I feel like getting out of the box today, and unbottling events I have bottled up for some time. They may not necessarily be health matters. But they may bear a tinge or more of these matters because, ultimately, every path we tread impacts one way or the other on our health. I stumbled about one week ago on the departure of my friend Adedamola Willoughby and was all the more shocked to learn that he was killed in a train crash.
Ify Onyegbule, host of the DAILY REPORT (8.p.m to 9 p.m) programme on STAR FM 101.5 radio in Lagos, reminded me of an article titled WALKING CORPSES which appeared some decades ago in the ALLAH-DE Column of Alhaji Alade Odunewu in the good, old DAILY TIMES newspaper. Walking corpses are people nearer the grave than they imagine themselves to be. When I learned from Mr. Danson Sunday Danson that cassava flour was now plentiful and cheaper in Akwa Ibom State, and Udeme Edet James told me it was the handiwork of a new cassava tuber nicknamed GIVE-me- CHANCE, I thought the age of genetic modified foods may have finally fallen upon the nation, to smother it. Gastroenteritis showed its face in Lagos. Some residents were vomiting and stooling. One girl aged 12 was brought to my household last Saturday afternoon. Since about Wednesday, she had experienced anal blood flow which tracked down the back of her thigh to the heel. We ruled out the onset of menstruation. Because of her, I opened the last bottle of Maria Treben’s Swedish Bitters and gave every member of the household a capful dosage in a glass of water. I began to write this column in the afternoon of last Sunday. She was the last of us to empty her bowels for the day. By that time, the rest of us had done ours pretty easier than on other days. When this girl made for the rest room in the afternoon, I asked her auntie to accompany her, my heart pounding somewhat. We all decided to have a goat meat meal on Christmas Day as a toast to Maria Treben Bitters… the bleeding had stopped. I will speak more about this brand of Swedish bitters in short while.
I received a telephone call from a gentleman in Lesotho who was troubled by hemorrhoids and erectile dysfunctions. Then, there was a young woman who was battling with what may be a problem of blood circulation. About 15 minutes after a meal, she falls asleep .
Adedamola Willoughby
When I read in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, chat group that a comfort Fund had been set up for his family, I wondered about what may be going on. I was told he died in a train crash. I almost went blue! A train crash? I wondered again. I was all the more devastated when I learned later that he actually died on the rail track. I still do not wish to imagine what may have happened, except to wonder if he did not hear vibrations of an oncoming or passing train. For no train has derailed that I knew of. In a way, I felt guilty because, for about two years, I had subdued inner prompting to criticise the rail system modernisation which Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi is carrying out and making noise about. Is it right to make Nigeria’s slow trains run faster. But it is right to have faster trains on the same routes in which snail-speed trains kill people every day? If we were modernising speed, should we not also be modernising safety? British colonialists gave us the present rail system, perhaps unknown to them that Land use invasion would one day extend our backyard across those rail routes. Thus, in Lagos, from Oyingbo and Yaba, Ojuelegba and Mushin to Ilupeju, Oshodi, Ikeja, Agege, Ashade,Pen Cinema,Fagba e.t.c, we hear of slow trains crushing vehicles and killing people almost every day. My first personal experience at Pen Cinema was on a December Friday, about 12 years ago. A car ran under a coach which got stuck. In the car were a man and woman who were to get married next day, and four of the bridal girls they were driving to the home of the bride to be. We all thought no one in the car would survive the crash until a convoy of cars arrived. The groom-to-be had telephoned his folks back home to explain what had happened to them. Try as a rescue team did, the car could not be freed from under the coach until a heavy duty fork lift arrived and lifted the coach away. Since, hardly any quarter has passed withoutnasty incident occurring. In one such incidents, a train engine hit the rear of a truck which fell on passers-by a few metres away, killing some people. What I am trying to say is that our trains should run in the city about 40 or 50 feet below the roads in open canals dug for them over which motor vehicles would drive and over which pedestrian will walk. The colonialists gave us a hint of this in the train under pass on Airport Road, Ikeja. There would have been a four-level junction train level crossing on Abeokuta Road/AirportRoad had the British colonial government not sand filled approches to and from the Airport Road and built a motor way across to create a train tunnel underpass. With increasing foot traffic across the underpass nowadays, a pedestrian foot bridge should have been constructed there as well. Incidentally, this was where Adedamola Willoughby was killed by a train. We missed this 19th century vision in the 21st Century, and we are hailing an outdated modernisation.
