The Nation Newspaper

Tag: blood

  • High blood sugar crashes125 points in 5 days

    Congratulation, Mrs. X. she telephoned me on Friday last week to break the news I was eagerly waiting to hear. Her blood sugar had dropped by a whopping 125 points in only five days. I broke into a celebration song and dance. I was in the office of budget travels at Ilupeju in Lagos. Mrs. BukkyAzeez, the chief executive officer, and her staff asked me what was going on. I had just heard from the woman and her brother who came to see me in their office the previous Friday. I met her about five years ago in Lagos when I gave a health lecture courtesy of ColoBright (Ltd), now of blessed memory, to retired military officers. She was thin and diabetic with a blood sugar record which hovered a bone 400mg/dl. She had tried almost everything she could without success. Over the years, I suggested some herbs. But being of meagre means, she could not afford them. By last month her condition worsened to include swelling in both lower limbs that could have been caused by heart or kidney problems. At that time, she was ready to experiment with Orange peel powder.

    In five days, the blood sugar crashed 125 full points to her amazement and her brothers. We were all celebrating at budget travels, because the staff, too, knew her and had taken to her. This column will follow up the case of Mrs. X. meanwhile, I would like to suggest that orange peel be a part of the daily diet. As already explained in this column over the months, it cuts high cholesterol levels, raised the quantum of the good cholesterol, reduces level of the bad cholesterol, improves breathing and long function, especially in asthmatics, and does lots more to give us radiant health. Lest I forget, when it is added to hair creams, orange peel powder makes the hair grows beautifully, long and sturdy. In body creams, it clears skin blemishes and soften the skin, exfoliates dead cells and leaves behind a youthful appearance.

     

    Black ant and red ant

    The reference last week to the African black Ant as a possible solution to erectile dysfunction and many other challenges of male sexual vitality aroused the interest of many readers of this column. May be I should add that the small African Black Ant can be a tip of the iceberg in these matters. In the ant family, the black ant compares with the run of the mill of society. The red ant are the soldiers of the colouring and are more fiery and potent in the medicinal extracts they yield to man. For now, I will only add that, for men who take the extract of the African Black Ant or those of the red and penile enlargement, erectile force and staying power, they may not take more than one tablet or capsule a week, and may need to take lots of warm water if the penile shaft would not take a bow after the curtain falls.

     

    Berry oil

    If you are searching the health store shelf for a multipurpose oil, I would suggest that you watch out for long rich Berry oil. It stocks vitamin A, carotenoids, 18 Amino acids of which 10 are essentials amino acids and vitamin E, among many others. I had it on my mind last week when someone asked me about which alternative medicine products could help his eye floaters. These floaters are cellular debris that the body did not dissolve and keep circulating in the eye. Sometimes, those strands of debris may join together and become bigger materials. When they come between the lens and the retina, the result is black-out vision.

    They have often been helped with enzyme therapy. In this therapy, systemic enzymes are taken to dissolve them. The immune system uses these enzymes to do its works. In some people, digestive enzymes are not sufficient for digestion and, so, the body has to borrow from the stock of immune enzymes if digestion is to be efficient.

    here this is not enough, digestion and immunity may suffer. So, in this therapy, digestive enzymes may be added to the diet during meals while enzymes may also be taken in between meals for immune function. It will help a lot if the quantum of raw food in the diet is increased, as raw food provides plenty of enzymes. There was a food proprietary systemic enzymes product in the market a few years ago. It was called Neprinol. It provided such enzymes as Serrapeptase, Papain, Bromelain etc. the enzymes are available in their individual forms. To support this therapy, I often suggest a supplement such as Eyemaxplus which contains about 18 nutrients required for eye health.

    Last week, I mentioned Sure best eye solution which provides bilberry and eyebright among others. Kale, an antioxidant vegetable, is also well recommended because of its high amounts of the carotenoids Lutein and Zeazantein which have now caught the fancy of ophthalmologists and well recommended by them for eye health care. And berry oil? According to its literature report, “it boosts immunity, protects liver from chemical damage and is suitable for the eye. It contains powerful antioxidant that can help prevent some forms of cancer, heart diseases and its helps to enhance your body’s immune response to infection. It helps the body reduce the inflammatory action and singlet or free radical oxygen atoms like to combine into pairs. Singlet oxygen atoms are unable to interact with lipid found in cell walls causing inflammation and damage. It is a valuable preventive medicine; in addition to its role in cancer prevention, the berry oil offers us protection from heart disease, again it is their antioxidant behaviour that protect the lining of the arteries and the fat in the blood from free radical oxidative damage.

    It improves the communication between cells which can result in fewer cells imitation, white blood cells attacks bacterial, viruses, cancer cells. It is among the top five anti-aging vitamins. Carotenoids as its ingredient contains vitamin A and protein. It contains 18 amino acids of 10 essential amino acids necessary for human health. It is also suitable for people with hypotension.”

     

    Vintage liquer

    While still talking about What is new on the shelf, I stumbled into long rich’s vintage liquer which I would like to suggest to an acquaintance of mine resident at Oko Oba GRA scheme 1 in Lagos. He has an enlarged heart, coughs profusely, he is taking pharmaceutical medications and improving gradually but has refused to give up alcohol which he says helps him to knock off easily and soundly for the night. I always tell him he can sleep well without alcohol, that alcohol only sedates his brain, but he would not agree. It wasn’t until his condition became life threatening that he tried to shift from lager and stout to red wine. Even then, is choice of red wine is loaded with Sulfite a health hazard wine drinker should watch out for on the wine label.

    About eight benefit are ascribed to this longrich vintage liquer. It may gladden the heart of women who wish to increase the size of their bust-line that “it can accelerate the development of main Mammary glands” for people of slow metabolism who, on account of this, easily add weight, this wine is offered for weight loss because it contains Safflower, said to improve the metabolic rate. Improvement of metabolism prevent accumulation of fats. Besides, it prevent damage of fatty acids. Many people on a slimming therapy hate dietary adjustment and exercise. This wine is put up as able to help them without diet or exercise sufferance. Muscle mass may grow and the body may become learner.

    It is anti-inflammatory, helps digestion of all sorts of food, perhaps because of the presence of pawpaw (papaya) enzymes. But it is contraindicated in liver and kidney conditions because of its alcohol.

     

    Stubborn ulcers    

    Many ulcers are simple walk-overs for the medicine-man or the sufferer. Some people claim cures from the use of Cayeme pepper, yes Cayeme, red hot pepper. Who hasn’t heard that a chemical substance in Cayeme blocks pain transmission? I have read, too, that Cayeme stopped bleeding from gunshot injuries! I believe that it was from Stanford University that we heard of the first research of how Cabbage Juice taken for 14 days not only eliminate the Helicobacter pylori bacterium found in ulcer sites but also healed the peptic ulcer it is believed to cause. This experiment has been done in many reputable institutions world-wide with the same or similar results. But there are isolated cases in which the patient does not tolerate Cabbage juice which tends to cause them more pain than the ulcer presents.

