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Tag: disease

  • Re: Oyegun and the Abuja disease

    Re: Oyegun and the Abuja disease

    Louis Odion’s recently published article entitled “Oyegun and the Abuja disease” in which he savages Chief John Odigie-Oyegun the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is very odious, indeed. In the article, he begrudges Chief Odigie-Oyegun for downplaying the roles of Oshiomhole and former governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his emergence as APC National Chairman in 2014.

    Political loyalties aside, any right thinking person would know that Mr. Odion’s account would have been unbelievable for a party like the APC formed by powerful interests and individuals. It is important to remind Mr. Odion that decisions like the appointment/election of the party chairman and other party executives require the consent of all the voting blocs or majority of them to be successful. Party politics and election usually involve negotiations and horse-trading.

    This is a legitimate component of a political process, which by the way the APC solidly stands for. Chief Odigie-Oyegun emerged as National Chairman through the collective efforts of a coalition of individuals and interests within the APC fold at the time.

    That is the fact and it is likely that if the same question is posed to Oshiomhole and Tinubu, their responses will not be too different. That Chief Odigie-Oyegun could not deliver his ward in either the presidential or gubernatorial election does not render him as politically ineffectual as Mr. Odion surmises.

    Jonathan simply swept the South-South votes in 2015. However, after the loss of the Edo South votes in the 2015 presidential election, Chief Odigie-Oyegun immediately put his political influence to work by ensuring that the House of Assembly elections in Edo South went to the APC to prevent the possible impeachment of the then incumbent Governor Oshiomhole as threatened by the PDP at the time.

    On the outcome of the Edo state governorship election of 2016, the point needs to be made that, it was demographically impossible for Chief Odigie-Oyegun to win in the polling unit (Oredo Ward 2, Unit 1 in the Government Reserved Area, Benin-City) where he voted, since he had to contend with the large families of Igbinedion and Ize- Iyamu who reside in the area. Naturally, their friends and associates voted for the PDP who had Pastor OsagieIze-Iyamu as the PDP governorship candidate.

    There are reports that the PDP in collusion with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ensured that Chief Odigie-Oyegun and his wife voted in separate poling units, in a bid to neutralise APC votes in the area, while concentrating PDP votes in the polling unit where Chief Odigie- Oyegun votes.

    In the larger context the plan failed. Although, Chief Odigie-Oyegun lost in his polling unit to the PDP by just 9 votes (APC-69, PDP-78), APC won in the polling unit his wife voted. In any case, Chief Odigie-Oyegun delivered in Edo South Senatorial zone including Oredo Local Government Area.

    So the bottomline is that the APC National Chairman delivered his state and particularly Edo south, home to his Bini ethnic stock. Don’t forget that he convincingly won the governorship election in the state in 1991! What Chief Odigie-Oyegun brings to APC is perhaps one of the most redeeming faces of the party.

    It’s an unquantifiable moral value addition. And the party is much better for that quality. One may ask, who made Chief Odigie-Oyegun one of the youngest permanent secretaries in our nation’s history after only thirteen years in service, or governor of Edo state in his first foray in politics?

    Duke Edobor Oshodin, Benin-City, Edo State.

     

    I have heard stories of pedestrian thinking in high places but I never imagined the drivel I read from Chief Odigie Oyegun’s camp being circulated in social media by way of response to a brilliant and courageous article written by Louis Odion with the entitled “Oyegun and the Abuja disease”.

    Among others, Oyegun’s hireling called Oshodin wanted us to believe that his paymaster, who could not saved himself the shame in the first round of elections on March 28 (2015) as APC national chairman losing his polling unit, was the one who “pulled the strings” that ensured that APC won the second round of elections in April so as “to stop PDP lawmakers from impeaching Adams Oshiomhole as Edo governor” then.

    Ha! All hail Oyegun the political physician who could not heal himself. Shameless political flyweight, Oshodin and his paymaster would not concede that Oshiomhole’s stellar performance within the context of Edo politics and the Buhari hurricane of March 28 combined to influence the pattern of voting in subsequent rounds of election.

    It is called bandwagon effect. As a mark of appreciation of Oshiomhole’s performance, Edo people voted massively for APC in the local elections so much that APC won 22 to PDP’s miserable 2. How can Oyegun, who could not win his own polling unit, now say he “pulled strings” to make that happened? Consumed by the web of his poor-quality lies, Oshodin forgot that new lawmakers elected on April 11 were not sworn in until June 2015.

    In Oshodin’s warped reasoning, it was as if there were no legislators with subsisting mandate on the ground as at the time elections held. (APC still had overwhelming majority in the state assembly up till May 29 2015.) Let us even assume that PDP had won majority in the local election, would that have empowered them to “quickly commence Oshiomhole’s impeachment”?

    Haba, even primary school pupils are too smart to think like that! In any case, through Oshiomhole’s inspiring leadership, Action Congress of Nigerian won 20 seats in the assembly polls in 2011 to PDP’s 4 (the same election where Oyegun similarly lost his polling unit, ward, council, senatorial zone and entire Edo state even as vice presidential runningmate to Shekarau on ANPP platform). Despite PDP’s heavy financial inducement and raw intimidation between 2014 and 2015, APC under resolute Oshiomhole was able to retain 16 seats while 7 PDP members, backed with “federal might”, took over the assembly complex under police protection. I believe Odion was even too charitable to Oyegun in the same piece. Or maybe Odion is not aware that virtually all the appointment slots due to Edo State have been cornered by greedy Oyegun to his family members. I challenge him to deny this. In fact, in one sickening instance, an appointment due to Edo indigene was given to Oyegun’s in-law who does not even hail from Edo State.

    What a shame!

    Stephen Igbinosa, Benin City.

    Odion, this article on Oyegun is my best breakfast ever. I just decided not to read it in a hurry. It aptly captures the hypocritical lives most of our southern politicians exhibit in a stupid rush to assure their northern masters of their loyalty. This even becomes more comical when they delude themselves that we do not have the memory of the recent past.

