife has been expanded on treating my son. I have had to go seek help from
    my old school association. Till now, we have spent up to N2million and we
    are on the 4th course of the chemotherapy, we still need N2.5milllion and
    we have less than N50,000,” Olaonipekun said.

    His work has suffered too.  Since the sickness began, he has abandoned his
    business and took up the full time job  of sitting by the side of his son.
    He slept each night on the floor by his son. This is no mean task for the
    floor is bare and hard. “ It is the Lord that is keeping me strong,” he
    said with a smile, clutching a tiny bible to illustrate his belief in the
    supernatural.

    Esther Shedrack, though has spent just a few months in the hospital already
    raked up about half a million naira in hospital bills and the treatment has
    just commenced.  Her mother, a caterer has given up her job and has
    exchanged her bed for the cold floor of the hospital ward. She has also
    added another profile to her new occupation: endless tears.

    “ I feel agitated all the time when I look at my child. There is no
    assurance for kids how much more adults and we call ourselves freeborn. We
    are all strangers in our fatherland that is why I don’t blame those who
    leave this country for places like Ghana,” she lamented.

    Charles Ukanwa said he had spent more than N5million treating his daughter
    before she finally gave up the ghost, a transport driver by profession he
    said he has tried his best to raise funds for the treatment of his child.
    But according to some hospital sources, the hospital staffs have been
    responsible for the upkeep and treatment of Chioma for a long time after
    the father could not come up with any more fund. He was still looking for
    about N20million to fund her treatment in India when she died. The mother
    who was a full time housewife had become a full time nurse always by the
    side of the child until the bitter end.

    Prof Akinsulie said: “For the family that has one case of cancer, its
    total. You discover you are spending N2million-N3million and how many
    families can afford that? A family that cannot make N100, 000 a month will
    need to cough out N300, 000, a month for treatment, they sell the
    properties and in six months they are poor.  The thing spreads because the
    other children cannot feed well, sicknesses set in, unfortunately, there is
    no guarantee the child would survive, and it can be very devastating.
    Sometimes treatments can be up to three years and it may cost about
    N5million,” he said.

    To survive the crippling costs of treatment, parents have devised several
    means of raising funds which include going cap-in-hand to corporate
    organizations, media and others just hit the streets, going to the motor
    parks and churches. One of such parent whose child is now late told *The
    Nation*  after an agreement to protect his identity: “ I was desperate, I
    sold my car and all my properties, if someone was willing to by my cloths,
    I could have sold them. I had to go to the streets, it was painful and
    shameful but I had no choice. To make it worse, I did not raise N50, 000
    before my son died.”

    But if the scheme currently being worked upon by LUTH comes to fruition,
    this agonizing search for funds may come to an end. According to Akinsulie,
    the hospital management is currently trying a new campaign to involve
    millions of Nigerian donating a fraction of their income monthly towards
    the Save the Cancer children fund. A paediatric hospital called St, Judes
    in the USA, it was learnt is ready to partner with LUTH to raise more funds
    if the Nigerian partners can kick-start it.

    “The aim is to get small money in large numbers so if we have one million
    Nigerians donating N100 per month we would have about N1billion to play
    with and we can give quality treatment for the children for free. Our
    partners in the USA are ready, they just want us to run this thing for like
    two years, we are appealing to Nigerians to help, it doesn’t have to be
    your child,” Akinsulie said.

    *Life saving platlets*

    The cause of about 90 percent of the deaths  from childhood cancers is laid
    sorely on scarcity of platlets. According to one of the nurses at the
    children’s ward, what many children are waiting for are platlets but while
    waiting many succumbed to death.

    “There is this crisis of platlets here, it has been hell getting it so we
    start to look for it all over the place. Here in LUTH, it costs N5,000 but
    outside in the private laboratories it is N17,000,” Olaonipekun said.

    Ann Shedrack said she has been able to secure some platlets at the Island
    Maternity on Lagos Island which is where most of the people needing the
    life saving blood get it from. The LUTH management did not deny there is
    shortage of platlets in the hospital; neither do they deny many children
    have been lost due to that shortage. So what could have caused this
    scarcity?

    In a bag of blood, there are many components like the red blood cell and
    platlets. Those needing blood transfusion do not need all of these
    component so there is a separating method using a machine called Cold
    Centrifuge for blood bag separation. This is how it works, a blood bag is
    placed inside and the machine separates the different blood components.  So
    a patient does not need to get a full bag of blood if he doesn’t need it.
    But it is this machine that would separate the platlets for use by the
    children that is scarce. Without the platlets, children undergoing
    chemotherapy will die, it is certain and many have died.

