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Hundreds of Nigerian fishermen displaced from the ceded Bakassi Peninsula on Friday marched through the streets of Calabar, protesting alleged rape of their women and harrassment by Cameroon gendarmes. They also lamented homelessness and inability to assess the waters for their fishing business.

The protesters said they were residing at the ceded peninsula before the Federal Government surrendered it to Cameroon.

Some of the placards by the protesting fishermen had inscriptions such as “Our women/children have been abused sexually due to the loss of our land,” “Bakassi returnees are not settled, yet the land has been ceded, where do we stand? “We have lost so much, houses, farmlands, products, canoes, fishing nets etc, how do we start all over?

At the governor’s office,, their spokesperson said they were the affected returnees in Bakassi Peninsula ceded to Cameroon and that they protested to inform the governor what they had lost and the pains they were passing through.

He said: “Bakassi is our ancestral land and we were born and brought up there. Our parents trained us there, but now we cannot have access to our homeland. We are over 2, 500 returnees that came back in 2009, up till now, we don’t have accommodation.

“When the governor came here, he promised us 100 units of houses, but up till now, there is no foundation. We do not have medical facilities and it seems to us that we don’t even have a future. The governor had approved N5, 000 to each of us every month, but those in charge have not paid us for some time now. We are disappointed that government did not appeal against the ICJ judgment.

“Where we are staying now, any of the returnees that dies there, there is no place to bury the person as we are not allowed to bury our dead at the place,” he said.

The Imo State Commissioner of Police, Baba Adisa Bolanta, has directed banks in the state which have remained closed after last week’s robbery scare to re-open with immediate effect.

The CP assured the banks that the state command had strengthened security arrangements around financial institutions and other public and private places in the state, noting that enough manpower had been deployed to patrol all strategic places in the state.

It was reported that some banks in Orlu, Orlu Council Area of the state have remained under lock and key after last week’s attempted robbery which was successfully foiled by the police.

Briefing journalists in his office, Bolanta, disclosed that the command has intensified police patrol around banks in the state, to ensure adequate security around the financial institution: “I held a meeting with the regional managers of the banks and assured them of our commitment and efforts to safeguard the banks and they all agreed to reopen, but in Orlu, some of the banks are yet to re-open and it is an act of sabotage to remain shut despite everything the command has done to provide security at the banks.”

There was palpable tension at the weekend in Owerri, the Imo State capital, following the visit of operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to the state to probe activities of the previous and present administration in the state.

When The Nation visited some of the ministries, some of the staff who appeared apprehensive, declined comments and referred the reporter to the appropriate quarters.

It was gathered that some of the commissioners have gone into hiding to escape the EFCC operatives who have been in the state since Wednesday and have quizzed a substantial number of former commissioners in the state.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Imo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (ISOPADEC), Rev. Emmanuel Ebomuche, denied rumours of his arrest and detention by the anti-graft agency.

Ebomuche who spoke with The Nation, confirmed that the EFCC operatives stormed his office on Thursday but did not arrest him or any of the officials of the commission. He, however, disclosed that the EFCC demanded for records of contracts and financial dealings of ISOPADEC from 2007 to 2011.

He described the speculation that he had been whisked to Abuja by the EFCC as “malicious and a desperate attempt” by politicians to tarnish the image of the Commission. “EFCC operatives were here and they demanded for official working documents of the ISOPADEC from 2007 to 2011 and we handed all documents to them.”

According to him, the commission, in the last one year under the Rochas Okorocha’s administration, has been battling to reverse the case of abuse of office perpetrated during the previous administration. disclosing that between 2007 to 2011 ISOPADEC received about N10billion without any thing to show for it.

When contacted the Imo state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Chinedu Offor, said that the visit of the EFCC to the state was not strange, adding that, “EFCC is a government Agency that has the right to demand for the working document of any state government. There visit to the state is to investigate the billions of naira spent during the previous administration”.