    When I read Oyegun’s interview, my below-average perception of his personality dipped further. I was not surprised because he has never impressed me politically. Tom Ikimi would have done better. As the National Chairman of APC, Oyegun has not been seen to do anything about the flagrant political alienation of some parts of the country by the President. No word from him concerning the state of the nation. He watched helplessly while APC under his watch mismanaged their electoral victory. Every day, Oyegun who is the Chairman of the ruling party diminishes politically in my sight. Although I never expected much from him, he should have done better than this if his hallucinatory claim of integrity is anything to go by. Thanks for this piece. I look forward to seeing more.

    Gilbert Nweke, Benin City: 08074614100

     

    That piece on Oyegun was dismal. Oyegun is principled. You want him to kowtow to other men?

    07031025925

     

    With a party chairman with self-declared “personality and integrity” like Oyegun in office in 2019, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Chief Bola Tinubu and other genuine progressives should gird heir loins.

    Elder L. O. David, Efon Alaye, Ekiti: 08059096244

     

    Sensible politicians who know or have read you will rue the day you write their political epitaph. It will obviously be a sad irreversible final comment. A “curtains” call.

    D. Birmah: 08065508355

     

    APC should not follow PDP’s step of changing their party chairman at will after all the APC chairman has done well to remain the APC chairman. Those calling for his removal are not wishing the party well. From his assumption as APC chairman he has done well to deliver Edo, Ondo and other elections. They should allow him be because his removal might cause crisis in the party as it occurred in PDP. As 2019 is around corner let them be united to win.

    Chika Nnorom: 08062887535

     

    I hope Oyegun understands that what goes around comes around.

    Ayodele Jayeolatunde

     

    He has not learnt the lesson from the saying that never bite the hand that feeds you, no matter what. His end is very near. A real sycophant he is.

    Odion Okaka

     

    This wonderful writeup could easily pass for a parable about the Hubris inadvertently stalking ESAN progress and ultimately development. We have had seemingly emancipated sons and daughters from the legendary Air Hostess Ahabue (50’s) to the UAC magic, Abebe (60’s). However, it was the political miracle, Prof. Ambrose Alli, that actually sowed the seed, followed by yet another leader (the Esan naval chief). One very much hopes the way forward is this objective critical stance, not minding whether those in question are elderly Esans. More grease to your writing elbow!

    Pius S Omole

     

    This is a masterpiece and highly revealing. Nigerians, particularly Edolites are interested in this matter. Thank you Odion.

    Odidison Omans

    Oyegun’s is a political disaster to APC. A money-monger, he helped in the total destruction of our great party in Delta State. His time is up.

    Nathaniel Igwubor

  • Eating mushrooms can avert diseases, says Nutritionist

    Eating mushrooms can avert diseases, says Nutritionist

    An Ibadan-based nutritionist, Ms Dayo Olawunmi, said eating mushrooms regularly could help to lower risk of contracting diseases, including diabetes, cancer and obesity.

    Olawunmi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Ibadan that mushrooms were rich in antioxidants and many disease fighting nutrients like vitamin D known to inhibit the growth of cancer cells.

    “Studies have shown that mushrooms are naturally low in sodium, fat, cholesterol and calories. In addition to providing basic nutrition, they help prevent chronic diseases due to the presence of antioxidants.”

    She said that mushrooms were also rich in potassium and sodium which worked together to regulate blood pressure to promote a healthy heart.

    “Consuming mushrooms, which are rich in potassium and low in sodium helps to lower blood pressure and decrease the risk of high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases.

    “Mushrooms also contain choline, an important nutrient that helps with sleep, muscle movement, learning and memory,” she said.

    Olawunmi, however, cautioned that not all mushrooms were edible and that eating some could lead to serious illness and even death.

    “It is best to consume mushrooms that have been cultivated under appropriate conditions; not all the varieties of the plant are edible.

    “Eating wild mushrooms that are toxic to humans can cause severe illness, and sometimes, even death,” she stated.

    Edible mushrooms, like the cauliflower mushrooms, are the fleshy and edible fruit bodies of several species of macro fungi (fungi which bear fruiting structures that are large enough to be seen with the naked eye).

    They can appear either below ground or above ground where they may be picked by hand.

  • Hernia: A myth, disease or health issue?

    Hernia: A myth, disease or health issue?

    Hernia has for long been a dreaded health issue prevalent mostly among men from their late adolescence to old age. It is common among people engaged in physically-laborious occupation. This health issue is common among people engaged in  building industries, mechanical and structural engineering jobs where lifting of heavy items is involved, traditional medicine practitioners who also produce their products physically, weight lifting athletes, traditional farmers and reckless style of living – multiple sex partners –  and activities.

    Hernia is one of the most controversial health issues within our traditional medicine groups. We have for a long time been fed with wrong perception due to lack of the internet in those days.

    Some of us in the field are still cherishing this notion and this article will for once open their eyes to facts about hernia as a health issue to be left to conventional medicine. It is an opener and testimony of my person who had been actively involved in witnessing and also treating it for over a period of 15 years before finally surrendering to conventional medicine.

    I attach a picture of one of my clients who suffered Hernia for 12 years believing that traditional medicine can treat it. He survived surgical operation and lived to tell his story, without having any bitterness or loss of faith in traditional medicine. Thanks for helping to bring this awareness to our traditional medicine practitioners as well as the general public who may seek help in traditional medicine because of the high cost of surgery or fear  or misleading medical advice from my people.

    In Western countries, where majority depend on conventional (orthodox) medical therapy, and with exposure to all the information resources of the internet, Hernia has seized to be a myth , but a health issue or body accident, that conventional medicine can repair. Few years back, before the benefits of technology, the Internet was relatively within the reach of many Nigerians or West Africans since it was a luxury before the year 2000, only available to the rich literate few, hernia, to most people, was another type of disease that required medicine either traditional or synthetic drugs to treat or cure.