Adedamola Willoughby and I grew up on Igi Olugbin Street, in the Ladilak Primary School area of Shomolu – Pedro axis. He came from the elite Willoughby family of Lagos Island. We were classmates at Igbobi College, Yaba, Lagos, with the likes of Femi Lanlehin, Lanre Keleko, Emmanuel Okocha, Sehindemi, Sikuade, Philips. At the University of Nigeria, he was two years my senior because I went to work at the Daily Times before I returned to school in 1974. Through him I enjoyed the company of good friends such as Bola Adeyemo and Bisi Olawunmi. I remember today one of the evenings we shared together in Shomolu, and the lesson of his passage for me. He, his girlfriend and my goodself were chatting at a road junction near my house. Suddenly, the overhead high-tension electricity cables began to spark. No one taught of the safety of the other. We all fled in different directions. We would capture that event later with a Yoruba proverb which says “one bird does not tell another a stone aimed at them is on the way (Eiye ki i so fun aye wipe Oko n bo). Even the timing of our departure from this earth, do we inform ourselves?
I still shudder at the thought of how Damola may have gone. But I derive joy in the knowledge that, which ever way we go, there is no accident in this great and wonderful Universe. Everything which happens to us is meant for our good. What manner of passage would awaken the ethereal senses of one person to that new environment, and, therefore, open him or her to a higher consciousness of existence, may not necessarily serve another person well. Every event we experience here or there is specially tailored to our peculiar needs. My prayer, therefore, is that AdedamoIa Willoughby awaken to a beautiful and joyful life more beautiful and joyful than on this earth.
Thank you Damola for that dream early last Tuesday morning in which I saw you in one of the hotels at Nsukka.
Ify Onyegbulue
This is a professional woman after my heart. I met her for the first time, through her work, during the 2019 election crisis in OKOTA area of Lagos, which may have spread to other parts of Lagos, the Southwest of Nigeria and, perhaps, other regions. At that time, there was a face-off between the aborigenes and “shoulder- raising” immigrants who believed they had enough population numbers and the raw cash to dislodge the aborigenes from their land. I was active on FACE BOOK then, advising the immigrants not to go too far near the cliff, believing, erroneously, that the aborigenes, in fright, would pull back. It is interesting that those among them who derided these suggestions as HATE SPEECHES against the immigrants would later not see vocal uprising against the RUGA settlement as HATE SPEECHES against the Fulani nation. It is interesting, also, that the Southeast, which is leading vehement opposition to the Hate Speech Bill, is the most vehement regional critic of President Muhammadu Buhari.These justify my hypothesis then and now that the hate speech idea is a moral handcuff to immobilise and destroy a self-defending opponent. It is a pity that the manuscript of my final reply on the OKOTA crisis got missing in the computer. It gave a reply to the question Prof. Pat Utomi raised on the motto of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) rubbing on or rubbing off some of its products. This motto is: TO RESTORE THE DIGNITY OF MAN. It contains three dominant elements….restoration, dignity, and man. Many people understand it intellectually, that is in the flesh. Anyone who has had an OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE (OBE) which is a department of study in THANATOLOGY, the science of dying, would, like me, who had OBEs before UNN see life in a different perspective, from the way many pure intellectuals do. The intellect is a weapon of MAN on earth and is limited to earthly conceptions of TIME and space, having been derived from matter. Man transcends matter. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and other co-founders of the UNN who gave it the motto were men and women of fine insight who troubled themselves for an understanding of life and existence beyond the reach of the intellect. My first OBE before my UNN days enabled me, even at the UNN, to distinguish man from his intellect, recognise how undignified man’s intellect had made him become on earth and of how his dignity can be regained only when he recognises his high origin and its values, and joyfully and unconditionally make them the basis of earth-life. This was the flag I flew against the red flags of hate speech champions of the Okota crisis.
