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Tag: expert

  • Exhaust fume is highly poisonous, says expert

    Experts have warned of the danger in inhaling exhaust fume.

    In an  interview with The Nation, a chest and respiratory physician at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Dr Cyril Chukwu, said exhaust fume contains carbon monoxide which is very poisonous.

    Carbon monoxide, he said, can harm the body by reducing oxygen delivery capacity of haemoglobin.

    The don said carbon monoxide is a very deadly gas, adding:”When it is  excessive in the body, it can lead to death.”

    He said fumes affect haemoglobin, which carries oxygen from the human respiratory organs to the rest of the body.

    Haemoglobin, he said, releases the oxygen to allow aerobic respiration to provide energy to power the functions of the organ.

    According to him, carbon monoxide is difficult to detect because it has no smell, taste or colour, adding that it can be inhaled without realising.

    Besides, the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning can occur at any time, in any home or enclosed space.

    The specialist said carbon monoxide poisoning is just like putting someone under the water, the ability to breathe could be reduced till the person would not be able to breathe again.

    He advised that generating sets should be used in well-ventilated area, adding that they should be sited far away from the window.

    “There was a case of a family that put on a generating set indoors and slept in the same room. In the morning, they were all dead. On no account should anybody put a generating on in a room and sleep in the same room.

    “The exhaust fumes on the road are not as dangerous as that of generating set because the road is not enclosed so carbon monoxide spreads round and it is not concentrated,” he said.

    Consultant Physician and Clinical Head, Medical Emergency, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Dr Tunmise Bamisile, said apart from carbon monoxide, exhaust fumes contains up to 40 other gases.

    According to him, it contains carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and benzene hydrocarbons, among others.

    Describing carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, he said, they are dangerous gases because “they are toxic and carcinogenic”.

    Moreover, incomplete combustion occurs when the supply of air or oxygen is poor.

    Bamisile said: “If the body contains 10 units of carbon monoxide and 15 units of oxygen, the carbon monoxide will still overpower the oxygen, and as such, denies the body of metabolism.”

    Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), he said, is one of the most dangerous diseases that can result from breathing in excessive exhaust fumes in an enclosed space.

    He said COPD is the fourth commonest source of death which makes exhaust fumes very dangerous to take seriously.

     

  • Expert condemns wrong deployment of ICT

    A professor of Computer Science, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife Rotimi Adagunodo, has expressed displeasure at the wrong deployment of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), especially for plagiarism. This practice, Adagunduro alleged, is common among students in tertiary institutions nationwide.

    Adagunodo delivered the inaugural lecture of the School of Technology Lagos State Polytechnic Ikorodu with the theme: Information Communications Technology (ICT) for Changing the Quality of Research and Development.

    “It is not supposed to be like that” Adagunodo protested. ‘You are supposed to access the materials, read through them, digest them, and then induce from them instead of turning out document replete with incompatible and irrelevant data,” he said.

    “It is your responsibility as a researcher to decipher if the data you have before you is relevant, answers your research question or whether it can be contextualised,” he added.

    Adagunodo urged researchers to take advantage of professional software and packages in the conduct of their research and data processing, for accuracy and uniformity.

    He also urged governments to up their investment in research development and innovation, to ensure Nigeria’s full economic potential and development.

    He said policymakers should also de-emphasise reliance on resource-based economy and focus on knowledge-based economy through ICT, for greater prosperity.

    “Up till now, we cannot say we have entered into the group of developed nations because we still depend so much on oil.

    “We need to go back to research development and innovation, which can only be done in a knowledge-based or knowledge-driven environment. The deployment of ICT in Research, Development and Innovation (RDI); eventually, produces knowledge-based production system, and that is going to be the nucleus, the core of the knowledge-based economy.

    Earlier, the Rector, Mr Oluyinka Sogunro, said the lecture was timely, given the country’s current socio-economic challenges.

    “From Physics to Mathematics, to Medicine, scientific research is now impossible without the support of ICT facilities; and it provides the infrastructure for economic development,’’ Sogunro said.

    Dean, School of Technology Mr Olumide Metilelu also said:“The role of ICT in social and economic transformation cannot be over-emphasised, as it enables users to create access, manipulate and disseminate information particularly for changing the quality of research and development.’’