    This opinion is factual as I am writing from the point of view of a Naturopathic as well as traditional medicine practitioner, a renounced herbalist, who had encountered many clients and sufferers who had approached me for advice on how to deal with their hernia problems. To most of us traditional medicine practitioners in the last 20 years, hernia was being considered a health issue that traditional medicine therapy can cure and that belief is still prevalent among many of our practitioners today.This is because of the erroneous belief in the efficacy of traditional medicine as panacea for all health issues and our fervent antipathy for surgical operation as the scorn of conventional medicine since to us they are ‘licensed butchers’. We never believed that traditional medicine also had its own limitations. Even though I was already a graduate from United Kingdom before I joined traditional medicine group and later moved to becoming their national secretary general, I was led into believing that we could handle any health issue with the ‘magic’ of traditional and herbal medicine; unfortunately most of the practitioners at that time were still under the cloud and hence the importance of this eye opener article on the hernia, a myth or a health issue explained it is beyond herbal treatment.

    What then is hernia? We have come across many of our predecessors who firmly believed that any traditional medicine can be used to cure any genital-related health diseases such as testicular cancer and other neoplasms swelling of a testicle, caused by hydrocele testis. Inflammation of the epididymis, called epididymitis, can also take care of hernia. And in all honesty, I was inclined to share their strong belief and hence submitted to trying for the next 15  years to prove them right. But hernia is not related to any sexually  transmitted diseases which can be  cured with traditional medicine. If only we have all come to this awareness many years back, many lives would have been saved. I still recalled the case of a close associate who was diagnosed with hernia in 1999, when he noticed a swelling around the region below his navel, the groin. He was advised to come for surgical operation to repair it, but he was discouraged by our predecessors who guaranteed his cure with herbal medicine. He believed and including me too. For the next 10 years he was drinking so many traditional medicines; some so toxic as they are made with burnt lime peels mixed with caustic soda in alcohol with the belief that it would burn away the tear. My friend was also given another medicine soaked in cow bile, of course very bitter but it never solved it but rather it made his matter worse as the second side of his loin got torn and he ended up with double hernia with the scrotum enlarging by the year to accommodate the intestine that escaped into the region of the scrotum thereby pushing the testicles downwards. Hence he had to be lying on his back to reduce the pain and the annoying noise emanating from the region of the stomach which we call “Ikunsinu” or loud rumbling stomach as the movement of the intestine (Peristalsis) were becoming so audible to his embarrassment sometimes in public.

     

    What then is hernia?

    A  hernia occurs when the contents of a body cavity bulge out of the area where they are normally contained. These contents, usually portions of intestine or abdominal fatty tissue, are enclosed in the thin membrane that naturally lines the inside of the cavity. Although the term hernia can be used for bulges in other areas, it most often is used to describe hernias of the lower torso (abdominal wall hernias).

    Hernias by themselves may be asymptomatic, that is when there is no symptom indicated, but nearly all have a potential risk of having their blood supply cut off (becoming strangulated). If the hernia sac contents have their blood supply cut off at the hernia opening in the abdominal wall, it becomes a medical and surgical emergency.

     

    Different types of abdominal wall hernias include the following:

    Inguinal (groin) hernia: Making up most of all abdominal wall hernias and occurring up to 25 times more often in men than women, these hernias are divided into two different types, direct and indirect. Both occur in the groin area above where the skin crease at the top of the thigh joins the torso (the inguinal crease), but they have slightly different origins. Both of these types of hernias can similarly appear as a bulge in the inguinal area. Distinguishing between the direct and indirect hernia, however, is important as a clinical diagnosis.

    Indirect inguinal hernia: An indirect hernia follows the pathway that the testicles made during prebirth development. It descends from the abdomen into the scrotum. This pathway normally closes before birth but may remain a possible place for a hernia. Sometimes the hernia sac may protrude into the scrotum. An indirect inguinal hernia may occur at any age. This type of hernia is what we call ‘ipake’ and I will like to say I have seen this cured in babies and young children with herbal concoctions.

    Direct inguinal hernia: The direct inguinal hernia occurs slightly to the inside of the site of the indirect hernia, in a place where the abdominal wall is naturally slightly thinner. It rarely protrudes into the scrotum. Unlike the indirect hernia, which can occur at any age, the direct hernia tends to occur in the middle-aged and elderly because their abdominal walls weaken as they age. This type is very common among the cases we erroneously believed that traditional medicine can treat; hence resulting in preventable deaths of many sufferers due to ignorance and misconceived idea passed on from generation to generation.

    Traditional or herbal medicines cannot cure direct inguinal hernia because it is not a disease; it is a tear within the membranes of the body which can be repaired not with herbs but surgical operation. It is beyond the application of herbal medicine; hence one of our limitations.

    Femoral hernia: The femoral canal is the path through which the femoral artery, vein, and nerve leave the abdominal cavity to enter the thigh. Although normally a tight space, sometimes becomes large enough to allow abdominal contents (usually intestine) into the canal. A femoral hernia causes a bulge just below the inguinal crease in roughly the mid-thigh area. Usually occurring in women, femoral hernias are particularly at risk of becoming irreducible (not able to be pushed back into place) and strangulated.

     

    Umbilical hernia: These common hernias, not very common, are often noted at birth as a protrusion at the bellybutton (the umbilicus). This is caused when an opening in the abdominal wall, which normally closes before birth, doesn’t close completely. If small (less than half an inch) this type of hernia usually closes gradually by age two. Larger hernias and those that do not close by themselves usually require surgery at age two to four.  Even if the area is closed at birth, umbilical hernias can appear later in life because this spot may remain a weaker place in the abdominal wall. Umbilical hernias can appear later in life or in women who are having or have had children. This is another type of what we commonly refer to as “Ipake” and we have seen them treated with herbal concoctions so I believed, but I stand to be corrected.

     

    Obturator hernia: This extremely rare abdominal hernia develops mostly in women. This hernia protrudes from the pelvic cavity through an opening in the pelvic bone (obturator foramen). This will not show any bulge but can act like bowel obstruction and cause nausea and vomiting.