    Some people mill corn, remove the fiber, which are offered to goats or other animals, and they say that does it. For some other people, it doesn’t work.

    I have known joy on seeing some ulcer sufferers smile when they add Bell’s Acidic Stomach and Alkaline Balance to their regimen. In other cases where insufficiency of stomach acid was what led to over-acidity of the stomach when food stayed longer than necessary in the stomach and decomposed into acidic free radicals, Apple Cider Vinegar has been all that was required to end the patient’s nightmare. In many cases, the physician merely routinely assumes that, since the stomach is acidic, alkalizers and acid absorbers would do the trick. This has been the thinking behind the prescription of antacids and consumption of cow’s milk. But milk, being acidic on the pH scale, causes more problem than it is expected to resolve, and, so, many doctors and patients have dispensed with its services.

    Potato juice, like Calcium, Magnesium and Zinc, have helped or resolve many cases suitable for them to overcome. Sodium bicarbonate is a good addition to the list of helpful remedies.

    For this reason, the pharmaceutical Sodamintis popular among ulcer patients. It is a tablet which is licked morning and evening. I tasted it once, and found the taste to be awful.  We cannot forget the Iranian Dr. F Batmanghligd who urged his patient to slowly sip water at the onset of any pain. His hypothesis was that if the body was dehydrated and the Pancreas did not receive enough water supply to make Pancreatic juice, the duodenum, that connection between the stomach and the small intestine, would not open its gate for acidic content from the stomach to move to the intestine. Thus, a prolonged stay of food in the stomach would irritate it with acid and cause an ulcer.

    If he expels the irritant through the throat and the month, acid reflux may occur in which the patient complains of chest pain when, actually, it is the lower end of the throat, the esophagus, that is being damaged by acid. In some cases, this has resulted in throat cancer that may warrant removal of the damaged tissue and its replacement with a portion of the intestine.

    In ulcer therapy knowledge of the stomach structure and function is important. The stomach has three layers of muscles. The outermost is longitudinal. It is reinforced by a middle layer of circular muscles. The inner layer is oblique. Above the inner layer of muscles there is a lining of four layers.  It is on top of the fourth inner layer of this lining that digestion takes place. This involves enzymes, acid and gastric juice. When this lining is eroded, food, acids, enzymes e.t.c drop to the muscle tissue, causing irritation, inflammation pain, injury and damage. In extreme cases, perforation of the muscles layers may cause stomach content to drop into the cavity, leading to a serious health trouble, even death.

    rosion of the lining may arise from stress of all sorts, chemical poisons, bacteria, drugs e.t.c in the sort of condition, the ulcer may become stubborn, irresponsive to medication which appear to help other people.  For this condition and others, I would like to propose that Slippery elm, like is cousin marshmalow, be added to the therapy. Of slippery elm, healthwisdom.com says:

    “Slippery elm has a substance called mucilage which is polysaccharide that becomes a gel when mixed with water. The mucilagedoes a good job of soothing and coating the mouth, throat, stomach and intestine causing much relief from things like gastrophageal reflux disease (GERD), Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, diarrhea, diverticulosis, and irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).”

    In www.webmd.com we learn that: “Slippery elm is a tree which is used as medicine. People take it for cough, sore throat, colic, diarrhea, constipation, hemorrhoids, irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBM), bladder, urinary tract infection, myphissis, herpes and for expelling tape worm.”

    Add to these the suggestions by DraktijicSuzioi:

    “The inner bark of slippery elm contains various nutrients such as beta sitosterol, can pestros, tannins calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, Selenium, zinc, beta carotene, Vitamins B1, B2, B3 and C. Its mentioned earlier, slippery elm is tough and flexible of a fine fibrous texture. It has an odour like fenugreek and is very mucilaginous with an inspired taste. Ten grammes of the powder bark will make a thick jelly with an ounce of water. Slippery elm is effective remedy for duodenal ulcer, gastritis, diarrhea, colitis, irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) hemorrhoids and heart burn.

    It is used for wounds, boils, ulcers, burns and all inflamed surface, soothing, healing and reducing pain and inflammation. It is a simple food as part of a normal diet. It can be eaten as porridge. It is very nutritious, and paced with antioxidants with a similar taste like oat meal. It makes a whole food for infants and invalids. It is also good for heart remedy, for treating cancer. It heals diseases of the female organs. It is used as an antioxidant to prevent fat rancid.A pinch of it stops tooth from decaying. It has been used in North American for centuries in healing ulcer, burn and inflammation.

    It can be taken orally to relief cough, sore throat, diarrhea, and stomach problems. It is also good for excess acidity.

    While we congratulate Mrs. X, look forward to shared experiences on Red or Black African Ant and of course, Slippery elm, I wonder if the woman who required for a cleaning healing natural agent for breast cancer sore may profit from slippery elm or Marshmallow dressing.

  • ‘Why you should donate blood’

    A non-profit organisation, Centre for Family Health Initiative (CFHI) has made a case for blood donation, explaining that despite some previous campaigns, there is not enough blood at the ready to save people in emergency.

    The group was speaking in Kubwa, a suburb of the FCT, during an advocacy outing to mark the 2016 International Day for Families.

    CFHI urged families not just to donate blood but also consult their doctors regularly, go for eye screening, blood and HIV tests, among others.

    The group said the drive was to sensitise families on the need for voluntary blood donations and other health needs.

    Director of CFHI Princess Osita-Oleribe, “We believe that if we can re-write the wrongs within the families, then we will be ready to make a healthy society and we will have less of the issues bedeviling our society, our hope is that it will transition to the re-ignition of the love and support the family can offer to individuals. It turns out that this is not a very popular day even though the UN assembly declared this day since 1993 but not many Nigerians are not aware of this day.

    “We reached out to several families and their was a lot of excitement from them, it was almost imperative that the centre for family health will be interested in the health of families, we tried to do a family health rally and talk about health issues that affect everyone, beside that people have a lot of phobia for blood but we believe that if blood is readily available many family members will not continue to die anyhow.”

    A member of CFHI board, Obinna Oleribe added, “We tried to bring families together to try to make them relax and have a little fun and just be a family. Family health is universal, it affects everything. The blood donations will help us raise some pints of blood that will help save some families and give them peace; the HIV screening will make people aware of their status and other talks on how families can live healthy despite the level of hardship in the society. We want to give families the tools and capacity they need to live a healthy lifestyle.”

    One of the blood donors Bright Amadi told Abuja Review that he has never had any issues with donating blood because he believes that he can save a lot of lives through it.