     

  • Expert charges youths on nation-building

    The National Director of Save The Children, Nigeria, Mr. Ben Foot has challenged Nigerian youths to rise to the task of rebuilding the ruins of the older generation with new skills, tact and moral lifestyle.

    Foot gave this charge at the 2015 Global Day of Action organised by Save the Children in collaboration with ONE.Campiagn.org, The Future Project and Disability Advocacy Centre in Lagos.

    According to him, the task of building a world fit for children is so urgent especially as the world continue to groan in war, epidemic and disasters.

    He said: “We have failed this generation. The future is not violence, or in the hands of inhuman politicians but is in the hands of young people who will look at the problems around them and say enough is enough.”

    Foot stressed that the new Sustainable Development Goals that would be decided upon by December by world leaders, is about children and they must be involved as they cannot be in the future they were never part of.

    The Save The Children boss also hinted that a summit tagged: ‘Finance our Future’, aimed at providing countries with the opportunity to give the final push towards getting their policy makers, and key players in the economy to attend the Financing for Development (FFD) conference coming up in Addis-Ababa.

    Echoing similar sentiment, Director of ONE Campaign.org, Edwin Ikhuoria said the commitments on international tax cooperation, development assistance and targeted spending toward those living in poverty are some of the issues that would be taken on board at the summit.

  • Expert urges judicious use of $2.1b World Bank grant

    Expert urges judicious use of $2.1b World Bank grant

    The Federal Government has been urged to use the $2.1 billion World Bank grant to Nigeria for the rebuilding of the North east zone devastated by the activities of Boko Haram insurgents, a Development Expert/Public Analyst, Mr. Benjamin Ogbalor, has said.

    The World Bank grant was sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Health Organisation (WHO), for the rebuilding of Nigeria’s North east region in terms of infrastructure and resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), who are now more than one million.

    But Ogbalor said with the grant, government is now in a vantage position to develop the region particularly now that the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents are in disarray with no territory and cohesion. He said emphasis should be on creating and encouraging entrepreneurs and the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that have the capacity to revamp the economy.

    While insisting that the grant must be used to stimulate the economic regeneration of the region and train people in vocations that would make them entrepreneurs, Ogbalor encouraged government to optimize outcome from the grant. He insisted that even war torn countries such as Iraq and Syria never stopped the production of oil.

    He advised government to create incentives in the North eastern part of the country to attract investors to respond to the challenges of rebuilding the region.

    He also urged government not to spread the grant thinly over several areas, noting that if that is done the impact of the grant will not be felt. He said agricultural sector should benefit largely, as the climatic conditions is best suited for it.

    “The impact of women and youth at the micro level is huge, their capacity to  optimize what they are doing is high because they support the family and lift families out  of poverty,” the public analyst added.

  • Why banks are not doing well, by expert

    Why banks are not doing well, by expert

    South African banks outperformed their Nigerian counterparts because they enjoy support from customers, the Chief Executive Officer, Ethics Institute of South Banks, Prof Deon Rossouw has said.

    He said unlike some Nigerian banks that are battling image crisis due to inability to meet the growing needs of customers, South African banks are not.

    He explained that good capital, turnovers, and profitability were the primary cause of the dominance which South African banks are enjoying, adding the secondary cause was the support from customers.

    He said indigenous banks were churning out impressive records, arguing that they have to improve on their customers rating before they could level up with banks from South Africa.

    According to him, the South African government is behind the successes recorded in the industry, urging the Federal Government to  take a cue from that.

    Rossouw, who is also a Professor of Philosophy from University Stellenbosch in South Africa, said the government was able to put the banks on their toes tough through its policies.

    He said: ‘’The South African government introduced a  scheme called Treating Customers Failure in the banking industry. The goal of the scheme is to bring banks, which fail to treat customers, to books. The financial service board in South Africa has been empowered to revoke the licence(s) of  banks, once they fail to handle customer cases properly. In order not to lose their licences, the banks have evolved guidelines that enable them to attend to customers’ needs well.”

    He said the idea had become a way of life in the country’s financial industry, adding that people would live with it for sometime.

    “Treating customers well has become  a rule rather than exception. It is part of our ways doing business. Little wonder that our banks in South Africa were rated above their pears in most performance indicators,” he added.

    He urged banks in Nigeria  to put in place mechanisms that would make customers have more confidence in them.

    He said when the banks and their customers operate like a family, it would be better for the industry and the economy.