    Hernia causes

    Although abdominal hernias can be present at birth, others develop later in life. Some involve pathways formed during fetal development, existing openings in the abdominal cavity, or areas of abdominal wall weakness. Any condition that increases the pressure of the abdominal cavity may contribute to the formation or worsening of a hernia. Examples include:

    1. Obesity – The people suffering from inguinal hernia are often getting constipation with heavy foods such as yam, cassava flour (eba) as the heavy food contents descend straight into the scrotum region causing so much pain from further tear of the thin membrane. It could lead to the strangulation of the intestine.
    2. Heavy lifting: People suffering from hernia are more at risk of worsening the damaged thin membrane separating the abdomen from the groin due to excess pressure released from lifting anything above 50 Ibs.

    Coughing : Lump increases in size when standing or when abdominal pressure is increased (such as coughing)

    Straining during a bowel movement or urination

     

    Chronic lung disease

    Fluid in the abdominal cavity – This rumbling noise is from where we named this type of hernia as ‘Ikunsinu” meaning noisy stomach, very audible to next person sitting beside anyone with direct inguinal hernia.

    A family history of hernias can make you more likely to develop a hernia.

     

    Hernia Symptoms

    The signs and symptoms of a hernia can range from noticing a painless lump to the painful, tender, swollen protrusion of tissue that you are unable to push back into the abdomen—an incarcerated strangulated hernia. When you push it back, it comes out again and it is by lying on your back before you can get relief from pain as the intestine moves back again into the stomach.

    The common symptom associated with Reducible hernia is: New lump in the groin or other abdominal wall area as in the picture above. The lump may ache but is not tender when touched. Sometimes pain precedes the discovery of the lump. Lump increases in size when standing or when abdominal pressure is increased (such as coughing) May be reduced (pushed back into the abdomen) unless very large.

    In addition to this, people suffering from advanced hernia have complained of erectile dysfunction; lack of erection when about to penetrate, though they may feel the erection during fore-play as extra pressure is put on the wall of the groin which at this stage is already torn.

    We hope all practitioners of traditional and herbal as well as Alternative medicine will not rely on the assumptions and claims handed over to us by our renowned predecessors but keep an open mind and readiness to investigate and conduct their own research now that the internet is readily accessible to everyone willing to learn and gain more knowledge.

  • HEALTH WATCH: Scientists reveal effective way to neutralise any disease from the body, including cancers.

    Sponsored post

    There are numerous ailments that can afflict the human body, ranging from carsickness to colds to cancer.

    The earliest physicians thought that illness and disease were a sign of God’s anger or the work of evil spirits.

    Hippocrates and Galen advanced the concept of humorism, a theory which held that we get sick from imbalances of the four basic substances within the human body, which they identified as blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile.

    But what causes diseases?… What makes us weak?… What makes us look older than we are?

    It is simply TOXIN. Whether it is biological or environmental. Nothing make makes human sick, nothing produces diseases but Toxin.

    What are Toxins?

    Toxins are foreign materials, impurities which may be living or non-living produced within the body or outside the body but in one way or the other get into the human body.

    If they are not expel they continue to float mysteriously inside your bloodstream, doing who knows what to your organs and bodily functions.

    You Think You are Getting Old?

    You think you’re healthy, but you don’t feel vibrant. You struggle to find the energy to get through the day. You’re irritable. Your stomach isn’t acting right. And all those headaches!

    And you think it is because you are getting old. No…it probably has nothing to do with aging. My Grandmother could trek 20Km at 80. Instead, you may simply be surrounded by too many toxins.

    Look at this list very well if any one of them applies to you or someone you know…

    Do you Suffer…

    General weakness of the body, Menstrual pain, Irregular period, hormonal imbalance, prostate disorders, male/female infertility, miscarriages, high blood pressure, kidney dysfunction, diabetes,erectile dysfunction (weak erection), liver problem, Cancer, skin issues…?

    And you’ve wondered why the diseases didn’t go despite intensive medication. And according to your doctor you have to be managing them with drugs for the rest of your life because they are incurable. Which is mostly untrue.

    Nature has given us a no-cost natural methods of overcome diseases and sickness. And this have been well documented for interested readers on this Web page. www.healingfromnature.com/detoxbody

     Who is this for?

    1. if you’re looking to overcome any health challenge or just to maintain optimal health
    2. Everyone that desires living a long and healthy life especially if you are above 3o
    3. Everyone that wish to defeat one disease or the other, including deadly cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, infertility, among others.

     How To Neutralize Harmful Diseases From Your Body To Enhance Your Vitality, Increase Your Energy Levels, Overcome Diseases And Increase Your Life Expectancy.

    Get the details at www.healingfromnature.com/detoxbody

    Congratulations for reading this article. You are about to stop spending money on medicines, both drugs and supplements. Because you are about to make an amazing discovery that will make you live without drugs. All at no cost.

    www.healingfromnature.com/detoxbody

     

     

  • WHF previews global ‘Roadmap’ to tackle cholesterol

    WHF previews global ‘Roadmap’ to tackle cholesterol

    The World Heart Federations (WHF) has previewed the global Cholesterol Roadmap dedicated to achieving the 25% reduction in cardiovascular disease by 2025.

    The Roadmap previewed on Sunday at the 2016 American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions in New Orleans, USA is aimed at reducing cholesterol in secondary and primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and in patients with familial hypercholesterolaemia.

    According to a statement, the World Health Federations (WHF) in the Roadmap called for more awareness of healthier lifestyles and diet, increased screening and testing for cholesterol in communities and more effective initiation of statin treatment and adherence to drug treatments in primary and secondary prevention of CVD.

    WHF also advocated for better detection and treatment of patients with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH)*; better physician education and support; and reform of drug availability and affordability.

    The Cholesterol Roadmap forms part of a series produced by WHF to help meet targets set by the World Health Organization (WHO) to reduce premature deaths from non-communicable diseases, includingcardiovascular disease (CVD), by 25% by 2025. Reducing the risk of cholesterol-related CVD has an essential role to play in achieving this goal.

    Previous WHF Roadmaps have focused on secondary prevention, hypertension (primary prevention), tobacco control, rheumatic heart disease and non-valvular atrial fibrillation, the most common form of cardiac arrhythmia.

