Tag: chronic

  • Chronic insomnia and trainload of troubles (3)

    Two weeks and two articles on why modern wheat and foods derived from it have become modern killer foods, and another two articles on how Asparagus vegetable may become a health elixir of life, have separated the series on sleep disorders and possible solutions to them. In those columns on chronic insomnia titled: CHRONIC INSOMNIA AND TRAINLOAD OF TROUBLES, an exploration was made of the traditional understanding on those activities inside the brain which keep us awake when we should and make us fall asleep when it is time to rest our bodies and free our spirits for their nocturnal flights and experiences which we call dreams. In the exploration, good play was given to the roles of the interfaces of Tryptophan, Serotonin and Melatonin, the wake/sleep brain chemicals. Attention was invited as well to the role of electropollution or “dirty electricity” in the bedroom, and to poor earthing of free radicals in the human body. From that second part of the series, the exploration should have moved on to (a) underground water currents and how to recognise if they are culprits, and (b) the places of water and noise in sleep disasters, but for an urgent need to invite attention to Wheat and Asparagus. Today, the series moves to that third part or section…

     

    The African Black Ant

    The African Black Ants which threatened to invade my house about 10 years ago must have learned their lessons now. At that time, they came in a large army of a long, long column. I had not known them for their medicinal values then. They presented to me only as terrible big-head, black ants which could bite their victims to death. The urgent and agonising barks of my local guard dog woke me up from deep sleep. I had chained it down with three belts because it was in the habit of breaking single or double chains wound around one of the pillars of the house, and escaping, through a small clearance under the gate, into the street at night, for a prowl. This night, I quickly unchained it when I notice that the ants were over its cage. I lit paper and rags and threw the bonfire on this army of ants. But this did not help much, as they soon regrouped and, tenaciously, made for the wall as though they wished to enter the house through the window. I got petrol from the car, but the effect was always short-lived.

    I remembered my first encounter with the African Black Ant. It was in the home of Bunmi Idowu in Ipaja area of Lagos. She was a young reporter who worked with me in the early 1990s. She hadn’t come to work for about three days because an invasion of these ants of their home made it impossible for her to sleep. Petrol and kerosene and all sorts of fire did not help. I learned later that wood ash was their waterloo. I wondered about where and how easily I could quickly obtain it! I could obtain some from a local food canteen. But in a superstitious society such as Nigeria’s, the provider may assume you are up to some diabolical mischief to “devalue the star of the business” and appreciate yours. So, before sunrise next day, and before the local canteen nearby opened shop, I went to its outdoor kitchen and packed enough wood ash to fill about four shopping bags. I began to hand spray it on the unrelenting long column of ants. And, to my surprise, the column burst at every point where it was treated with wood ash. The ants lost their orientation, forgot their mission, never regrouped or returned ever since. For I began to trace the column to its origin, pounding it all the way with wood ash. Many of them died outright or were disabled or frightened off. Next, I deposited wood ash all round the external wall of the house and the perimeter fence, such that, if you did not know me, you’d think the house belonged to a ritualist or diabolical person.

    Today, I know the African Black Ant for its medicinal values, and for its aid, like many other insects, to help us know if an underground water is flowing in an area or if underground rivers are crossing each other, creating earth radiations which may be offensive to good health. Knowledge of the medicinal values of this ant comes from the Asians. They subjected the African Black Ant to an exclusive sugar diet for a long period of time, hoping it would become diabetic. But the sugar diet had no effect on it. Next, it was kept in the colony of germs in the expectation that it would fall ill. But it did not. So, it was known that it had immune-boosting properties, and has, since then, had its extracts factored into some immune promoting food supplements. Since then, the African Black Ant has found use in the male libido market as an enhancer of male sexual vitality.

     

    Water 

    Crossings

    What are underground water crossings, what have they to do with health, and what have ants, nay, fire ants and the Black African Ant got to do with them?

    Many of us think of only the rivers, seas or oceans on the earth’s surface as the only bodies of water on earth. But inside the earth, it is estimated by scientists that there may be more water than there is on the surface. Underground water flows in what are called water veins. When a water vein flows across a rock, it sets the rock under pressure, and the pressure on or against the rock results in the rock producing electric fields. The electric fields are said to then interfere with the natural magnetic fields of the earth. The interference produces turbulence. The turbulence then produces radiation fields which expand beyond the surface of the earth. We are informed, also, underground water veins may flow under such great pressure that causes the release upwards of ions. Thus, water veins are very energetic. Even brief exposure to this energy is said to have strong effects on not only us humans but on all living things as well. On trees, it is believed such invigorating and detrimental effects cause proliferation and scoliosis. In humans, its effects can be cancers. Underground water veins may be as wide as 15 to 1,000meters. Their effects on us would, quite naturally, depend on their sizes and distance from the surface of the earth. But those that are deep, deep down can still affect us.