    “I see blood donation as the opportunity to save and preserve someone’s life someday; the thing is that the person’s life your blood will save might actually be somebody so dear to you but you may not know; if you were to donate to somebody you know it might be easier but although you might feel that you might be donating to somebody you do not know but the truth is that somebody you know somewhere might be involved in an accident and the blood you donate might just be the thing to save their live.”

  • Healthy blood guarantees healthy body

    Healthy blood guarantees healthy body

    How and why we need to keep our blood healthy

    Blood is life. Blood in the human body is the equivalent of engine oil in a motor vehicle. Just like the vehicle engine oil, our blood has three main functions: transportation, regulation and protection.

    Our erythrocytes, or red blood cells, are the most abundant cell type in the human body. Additionally, erythrocytes are anucleated, which means they don’t have a nucleus. This extra room allows for more haemoglobin to be stored in our red blood cells. Haemoglobin is a respiratory pigment, which binds to either oxygen or carbon dioxide. This allows oxygen to be transported around our body to our tissues and organs (and carbon dioxide to be taken away).

    Blood also helps us to maintain homeostasis by regulating our internal body pH and temperature as well as how much water is in our bodies at a given time. Plasma, our connective tissue matrix, is about 90 percent water. Thus, the crucial importance of healthy blood cells cannot be over-emphasised as it is vital in protecting our bodies.

    Haemoglobin is the protein inside red blood cells that carries oxygen. Red blood cells also remove carbon dioxide from your body, transporting it to the lungs for you to exhale. Foods rich in iron help us maintain healthy red blood cells. Vitamins are also necessary to build healthy red blood cells. These include vitamin E, found in foods such as dark green vegetables, nuts and seeds, mango, and avocados; vitamins B2, B12, and B3, found in foods such as eggs, whole grains, and bananas; and folate, available in fortified cereals, dried beans and lentils, orange juice, and green leafy vegetables.

    Most people don’t think about their red blood cells unless they have a disease that affects these cells. Problems with red blood cells can be caused by illnesses or a lack of iron or vitamins in your diet. Some diseases of the red blood cells are inherited.

    Diseases of the red blood cells include many types of anemia, a condition in which the body can’t produce enough normal red blood cells to carry sufficient oxygen throughout the body. People with anemia may have red blood cells that have an unusual shape or that look normal, larger than normal, or smaller than normal.

    Symptoms of anemia include tiredness, irregular heartbeats, pale skin, feeling cold, and, in severe cases, heart failure. Children who don’t have enough healthy red blood cells grow and develop more slowly than other children. These symptoms demonstrate how important red blood cells are to your daily life.

    In the past two decades, extensive research carried out by top scientists in the world have concluded that the inability of blood to fully perform its function and be healthy gives rise to Oxidative stress which has now been found to be the root cause of a wide range of ailments and diseases.

    Oxidative stress (often called OS) is what happens when the body does not have enough antioxidants to neutralise free radicals. Free radicals are the unstable molecules that react with other substances in our body to damage cells or create abnormal ones. Overproduction of free radicals can cause oxidative damage to biomolecules, (lipids, proteins, DNA), eventually leading to many chronic diseases such as atherosclerosis, cancer, diabetics, rheumatoid arthritis, post-ischemic perfusion injury, myocardial infarction, cardiovascular diseases, chronic inflammation, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, and kidney disease. Toxicity of free radicals also contributes to proteins and DNA injury, inflammation, tissue damage and subsequent cellular apoptosis.

    Antioxidants are now being looked upon as effective therapy against these diseases, as they have capability to combat by neutralising free radicals. Diet is major source of antioxidants, as well as medicinal herbs. Recognition of upstream and downstream antioxidant therapy to oxidative stress has been proven to be an effective tool in alteration of any damage as well as free radical scavenging. Antioxidants have a wide scope to sequester and scavenge these free radicals to prevent oxidative stress.

    Jobelyn occupies a unique and remarkable position in the world of the combination of food and medicine. Laboratory analysis from the reputable GMP Laboratory of USA confirmed that Jobelyn contains Carbohydrates, Protein, Dietary Fibre, Iron which could be classified as food. In addition, it contains other nutrients which could be classified as medicine/food/amino acids and these include selenium, manganese, potassium, zinc, calcium, vitamins like A, B12, C, Omegas 3, 6 & 9, calcium and more. It is a well-known fact that doctors now prescribe multivitamins in addition to drugs. Jobelyn is rich in vitamins and other essential fatty acids and amino acids which are by far superior to the synthetic ones in the market and this is a compelling reason why doctors should prescribe it.

    Jobelyn was developed from Sorghum bicolor leaf sheaths, which had been in use as folk medicine for centuries by natives of South Western Nigeria for the treatment of diseases of diverse origin including cancer, diabetes, sickle cell anemia, anemia, arthritis,  heart and liver diseases as well as HIV/AIDS. Health Forever Product Limited has spent the past 20 years to scientifically and clinically validate the proof in the positive use of these herbs by the natives to convince scientists and doctors that indeed, this folk medicine is capable of solving a variety of health problems.

    Research, clinical and laboratory studies have been carried out in many institutions such as Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife (OAU), Vivacell Laboratory, (Germany) Brunswick Laboratory (USA), MD Biosciences (USA), Texas AM University (USA), Natural Immune System (NIS) Laboratory (USA), Alcorn State University (USA), University College Ibadan (UI), University of Benin (UNIBEN), GMP Laboratories (USA), PhytoLabs (GERMANY), Military Hospital Ikoyi, Lagos and Police Hospital, Falomo, Lagos.

    Human clinical trials have been done for sickle-cell anemia, anemia in pre-operative gynecological patients, HIV Studies in human and some of the results have been published in reputable journals. In vitro studies have been done to establish the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory properties of Jobelyn and the results have been published in peer-reviewed journals. In vivo animal studies have been carried out to show the potential of Jobelyn for restoring anemia and extensive in vivo studies were also carried out to establish the power of Jobelyn in neuro-cognitive deficits covering key areas like, stress, psychosis, dementia, schizophrenia, Alzheimer, seizure, depression, aggression, etc. The extensive work done on Jobelyn at Brunswick Laboratory has established that Jobelyn is the most powerful natural antioxidant in the world and the report has been published in a reputable journal. The safety of Jobelyn has been established through animal studies and in some of the human clinical trials carried out.

    Being a most powerful and natural antioxidant, Jobelyn has consistently over the years proven to be a very effective means of combating oxidative stress and producing and restoring health blood cell into the body.

    Advantages and uniqueness of Jobelyn to your health

    • Solid Evidence based and unparalleled continuous scientific research of a made- in-Nigeria phyto (herbal) medicine
    • The most powerful natural antioxidant at 37,622 orac value,
    • Unmatched anti-chronic inflammatory agent – proven to be significantly, if not totally better than ibuprofen
    • Jobelyn induces production of very special cytokines like gcsf, gmcsf, CCl3, CCl4, etc. From immune cells to enhance the immune system.
    • Activator of natural killer t-lymphocytes
    • Scientifically, medically, and user based confirmed red blood cell protector and enhancer
    • Astounding and highly positively effective results when included in the management of hiv/aids and sickle cell disease.
    • Jobelyn crosses the blood brain barrier to express its cns effects, as seen in many studies.