     

  • How to treat impotence, by expert

    How to treat impotence, by expert

    Men  suffering from impotence also known as erectile dysfunction (ED) need not be ashamed of their condition.

    The disease can be treated with herbs, says Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nature Healing Alternative Dr Leye Popoola.

    He said though the disease is common among men as they advance in age, they often keep it secret.

    They should not, he advised, noting that a problem shared is a problem solved.

    Impotence, he said, is the inability of men to maintain erection during normal sexual activities.

    “This means somebody may have an erection, but he may not be able to discharge spermatozoa before erection will come down. The man may not also be able to have an erection at all,” he said.

    He identified andropause, which is men’s equivalent of menopause in women, lifestyles and medical problems as some of the causes of impotence.

    “As men age, they enter into andropause, which is similar to menopause in women. At that stage the sexual hormone, androgen reduces drastically in them. Similarly, the urge to have intercourse also reduce. This is why most old men often used some drugs to enhance their sexual prowess,” he said.

    He said most men who are diabetic often suffer from ED because they do not have proper blood circulation, particularly to their private part, toes and fingers.

    “In most diabetics, the blood circulation is cut off from most parts of the body and their male organs dysfunctions,” he added.

    Men with heart problems, he said, might experience impotence because the heart is the engine room of the body.

    Besides, once the heart is malfunctioning, proper blood circulation will be hampered.

    “Men who are suffering from Parkinson’s disease often experience ED. This is due to the nature of their ailment. They are always trembling. Also, men who have backache may not be able to consummate their marriage by having intimacy with their wives. Sexual activities are burdensome to them. Even when they have erection, they may still be incapacitated,” he said.

    He said smokers can experience the condition because of nicotine in the tobacco, and as such, they have constricted heart rate and smooth intercourse often become a problem.

    “So, most smokers usually end up with poor blood circulatory system. This predisposes them to high propensity to come down with ED,” he said.

    Popoola said men who are alcoholics can suffer ED.

    “When estrogen level in men rises in comparison with their testosterone, it can trigger ED,” he said.

    He explained that men can experience the condition as a result of the side effect of drugs they have ingested.

    High blood pressure (HBP) drugs, he said, are known to have effect on the male reproductive organ, adding: “Ulcer medication and anti-depressant drugs can also affect men’s potency. This affects men’s libido.”

    Prostate drugs, he said, can also make men become impotent.“This information is clearly written on the package or bottle of the drug. So, men suffering prostate enlargement may not be able to have intimacy with their wives again in their lifetime,” he said.

    The natural medicine practitioner said prostate can be addressed without having recourse to drugs as there are solution in natural endowments.

    Some sleeping pills, he said, can initiate poor libido because of their constituents.

    He continued: “People who have hypotension (low blood pressure) could come down with ED. Men experiencing low blood sugar may be unable to have proper erection. Low level of blood in men may hamper their sexual function.

    He urged men to always find out what is wrong with them before using drugs.

    He said regular consumption of balanced diet would supply men with the needed minerals and vitamins for sexual performance.

    “Men who take proper diet cannot experience low blood sugar or low level or blood as the case may be. Balanced diet will not allow them to suffer from ulcer, insomnia and depression.”

    Advising men, he said, smokers need to quit, alcoholics should reduce what they consume or stop it completely.

    “Men having backache should consult a doctor. They should eat balanced diet regularly. Men who are obese should exercise regularly. Also, 30 minutes of daily brisk walk is good for the body.

    They should use natural treatment, adding that a western herb known as yorinbe s good.

    “It increases blood flow to the male private organ. But it has side effects. It is not advisable for men having hypertension or HBP or even those with normal blood pressure are advised to use it sparingly or intermittently. It is not safe to use it without guidance.

    “Damiana is another herb often used by natural medicine practitioners. It is good for blood circulation, especially to the private part and it is safe to use by all ages with no side effects.

    “There is also ginko biloba, which also helps the blood circulatory system.

    Another herb is maca. It helps to energise the men for a better sexual intercourse. It can triple the sexual strength of men because it has the capacity to improve libido and boosts the immune system.

    Horny goat weed is another herb, which is often used to address the problem. It is used across the world.

    Among the Yoruba people, gboingboin is used by herbalists to treat impotence. It is an age-long therapy for ED.

    The herbs mentioned can be made into tea and taken twice daily by those suffering from the condition.

    The goingboin comes as a stick and it can be soaked in water and taken with tablespoon twice daily.