    Unfortunately today, architects and builders do not take these factors into consideration when sites are laid out and houses are designed and built. We are too happy to find land on which to build our dream houses. If a house is built on a water vein, it may be affected by the electric field of this water vein. The effects may be different in different rooms and floors of a house.

    When water veins cross each other or flow into each other, the negative energy they release thereby may cause disease progression and outbreak. Researchers believe that there are more water veins with more radiation impact in regions where rain fall is more frequent.

    I was excited when I learned that, underneath the Sahara Desert, there was a huge deposit of fossil water. I remembered immediately that NOSTRADAMUS, that great seer who predicted world events about 400 years ahead, had said that, by the time the poles of the earth change positions again, many coastal regions of the earth would be eaten up by water and a huge lake would surface in the Sahara Desert. I see pictures of elemental or Nature beings at work. But a discussion of this is not today’s subject. But permit me to mention that one of the two biggest aquifers (underground water) that scientists have discovered is in the Sahara. It spans four countries and holds a stupendous volume of water.

    Through the Ant Hill, ants enable us to predict occurence or existence of an underground water flow. The Ant Hill is an ant city or country built on strong earth radiation point, with much more extensive construction deep down in the earth. I did not find an Ant Hill on the side of my house, so I presume the ones are intercepted were following a familiar root to a destination. Nevertheless, this taught me to protect the floor and the walls of the house against earth radiations and encourage vegetation on the grounds which is said to absorb earth radiations. If we suffer inexplicable insomnia which defies many treatments, we may wish to look round us for any evidence of the house in which we live being on an underground water course. If the house sits on such a location, we may need protection against “dirty electricity” or electropollution as explained in the second part of this series.

     

    Water as an answer

    What has noisy or bad music got to do with inability to sleep?

    Dr. Mosaru Emoto has an answer. But it is an answer I deduced from his research on water. We are here again looking at the impact of water on our health. Water forms about 75percent of the earth’s surface. That volume of water is to be found in the constitution of living things, the body of a human being inclusive.

    Dr. Emoto, born in 1943, is a Japanese medical doctor who thought that water responds to our thoughts, spoken words and sounds and music. That suggests that water has memory or intelligence. For the Doubting Thomasses, Dr. Emoto soon provided useful scientific evidence, sometimes from double-blind, placebo-controlled experiments which swept his colleagues or unbelievers off their feet. He has written books and sent videos of his studies round the world. For people who follow developments on earth from a spiritual viewpoint, water, like the air, earth and fire, carries deep, within it, secrets of life that are still millions of light years beyond the reach of today’s intellectual mankind. Intellectual mankind is that mankind which believes there is nothing to life beyond that which his senses of touch, taste, vision, smell et.c. can perceive. On the other hand, spiritual mankind is that mankind which in humility acknowledges that, while indeed he may be a Lord in Creation over other creatures, he did not bring Creation about and has to yield to the forces of Creation for guidance and education about the hidden secrets of those facilities which these forces, in obedience to the Will of God, have been privileged to bring about for his nurture and sustenance. Thus, in my humble spiritual view, these forces watch developments on earth and know when to oblige mankind the knowledge of one principle of Creation or another. They are, in a sense, like the lactating mothers who know when and how to introduce solid foods to breast-feeding babies. About 200years ago, who would have known or believed the air we breathe has the potentials we have discovered in it today. Electricity came out of the air. So did telephony. So did radio and television. So did aircraft flight and rocketing to the moon. So have FACEBOOK, WHATSAPP, GOOGLE and the rest of them. Yet we are told by the Wise One that our “masterpieces are yet to come.” At the time of His departure from the flesh, we are advised, the Wise One remarked, that mankind knew nothing about water! How true, from what Dr. Emoto is espousing about the potentials of water for technology and the cure of diseases.

    Here, I can only summarise some of his research and findings.

    Dr. Emoto collected samples of dirty water from a dam and divided them into petri dishes which he seperated in different rooms. To some, he always whispered kind and ennobling words. To others, he whispered ugly words. Then, he frooze the water samples the same way and photographed the crystalline structures of their molecular structure or arrangement. The water in petri dishes he whispered kind and ennobling words upon presented beautiful and colourful molecular structures, whereas the ones he ultered ugly words upon presented dull colours and ugly molecular structure.