    Jobelyn is one of the most researched Traditional medicinal products in the whole world. From 1996 to date, Health Forever Product, Ltd., has continued to accumulate resources in terms of science based as well as long-term usage evidence for the efficacy of this most powerful African herbal formula which has its origin in the folk medicine of South Western Nigeria.

    There is no doubt that Jobelyn, based on scientific evidence as well as usage evidence and testimonials, has proven to be at the front line in battling oxidative stress and restoring healthy blood to the body. Since oxidative stress is a regular occurrence in the body system, a regular consumption of powerful antioxidant like Jobelyn would undoubtedly protect the blood cells and also reduce the incidence of anemia.

    A good blood system would support a good  immune system and  promote general well–being and this accounts for the strong reason why Jobelyn is a recommended adjunct in the treatment of many diseases including cancer, HIV/AIDS,  Diabetes, Cardiovascular and neurological problems as well as Arthritis.

    Jobelyn is being sold through pharmacies throughout Nigeria and also via the internet. You can also purchase directly from the Health Forever store.

    For more information on how Jobelyn solves the problem of Oxidative Stress and the related disease conditions such as anemia, cancer, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis,  cardiovascular diseases, chronic inflammation, stroke, hypertension and kidney disease, inflammation, and tissue damage contact us at:  getinfo@health-forever.com

  • ‘Blood shortage a huge problem in Nigeria’

    The founder of LifeBank, Mrs Temie Giwa-Tubosun has said blood shortage was still a major problem in Nigeria.

    She spoke during the Love Drive in Lagos.

    According to her, no fewer than 26,000 women lose their lives yearly due to blood shortage.

    She said: “Twenty thousand children under the age of five also lose their lives due lack of blood. One in four patients admitted in the hospital needs blood.”

    Moreover, the rate of blood donation in the country is low.

    “Most countries across the world have 100 per cent voluntary donors but the case is different in Nigeria with just 10 per cent.”

    Mrs Giwa-Tubosun called for more awareness on blood donating.

    She said: “Lifebank has been collecting blood for about four years and have collected over 3000 pints of blood since inception.

    “The firm has put up love drive for voluntary donors to donate blood  to save people’s lives.

    She said no fewer than 500 donors came for the exercise.

    “We work with the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS). But for the love drive, we are working with the Lagos State blood Transfusion Service (LSBTS),” she said.

    Giwa-Tubosun said there are numerous health benefits from donating blood, such as reducing the chances of having an heart attack and kidney diseases.

    The public, she advised, should donate blood because “You never know who you are saving when giving blood. The live you are saving might be yours”.

    She urged interested donors to register on the firm’s official website www.lifebank.ng.

    A donor, AbdulQadri Mumuni said patients will be in danger if people do not donate blood.

    “I am doing this to help replenish the blood bank, so that patients that need blood can get it on time,” he said.

    People should donate blood to save lives, Mumuni said.

    he founder of LifeBank, Mrs Temie Giwa-Tubosun has said blood shortage was still a major problem in Nigeria.

    She spoke during the Love Drive in Lagos.

    According to her, no fewer than 26,000 women lose their lives yearly due to blood shortage.

    She said: “Twenty thousand children under the age of five also lose their lives due lack of blood. One in four patients admitted in the hospital needs blood.”

    Moreover, the rate of blood donation in the country is low.

    “Most countries across the world have 100 per cent voluntary donors but the case is different in Nigeria with just 10 per cent.”

    Mrs Giwa-Tubosun called for more awareness on blood donating.

    She said: “Lifebank has been collecting blood for about four years and have collected over 3000 pints of blood since inception.

    “The firm has put up love drive for voluntary donors to donate blood  to save people’s lives.

    She said no fewer than 500 donors came for the exercise.

    “We work with the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS). But for the love drive, we are working with the Lagos State blood Transfusion Service (LSBTS),” she said.

    Giwa-Tubosun said there are numerous health benefits from donating blood, such as reducing the chances of having an heart attack and kidney diseases.

    The public, she advised, should donate blood because “You never know who you are saving when giving blood. The live you are saving might be yours”.

    She urged interested donors to register on the firm’s official website www.lifebank.ng.

    A donor, AbdulQadri Mumuni said patients will be in danger if people do not donate blood.

    “I am doing this to help replenish the blood bank, so that patients that need blood can get it on time,” he said.

    People should donate blood to save lives, Mumuni said.

  • Wike’s Rivers of blood

    Wike’s Rivers of blood

    There is a tragic déjà vu playing out in Rivers.  So please, compare and contrast.

    Pre-2015 general election, and the Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CSNAC), in a petition to Madam Amie Bensouda, the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, put that pre-election butchery in grim perspective.

    In a petition it dated February 22, and which Olanrewaju Suraju, the CSNAC chairman signed, it listed the following, among the no less than 100 killed, maimed or displaced in the build-up to the 2015 elections in Rivers, alleging high powered conspiracy from the then Presidency, high ranking members of the Police and other security agencies, including the Army and the DSS.

    The alleged victims: Kingsley Emenike, Police Corporal Ifeanyi Okorie, Charles Eruku, Mebaka Opuogoliya, John Adube, Joy Adube, Lucky Adube, Ebuka Mbamalu, Ikechukwu Ogarebe, one Ezekiel, Sampson Chinnah, Kerian Wobodo and Charles Wobodo, among others.

    It is not clear if Kerian and Charles Wobodo were relations; but the gory tale of the Adubes, John, Joy and Lucky, captured the insane slaughter back then: a whole family, starting with their patriarch, John, was nearly wiped out, because of their partisan affiliations.

    The petition did not also state if Corporal Okorie was among those felled, when partisan thugs rained bullets at the Okrika All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign rally, killing a few, including some Police personnel; and maiming many more.

    The allegations back then was that partisan opponents should not campaign in Okrika, the home town of the then First Lady, Patience Jonathan.

    And now, pre-2016 National Assembly and Rivers State of Assembly legislative re-runs, the similarity, in casualty count, is simply eerie.

    The election tribunals and Court of Appeal ordered the re-runs, after voiding the returns for most of the Rivers legislative seats, federal and state; before the Supreme Court, in a bizarre verdict, endorsed the governorship poll, held the same day, and under the same bloody conditions, as the state legislative elections.  The re-runs are fixed for March 19.

    On March 5, in a chilling replay of the Adubes’ massacre, gunmen invaded the Rutachi Street, Omoku, home of Franklin Obi, at around 9 pm, and killed Obi, his pregnant wife, Iheoma and 18-year old son, Bestman.  The late Obi was Rivers APC Ward 4 chairman; and the murderers severed and took away his head.  Also slain was Chukwuladi Adiela, an APC stalwart in the same Ward.