Offor who described as false the rumour that some of the Commissioners have become jittery, noted that, “the current Commissioners have nothing to fear, we are in our offices doing our work, this administration is barely one year and we have nothing to hide”

Whether you are engaged in physically demanding activities, or you spend most of your time sitting or lying down doing nothing, back and neck pain may occur singly or in combination accounting for over 60% of visits to the (OPD)outpatient department. In fact, the world health organization (WHO) estimates that about 80% of adults will experience low back pain once in their life time. What you wear, how you wear it the way you stand, sit, bathe, pray, lie down to sleep, eat and drink can predispose to pain, take for instance, someone whose feet are flat on the floor (pes planus)instead of having the normal dome shape with a small hollow running from front to back on the inner side of the foot. The attenuated longitudinal foot arches distorts the biomechanics of the foot and the unequal distribution of body weight makes it difficult for affected individuals to stand for prolonged periods, no matter how long they train. Affected ladies will do better to avoid wearing high heeled shoes or risk developing low back pain as they grow older.

Back pain can be acute or chronic. Acute pain develops quickly and usually lasts no longer than 6 weeks. This is the most common type of back pain. An example can be found in a situation when a sixty year old woman attempts to lift and transfer a fifty liter container filled with palm oil, and feels a sharp pain at the lower back.

Chronic pain, on the other hand can be sudden or gradual and is usually of more than three months duration. It is usually less common.

CLINICAL ANATOMY

The vertebral column runs from the occiput to the sacrum and acts as a scaffold for the structures of the head, neck trunk, upper and lower extremities. The three curves seen at the levels of the neck, thorax and the lumbar spine give the structure the resilience to withstand a total force nine times what a column that is straight would carry. This became necessary to enable man assume and maintain the upright bipedal posture. The angles so formed have been described as cervical lordosis of the neck, thoracic kyphosis of the chest and lumbar lordosis of the lower back. These angles have been metrically analyzed in different populations across the world and have been found to be within some certain range; such that moving the body into positions that significantly increase or decrease the angles will set up series of adjustments that will in the final analysis result in back pain. At various levels, the cervical fascia, thoracodorsal fascia, the central tendon of the diaphragm, with the pericardium of the heart, the anterior and posterior longitudinal ligaments, the vertebral column is connected to very vital structures such that deraignment of any segment can result in prolonged disability or even death from respiratory arrest

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A number of habits may be associated with back trouble:-

Lying in awkward positions, Holding head up too high while operating your personal computer, Pregnant and wearing very high heeled shoes, Kneeling down to pray for long hours at a stretch, sitting for too long, prolonged standing is not very good either, but better than sitting for too long, Sitting without a back rest, Sitting without a neck rest .Sitting on the floor with no back support to watch television is particularly bad for any one Children spending long hours in classroom even with well designed chairs, Wearing of back packs, and Scuba diving equipment, lifting weights with the knees held straight in extension

Other factors Age: Except in cases of cancer ,e.g advanced cases of breast cancer the risk of developing back pain, increases with advancing age beginning from age 25 years

Gender, Women are more likely to report symptoms of back pain compared with men just as, women wearing high heeled shoes are more likely to develop low back pains

High parity( having large number of kids)is also strongly associated with back problems especially for mothers not keen on post natal exercise,

Physical fitness, if you go on sitting down not even with non exercise activity thermogenesis(NEAT) , you stay off exercise for some time and suddenly –return —you could very quikly develop low back and waist pain

Heredity. Know yourself before you indulge. There are three groups of body types –the ectomorph type of person is slim built and looses energy rapidly ,He can eat and drink whatever he can with little or no effect on his weight .The heavily built mesomorph can build up muscles which if kept underutilized quickly becomes liable to traction and back pain

The round soft fatty features of an individual endomorph instruct that he eats sparingly because no matter how hard he tries, only little fat is burnt with exercise as he accumulates fat readily even with little meals