    Again, Dr. Emoto took samples of water from the same sources, bottled them and kept them apart. On some, he pasted labels of the inscriptions of names or words which promote positive feelings or emotions. These inscriptions included the name JESUS CHRIST. The crystalline structures were again most beautiful and colourful. The water with labels such as LUCIFER or ADOLF HITLER presented ugly and dull molecular structure.

    Another experiment was with music or sound…and this is where we are heading. Bottles of water were kept in different rooms where different music was played upon them. Classical music yielded beautiful colours and molecular structure, whereas popular music produced ugly forms and colours.

    It is intriguing to me that the Universe came out of one Power, one Source and is governed by one Law. The earth’s surface is about 75 percent water. So is vegetation such as leaves, plants or trees. So is the physical human body. If the human body, solid as it presents from the outside, is about 75 percent water, and if one Law governs the universe, this presupposes that the water content of the human body would respond structurally in its crystalline form to human thought, the spoken word and to noise or music and colours which impact on human senses everyday, everywhere. As the emotional responses of many of us to everyday events are dark, evil and ugly, so will the molecular structure of the 75percent of our physical body. As there is water everywhere in our bodies (the brain, the eyes, the nerves, the ears, the mouth, intestine, liver, kidney, pancreas, uterus, prostate gland, the bones and the joints et.c), so will these organs and their tissues will be negatively affected, stressed up and predisposed to disease, degradation, weakness, even premature death, all of which are manifesting on the whole body, especially in times of personal or economic depression.

    We collapse structurally, also, when ugly thought forms from other people entomb us. Look at Nigerian leaders. Think of the millions of curses hurled at them everyday. If they have no knowledge of rebalancing the molecular structure of their water content, sooner than later, this may collapse and lead to all kinds of illnesses.

    In the sub-urban mini buses in Lagos, passengers are pumped with loud, noisy popular music, in many cases founded on ugly concepts and bedecked with ugly, nether region words. What do we expect? Passengers arrive home stressed up, unknown to them what had just hit them.

    In the churches, a probably well-meaning but unknowing priest (called pastor) asks members of his congregation to hold hands for prayers. Do I know what is emanating from my neighbour? What if the pastor does not have the competence, which he often claims, to cast out dross? In any case, if he is competent and casts it off at that time, where is the ugliness earthed? In my own body? So, when social gatherings are turned into church services and hands are to be held, I fold my arms and tuck my hands in. Some terrible people may then wish to place their hand on my shoulder. I politely remove it or, if he or she is recalcitrant, I yark off the intruding hand.

    I brought up my children never to wear second-hand clothes. For the radiations of the owners still sometimes suffuse these clothes by the time they are bought, linking new owner and last owner together like a broadcasting station and the receiving radio or television set. Today, many Nigerian women wear third hand brassieres or panties. Breast and cervical cancers are growing in occurence. While there may be other causes for this, we should remember it was more known elsewhere than here before second-hand-everything became the norm in our country.

    For now, until we learn more about how Dr. Emoto is using transformed molecular structure of water to cure diseases, we may practise our own self-healing. We can fill bottles with water and paste beautiful inscriptions on them. These may be such words as PLEASE HEAL ME or HEALING WATER or BEAUTIFUL WATER.

    We may drink this water morning and before bed. We may also play classical music on it. The better if the water is in an energy cup. And we should not forget to pray at meal times in gratitude for the meal and prayerfully that it may bring us health and strength. I believe such measures will make the water more health promoting.

    Sleep disorders are inevitable when the organs and their tissues are disarranged molecularly through badly structured water content. Are these organs not the ones to manufacture Tryptophan, convert Tryptophan to Serotonin and Serotonin to Melatonin to make us sleep well? If they are badly hurt, will they be able to efficiently absorb these substances from food supplements? Thus, healthy mood, healthy emotional responses to life’s challenges and protection of the aura or magnetic (psychic) field against poisonous thought forms through the intake of healthy water and food are the keys to restful sleep.

     

  • Chronic insomnia and trainload of many troubles (2)

    Begun on 25 May 2017, the first part of this series explored some of the reasons why many people do not easily fall asleep or suffer from shallow sleep, which leaves them devitalised and weak in the morning. Sometimes, such sleep deficiencies end up in depression, hallucinations, mental disorders and…in a psychiatric hospital. The sleep cycle occurs when the body can deliver the amino acid Tryptophan to the brain, and the brain can convert Tryptophan to Serotonin, which keeps us awake, and, then convert Serotonin to Melatonin at night fall, for Melatonin to make us fall asleep. Possible reasons why the body fails to do this were examined, with possible solutions for the cycle-breaks.

    This part of the series will examine questions which arose from the last publication, questions some readers of the column have asked.