    This is the reportage of that nerve-jangling murder, by the Punch of March 7, quoting Victory, Obi’s daughter, 16: “Last night, I was inside when I heard my mum crying.  We heard the sound of a gunshot and hid somewhere in the room.  I opened the curtain of my room and I saw the men cutting off my father’s head.  They (gunmen) then came to our room,” she added, “and ordered me and my brother to  come out; and as we were coming, my brother was moving slowly and they shot him.  Then they left with my father’s head.”

    And what was Governor Nyesom Wike’s response to that gruesome murder, involving a political opponent?  The beheading was a cult affair, the perpetrators had been arrested and why was APC making so much fuss, claiming cultists as its own!

    That from a supposed chief security officer, sworn by law to protect every citizen, as governor to all?  But even assuming cultists were indeed victims, so cultists are not entitled to state protection, in a polity founded on the rule of law?  Might Wike’s Rivers then have made its grim peace with outlawry, and the resultant anarchy?

    On March 7, in Buguma, Asari-Toru Local Government of Rivers State, Ofinijite Amachree, aka Kpom Kpom, another APC chieftain, was killed and burnt, after clashes between APC and PDP supporters.

    Another five, according to a report by The Nation on the Rivers pre-re-run fracas, were clubbed to death: an unnamed four in Obibi, Etche Local Government and one Gabriel Cookey, in Opobo, the headquarters of Opobo/Nkoro Local Government.

    Another AP report quoted Rivers APC chieftains as alleging that 32 of their members had so far been shot, clubbed or beheaded in the run-up to the March 19 re-runs.  Compare to the 100 slain before the 2005 general election, and you perhaps would appreciate the Rivers of blood flowing under Governor Wike!

    It is only fair though, to enter the defence of the Rivers PDP, which claims it had no hand in the murders; but instead blames “satanic cult clashes”.  But again, which lawful government sits back and lets “satanic cults” slaughter its citizens, no matter their partisan hue?

    Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, after the 2015 presidential election, declared no electoral crime would go unpunished.  But he didn’t reckon with a judicial lobby unfazed at putting the law at the service of electoral violence, thereby reinforcing murderous electoral conduct.

    Now, the Supreme Court, finding for political violence, has worsened the security situation in that troubled state.  Indeed, if Wike got his governorship, splashing in  a guggling pool of blood, why shouldn’t the lawmakers?  Had they the luxury of pressing their cases at the apex court, perhaps they would have been certified okay to swim into power in the blood of others, just as their governor!

    But that supreme folly would appear to have put the Buhari Presidency on the spot.  Before the 2015 election Rivers killings had come the grand subversion of legal authority by the Jonathan Presidency.

    Indeed, the Wike penchant for impunity, and trash power talking, started back then.  Wike was Education minister of state, but Jonathan’s not-so-hidden viceroy in Rivers.  Mbu Joseph Mbu, then Rivers commissioner of Police, was busy subverting Rotimi Amaechi’s gubernatorial authority.  Of course, Dame Jonathan’s crass vituperations inspired that grand subversion.

    Now, Rivers APC partisans would wish they had their own Mbu Mbu to wring Wike’s gubernatorial neck.  They would wish a grand abuse of federal power, with the same Police, DSS and Army, that aided the PDP Rivers impunity back then, at their own beck and call too — and certainly, they would be thrilled to see Wike shrill and complain as Amaechi did, under the ancien regime.

    That is the un-coded message in their the-Federal-Government-has-abandoned-us mass complaint.

    But abusing federal might is absolutely unacceptable, not the least for a government that rode to power on the mantra of change.  President Buhari should not fall into that temptation.

    But the president should put everything in place to nab the Rivers killers — not only the crazed cultists, but their big political sponsors.  Slaughtering fellow citizens should never be accepted as normal electoral behaviour.

    It is not only vile and barbaric, it is extremely savage — and it doesn’t matter if the victims are PDP, APC or even the so-called “cultists”.

    On the March 19 re-runs, the Federal Government should put in place formidable security to enforce peace and order, even if, as the mass violence is sure to scare away not a few, it may appear too late to achieve a free and fair process.  Still, on the day, the free killing and ballot snatching of 2015 must never be tolerated.

    As for the Supreme Court, Their Lordships should savour, in unanimous horror, the Frankenstein monster their Rivers verdict has created.

     

  • A court for blood

    A court for blood

    The law is one thing, but justice is quite another. What makes the law just depends on the judge because between the law and justice is judgement. Once the judge errs in judgment, it implies a chink in the imagination. Therefore, justice is denied. For all its sweet ambiguity and protestations of grand ideals, justice depends on human beings.

    Once the humans have a distorted sense of the law, the people cannot get justice. This prompted the first seer of civil disobedience, Henry David Thoreau to say, “The law never made anyone a whit more just.”

    When the Supreme Court gave its reasons for giving Nyesom Wike victory at the court, the Governor had already disabused the minds of fair-thinking Nigerians. In a church thanks-giving service, he uttered what psychologists call a Freudian slip. Perhaps too inebriated with joy, he told his holy audience the following: “Let me thank our former governor, Dr. Peter Odili. He will call me midnight to tell me what to do….he will say ‘go so so place.’ I took all his advice, and here we are today.”

    Wike defiled two temples. The temple of God and the temple of temporal justice. He spoke of influence in a church where it is forbidden. He implied that forbidden act influenced the temple of justice.

    The odd thing is that neither he nor his votaries denied this. They merely said his gubernatorial rival, Dakuku Peterside, was out to cause confusion for unveiling the facts.

    A few days after, Wike appeared before the Body of Benchers. These two developments only suggest that justice on Rivers State was not about justice, it was about imagination run foul, about viewpoints of the judges, a febrile, tendentious sense of reality, a decision that upsets the equipoise of a civilised society.

    First, why would Wike need advice from former Governor Odili when the matter lay only in the hands of the Supreme Court? Was Odili doing anything to make the result for which the thanksgiving happened? He said, “I took his advice, and here we are today.” It is obvious that between Odili and the Supreme Court verdict, an abracadabra of justice took place.

    For the purpose of transparency, what were those pieces of advice? If Odili asked him where to go, he needs to let us know where he went, to whom, and how it led us to the decision of the Supreme Court. Odili also needs to be clear to Nigerians about his midnight counsel.

    The point has been made that Odili’s wife sits on the Supreme Court. So, some people have asked, what has his wife got to do with his advice? Maybe nothing. But transparency is important. Nigerians need to know, or else we are left to believe that some vermin and worms of action, beneath the eyes of the normal Nigerians, took place in the catacombs of the Nigerian judiciary that dispensed justice to Wike.