    Only LUTH and UCH have a cold centrifuge machine and all the cases in the
    South West are directed to these two institutions, which puts a lot of
    pressure on the equipments. As a result the machine is overused and it
    malfunctions, this is the exact case with LUTH.

    Frustrated and upset parents then begin to patronize the ‘black market’.
    But that also has its dangers as many unscrupulous sellers wanting to make
    maximum gain mix serum with the platlets. The results could be devastating
    as seen in the case of Chioma.

    “They got the platlets outside LUTH and there should be a toxicology test
    carried out on it, the thing is that one bag of platlets in LUTH is better
    than six bags outside. I do not know if the girl reacted to the platlets, I
    am also not sure of the source either,” Nwobi said.

    The problem is replicated at all the teaching hospitals. At the OOUTH
    Sagamu, sources said even though it does not have a dedicated paeditric
    oncology ward, it nonetheless has the capacity to get platlets anytime it
    is needed. “We have a professor here that has connections at LUTH, so we
    always get it when we need it.  We are also in the process of establishing
    our cancer ward and in two years time we should be able to do that so that
    we can fully treat our patients.”

    According to Akinsulie, the problem of scarcity of platlets could be solved
    if the hospital can get the machine. A single machine that is capable of
    separating four bags of blood cost only N6million while one that can
    separate between 10 and 12 bags of blood cost N10million.

    “We are appealing to those with human kindness to help us purchase these
    machines which are so vital to the treatment of these children,” Nwobi said.

    “These children do not have to die needless deaths all the time, the
    government can fund the purchase of this machine and highly subsidize the
    treatment of Paediatric cancer. If corruption is eliminated in governance
    that money can be channeled into treating those with cancer. Even Somalia
    has made tremendous progress, why can’t we curb corruption and save the
    children,” a hospital management staff said.

    “I once spoke to a state government and I was shocked when they said the
    money they will use to treat one cancer patient would be used to treat
    5,000 dieahoreah  or malaria. That is the way our government thinks,”
    Nwobbi recounted to *The Nation*.

    *Creating Awareness*

    By 2002, Nneka Nwobbi has seen enough inside the horrid walls of caner
    wards at the LUTH; she had seen many children die from childhood cancer due
    to lack of financial resources to treat the disease or from sheer apathy
    from the parents. She, therefore, decided to embark on an adventure such
    that would attempt to save the lives of some of the children. She founded
    the Children Living With Cancer Foundation (CLWCF).

    The organisation she founded has gone ahead to provide services to these
    children some of which include: Total or partial coverage of expenses
    related to chemotherapy; support with medications; overseas travels when
    needed; counseling for families and patients; creating awareness about
    childhood cancers.

    Nwobbi has worked with many of the patients at LUTH, a week before Chioma
    died; she has been involved in the campaign to raise funds for her. Her
    past chemotherapy has been partially funded by her organization. The
    paediatric oncology ward had been furnished and equipped by her
    organization. Most of the parents come to her for chemotherapy medications
    which she gave free of charge. Her success stories have been more of kidney
    cancer than leukemia. “We have had success stories mainly with kidney
    cancer.  We have what we call save 10 projects, looking for sponsors at
    least to treat 10 children with the disease. Not as costly as leukemia,
    roughly about N2 million for treatment,” she told *The Nation* in her
    Anthony Village, Lagos office.

    Nwobbi believes that childhood cancer doesn’t have to be a death sentence.
    “ The cancer is curable if the children are brought in early enough to
    start treatment and that is why awareness is involved. Parents need to know
    the signs to look for in their children.”

    She has therefore devised the SILUAN method. This method involves Seeking
    medical help for persistent symptoms, check for white sports, squinting in
    the EYE, looking for LUMP in the abdomen and pelvis and other parts of the
    body, reporting UNEXPLAINED  fever, weight loss and appetite, Aching bones
    and joints should be reported and NEUROLOGICAL change in behavior, balance
    and gaits in children should be reported.

    But one of the factors inhibiting the work against childhood cancers
    surprisingly is the attitude of the parents. Many parents simply refused to
    believe their wards may have cancer. “There are several cases where the
    parents have simply refused to believe in the doctor’s diagnosis,” she said.