    What is electro-pollution, and what has this got to do with sound sleep?

    Electro-pollution is pollution of the human body by “dirty” electricity. There is no doubt that we live in a world of electricity. Lightening during the rain season charges the air with electricity. In our towns and cities, overhead power cables hang up here and there. As electrons move in them, conveying electricity or electrical power, they create electrical fields. An electrical field is the space around a charged particle where another charged particle can experience its force. This means that, if a charged particle or object, like the human cell for example, enters the electric field of another object, it can be affected positively or negatively by the other electric field.

    Thanks to Italian physician and physicist Luigi Galvani who, in the late 18th Century, discovered what we now know as action potential in muscles, it is now known that the cells of a human body, too, produce electricity and electric fields. He was conducting an experiment on static electricity and dissecting a frog on a table. He observed muscle activation, which he termed animal electricity. He and his contemporaries thought that muscle activation was caused by an electrical fluid or substance in a nerve. Anyone, who has touched an electric fish, as the eel for example is called, will experience an electric shock which this fish and some other aquatic animals deploy in hunting preys and self defence.

    In the modern world, we live in houses and work in offices with many electrical equipment which generate electrical fields. The radio and television sets, like the refrigerator and the washing machine and the air conditioner or the cooker are generating electric fields. Gone are the days of the mechanical barbing clipper. Today’s clippers are electricity driven. In the saloon, women expose their hair and scalp to electricity powered dryers. These gadgets create electric fields which influence the electric fields of the cell of the body. University of Michigan researcher Raoul Kopelman, a chemistry professor, carried out a study which revealed that the internal fluid in brain cancer cells exhibited force fields as large as 15million volts per metre. This was about five times stronger than the electric field found in a lightening bolt. Although Prof. Kopelman’s work was on electric fields across cell membranes, other researchers have since that study discovered that force fields existed inside the cell as well.

    The long and short of it all, as we say, is that everything which exists is a form of energy, and that energy establishes a force field, small or huge; that huge force fields may consume or suppress lesser force fields. In his definition of electro pollution of the earth, with consequences for human cell electric fields, and by extension human health, Robert Becker, an M.D. twice nominated for the Nobel Prize, said “the greatest polluting element in the earth environment is the proliferation of electromagnetic field. I consider that to be a greater threat on global scale than warming or the increase in chemical elements in the environment.”

    Electro pollution may be ionizing and non-ionizing. Ionizing force fields may break down oxygen molecules and chemical bonds in the cell, create free radicals and disrupt living processes, prevent energy manufacturing, curb cell signalling and communication and cause disease. It is unknown to many people that ultraviolet rays may leak from factory-faulty fluorescent tubes and cause skin cancer. It is unknown to many people as well that the force or electrical field from the blue light of LED light (energy-saving bulbs) emitting at about 400 to 500 nanometers may suppress the production of Melatonin in the pineal gland inside the brain. This causes a disruption of the biological clock in humans with the attendant disruption of sleep patterns. Tingling sensations have been linked also to exposure to some types of electro pollution.

    The website www.globalhealing.com advises us:

    “There are multiple effects of radiation and many of them go unnoticed in the body. Overtime, low level exposure can lead to major digestive imbalance, blood alteration and even the destruction of many cellular structures in the body’s key organs and tissue systems. Common signs of low level radiation exposure include symptoms such as fatigue, headache, nausea, scalp tenderness, scalp discoloration and dry, itchy skin. In extreme cases, low level of radiation exposure may also cause brain damage, memory problems, mood changes and reduced listening capacity, pschomotor and memory problems.”

    We are in an electro polluted world, and we cannot roll back the hands of the clock. But we can minimise our exposure to it and empower the cells to protect and rebuild their infrastructure. We all use cell phones and are exposed to laptops and computer screens. Although the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other health-watching international organisations say the cell phone can be classified under class B Carcinogenic (cancer causing agent), and although they have tried to limit many home electrical appliances to save electric fields, I often wonder about what may be going on around me when people around me receive WHATSAPP or FACEBOOK or SMS and other messages on their telephones. These messages passed through the walls of many houses, probably across many countries, and human bodies, probably including mine, to reach their phones. If we imagine that about millions of messages and data may be passing through our bodies every minute, in several ways affecting our cells, we may become able to suspect electro pollution as a possible cause of many of the symptoms we complain about for which we gobble suppressive pharmaceutical medications.

    So, what do we do to survive in a sea of electro pollution agents? Apart from limiting exposure to man-made “dirty” electricity, as electro pollution is also called, earthing and a diet high in antioxidants are canvassed. So is the use of dirty electricity filters in homes, hospitals, offices and schools. Experiment with them in Europe show that they can make teachers more focus and student more receptive. I doubt if they are in use in Nigeria.