    With this background, we can see why the court where Mahmud Mohammed presides has raised legitimate questions about not only its competence but its rectitude. By hiding under the veil of technicality, it has canonised blood and death. It says the tribunal was not properly constituted. It says card readers do not count enough. It says the issues of violence and irregularities were not sufficiently proven. Therefore, Wike becomes governor. Next to the Treasonable Felony verdict against Awolowo in the 1960’s, this is the most perverse verdict from the top of the Nigerian bench. It is an intellectual corruption of justice.

    Card readers did not amount to a rejection of voter’s register. It was meant to validate it. Society, including the judges, knew that technology saved the election from the militancy of the riggers, from bloodthirsty hoodlums who privatised the polls. They wrote the elections. They decided who voted and who did not. Those who fought against the card readers warmed with nostalgia for the old ceremony of violence.

    The justices, in the name of technicality, manifested a wistful longing for the atavistic past of blood and death. Go ye into any election. Plunder if you can, kill if you will, write your results. Any criminal can win because the saner person cannot prove it. Mohammed and his men also hid under technicalities when they said the Tribunal was not properly constituted. What has that got to do with substantial justice? It reminds one of the famous case in the State of Alamaba when a thief of animal skin was let go because the prosecution did not say whether it was cowhide, or that of a goat, sheep, etc. The thief is a thief, and a skin is a skin.

    Before the Rivers verdict, Chief Justice Mohammed had lamented that the lower courts dabbled in inconsistent verdicts. His observation was mistaken. I thought he was referring to irreconcilable judgments on the same matter that gave off the impression of a chaotic bench. What he meant, with hindsight, is that he wanted them to be consistent in puerile verdicts.

    On Wike, was it not the same governor who wanted to pay Justice Mohammed a visit, and he declined to see the governor? Was that not sufficient ground for him to recuse himself from seating on the case since it was widely speculated that Wike wanted to see him over the impending judgement?

    It is clear that the days of majestic judges are not here. As Professor Itse Sagay noted, we do not have the Eshos and Karibi-Whites. We have shadows of justice, dark, distorted, haunting. They have no reverence for lustitia, the Roman goddess of justice, who is called lady justice. She is presented in some courts blindfold and holding a sword in one hand and scales in the other. The blindfold meant the judge did not show bias where the scales tilted. Unlike blind love that does not see foibles, judicial blindness does not see favour. This Rivers State verdict does not favour the people. It has anointed bloodshed. The verdict also implies that Goodluck Jonathan could have won in court and probably won the opportunity for a rerun without card readers. It would be back to 2011 where he swept phony votes all over the country. That is the implication of the court of Mohammed. His court shows us the other side of blindness.

    Philosopher and critic Paul de Man had written a ground breaking book, Insight and Blindness, and showed how in the analysis of texts we see a side and not see another, and yet come off with a triumphal conclusion. Before he died, he was hailed for the integrity of his vision. After he died, we learned he was a Nazi collaborator in Belgium. While he was showing us how to see, we were blind to his other side. In his novel, Blindness, Nobel laureate Jose Saramago shows that whether blind or seeing, we see what we want to see. The Supreme Court saw a society handcuffed to electoral violence. It is a grim and pharisaic court.

  • Tears, blood as Ikwerre local govt chief, security agents eject tenants

    Tears, blood as Ikwerre local govt chief, security agents eject tenants

    THERE was wailing around the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, Rivers State recently when security men and alleged thugs  ejected tenants from a lone-storey building in the area.

    They were said to have been accompanied the Caretaker Committee Chairman of Ikwerre Local Government Council, Mr Samuel Nwanosike.

    Nwanosike is embroiled in a messy battle with a fellow stalwart of the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State, Mr Deisy Okankwu, over the fate of the building.

    When our reporter visited the controversial property last weekend, it had been deserted; its occupants had all fled, following alleged threats of further attacks on them. They accused the council chief of using thugs to beat them up, destroying their properties and goods without any remorse.

    Some of the affected tenants who spoke to Niger Delta Report narrated their ordeals in the hands of Nwanosike and the thugs. They lamented that they were being made to suffer for the messy wrangling between the landlord and Nwanosike.

    Mrs. Angel Lucky, whose shop and goods were destroyed, recalled the incident: “I was in my shop when some policemen escorted the Caretaker Committee Chairman there. Immediately they alighted from their cars, they told us to pack our things and leave.

    “They threw our things away, destroyed what we were selling. 20 crates of eggs, drinks and other goods in my shop were destroyed.  One of them dragged me out of shop and went inside starting flinging our goods out of the shop. Because of their desperation to kill us we decided to leave. One of the thugs that came with them told us that they will shoot us if they meet us here again.”

    Another tenant, Ms Rita Ugwu, who was relocating her property from the building when our reporter visited the scene, said they had no option than to pack out the house.

    “My brother, the matter is beyond us; before the chairman came some bad boys ransacked our rooms. They pushed us out saying they are acting on the order of the chairman. The next day, I was in my shop when a group of boys came and started chasing my customers away, they scattered everything and destroyed even my tables and chairs. The worst thing is that the chairman was there watching them.

    “There was no notice given to us on this action. If I calculate the cost of what they destroyed, it is more than N800,000. When they came, they asked us to pack our things, we don’t know them; it is our landlord that we know so, we didn’t know what was happening.”

    The owner of the property, Deisy Okankwu, who identified himself as a strong supporter of PDP, expressed surprise at the treatment meted on him and his tenants by the council boss. He particularly lamented that he became a victim of the party which victory he contributed immensely to in the last election.

    Okankwu said he had called many chieftains of the party to wade in and to advise Nwanosike to stay away from his property.

    He said: “The caretaker chairman called me and said the governor asked him to use the property for some government functions and that he was giving tenants two days to pack out or he is going to damage their property and do whatever he needs to do to force them out. I called my lawyer and we went to court to obtain an injunction preventing anybody from interfering with the property.”

    He traced his ordeal to years back when the management of the Greater Port Harcourt City project paid compensation for the property to an alleged imposter.

    When contacted on phone, Nwanosike said the building had been marked for demolition by the Greater Port Harcourt City. He added that the woner had received compensation.

    Nwanosike said he was interested in the building because of the mandate given him by Governor Nyesom Wike.

    “We were instructed by the governor to sanitise the environment and fight cultism and kidnapping. When we came onboard after our security meeting, we discovered that the building was been used by criminals as hideout.  So we gave the occupants a seven-day ultimatum to leave but they refused. My administration has initiated a policy against robbery, cultism and kidnapping and we are going to use this building to carry out our assignment.

    “I want you to know that many visitors to the state have been attacked as soon as they alighted from plane heading to their various destinations. If the landlord doesn’t want us to use the building which Greater Port Harcourt City has already paid a compensation for, then we have no option than to demolish the building.”