One leg may be significantly longer than the other one, as to cause sacral unlevelling, Pes planus (flat feet) may be compounded with wearing of high heeled shoes

High riding iliac crest (the Hip bone) with almost no space between the lowest point of your rib cage and highest point of your hip bone. All these may cause incapacitating back and neck pain

Racial factors have been suggested, ;Research has shown that African women, for example, are two to three times more likely than white women to develop spondylolisthesis, a condition in which a vertebral bone of the lower spine slips forward on another . Recent studies have found that Nigerians have low lumbosacral angulation, compared with whites Oyakhire et al., higher percentage of work related musculoskeletal disorders (Qmonkhodion et al, Odebyi et al).

Presence of other diseases: These include various forms of arthritis, such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, and cancers elsewhere in the body that may spread to the spine. E.g advanced breast cancer, sickle cell anaemia, tuberculosis of the spine etc

Occupational risk factors: poor ergonomics, wrong fitting of machine to man- akward position , confined space, chair design, farming tools designed without ergonomic principles.

Jobs that requires heavy lifting, pushing, or pulling, particularly when these involve twisting or shaking the spine, can lead to injury and back pain.

Jobs that require prolonged sitting put you at a higher risk of developing back problems, especially if you have poor posture or sit all day in an uncomfortable chair or if you are working in a narrow confining space.

Life style: cigarette smoking interferes strongly with the metabolism of the versi nervorum with consequent reduced ability to deliver nutrients to the intervertebral disks Bouts of coughing due to heavy smoking associated with Chronic bronchitis may cause back pain. For women in the period around the menopause, heavy smoking increases the risk of osteoporosis, and the resulting weak, porous bones, can lead to fractures of the vertebrae. Smoking interferes with the metabolism of vitamin C slow healing, What you eat and drink-high carbohydrate, high fat low protein diet, excessive alcohol.

Our emotions are the physical expressions of the love and hate within us. When we love or hate something or someone, it is expressed in our mind and mental activity, in our actions, in our pre-emptions, and in our reactions. Our emotions are expressed in our words, in the things we say, and in the way we say them. Our emotions are expressed in our deeds, in the things we do, and in the way we do them. Our emotions are expressed in our pre-emptions and in how we pre-empt. Our emotions are expressed in our reactions, and in how we react.

The emotions that are born of love typically move us towards what we love. We want, for example to be with what is loved, to have what we love, to promote what we love, to enhance what we love, to protect and defend what we love, or to improve what we love. Such emotions typically connect us with what is loved or connect us with the good of what we love, or disconnect us from what is evil to what we love. The end of the emotions that emanate from love is to be good to what is loved, to do good to what is loved, and to give good to what is loved.

The emotions of compassion, affection, respect, empathy, (CARE) are chief amongst those that typically emanate from love and connect us with what is loved. Within society (i.e. family, business, nation, the world), they lead to care.

Many emotions typically emanate from love to result in some good going out of us and some good coming to us, e.g., awe, contentment, desire, enthusiasm, euphoria, excitement, gratitude, grief, happiness, interest, joy, passion, peace, pity, pleasure, pride, remorse, satisfaction, trust, wonder, zeal, etc.

The emotions that are born of hate typically move us away from what we hate. We want, for example, to ignore what we hate, to escape from what we hate, to reject what we hate, to block what we hate, to diminish what we hate, to limit what we hate, or to destroy what we hate. Such emotions typically disconnect us from what we hate or disconnect us from the good of what we hate or connect us to what is evil to what we hate. The end of the emotions that emanate from hate is to be evil to what we hate, to do evil to what we hate, and to give evil to what we hate.

The emotions of anger, callousness, resentment, indifference, and dread (ACRID) are chief amongst those that typically emanate from hate and disconnect us from what is hated. They make society acrid; i.e., they give society a bitter taste.

Many emotions typically emanate from hate to result in some evil going out of us and some evil coming to us: anxiety, contempt , despair, disgust, distrust, embarrassment, envy, fear, frustration , greed, panic, shock, terror, etc.