    Nobel Prize Winner Richard Feynman suggests that we walk barefoot sometimes on sand and on grass. Our bodies are made from earth materials. Connecting to the earth or being grounded to the earth connects us with its electric fields, which can detoxify us of electric fields from the atmosphere and electric fields from man-made gadgets. Indeed, experiments with humans, who had high voltages of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and were “earthed” showed that, after the earthing, their EMFs voltages crashed to normal or near normal. The trouble is that today, in Nigeria, many so-called civilised people do not earth themselves…even in their bedrooms.

    Regarding food, diet and herbs, Dr. AXE suggests that, since electro pollution creates free radicals through ionization and other processes, we consume foods high in ORAC values. ORAC means Oxygen Radical Absorbent Capacity. His recommendations are:

    “Pecans, Pomegranate seeds, Rosemary, Asparagus, Blueberries, Walnuts, Prunes, Cruciferous vegetables, Cenamon, Dates, Broccoli and Cilantro. Certain nutrients and amazing super foods such as Iodine, Vitamin D3, Spirulina, Noni, B-complex vitamins, Melatonin, Holy Basil, Omega-3 fatty acids, Selenium and Zinc are just a few beneficial options you can easily incorporate into your daily life.”

    His top 10 antioxidant foods and herbs are: FOODS…Goji berries, Wild blueberries, Dark chocolate, Picans, Artichoke, Elder berries, Kidney beans, Cranberries, Blackberries, Cilantro…HERBS…Cloves, Cinnamon, Oregano, Tumeric, Cocoa, Cumin, Parsley (dried), Basil, Ginger, Thyme.

     

    What is earthing, and what has it got to do with sound sleep? 

    Despite stupendous advances in science and technology, we still seem to know little or nothing about our Earth and our Universe. For the more we know, the more we realise that we knew nothing in the past. I am told that Google has just come up with a breakthrough in its attempts to map the Universe and that, from a starting point in California, United States, it has gone off the edge of our Universe, beyond all previous observable limits, and now confronts us with the stark possibility that another or other Universes may exist besides ours.

    Well, this column salutes this effort, if the breakthrough is real. It has often spoken about Seven Universes and urges that the Message of the Book of Revelations in the Bible should not be taken literally or in earthly terms. Happily, my Moslem friends tell me that the Book of Revelation, like the Psalms, the Ten Commandments and the Koran are Four Messages sent to man kind by the Almighty Creator. Therefore, if the Book of Revelations speaks about a Message to each of the seven Ark Angels, who preside over each of the “Seven Churches in Asia”, these seven Churches may very well be the seven Universes in Creation, if we do not take these messages literally, assuming that the churches are human Christian congregation in the earthly Asian continent. Every earthly concept has a trans-earthly concept which was nearly “received” on earth by knowing people. Thus, Ephesus is the spiritual name of our Universe. Philadelphia is the name of another Universe. As for Asia, I do not remember now if it is the spiritual name of Creation or the World (to call the earth the World is a misnomer).

    That is about all I can say about that except to add that there is a Message on the face of the Earth today, which transcends other Messages and conforms the grains of Truth in them, while stripping them of misconceptions of man.

    Back to earthing. The moon is believed to have broken away from the earth ages ago. A big ball of fire rages in the depths of the earth. This fire is rapped up by heavy rocks to prevent it from melting down the earth itself to vapour. When these rocks crack anywhere and heat and gas escape through the cravices, earth movements or earthquakes occur, melting rocks into liquid lava till the liquefied rocks reach the earth’s surface and are cooled by air to form the rocks we see around. Thus, like the sun which provides us energy and etheric nurture, the earth is also a source of power for its inhabitants. What modern health researchers are now informing us is that we must absorb as much of the radiations of the earth as we do those of the sun to be in balance, health wise, between them. That means we must be connected with or grounded to the earth. Some people do this by walking on dew-covered grass on lawns in the mornings before sunrise, by walking barefoot, also, in a beach, by lying, sitting or standing with “direct skin contact” with the ground. Now, earthing has gone beyond these traditional modes to using earthing bedsheets which are wired up in a way to make them carry away harmful electric fields from the body through cables and earth them in the ground outside the bedroom.