    Professor David Wood, President Elect of the World Heart Federation, said: “Our Roadmap initiative aims to help international efforts to beat cardiovascular disease. We have focused on the main CVD risk areas and produced the Roadmaps to help support individual countries in implementing appropriate health measures.”

    Cholesterol is a fat-like substance that is found in all cells of the body. If too much bad LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein) cholesterol builds up in the arteries, it can restrict blood flow to the heart, brain and the rest of the body, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke.

    Cholesterol levels vary enormously between populations around the world, a result of both diet and genetic predisposition, and the traditional Mediterranean diet will lower average cholesterol levels, a WHO indicator** to achieve ’25 by 25′.

    For primary prevention WHO recommends a total risk approach to identify people at high risk of having a heart attack and stroke, taking account of all the major risk factors including blood cholesterol, but most people are unaware of their cholesterol levels or their overall cardiovascular risk.

    For patients who have already developed CVD reducing cholesterol is central to secondary prevention. But a large treatment gap exists in proportions of patients achieving national targets for cholesterol lowering despite the overwhelming evidence that statins reduce risk and improve life expectancy.

    Carlos Castro, Executive Director of the patients’ heart health association, PACO said: “There are more than 17 million deaths caused by cardiovascular disease each year. High levels of cholesterol are known to increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. We hope by tackling the ‘roadblocks’ with the solutions set out in this Roadmap we can reduce the number of deaths.”

  • Slavery is the disease

    Today, complaint is often made of what we call the failure of the Nigerian dream. We lament how monstrously, forces of society accomplish and fail to fulfill their work. We lament how the ruling class functions in profligacy and chaos. Nigeria laments the insensibility of the ruling class.  But today, as usual, we fail to look inwards. Perhaps because we fear we would find in you and I, the summary of all other failures and disorganisation. A sort of heart, from which every kind of confusion and horror gravitates in our fatherland.

    Complaint was often made that our problems persist because we refused to convene a Sovereign National Conference (SNC). There is the argument that our problems worsen because President Buhari refuses to implement the recommendations of his predecessor’s shady SNC. Perhaps there is depth and a semblance of truth in such frivolous mindset even as it becomes more glaring that a trillion SNCs will not save Nigeria.

    This is because any consensus or ‘practicable solutions’ proffered at the conference would be the result of self-serving efforts of generations of shady characters comprising ex-convicts, hired assassins, treasury looters, armed robbers, advance fee fraudsters, decadent clerics and bloodthirsty political godfathers to mention a few. What manner of humaneness could result from a gathering of crows?

    That we undermine ourselves and underestimate our self-worth are old stories told. Now that we have failed us, we pursue the comfort of blame and cheap consolations. Nigeria hasn’t failed us. You and I have failed us. We are the thorny thickets shielding our shoots from the sunny spokes of daylight.

    There is a tragedy inherent in our customary lamentation every time our conscience is roused with a damning incident or report. Racist politicians and activists tirelessly suggest that we go our separate ways. They tout secession as the only solution to the country’s league of extraordinary problems.

    Secession is the anthem that we should shun. It is the fruit of ‘reason’ that we need to be wary of and I will continue to say this hoping every prospective muscle – the youth – by which the separatists hope to achieve their dreams of dissolution, would listen and let the secessionists risk their hides and children to actualize their platitudes.

    The biggest misconception about ‘secession,’ ‘insurgence,’ ‘self-determination ‘or whatever the separatists choose to call it, is that it could be peaceful and that the end result would be a conscientious and citizenry-centred dispensation.

    It’s all dirty, greedy politics. The separatists want the youth to fly the flags of their dream nations. They want everybody to brandish a bumper sticker that bellows: “Death to the Federal Republic of Nigeria!” They call anyone that’s anti-war and anti-secession: “pacifist,” “traitor” or whatever colourful adjective suits their rage.

    Then they promise the youth a prosperous future and better fate in their dream nation. Astonishingly, youth that ought to know better, buy into their  farce and they begin to dream and talk of the great uprising that would set them free from the living hell Nigeria has become.

    This disillusioned youth engages in bootless pursuits at the end of which he accomplishes too little or nothing. He probably accomplishes some individualized goal – satisfaction of a sentiment or material gain – which to him is everything; but for Nigeria, he accomplishes comparatively nothing.

    Eventually, he morphs into the disgruntled man on the street stereotype; who suddenly realises in his twilight, that he had squandered God’s greatest gifts to him: intellect and talent. Then the smokescreen of youth and hastily prized platitudes begin to peter out and he realises that his miraculous talisman is a paltry plated coin – less suitable for social transaction than a contemptible kobo.

    There is fundamental evil in our souls hence the vileness of our norms and culture. What evils should we set out to abolish in our modern society? To this, I bet very many well-meaning people would answer poverty, even though they ought to answer slavery.

    Face to face every day with the shameful contrasts of riches and destitution, high dividends and low wages, and painfully conscious of the futility of trying to adjust the balance by means of charity, private or public, they would answer unhesitatingly that they stand for the abolition of poverty.

    But poverty is merely a symptom, slavery is the disease. The extremes of riches and destitution follow inevitably upon the extremes of leadership and bondage. We are not enslaved because we are poor; we are poor because we are enslaved.

    Consequently, every attempt to conceive imaginatively, a better ordering of Nigerian society than the destructive, pitiless chaos in which the nation has sunk is by no means modern; it is at least as old as Plato, whose “Republic” set the model for the Utopias of subsequent philosophers and self-styled revolutionaries.

    The secessionists contemplate a new world in the light of an ideal. They claim to feel a great sorrow by the evils that characterise Nigeria, and they claim to be driven by an urgent desire to lead their ethnic groups or race to the realisation of the collective good. It is this desire which has been the primary force moving the pioneers of anarchism and horrid tyrannies – as it moved the creators of ideal commonwealths in the past.