Many emotions can be born out of both love and hate and through them we are able to be good and do good to what we love and be evil or do evil to what we hate: anxiety, awe, curiosity, daring, disappointment , embarrassment, excitement, guilt , hurt, pleasure, satisfaction, shame, shock, shyness, sadness, suffering , surprise, worry , zeal, etc.

When within the family, there are many problems, recurrent problems, difficult problems, or even any type of problems, one helpful way of resolving issues might be to try to understand the emotions that are playing out, the dominant emotions, the recurring emotions, and the lingering emotions.

Knowing and understanding our dominant emotions, our recurring emotions, and our lingering emotions is important and helpful for a healthy family life as emotions relate people with one another and relate people with their environment and therefor determine our individual wellbeing as well as our communal wellbeing.

Dr. ’Bola John is a biomedical scientist based in Nigeria and in the USA. For any comments or questions on this column, please Email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 07028338910

Sexually Transmitted Diseases are popularly called venereal diseases. They are contagious diseases, easily transmitted by sexual contact from an infected person to a sexual partner who is otherwise healthy.

The germs causing these diseases vary a great deal, but all depend on the warmth and moisture of the sexual organs for survival. They readily penetrate the delicate skin and moist membranes that come in contact during sexAual intercourse. Once the germs have invaded the tissues of the sex organs, they propagate and spread to other tissues, even throughout the body in some cases.

The sexually transmitted diseases cause various kinds of suffering with tragic results as damage to an unborn child, infertility and even premature death. Once established in a person’s body, the disease tends to persist, if untreated, for the duration of life. Syphilis and Gonorrhoea are the best-known venereal diseases, but the range also includes genital herpes, candidiasis and warts, as well as trichomoniasis, chancroid, staphylococcal infections and Lymphogranuloma venereum.

In spite of our present knowledge of these diseases and in spite of the availability of effective treatment, the number of cases of sexually transmitted illness has increased so alarmingly that they are virtually out of control. Changes in public attitudes towards sexual matters, widespread use of contraceptive pills and the emergence of resistant strains of organisms seem to have contributed to the increase of these diseases.

The symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases vary, depending on the causative agent. There may be abnormal discharge from the sexual organ, with foul odour and itching sensations, as in Gonorrhoea, Trichomoniasis and Candidiasis. There may be ulcers and pinching sensations as in Genital Herpes Simplex, Staphylococcus, Syphilis, Chancroid and Granuloma inguinale. Thirdly, there are those characterized by the appearance of lumps and bumps in the private parts, as observed in cases of genital warts and Lymphogranuloma venereum.

Prevention

It should be well understood that when a sexually transmitted disease is diagnosed in a man or woman, the disease has probably already passed on to the sexual partner, it is therefore important that both should treated to prevent re-infection.

Also, it is strongly advised that any suspicion of a venereal disease or of possible exposure to infection, calls for urgent medical attention. In fact, prolonged cases of venereal infections have been shown to predispose one to more dangerous infections such as HIV/AIDS.

Treatment/Control

In Holistic Lifecare, it is strongly advocated that in order to avoid suffering in the midst of plenty, we must turn to NATURE. Some of the natural remedies being advanced for the treatment and control of sexually transmitted diseases include the extracts of local herbs such as Allium cepa, Senna alata and Plumbago zeylanica.

For further information and consultation on Holistic Lifecare research and services, especially on Blood Infections, Infertility, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Chronic Debilitating Conditions as well as mental and social problems, please call  on: 0803-330-3897 or visit: Mosebolatan Holistic Lifecare Centre, Adeyalo Layout, Ogbere-Tioya, Off Olorunsogo Express Bridge, Ibadan. Website: www.holisticlifecare.com. Distance is no barrier, we can send remedies by courier if need be. We also have facilities for accommodation, admission and hospitalization in a serene and homely environment.