    Clint Ober, a retired cable TV executive, got the world thinking again about earthing in the 1990s, faced with skepticism at first. He knew that a TV cable installation which did not allow signals to leak out and prevented leakages from the atmosphere from leaking into the signals provided a “crisp, high quality image.” After his retirement, he noticed that many people were wearing shoes made from synthetic materials which did not allow conductivity from the body into the earth and vice-versa. The shoes, made of rubber and plastic soles, prevented groundedness. He wondered if this disconnection from the earth could have a damaging effect on health. At that  time, I lived in a house with unpaved grounds. Just granite strewn everywhere. So, as he advocated, I would walk, barefoot, on the granite earth on rising every morning.

    Orber called his children to a meeting, asked them to take as gifts whatever they wanted from his house, sold the house, bought a caravan and traveled all over the United States sleeping in beaches and anywhere he could test out his hypothesis on earthing. After initial resistance by scientists, he gained the attention of such giants among them as cardiologist Stephen Sinatra.

    Early experiments showed that participants slept better and without pain. Ober thought at first this was due to the elimination of static electricity in electric flow in the body. But this was only a part of the answer. Ober knew that the surface of the earth was filled with negative-charge electrons (free electrons) which move more freely and reduce positive charges (free radicals). Positive charges generate free radicals which destroy the cells and promote degenerative diseases and premature aging. They cause inflammation. The free radicals seek electrons from our cells to stabilise themselves. Some experiments have shown that, while in search of electrons to stabilise themselves, free radicals may bore thousands of holes in a cell in one single day. The cell, spending valuable time, energy and resources sealing these holes, becomes leaky, ages and vulnerable to toxins and germs. Yet on the surface of the earth are a bounty of electrons which, if inducted into the body through grounding, literally offers “food” for the positive charges and saves our bodies from harm.

    In 2004, one of Ober’s studies was published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. It shows that “earthing during sleep resynchronises cortisol secretion more in alignment with its natural, normal rhythm.” The body produces cortisol in reaction to stress.

    Other studies followed Ober’s. In the 1960s and 70s researchers at Max Planck Institute, Germany, put volunteers in underground rooms in which they were shielded from the earth’s electric field. The participants developed physiological issues, including “chaotic hormonal production, disturbed sleep patterns and a general disruption of basic body regulations.”

    When the participants were not shielded from electric field, they reported “improved sleep, decreased pain and inflammation, reduced feelings of stress, improvements in gastrointestinal symptoms”, with evidence suggesting that “negative-charged free electrons on the earth’s surface are responsible for bringing the electric energy levels of the human body in accordance with that of the earth which, in turn, promotes overall health and vitality.”

    Earthing is likely to revolutionise medicine. All studies so far show it curbs inflammation and pain. Inflammation is linked to about 70 degenerative diseases, including cancer and Type 2 diabetes.

    So, let’s go earthing. Let’s pull off our shoes and earth our feet and bodies for at least 20 or 30 minutes everyday or use earthing products such as bedsheets. We would certainly sleep better and derail the train of chronic insomnia and its other troubles. I suspect when Moses was on the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, and he was commanded to remove his shoes, the anchorage of Power on the land may have been such that promoted eradiation response on the surface of the earth where he was that will be of profit to his body and endeavour. To receive such a monumental Message, and to engrave it in stone tablet, he may have been in need of equilibrium throughout his body and balanced co-ordination between his spirit and intellect. Walking in the midst of such Power intensity, his capacities for the task may have been inhibited if he wasn’t enamored for the task. So, onces again, let go earthing, stop wearing shoes and even bathroom slippers in our homes.

  • Lawyers, courts to blame for chronic debtors

    Lawyers, courts to blame for chronic debtors

    The rising incidence of debtors at deposit money banks has been blamed on the meddlesomeness by lawyers who seek perpetual injunction at the law courts to the detriment of the banks.

    Giving this insight in Lagos at the weekend was Mr. Edwin Idegwu, a banker and risk management expert.

    Idegwu spoke as guest speaker at the Nigeria Credit Industry Awards organised by Institute of Credit Administration (ICA).

    According to him, credit institutions in the country have a responsibility to ensure that credit issues are resolved amicably without recourse to the court of law in order to encourage foreign investors.

    In his paper titled: ‘Credit Management: Our Credit Market, Our Judicial System, Economic Prosperity, Capacity Building and Professionalism,’ Idegwu, who is Coordinator, Remedial Management Group, Afribank Nigeria Plc, said: “The issue of abuse of judicial processes cannot be ignored as this has in so many way encourage chronic debtors because of banks inability to recover loans due to one problem or the other.”

    Expatiating, he said: “It is equally regrettable that our law courts either continue to intentionally or otherwise provide security cover for loans defaulters and encourage the grant of frivolous injunctions to further shield bad debtors from banks.