    In contemporary Nigeria, it is incense for suspicious revolutionaries claiming to fight for the interests of Nigeria’s ethnic divides. In this, there is nothing new. What is new and unpardonably offensive is the pretension of such characters to heartfelt sorrow and shared grief in the suffering of the masses.

    This has enabled cynical and anarchist political movements to grow out of the frustrations and hopes of Nigeria’s youth and predominantly impressionable thinkers, whose thought processes and politics are anything but humane. This makes the agitation of the Nigerian separatists worrisome and markedly dangerous to the survival of the youth and the Nigerian nation.

    The process of re-sensitising the youth away from the establishment of chaos and genocide advocated by the secessionists will be greatly accelerated by the abolition of the current political order. However, this can only be achieved by the nation’s youth – who are unfortunately enthralled by the platitudes and desperate politics of Nigeria’s ruling class.

    It is no doubt the stock in trade of the latter to refer to violent uprisings in Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Iraq, Zanzibar, Tanganyika, India-Pakistan, Mali and parts of Asia among others, as worthy indicators of Nigeria’s need to follow suit. Whenever they dazzle with such informed commentary, tell them to lead the secession they advocate with their wives, children and closest relatives.

    Many activists, youth leaders and self-acclaimed political heroes today have their wives and children tucked away in secure schools and neighbourhoods abroad even as they goad impoverished, clueless youth back home to untimely doom.

    If it is true that there is appreciable number of Nigerian youth capable of powering revolts for ethnic self-determination, the end of which is dissolution of Nigeria, why can’t the same youth power the social regeneration and reclamation of the Nigerian State from the clutches of the predatory ruling class, ethnic bigots and dissolution activists?

    The current political dispensation and acute racial bigotry must eventually yield to the influences of education and culture, if the youth could aspire to progressive ideals. But such transformation calls for remarkable wisdom and tolerance.

  • Lagos Abattoir, purveyor of disease and death

    If you are fed up with life, wish to become diseased and die young or early, come and live near the Lagos Abattoir. Located on the Old Abeokuta Road in Agege Area of Lagos, it was meant to be a central slaughter house for cows and other animals in Lagos. When these animals are killed under hygienic conditions, their meat is transported in special vans to different beef markets in Lagos. The waste products of this operation would, thereafter, be discarded, also as done world-wide hygienically, as in modern abattoir.

    In time, this abattoir became one of the biggest job providers and gold mines of business in an otherwise squalid Lagos suburb where the average school leaver once aspired to become no more than a sub-urban bus conductor. But somewhere along the line, the dreams of the founding fathers derailed. Modern machines are no longer used for the operations. It is either that the operators found them culturally unsuitable for their work, or too sophisticated for them to handle, or that, characteristic of the Nigerian business psyche, these machines were not well maintained, broke down, were abandoned, and the operators resorted to self-help at their own level of technology. I wish to speak about only one of the operations, and to wonder why the government of Lagos State is pretending that the crudeness of this operation is not endangering the health of people who live near the abattoir.

    When I raised the later point at a small discussion group which was trying to find a solution to the health hazards that the abattoir was creating, someone with a legal mind told us about volenti non fit injuria. In Latin, this means it is impossible for a sensible person to injure himself or herself. It is a legal platform for a journalist sued for libel or defamation to defend himself or herself. If the person complaining before a judge about a publication voluntarily provided the information which led to his or her injury, what moral rights has he or she, indeed, to successfully claim damage(s). ? So, as this gentleman reasoned, if the abattoir is providing the government of Lagos State fabulous tax income every day, and some top officials of the Government have interest in the abattoir, wouldn’t it be better to look the other way and let sleeping dogs lie?

    WHAT I am about to say should infuriate or annoy millions of people in Lagos and other parts of the country, and save their lives. It is all about Ponmo (Yoruba) or cow skin.

     

    Ponmo (Cow Skin)

    As a boy, I looked forward to the day my step mother would cook ponmo in Egusi (melon) soup. I do not remember now if the white ponmo or the brown was the more exciting to the palate. It was difficult then to tell the difference between them. Even now, I can only guess that the white is a purveyor of white fat cells, which do not burn easily, increasing the load of body fat, and the brown, the more thermogenic, which, in the body, burns easily on its own irrespective of exercise or any other physical activity. As a young man, I learned that the consumption of animal skin was dangerous to health. In Europe, India and the United States, where health awareness is more robust than in Africa, the skin of fish or chicken is removed and discarded before the fish is eaten. If fish skin, as flimsy as it is, can be considered dangerous to health, how more dangerous would animal skin be, thick as it is, sometimes thicker than the thumb? Some of my fears are conformed by Dr. Isuwa Adamu, director-general, Nigerian Institute of Leather Science and Technology (NILEST), who is quoted in www.vanguardngr.com as saying “animal skin can be suffused with disease-causing germs, chemicals and other toxic substances.” The thought that many animals have skin diseases and the fact that toxic drugs used to cure them have not expired their life spans before these animals are slaughtered are enough to deter anyone from eating it. But more worrying should be the way ponmo is cured in Nigeria before it is sold in the market. At the Lagos Abattoir, animal skin is burned in a heap of tyres set ablaze, presumably with kerosene or petrol or diesel. The bonfire yields a thick toxin smoke which, in billows, spread out to various neighbourhoods, poisoning people who inhale the air. Tyre bonfire are a menace in the United States. The experience of Americans should be a warning to us. We do not have to invent the wheel in this regard, as they say. We are helped in this in http://lexbirahviewsoftheworld.com, we are advised in the article KILLER BLACK SMOKE, WHAT BURNNG TYRES REALLY DOES:

    “I have heard enough of this tyre burning now and so too has  every-ore I have spoken to. Black plumes of smoke cover the skyline day and night trying in vain to scare people away. But it’s not the tyres that scares me more the after effects of all the toxic fumes we are inhaling. Do you know they are over two gallons (seven litres) of petroleum and oil in one tyre alone, numerous chemicals, including chlorine, styrene, butadiene and more than 20 different heavy metals. I was stunned to learn this. Styrene and Butadiene are both suspected of causing cancer, the extender contain carcinogenic Benzene, derivations and the metals like lead, chromium, cadmium and mercury don’t even burn away, they just get released into the atmosphere as fragrant ash. Tyre smoke contains high levels of toxic heavy metals, 407 percent more Chromium, 372 percent more lead, and 1448 percent more Arsenic, than coal, and the Carbon black is a fine particulate matter produced by incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, now that’s scary.  “So, having learned that mush, I then continued with my research and found that Dioxin, which are by-product of Chlorine, once released into the air, can travel long distances before settling onto the soil, water, plants and animals, miles away from the fore source sometimes, where it remains and becomes absorbed. “Dioxin does not break down. It just accumulates in the fatty tissues of animals (and humans) that consume the contaminated vegetation, meat, chickens and decay products. In humans, these dioxins can lead to reproductive impairment, development injuries and increase and an increase in the risk of diabetes. The Canadian Contario Ministry of Environment and Energy (MOEE) carried out a survey in 1991 on a tyre fire site and noted that contamination was seen in vegetables growing 100 to 200 metres away from the site and, furthermore, it remained in the soil 200 days after the fire. ‘Now the heavy metals that I spoke about earlier, and 20 different ones do not break down either, and so, they, too, build up into an alarming concentration level within the soils. They reduce crop yield and eventually destroy lots of agricultural land. The side effects to human exposure to these toxins in our food chain can lead to serious health conditions. Lead poisoning destroys human nervous systems, can cause retardation, learning difficulties, bone narrow deficiencies and stunned growth in children. Zinc can cause birth defects, Chromium and Arsenic cause cancer. When the fire is burning, we expect the smoke plume to contain hazardous substance, not did you know that, even when the fire is cooling down, it still releases other poisons and the Benzene produced in this process, once inhaled, ingested or touched will lead to symptoms such a dizziness, euphoria, giddiness, headache, nausea, weakness, drowsiness, respiratory irritation, pulmonary edema, pneumonia and skin, eyes and mucous membrane irritation. Smells like sulphur occur when tyres are being burned. But it is the odourless gas, Carbon monoxide that worries me the most. When this is unknowingly inhaled, it interfere with the transfer of Oxygen in human tissues and leads to CO (Carbone Monoxide).  This can be extremely dangerous and sufferers experience nausea and dizziness, but if not realised quickly enough people collapse into Coma and then die.

    Now if one burnt tyre contains seven litres of petroleum and untold amount of toxins, how much is released into our atmosphere every time someone decides he wants to set off a road block with a tyre fire of, maybe, 10 tyres or more in one go? What becomes airborne after rioters have thrown hundreds of petrol bombs at the police or set fires to gas cylinders? The website http://lexbirchviewoftheworld.com has more information to give us, which makes robust our understanding of what the Lagos Abattoir is doing to our health. Now, many youngmen and women who go to enjoy themselves at their favourite joints where they “chill” out eat lots of ponmo which they wash down with their favourite drinks. Believing that they are civilised people eating civilised food, they do not know that their ponmo is poisoned by tyre fire smoke.  Dr. N.W. Walker speaks of such people in a cell (Tissue) salt therapy which he wrote about in a healthy and damaged colon chart when he says:

    “For the guidance, benefits and use by colon irrigation and lavage establishment operators, and for the education of the layman. Civilized life means an artificial life; civilized people, living in a civilized manner and eating civilized foods, cannot, in every nature of things, have truly HEALTHY COLON. Health and sickness have their roots in the COLON.

    In www.lesspollution.org/learn.html, we learn of 15 good reasons why tyre fire is dangerous to health. It says the pollutants place children especially at risk, as small particles settle in the lungs. When breast milk is contaminated by them, the poisons are transferred to breast-feeding babies. Even fetuses are not spared. The elderly and asthmatics come under fire. So are people with lowered immunity. Heart problems may escalate.

    Now, I speak through the experiences of some families who live in the catchment area of the Lagos Abattoir tyre fire smoke. Around this abattoir are beautiful housing estates such as Millennium Estate, Oke Oba GRA scheme 1, Maplewood Estate, Sunshine Estate, Awoniyi Estate, Labak Estate and others. Many estate families are “dead” asleep when the tyre-burning begins at about 3am. Some members of the family are woken up from deep sleep, choking or coughing. All the bedrooms are infiltrated. The air is rotten, smelly. Electric fans may help a little. Air conditioners help out. Some come out of their flats for fresh air but discover they fare no better. I know of someone who is woken from sleep and finds his room so darkened that he can hardly see the electric lamps in the ceiling. What of people who smell the pollution in their kitchens? How will they cook without these particles falling on their food? Some people go out of their homes in the mornings but return at about 9pm or 10pm to find the air thickened again with tyre fire smoke. Apparently Ponmo sellers at the Lagos Abattoir cure the cow skin with tyre fire about two or three times a day, the premium time being in the night. My friend, George Uberg, a health-conscious fellow who lives somewhere on Iju Road, says it is a “terrible experience”. I advised him to wear a nose guard, day and night, take Orange peel powder to detoxify regularly.

    So does Diatom.

    So does Cilantro.

    So does Chlorella

    Which chelate heavy metals and other toxins out of the blood. Where breathing is affected, orange Peel powder taken with water, juices or meals help. Someone told me of a recipe for kidney cleanse the other day. It is a vegetables the Yoruba call Efo ebolo. When I searched for the popular English name, what I got was Yoruban bilogi. It is macerated and boiling water is poured over it in a container. When the infusion is cool enough to drink, it is served and taken, says this fellow who calls himself Bush Sense or Bush Doctor. This recipe complement our regular kidney cleansers and tonics such as Bell’s Kidney  Cleanse and function Tea, Nettle, Yarrow, Water melon seed tea, Kidney Rescue, Dandelon e.t.c.