    However, Okankwu said he was in Canada when the purported imposter forged a power of attorney, deceived the Greater Port Harcourt City and collected N46million meant as compensation of his building. He hinted of a connivance between the government agency and alleged fraudster, stressing that the agency went ahead to pay such huge amount of money without confirming from him or his sister whose phone number was with the agency.

    Besides, he faulted allegation of criminal activities in the building.

    He said: “Since there was a matter in court between myself and Greater Port Harcourt for paying a fraudulent man, I sent people to tell the chairman to stay away from my property that there were no criminals or kidnappers living there as he alleged.  Some of the occupants of the property were responsible people who were hired by the company building the International Airport. There has never been any case of robbery of kidnapping for over 15 years that we have owned the property.

    “My lawyer went to the local government office and served the chairman a restraining order not to interfere with the property. But recently he came and caused damage with his own hands and his security men, his boys were watching and also causing damage to the property too. They destroyed the properties of my tenants, broke their plates that was on the dining, broke their chairs and tables and caused so many damages.

    “He destroyed the structure and promised them that they will see the worst of it the next day. He still came back in the night that same day and warned them that nobody should remain in the building. He is still threatening to come and now the tenants are packing out because they are afraid for their lives. There has never been any warning or security issue on that property.  Even, the presence of the property around the Airport junction provided some security and prevented crime in that area. It was really an addition rather than a subtraction in securing the neighbourhood.

    “The staff of Greater Port Harcourt collaborated with the fraudster.  They never made any contact with me or my manager who was dealing with them but they ended up paying him a huge amount of N46 million for the property. So because of that we went to court to challenge the action of the fraudster and Greater Port Harcourt City. Don’t forget we had already applied for the compensation but we didn’t get any response from Greater Port Harcourt only for us to hear that the money had been given to another man.”

    Effort to reach the management of Greater Port Harcourt City proved abortive as all the phone lines provided to us to reach the agency was unreachable.  A text message detailing the matter was also forwarded to same numbers.

     

  • Why people must undergo regular blood screening, by don

    Anyone who wishes to live long must undergo regular blood screening. This was the advice of Halim Daye, a professor of Hematology and Consultant Hematologist at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH).

    He was last Thursday delivering the 159th inaugural lecture at the Akin Deko Auditorium of the University of Benin (UNIBEN).

    In the lecture titled: We should pay more attention to our blood or else, Daye bemoaned the lackadaisical attitude of some people towards their health.

    He said: “Many people are so concerned about their outward appearance. They don’t care about what flows in their veins. Many persons do not even know their blood group. Sadly, some go ahead to marry without conducting blood tests, thereby endangering the lives of their children. There is a need for regular blood screening, because it will save people from many diseases.”

    The lecturer was shocked by the response when he asked how many members of the audience had undergone blood screening in the last six months. He condemned people’s negligence on the status of their blood. He said many blood diseases could be managed if detected early, advising that full blood screening should be carried out every six months.

    The professor of Hematology said there was the need for government to immediately declare a state of emergency on Hepatitis B Virus, which he said is 40 times more infectious and deadly than HIV/AIDS.

    The inaugural lecturer detailed his achievements in the area of research into blood diseases. In his recommendation, Prof Daye urged the government to provide facilities needed to run blood test in health centers nationwide.

    He advised Ministry of Health to invest in the training of hematologists and make grant available for people carrying out research in hematology.

    He called for legislation that would make pre-employment blood screening compulsory in both private and public sector. He also cautioned health workers to take precautions against HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B when handling patients’ blood.

    The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Faraday Orumwense, who chaired the event, hailed the inaugural lecturer for his research work. He said the recommendations would be submitted to relevant authorities, urging members of the audience to spread the message far and wide.

  • Blood in the sky

    Blood in the sky

    I recall my first flight out of the country on our national carrier in the early 1990’s. I had just won a prestigious professional fellowship in Canada, but I had to spend a few days in London. I had what was then an OK ticket. Technically, it implied I could walk right into the aircraft and to my seat.

    The reality was, however, a nightmare. More persons than available seats had Ok tickets. All wanted to fly out that Sunday morning. A melee was inevitable. In spite of our formal – some had flamboyant – dressings and the retinue of family and friends on hand to say goodbye, we knew the journey had no guarantee. Some people would return that morning to their homes. Families and friends reined in their farewells. Rather they joined the travellers in the many queues to secure boarding passes. The lines formed and collapsed repeatedly as though a human parody of the pack of cards.

    I was lucky to secure one, thanks to a relative who quickly sensed the formation of a new line and took her place in the front. Needless to say, after securing my ticket, the line tumbled over.

    That was the story of the Nigeria Airways. It was also that way in local travels. Travellers waxed into sprinters, and if your flight was called and you warbled, it was hard luck. Wait another time.

    The Nigeria Airways was a failure and a sad reminder about how government can ruin a great product. Nigeria Airways also blossomed in an age state-run enterprises when the current thought was government monopoly. Socialism was the bride of theorists and idealists.

    But the experience was one of corruption. Government bigwigs subverted protocol and obtained OK tickets. Business moguls also waded in and, of course, staff took advantage to make a killing. Nepotism, of course, had its pride of place.

    The nightmare seems to be coming back, it seems. The Ahmed Joda committee has recommended a return to the Nigeria Airways model, according to news reports. It will imply merging the existing airlines, and bring them under a national carrier. It is a return to the past of failure.

    “To stumble twice over a stone,” warned Cicero, “is a proverbial disgrace.” It is like taking the Titanic back to the Ice field, and expecting a miracle. This is the age of free enterprise, and it calls for competition. It does not call for control.

    We have never done it right in this country. Even our refineries, in spite of the good it did in the past, are wilting under what everyone knows as government fiat and corruption. NEPA went through similar rut and wrapped us around with a web of darkness. To resolve it, we have had to go through a ponderous rigmarole of dismantling. We are seeing what that is causing us today with the fingers of government corruption writ large in the GENCOs and DISCOs.

    Ahmed Joda is a familiar name in Nigerian bureaucracy. He was a permanent secretary when that position had the force of a bullet. Like Allison Ayida, he was called a super permanent secretary. So it was expected that he knew about the Nigerian civil service as much as anyone. But he worked in a different generation, in what I would call an antediluvian time of our government. His choice by PMB to head the transition committee was informed by experience but not imagination.

    The world has leapt past the range of the man, and his recommendation of merger may be a reflection of his ancient train of thought. I hope he redeems that perception by more sophisticated recommendations to the Buhari administration.  This is a world of free enterprise, not of monopolistic domination.

    Instead of calling for a single carrier, it should call for an enabling environment for the carriers to operate. One of the drawbacks for the airline industry is the financial predation of the banks. Airlines everywhere are heavy investments, and banks should not be made to impose interest rates at such high levels. In fact, this is not restricted to the airlines. It is the hobgoblin of Nigerian business. Small businesses have been suffocated while large ones lumber along.