    “It is in Nigeria that a court will rule that creditors are hereby restrained by themselves, their assignee, agents, servants or privies from arresting, detaining or in any manner infringing on the fundamental rights of the debtors on account of the indebtedness of a company in which the debtor is a sole proprietor and /director. At least, 90 per cent of bad bank debtors hire police/security men to guard their factories, homes, and other sectors.”

    While commending the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for their commitment in the anti-graft war, he however, impressed on the government on the need to reintroduce commercial courts across the states to expedite cases.

    The commercial courts, he stressed, “Must be made to address business-related cases that harbour a certain sense of urgency and responsibility just as Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) can also be explored.”

    Speaking earlier, Prof. Chris Onalo, Registrar and Chief Executive, ICA who gave the opening remarks on behalf Chief Adetunji Oyebanji, the ICA President, said there was need for the apex bank to revisit some of its policies to open up the economy.

    Oyebanji who is Chairman/ Managing Director, Mobil Oil Nig. Plc emphasised that one of the major ways to improve the economy is to strengthen the credit market especially at a time of impending recession, the effect of which is to improve or reduce unemployment market through real sector lending and foster economic expansion particularly through adequate credit support for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) which are globally regarded as the backbone of any economy.

    The highpoint of the occasion was presentation of recognition awards to outstanding chief executives including: Dr. Cosmos Maduka, President/CEO, Coscharis Group, Dr. Richard Nyoung, CEO, Lekki Gardens, Femi Obaleke, Executive Director, Jaiz Bank, Mr. Duru Chibuzor Philip, Managing Director/CEO, Fawaz Investment among others.

  • I am dying of chronic pains

    I am dying of chronic pains

    he fate of this 27-year-old father of two kids and the survival of his family rest on his ability to raise the sum of N750, 000 to fix one of his arms dislocated in the course of motorcycle accident way back in 2009.

    Mr Kayode Alade was on March 15, 2009 involved in a terrible accident while traveling on his motorbike at Idoani in Ose Local Government Area of Ondo State. His right forearm was badly injured in the accident and had to be amputated.

    In addition, one of his shoulders was dislocated and this has been causing severe pain ever since. And with no money to pay hospital charges for the treatment needed to correct the dislocation, Alade’s case    is getting worse by the day as he struggles to survive life and fulfill his commitments to his family.

    Before the present fate befell him, he was a responsible man albeit with limited resources and energy to fend for his children and wife.

    But the accident has made his matter worse and the young man is passionately begging Nigerians to assist him as he battles the existence of his life.

    Alade,  is seeking financial assistance from government and good spirited Nigerians to the tune of about N750,000 to correct his dislocated shoulder.

    The young man, an indigene of Idoani, lamented that he had spent a fortune on medical treatment since he got involved in the accident.

    According to him, he is jobless but must take care of his family and this is herculean task for him, saying but God has remained with him.

    He said “I was on my motorbike traveling from Idoani to Afo when I was involved in an accident with a hit and run driver. Since then, I have not been myself again. I have visited several hospitals because of the accident seeking treatment.

    “I have exhausted everything on me to sustain life. I have sold all my valuables because this accident affected my right arm. I have spent about N450,000 seeking treatment, yet no remedy.

    “I cannot work again, because there is no way for me to move the arm due to dislocation in my shoulder. I am just learning to use the left hand to eat.

    “Immediately the accident happened, I was rushed to Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Owo where I spent 21 days. Later on, they referred me to National Orthopedic Hospital (NOH) Igbobi in Lagos State where I also spent some months on the sick bed.”

    According to him, it was those who were emotionally moved by the severe pain he was going through at the orthopaedic hospital that normally gave him money for feeding as he could not afford the cost of feeding himself.

    Alade said he is still owing the hospital about N150,000 but the authorities had to discharge him when they discovered that he had no means of paying.

    He said:”Despite the fact that my hand had been amputated, I am still feeling the pains in my shoulder because it had been disjointed from the remaining parts of my body. I can’t move it again. It was this that led me to a hospital in Kwara State from where I was referred to Gani Fawehinmi Diagnostic Centre in Ondo.”

    The victim said he had to pay N65,000 at the diagnostic centre before a test was carried out, saying he got the money from good Samaritans.

    Alade who spoke in tears said he took the result of the test to the hospital in Kwara State and was told that he would need about N750,000 to get his dislocated shoulder fixed.

    He said “I am now in great pains, and I have no means of survival, I am urging both the government and Non Governmental Organisations (NG0s) as well as individual Nigerians to please come to my aid. My children are still young. I will regret this, if I do not stay alive to take care of them”.

    Alade pleaded with his compatriots to bail him out of his present predicament, urging them to be their brother’s keepers.