Ify surprised me in those OKOTA days because she did not follow the HERD INSTINCT. She searched and searched, instead, for peace, bringing to her programme for discussion only responsible people on all sides. Boldly, she even told Igbos in one programme that YORUBA ARE YOUR LANDLORDS. All her programmes excite me. One of the latest was on why Lagos people do not use over head pedestrian bridges, but would prefer to cross the 10-lane motorway on Ikorodu Road at Palmgrove and Ojota, for example. I know the two bridges there and use them. Many people told Ify those bridges were either too steep, they were height freaks, the bridges were dirty and smelling and housed hoodlums or were too distant from road junctions and bus-stops. I love the design of those bridges. They help me to know if my heart is justifying my expenditure on health foods for it such as CoQ10, Hawthorn berries, Vitamin E, Vitamin B- Complex, Pomegranate, Buckthorn berries and the likes of them. Anyone who experiences chest pain simply because he or she climbs a flight of stairs had better go for a check up. On these bridges, I often found young girls and women looking depressed. They would rest at every landing.They may pass for ALLAH- DE’s WALKING CORPSES. Then some occasions, I would grab a complete stranger by the hand and, teasingly command her,” OK, let’s go”. I would take them on non-stop flight up. If they panted on the last landing, I would explain to them I was older on the face, but younger within my body, they were younger on the face but older in theirs bodies… their heart were too weak to pump enough blood and glucose to their leg muscles. A series of lectures would follow thereafter. Many people are sick inwardly but do not know it . So, the steep or normal foot bridge across a motor way is a test for the health of our heart and lungs, for example.
Many thanks, Ify.
Give-me-Chance Cassava
This is a species of cassava which has become very popular among farmers and the populace in Ikot Ekpene, under Itam Town in Itu Local Government Area of Akwa – Ibom State. I am told, also, it is the cassava-of-choice in other local government areas. The cassava species is nicknamed GIVE ME CHANCE because it is said to “scatter” the soil, pushing every thing aside to grow to a massive size than any cassava species known in this region before now. Yet, it is grown like any other cassava species and it takes between four months and six months to mature for harvest compared with one year for the older and natural species. Which farmer would not like this species of cassava? It offers two planting seasons, instead of one, every year. For a region were cassava is a staple food, cheaper cassava products such as garri, fufu are most welcome. In future, we may even have cassava tubers growing as big as a motor car. It would all depend on how the genes are located in the formulae structure.
The genetic code tells every cell, man, animals or plants, how to behave. We have already witnessed it in tomatoes, maize and wheat. The restructured wheat, which we now consume in Nigeria, has been shown to damage the intestinal lining of many people.
Nature created the genetic structure of our cells and created, also, the genetic codes of food crops which would perform specific functions in our cells. Since the codes determine the functions food crops will perform in our cells, the genetic codes of food crops we are changing will perform in our cells functions other than those that nature created the original codes to perform. This is why organic farming is the way to follow in today’s Nigerian world. Now, I eat organic, green plantain and the peel made into powder. I also take as pap a wide varieties of whole grains such as white, yellow, millet and sorghum. Since ” fufu” makers in Lagos began to add HYPO to their production processes, I have secured my fufu powder from an organic source.
Gastroenteritis
The symptoms resemble those of cholera except that they are less severe. Vomiting, stooling, imitable bowl and fever are present. So are weakness, bleeding and even death. It can be confronted with Activated charcoal and Diatom. They suck up the irritating toxins and kill the offending germs. Golden seal Root tea or capsules kill the germs, too. Apple Cider Vinegar taken on empty stomach or before a meal gives the stomach enough acid content from which these germs cannot survive, let alone find their ways into the gastro-intestinal tract.
Vervain stops spasms which cause vomiting. Basil help as well. On the pig farms, Basil fed raw to pigs distressed by diarrhoea can rescue them from this intestinal problem. If the intestine is inflamed and producing mucus, Fenugreek should be at the ready. It would cut blood sugar though. So, be prepared to eat more. Curcumin 2000X is one of the best proprietary anti-inflamatories for internal use. The liver and the kidneys may be protected and cleansed with appropriate herbs, including milk thistle, Dandelion root, Cilantro and Sweet Prayer Leaf. I never fail to add Maria Treben Bitters, which I mentioned earlier.
Maria Treben Bitters
This formulae of Swedish Bitters comes from Maria Treben, a legendary Austrian herbalist who wrote the book HELP THROUGH GOD’s PHARMACY in which she shares with us some of her clinical experiences. This product is not preserved with chemicals. And as she wrote in the book, it can serve about 50 purposes, including use in various forms of intestinal problems such as the stoppage of bleeding. In this regard, I would have liked to combine it with Shepherd’s Purse, in the case of the twelve-year-old girl earlier reported, as this herbs is well known for helping many cases of internal bleeding.