    To ask them to collapse under a new sort of Nigeria Airways will attract tremendous taxpayer’s money and it will be a gamble. This is no time for gamble. Another thing: governments should realise that airlines, like many international businesses, groan under the present foreign exchange rate. It now goes for a dollar to about N240. This calls for caution.

    If the airlines are to merge, they should do it on their own terms. Forcing the marriage as they did with the banks is the wrong way to go. The bank mergers have eventually worked at tremendous costs. But it is a market that also offers variety. A single carrier would create a government misnomer. That is, a government will be held responsible for monopolistic practices. The United States president Theodore Roosevelt fought this against big business men like John D. Rockefeller because he knew the government had no stain on its shirt. He even fought with the financiers of his candidacy. He was a Republican and his main opponents were in his party. He risked their alienation to uphold a just cause. This was about a hundred years ago.

    The Nigerian government should not be seen to pursue such anomaly when the world, through laws and conventions, are backing away because of its moral wrong. Marriages, however, should be by consent.

    “A marriage is not a word,” crooned Oscar Wilde. “It is a sentence.” A forced one will be a death sentence for the airline industry again.

    The Daily Times is an opposite of the Nigeria Airways narrative. It prospered without government interference until the Owu chief came. As military head of state, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo clipped the wings of the great newspaper, and its decline and fall became inevitable.

    The British Airways is the model for Nigeria’s peacock class today. But it used to be a conglomerate of sorts under government control. The owners knew it was not sustainable, so they privatised it. That unleashed its mammoth potential for profit. Nigeria is one of their great customers although they give us the least of their fleet.

    We need to open the door for our airlines to bloom, and not clip the wings as we did that of the Daily Times and the Nigeria Airways.

    We don’t want our airline industry to fulfill the myth of Daedalus and Icarus. The story of Daedalus, the father, and Icarus, the son, have become classics about misplaced ambition. Daedalus warned his son Icarus not to fly too close to the sun in the wings he made for him. It was made of wax. But Icarus disobeyed, and flew too high. He crashed because the sun melted the wax.

    Metaphorically, our planes are flying in bad weather, with clouds of hard finance and suffocating winds of official interference. Right now they would like to fulfil the famous quote from John Webster’s play, The Duchess of Malfi, where a character says, “Black birds fatten in hard weather.” But they are failing up there. The second coming of the Nigeria Airways may smear the clouds. We do not want blood in our skies.

  • ‘Blood is vital to longevity’

    Blood is life. Knowing one’s blood group can ensure longevity. According to a Naturopath, Dr. Adebukola Olujide, the knowledge of a pension’s blood group can help to determine the foods, drinks (apart from water), spices and condiments suitable for his health.

    “A fundamental relationship has been established between each blood type and the dietary and lifestyle choices that will help each person to live at the optimal best,” she said.

    Dr Olujide said knowing one’s blood group can equally help in averting illnesses, as one will take cognisance of which vitamins and supplements to go for or avoid; which medications functions best in the systems. The best form of stress management one can engage in, what mode and duration of exercise is best for their constitutions.

    She said the knowledge of the blood group and how same affect health would make one avoid common viruses and infections, how to fight back life threatening disease, how to slow down the ageing process by avoiding factors that are against one’s blood type/group, which cause rapid cell deterioration.

    It does not stop there. Knowing one’s blood group “has even been used to know people’s personality as each of the blood group has different personality traits and peculiarities. The knowledge and use of blood group for these benefits is for both children and adults,” said Dr Olujide.

    She shared her personal experience, as she used to feel irritated and impatient with one of her children because of what she saw as his slowness and lack of agility – until she got to know that he was only showing behaviour typical of his blood group. And she adjusted to his lifestyle.

    Dr Olujide explained that each person’s blood type (in the ABO Blood Group System: A, B, AB OR O) has been found to be one of the keys that unlocks the door to the mysteries of health, disease, longevity, physical vitality and emotional strength. A person’s blood type could determine his susceptibility to illness, which foods to eat and how the person should exercise; it is a factor in energy levels, the efficiency with which one burns calories, people’s emotional responses to stress and even their personality type.

    She said the connection between blood type and diet may sound radical, but it is not. “It has long been realised that there was a missing link in the comprehension of the process that leads either to the path of wellness or the dismal trail of disease. There had to be a reason why there were so many paradoxes in dietary studies and disease survival.

    “There also had to be an explanation for why some people were able to lose weight on particular diets, while others were not; why some people retained vitality late into life, while others deteriorated mentally and physically. Blood type analysis has helped to explain these paradoxes. And the more the connection is explored, the more valid it is found to become,” said Dr Olujide.

    The naturopath explained that blood types are as fundamental as creation itself, “Because in the masterful logic of nature, the blood types follow an unbroken trail from the earliest moment of human creation to the present day. They are the signature of human ancient ancestors on the indestructible parchment of history.

    “Discovery has been made on how to use the blood type as a cellular fingerprint that unravels many of the major mysteries surrounding the human quest for good health. This work is an extension of the ground breaking findings concerning human DNA. The understanding of blood type takes the science of genetics one step further by stating unequivocally that every human being is utterly unique. There is no right or wrong lifestyle or diet; there are only right or wrong choices to be made based on people’s individual genetic codes,” said Dr Olujide.

    She said a lot of work in the field of blood type analysis has been carried out with interesting findings. “For example, patients who were Type A seemed to do poorly on high-protein diets that included generous portions of meat, but did very well on vegetable proteins such as soya and tofus. Dairy products tended to produce copious amounts of mucus discharge in the sinuses and respiratory passages of Type As. When told to increase their levels of physical activity and exercise, Type As usually felt fatigued and unwell; when they performed lighter forms of exercise, such as yoga, they felt alert and energised.”

    Dr Olujide said on the other hand, Type O patients thrived on high-protein diets, and they felt invigorated by intense physical activities, such as jogging and aerobics, fitting aptly into the saying one man’s food is another man’s poison. Correlations have also been found between the ABO blood types and a predilection for certain diseases. For example two major diseases of the stomach are associated with blood type. The first is the peptic ulcer, a condition often related to higher than average stomach acid levels. This condition was reported to be more common in people with Type O blood than in people with other blood types. This correlated with the earlier observation that Type O patients did well on animal products and protein diets—foods that require more stomach acid for proper digestion.”

    According to her, the second correlation was an association between Type A and stomach cancer. Stomach cancer, she explained, was often linked to low levels of stomach acid production, as was pernicious anaemia, another disorder found more often in Type A individuals. “Pernicious anaemia is related to a lack of vitamin B12, which requires sufficient stomach acid for its absorption. In other words, Type O blood predisposed people to an illness associated with too much stomach acid, while on the other hand, Type A blood predisposed people to two illnesses associated with too little stomach acid,” said Dr Olujide.