    The refusal of the parents to believe in cancer have had devastating
    consequences for the children who are caught in the middle of this
    unbelief, a situation which has led to the death of many of them. Closely
    following this is the belief in the supernatural. “When the after-effects
    of the chemotherapy start to occur like the loss of hair, many parents are
    afraid and they say this cannot be cancer again, some evil spirits must
    have been responsible, so they stop coming for treatment and take the
    children to the village. Even Chioma went to the village that was when she
    defaulted. Unfortunately, when they return to the hospital it’s always too
    late,” Nwobbi explained.

    It’s another week at LUTH and five more patients will join the ones who are
    lucky enough to be alive, none of the doctors could guarantee which of them
    would survive, but what they can assure is that they will be needing
    finances in the millions. Maybe few can afford it many none can, except
    kind hearted Nigerians come to their rescue.  Ann Shedrack and Muyiwa
    Olaonipekun are appealing to kind hearted Nigerians to save their children.
    Donations are solicited through the following accounts:  Muyiwa
    Olaonipekun, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Account N0: 0005233079

    *Box interview*

    *Why we lose many children to cancer-Prof. Akinsulie, Head Paediatrics LUTH*

    *How frequently do we have the cases of childhood cancer and what are the
    various forms it takes?*

    Cancer is just about one percent in children’s health problems. But there
    has been a slight increase in some of them like cancer of the blood, called
    leukemia; we have so many cases here because we have referrers from all
    over South West. For the family that has one case of cancer, its total. But
    when we consider it among other diseases, it’s still low. For those who
    have, it can be devastating for the family.

    Cancer in children if presented early is curable,  but we need to  educate
    the parents on some of the forms cancer takes in children. When flashes are
    coming in the eye of the child it could be Retino Plastoma; when the tummy
    is growing more than normal especially when you can feel something hard ,
    it could be a cancer of the kidney, likewise if any other part of the body
    is hard. It is only the cancer of the blood that does not give us a lot of
    signs, but you will still notice the child feeling tired, unfortunately a
    lot of doctors will be treating malaria instead of looking at the blood.
    When the cancer is in the blood, it is already all over the body because
    blood goes all over the body and the more they delay the more damage it
    does to the body organs, but cancer of the blood can also be diagnosed
    early.

    Fortunately, many of our doctors in private hospitals also know enough to
    check the blood for signs of cancer. Most of these things are diagnosed
    early in advance countries but are picked quite late here, but there are
    some cancers that are quite merciful so to say like cancer of the kidney
    called nefroblastoma. It must take a careless person to have this cancer
    going to many places in the body before they come for treatment. Some
    cancers start as a solid tumor, but our people will apply Robb and pray,
    instead of coming straight to the hospital.

    You need to see some of our children, one has the cancer of the jaw, it was
    huge as a football but now she is looking almost normal because some
    organizations were able to donate for her. She had almost five operations. *
    *

    *What is the most common type of cancer that you have noticed in Nigeria?*

    We usually like to separate the one that affects the blood and the solid
    one. In the blood category, the most common is Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
    (ALL).  The commonest solid one is Wilems Tumor. There are others too that
    are common, retino plastoma.

    *What are the causes of childhood cancer?*

    In most cases we don’t know but from research, we know some viral infection
    and malaria are associated with cancer of the jaw, if you are exposed to
    heavy radiation, they can develop cancer, even the radiotherapy that we use
    in curing cancer, if you are exposed to it for long, you might develop a
    secondary cancer. Some drugs taken by mother can affect the baby, but this
    is less than five percent of the causes.  But to be honest, 90 to 95
    percent of the time , we don’t know the causes, it occurred spontaneously.
    Occasionally we know some abnormalities in parent; genetic abnormalities
    too can lead to some cancer. The good thing is that the signs are there, if
    you are the type that would approach a doctor early enough you stand a
    chance to cure it.  For the cancer of the blood, the child can be bleeding
    and weak. It also affect their ability to fight infection so they can have
    fever, these are the signs of the other normal ailments so if your child
    have this sign and its not responding to the usual drugs you must come in
    to the hospital.

    *How much does it cost to treat these cancer and for how long?*

    On the average we can treat them for upwards of two years especially cancer
    of the blood. Those with cancer of the kidney can be treated in six
    months.  But you discover you are spending N2million-N3million and how many
    families can afford that? A family that cannot make N100,000 a month will
    need to cough out N300,000, a month for treatment, they sell the properties
    and in six months they are poor.  The thing spreads because the other
    children cannot feed well, sicknesses set in, unfortunately, there is no
    guarantee the child would survive, and it can be very devastating.