    Blood cleansers are indispensable. So are nerve building tonics. The liver should not be forgotten. Burdock root should be added to a compendium of herbs which should include Milk Thistle and Liver Balance among others. If I find myself menaced by the Lagos Abattoir, I would design a regimen for the night hours which would place antioxidants on guard in my system day and night. Meanwhile, why have both the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA) not come to the rescue of the neighbourhoods of this abattoir since many of the residents do not even know the danger in which they live. LASEPA and FEPA appear to be slow organisations. In the 1980s, when I was Editor of the Guardian, The Science Editor, Mr. Seun Ogunseitan, who discovered the KOKO toxic waste dump, wrote an article saying that underground water in Ijesha area of Lagos was polluted by heavy metals to the tune of more than 3,000% above World Health Organisation (WHO) safety levels. More frightening was his suggestion that no Nigeria water works systems had a device to remove heavy metals from drinking water. In other words, people who live in Ijeshatedo area of Lagos continue to drink heavy metals-polluted water with the risk of developing cancer and other terrible degenerative diseases. Last week, however, that is about 30 years after, LASEPA announced publicly that it had tested underground water in wells in 20 Local Government Area of Lagos State and found all heavily polluted with heavy metals. That means that, if there is still no device to remove heavy metals from water (boiling does not do it, it only worsens it by concentrating them),  it would mean that all the “pure” water we drink in Lagos, and all the bottled water too, have heavy metals inside them. These is frightening, especially as there may be a correlation between these sources of drinking water and a massive growth in the rate of cancer in Lagos State. Governor Akinwunmi Ambode should act immediately. Formal Governor Babatunde Fashola wanted to relocate the abattoir from Agege but he could not before he vacated power to Ambode. Nevertheless, he tried to sanitise the operation and he extracted land from the abattoir area for a beautiful housing estate which the government may be unable to sell because of the menace of the abattoir.

  • Rains may increase crop disease outbreak, losses

    Rather than help crops to grow, the rains may lead to their destruction this year, experts have warned.

    According to the experts, several plant diseases are more common during wet season.

    They said favourable conditions for infection and plant damage include wet and compacted soils.

    From findings, it has been confirmed that pathogens (disease causing micro-organisms, such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses)  are widespread and persistent in field soils during the season.

    The experts said, seedling diseases could begin after the planting of the seed and  continue for several weeks. One clue is reduced emergence and other clues are seedling death, yellowing, or stunting. The problems, they said, might start when the soil is wet, although may be delayed a week or more after wet conditions occurred.

    Senior Lecturer, Department of Crop Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Maiduguri, Prof. Dan Gwary explained that seedling diseases occur as excessive rainfall and fluctuating temperature create excellent conditions for them.

    Gwary said wet and flooded soils produced after heavy rains are favourable for  soil borne, moisture-loving fungus and diseases.

    He said they damage seedlings and even mature plants. To prevent this, he advised farmers to check fields for seedling disease, and efficacy of seed treatments.

    A former dean, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ilorin, Prof Abiodun Adeloye, said  normal rainfall would be good, and more would be better, but too much at the wrong time could damage or kill certain plants.

    He said farmers are at risk when there is above-normal rainfall.

    He urged farmers not to expose their farms to floodwaters.

    He advised farmers to observe basic farm safety and sanitation practices to avoid nurturing platforms for the spread of diseases.

  • Firms proffer solution to tomato disease

    Two firms,  Russell IPM United Kingdom and Agronet Nigeria Limited,    have  launched an effective and sustainable solution to combat the tomato disease-Tuta Absoluta.

    In a statement, the  firms  said the three-component system, based on beneficial soil microbes and biopesticides, work in synergy to destroy both larvae and adults of Tuta, boost the plant’s defence and promote  growth in a safe and sustainable way.

    Together with Agronet Nigeria Ltd, Russell IPM conducted field demonstrations to show farmers how they can use the products and gain complete control over the pest.

    According to the statement, local farms using Russell IPM’s Recharge, Antario and Biotrine systems have noted a significant reduction in Tuta population and tomato damage. The product has been demonstrated at Tenti Farms, a   25 hectares of greenhouse farm based in Jos,Plateau  State where tomatoes and peppers are primarily grown.

    Head Agronomist at the farm, Odunayo Orowumi,  said: “In the past, our farm has been devastated by the Tuta absoluta pest and despite trying a number of conventional pesticides, the moth caused complete losses in our greenhouses.”

    After seeking the help of Agronet, a local agricultural and consultancyservice, they began applying the Russell IPM solution within their greenhouses.

  • UI dons proffer solution to Tomato disease

    Agricultural experts at the University of Ibadan yesterday proffered solutions to the outbreak of Tomato disease, Tuta Absoluta, saying importing tomato seeds was not the best option.

    One of them, Dr. Morufat Balogun, who is a geneticist, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan that importing seeds to cushion the problem would further drain the nation’s foreign exchange.

    She said the Federal Government should direct plant breeders/entomologists to develop new tomato varieties that could adapt to the Nigerian environment.

    “Tomato is a short duration crop that breeds fast; when an insect smells something in the plant that puts it away, it can’t feed on it.

    “If the gene from such hormones is put in tomato, the pest will not feed on it. That will be a lasting solution.

    “A cushioning solution will be when farmers grow their tomato in an insect screen environment, the insects can’t attack it.

    “Tomato can be produced anytime of the year. So, government should build screen houses for farmers,” Balogun said.

    Another expert, Dr Biodun Claudius-Cole, a Plant Pathologist at the university, said management of the disease should be done using combination of biosecticide method, resistant crops, among others.

    “Farmers need to practice good agricultural methods; they must have good land preparation as that manages soil burn, which is one of the problems of tomato.

    “They should also be encouraged with inputs and facilities that will help them produce tomato all year round.”

    She said the government should ensure that crops like tomatoes coming to Nigeria were quarantined before allowed into the country.

    Claudius-Cole said the government should also put necessary measures to control the disease in affected states to stop it from spreading to other places.

    An entomologist from the same University, Dr. Olajumoke Alabi, said farmers should use insecticide in a systemic way, if they should use it at all.

    “We can use bio-control agents like nematode, augmentation to suppress the pest population, we can also use cultural control, whereby farmers uproot and destroy infected crops.”