    Also, there is atapariobuko and egbo atorin, which are seen across Yorubaland. They are very potent in curing ED.  They do not have any known side effect.”

    He identified vitamins and minerals as immune boosters to enhance men’s sexual health.

    “Vitamin A is very good for maintaining an erection. Balanced diet is also important to the health of the prostate.

    “A healthy prostate leads to a high libido.Vitamin B complex is very essential for men’s virility. This vitamins helps the body to absorb food taken properly.

    “Vitamin C is also good as it repairs the body. It mops up the free radicals in the system.Vitamin E helps to produce the sexual hormones.

    “Zinc is very good because it promotes the health of the male organ,” he said.

    Popola is against the use of blue drugs also known as sex enhancer. “Many end up badly afterwards as result of heart attack of raised blood pressure,” he said.

    He said men with dysfuctional erection should consult their healthcare providers, stressing that self-medication may compound their problem.

    Tests, he said, should be carried out on suffers to detect the problem before initiating treatment.

    Moreover, appropriate diagnosing could make the problem a lot easier, he added.

  • Expert faults committee report on airlines’ , merger

    Expert faults committee report on airlines’ , merger

    An aviation expert, Olumide Ohunayo, has faulted the recommendation of the Ahmed Committee proposing  enhanced capitalisation  for indigenous carriers .

    Ohunayo, who is the head, Strategy of Zenith Travels, described increased recapitalisation for domestic carriers as mere documentation that will not resolve the myriad of challenges operators are grappling with.

    He said mere increase from N2.5 billion to N5 billion is not enough to enhance capacity for struggling carriers.

    Ohunayo also picked holes in the recommendations of the  Ahmed Joda Committee which proposed that debtor domestic carriers be taken over by government to  establish  a national carrier.

    He said:” The committee asked the Federal  Government  to  merge all airlines owing  the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON )  to transform into  a major carrier.

    “I do not  agree with  that submission because  the  alleged debt to asset ratio of debtor airlines  is obviously higher than their liabilities. Doing that   will not be appropriate.

    “Also I am not impressed with the management of  one of the domestic airlines by the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) the  airline rather than improve in services has been reducing  in operations and fleet with an abysmal staff strength.

    ‘’The resuscitating medication is not working.”

    Ohunayo said  AMCON should lookout for  other options such as   placing advertisement  for buyers or shopping for  turnaround airline experts.

    Such steps he said could  help the recovery process  before a merger arrangement could be put in place. He said: ”An outright merger  now  will be counterproductive.

    It would serve as  a subtle subsidy for families who in the past allegedly  mismanaged their airlines using funds from banks owned by Nigerians.”

    He also spared a thought for under utilization of some domestic routes calling on government to install air field lighting facilities at some airports to boost flight operations.

    He said:”The committee also wants the government to address the under -utilisation of routes, this is a good initiative if we can address this problem .The airlines are fixated on the trunk routes leaving other domestic routes to a flight or two per day.

    ”These famished routes can be improved upon if the Airport facilities are tweaked to extend operational hours,by drastically reducing charges and fees at such airports and by also giving interested airlines some Incentives.”

    He said it is the joint responsibility of the Federal and State government to attract flights to those airports.

    He said the Federal Government should take the lead. He said :”If we improve facilities and increase operational hours it will benefit our airlines, passengers and the economy at large.”

    On the recapitalisation proposal for domestic airlines , he said : The  committee also requested that the NCAA should enforce the capitalisation requirement of N2.5billion and  N 5billion, for domestic and international operators that are registered in Nigeria, within three months.

    “I disagree, we will continue to progress in error if the emphasis is on capitalisation.

     

     

  • Immunisation ‘ll ward off diseases, says expert

    Immunisation ‘ll ward off diseases, says expert

    Parents have been asked to build the immune system of their children to keep away infections.

    A paediatrician, Dr  Chinenye Ananti said immunisation could boost children’s immunity and protect them against diseases.

    Mothers, she said, should ensure that their children take all childhood killer diseases vaccines in order to stay healthy.

    The diseases, according to her  are preventable.

    She identified diseases that affect children under-five and infants to include diarrhoea, measles, tetanus, pertussis, fever, poliomyelitis, pneumonia, diphtheria, chicken pox and small pox. Others are Down’s syndrome, influenza, leukemia, mumps, rickets, tuberculosis and whooping cough, adding that, they can be threats to children’s lives.