    We also do radiotherapy for leukemia for as long as two to three years, if
    you stop the cancer comes back,  for the first 3 months they must be in the
    hospital but after that they need to come to the hospital at intervals and
    we give treatments for the next three years, the cost of it may be up to N5
    million.

    *How is the hospital helping regarding funding this treatment?*

    What we need is education. Another thing we need is to treat it free; it
    is possible. If every Nigerian is contributing N100 naira per month, we
    will have almost a billion naira to use for treatment in a month. It is
    awareness, people need to start donating freely, these children will come
    and we will treat them free, we can give them the best of treatment.

    But if people can donate just a tiny fraction of their income, something
    they will not notice, we can call it  friends of leukemia or  friends of
    children living with nefroblastoma etc,  the money can be managed by an NGO.

    We have been going to companies, which can donate like N10, 000 a month and
    the more people buy into the idea the bigger the fund, we can buy more
    equipment. St Jude’s hospital in the United States  is promising us that if
    we can start and run it well, we can become an affiliate and more funds
    will come in. In that hospital, they admit hundreds of children with cancer
    every day, they come all over the world and they are treated free. With a
    facility like that why won’t the children come in early?

    If you say I want to be donating N200 a month for the children living with
    cancer, this project  will move ahead, the group in America, wants us to
    start running the free donation project for at least two years so they see
    that we have capacity to manage big funds. But also we will appeal to the
    government to make the treatment free or subsidize it heavily. It will be
    wonderful if it is on the National Health Insurance Scheme, (NHIS).

    *How many children do you admit here weekly?*

    Here we see between five to ten children every week but our ward is still
    small for them, our ward is for 20 patients and its always filled up, so
    most of them are out-patient.

    *There is so much noise about platlets, how important is it and why is it
    scarce?*

    Now platlet is what prevents us from bleeding. If the child bleeds in the
    brain it is instant death so they need the platlet. In a bag of blood there
    are different components and platlet is one of them. A patient that needs
    blood may not need platlet or some other components and we would need to
    separate what he needs from what he does not. The machine we use for that
    separation is called cold centrifuge for blood bag separation. We have just
    one machine at LUTH and I think there is another one in UCH. That is all
    for the whole South West. Our own here is overused because we are not the
    only one using it, it is not available all the time.

    The children need platlets during Chemotherapy because they can lose a lot
    of blood and if it gets to the brain the child dies .We lose a lot of
    children just because we don’t have the platlets. That is one big appeal I
    am making to the people to please help us with the machine that can help us
    separate the platlet.   A moderate one is 6 million, if we can get two or
    three machines in this hospital it will save lives.

    *What are the chances of survival for cancer patients?*

    The prognosis for Leukemia is not encouraging.  It is just about 20-30
    percent that can survive two year.  But for cancer of kidney, it could be
    as high as 80 percent, if they come early.

  • Garden Show’s organisers commended

    The Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Mrs. Sally Mbanefo, has described the NTDC as one that is focused on the transformation agenda of the current government.

    She was speaking at the just- concluded Garden and Flower Show which came up recently at the Grand Banquet Hall, the Oriental Hotel Ozumba Mbadiwe Victoria Island, Lagos.

    Mbanefo commended the organizers of the show for uniting the societal dimensions of the sciences, arts and commerce into one event for the discerning urbanite and tourist.

    According to her, the refocused NTDC will be at the leading edge of harnessing the rich eco-diversity of the nation, as in flora and fauna (aquatic) endowments-to fundamentally entrench domestic tourism as a necessary condition for encouraging international tourists to visit Nigeria.

    “The NTDC will be counting on partners like the Garden and Flower Club of Nigeria to further our re-energized focus on using eco-tourism as one of the key sustainable differentiators for Brand Nigeria”.

    The Garden and Flower Show was organized by the WinihinJemide Series, in collaboration with the Garden and Flower Club of Nigeria. The first in its series of shows, the event featured exhibitors in gardening related businesses such as landscaping, pottery, floral arrangement, interior designs and event management.

    According to initiator of the Winihin Jemide Series and President of the Garden and Flower Club of Nigeria, Mrs. Winihin Ayuli Jemide, the Garden Show comes as part of efforts to encourage a culture of gardening, and also to provide a platform where gardening related businesses can network with a view to evolving a plant and flower industry in Nigeria.

    A major highlight of the event was the launch of her book showcasing Nigerian gardens from across the nation. The book, titled ‘Imagine a Garden’ was written by Mrs. Winihin Ayuli Jemide.