    The accident victim can be reached on his mobile telephone number 07036456677, while donation could be made into his First Bank Account number 303593448 (Alade Kayode).

     

  • Banks’ chronic debtors

    Banks’ chronic debtors

    •It’s still the same story of no lesson taught; no lesson learnt

    IN an industry that has done little else than “name and shame” chronic and pathological debtors, the report last week that the Bank of Industry (BOI) has inducted 10 indigenous companies into its Hall of Fame must be seen in two parts. The first is to see it as welcome – an affirmation of the Nigerian spirit of honesty and enterprise despite widespread claims to the contrary. The other is to rekindle the debate as to whether the financial services industry has learnt anything of significance, in the aftermath of the 2008/9 toxic assets crisis from which the entire sector has barely recovered, on the basis of which it can hope to chart a pathway to a stable future.

    The main substance of the report is that the companies “obtained long-term credit facilities from BOI at least twice and fully repaid the loans as and when due”.  In the words of BOI’s Managing Director and Chief Executive, Rasheed Olaoluwa, the companies “have proven that integrity is not a function of size or of the business environment. They have shown considerable honour and character that we commend and applaud”. The 10 companies are, Supercor Industries, Bauchi; Rumbus Sacks, Kano; Ammasco International, Kano; Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, Sokoto and Cobet International, Port Harcourt. Others are Happinex Foam, Benin; Innoson Enugu, Nigerian Aluminium Extrusion Ltd, Lagos;, Nigerian Foundries, Lagos and Paul B Limited, Enugu.

    The obverse side of the same story is that another set of companies – 24 in number  – made the bank’s blacklist for their failure to repay their loans and for showing “a high level of dishonesty and lack of integrity”.

    In an industry where bad moral hazards have become the rule rather than exception, the exemplary performance of the 10 companies obviously deserves to be showcased. And while there must be thousands of such entities and individuals operating in the financial sector, doing good business with the banks while fulfilling their obligations promptly, the fact that more than twice the number, for whatever reasons, have neglected to fulfil their obligations would seem to indicate a more fundamental problem in the industry. In this particular instance, the BOI would merely serve as a miniature – a window into an industry of which the value of non-performing loans has continued to soar in spite of the strict guidelines said to have been put in place by the apex bank. If ever any evidence was needed for this, it must be the quantum jump by 16 percent in the value of non-performing loans in the 12 months spanning August 2013 to August 2014, from N344.26billion to N400.57billion.

    Beyond its symbolism, there is little else that the idea of a Hall of Fame would achieve in practical terms – the same way that the tactic of “name and shame” has not proven to be effective deterrent to loan abusers. If we are any wise to the efficacy of the regulatory reforms promised by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the wake of the banking crisis, it is their falling short of what was expected. A measure of the result is the latest finding by the apex bank that two banks have their capital adequacy ratio (CAR) below the 10 percent prudential minimum stipulated under the Basel 1 and 2 frameworks.

    While it cannot be denied that the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has largely succeeded in cleaning up the banks’ toxic assets, there are however, as yet, no proofs that the practices which necessitated the coming of AMCON have disappeared. This apparently is the context to explain the latest diversionary debate as to whether AMCON, a child of necessity, should operate in perpetuity as against its original design to wind up after 10 years. If we are worried by the curious provision for the sinking fund for AMCON which appears to have thrown entire cost of the resolution of the crisis to the banks, we are even more worried by the seeming reluctance of AMCON to embark on the process of winding down. Of course, we find the idea of the CBN committing N50 billion annually into the sinking fund as inexplicable, hence our relief when the National Assembly rejected the provision in the proposed amendment to the AMCON Act.

    The point is – the banking sector has never been lacking in worthwhile suggestions on how to deal with the hordes of delinquent debtors. The easiest one is to shut the debtors out of the financial system – something that has proven, time and again, to be easier said than done. In the situation that the frustratingly slow pace of the judicial process has hardly helped matters – the debtors are simply allowed to enjoy the fruits of their unwholesome behaviour even while preying on the system in the absence of a functional credit bureau.

    Most certainly, there is a lot that the banks can do to improve on their credit decisions through the instrumentality of the credit bureau. Then is the issue of corruption which also needs to be tackled frontally, particularly at the level of the judiciary.  The greater challenge of course, is to prevent the abuse in the first place through the banks whose responsibility it is to strengthen their internal controls; and the apex bank in the area of enforcing the relevant guidelines. While these may not necessarily provide fool-proof mechanism to insulate the banks from bad or non-performing loans, they would no doubt go a long way to bring the loans to the barest minimum.