    The paediatrician said Nigeria is at the verge of getting rid of some of the diseases, which include polio, stressing that immunisation has been proven to be a good way to getting rid of them.”

    Ananti said both Federal and state governments have been organising immunisation awareness programmes to educate the public on the importance of immunisation.

    “They also provided vaccines to hospitals and nurses have been mobilised to do a door-to-door immunisation on children and infants under-five. They distributed mosquito-treated nets to expectant mothers for free at hospitals and creation of health care centres,” she said.

    Dr Ananti said diseases can be prevented by keeping good hygiene.

    “Besides, environmental sanitation should be done regularly to ensure cleanliness,” she said.

    Nigeria, she said, can reduce the disturbing figures of infant mortality rate by creating awareness on immunisation and the various types of vaccines needed to keep children healthy.

    The government, she said, should make all the vaccines available, adding that some of them are quite expensive.

    “But they should be made available to the public. Also, ACT drugs should be made accessible,” she said.

  • Nigeria loses 40% of generated electricity to theft, says expert

    Managing Director, Frontier Oil and Gas Limited, Thomas Dada, has said 40 per cent of generated electricity in the country is lost to theft and that a lot of people who use electricity do not pay for it.

    He called for the regional distribution system, saying that part of the problem of the  sector is that there is huge amount of power loss due to the centralisation of the grid system as well as transmission.

    He said: “If we can address the centralisation of the grid system, by decentralising the transmission system to be regional rather than central, we should go back to regional distribution system and people can offload to another system if they got excess capacity in their region. Again, we need to stop electricity theft by prosecuting those who steal electricity, those who by-pass meters, and those who use it without paying for it.”

    According to him, these energy thieves are not only shortchanging the distribution companies but also the entire nation. He added that it is affecting everybody that has invested in the power sector

    Dada accused the workers of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) of complicity in the sabotage, adding that they are responsible for sending out estimated bills and colluding with customers to steal electricity.

    He said the DISCOs had inherited a terrible system from the old PHCN which he said had consequently created the enormous problems confronting the power sector.

    “When the DISCOs who are at the end of gas to power value chain are not making sufficient income, they are unable to make profit which implies, ultimately, that part of the value chain that is the gas producers who produce the gas that is used by the GENCOs to generate the power that is sold to the people, don’t make enough money,” he said.

    He said smart metering will address most of these lapses, adding that it will put in place discipline in the electricity use.

  • Expert urges continued search for oil in Chad Basin

    FORMER Lagos State Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Mr. Taofiq Tijani, has urged the Federal Government to continue its search for oil in the Chad Basin in spite of fruitless efforts that have gone into the exercise in the past.

    He told The Nation that there is possibility that oil would be found on the Nigeria’s side of the Chad Basin as oil is being produced on Chad’s side of the basin. He was optimistic that there might be oil reserves in the Basin, adding that with the increasing advanced technology, the reserves could be unlocked one day.

    He said: “I support the Federal Government to go back to the Basin because I believe that whatever they must have done there in the past is not exhaustive. If they have found oil on the other side of Chad, there is possibility that we will find oil in our own side too. The technology of exploration has improved. There are better technologies now to search for oil and if we can apply those new technologies, we might be lucky to find oil in our side of Chad. I support that they should go ahead and search for oil there.”

    Tijani also said if the Federal Government wants the oil and gas industry to be taken to the next level, it should make efforts to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). The passage will enable investors to bring in their money into the industry. The lack of exploration for new oil fields over the years has been as a result of absence of encouraging legislation.

    He said: “The Federal Government should quickly look at PB that is on the table and possibly examine the areas that are in contention, see whether it can extract those areas and get Bill passed. This is important because what the PIB will do is to rejuvenate the oil industry and encourage people to invest there.

    “There are some areas of the PIB that are in contention and that is why it has not been passed.  If they can just leave that out and debate that later, it will help the industry. They can take those areas that are easy and not in contention, and pass it so that we can get investors to come and operate in the oil and gas industry.

    “There are also areas in the legislation, which the new government needs not go back  to the National Assembly that they can do on the executive level to encourage participants, investors and people to put in money in that industry. Unless they put in money and invest and bring the entire industry back alive, I think we will just be losing ground. The exploration activities that have not increased is because they (the government) have not put the right legislation in place.”