Tag: Femi Kusa

i imagine that first lady Oluremi Tinubu is standing more solidly in spirit by her husband at this time than at any other. I hope, also, that the president is kitting his health well with the right kinds of food and drinks and, of course, food supplements for the brain, nervous system and the heart. For there is no doubt that the last two weeks or so have been the most stressful of his political career, challenging his indomitable spirit, astute intellect and the dependability of his body to wade through the blast furnace of international politics with a super power unscathed. I recall we discussed stress management tangentially when he was Governor of Lagos State in the early nineties, when I took Shakirat Adeoti to his office on a thank you visit. Although I have to recall that event for the purpose of a good testimonial for a leading Nigerian politician who is friend to christians and moslems alike, the stress load from the pay load of a Governor’s Office is nothing near the worries and burden of the President of a weak country against which a giant, super power nation has declared intent of war.

Shakirat Adeoti was a microbiology graduate from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) who, at 33, had bleeding cancers in both breasts. She lived with her father, 92, and mother, 50 at 13, Opeloyeru  Street, off Babs Animashaun area of Surulere, Lagos. When Governor Tinubu heard of her travails in The Comet newspaper, he sent her a cheque for N1 million to clear her medical bills. His wife, Oluremi, added N250,000 to the N1million and provided her family with raw food, cooking oil and sundry other things for their living convenience. I had been taking Shakirat to church on Sundays and mosques on Fridays and secondary school assemblies on Mondays, to raise money for her. Sometimes, we went to those schools in the company of Alhaji Razak Adedigba who was the Managing Editor of The Comet newspaper at that time. I would like to add that, about that time, Edith Ike Okongwu, a former Public Relations Manager of Guiness, who bore the first child of Gen. Yakubu Gowon out of wedlock when he was Head of State, lay languid with breast cancer in an oncology ward of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). Before she passed, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd) and Victoria, his wife, who took the place of Edith because he could not marry an Ibo during the war against Ibos, went to see her in hospital before she passed. Again, Governor Tinubu moved in compassion to help a dying person. He is a liberal moslem, his wife a liberal Christian pastor. They helped a dying Moslem girl and her distraught family, irrespective of their religion, and a Christian woman again irrespective of her faith. A hardened Moslem as President intent on annihilating christians would not permit that his wife be a Christian pastor and would not appoint Christian service chiefs and a Christian Inspector-General of Police! The generousity of Governor Tinubu and his wife, Oluremi, was not of “peculiar concern” to me at that my first and only meeting so far with him. What was of “peculiar concern” to me then were the stress lines I saw over his face and noticed in his voice. I would learn later from the then commissioner for Information and Strategy in Lagos State, who is now the Minister of Solid Minerals, Mr. Dele Alake, that Governor Tinubu hardly slept. He combined administration in daylight hours with political meetings at night. I did not know how to drive home the points I made about health better than by carrying coal to Newcastle, as they say. Newcastle is abundantly blessed with coal. So, why would I need to ship coal from Enugu colliery to Newcastle? That was what I did in a token obedience to one of The Laws of Nature, The Law of Balance, which demands healthy balance in “giving” when we “take”. So, I purchased some nutritional supplements for coping with stress and sent them to the Governor through The Comet’s State House Correspondent. At that time, I was the newspaper’s Editorial Director/Editor-in-Chief and had adopted Shakirat Adeoti and her parents to be looked after under an upcoming The Comet Cares Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO).

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The stress of Office Governor Tinubu encountered in Lagos is incomparable with what he must have gone through in the past 30 months in the hands of all kinds of mafias in the Nigerian economy. But all the mafias combined cannot compare to the on-going bombardment of Nigeria as “a country of peculiar concern” over killings of Christians in the North. Only a carefree Nigerian would say this is not an exceptional time for him or her as it would be for President Tinubu and the First Lady. I have not slept well for 48 hours. I have friends and family members who live in the North and are considering relocation to Lagos. Some who have money are making enquiries about property they can quickly buy or let. I guess many persons are bombarded with similar enquiries. The Army had probably found it unstrategic to fight the Northern insurgents and bandits with soldiers of Northern descent and had probably relied more on Southern soldiers to minimise the havocs of moles to strategy and effectiveness. Southerners whose children are in the Nigerian armed forces are restless and sleepless. Would Donald Trump try to do in the North what President George H.W Bush did in Panama in 1989 when American troops kidnapped the defacto ruler, Manuel Noriega, and sent him for trial in the United States on drug trafficking offences? In 1992, Noriega was jailed for 40 years with cuts to 30 years and later 17 years on account of good behaviour in prison! The U.S. says it has information on Nigerian financiers of Gboko Haram which it brands a terrorist organisation! The Noriega news was far far away, and we never thought such things or semblances of them could happen here.

Possible Nigerian Scenarios

Many people are wondering about possible scenarios.

1) Will Nigeria give American soldiers right of way to the North?

2) If prominent persons in the North are kidnapped by American soldiers, will that not overturn peace in the region? Will the Americans be able to handle the spill overs and not create a real religious crisis in the country?

3) Will China stand by or concede a share of the spoils of the Nigerian market to another country? Do the Chinese owe Nigerians their lives?

4) What if the Americans are coming for a do-or-die fight? How will they come in? By sea, with troops and aircraft carriers and through Lagos? Will many people not flee to their homeland and abandon the aborigens to their fate?

5) Will a Southern soldier lift a finger against the invaders? Will Northern soldiers, therefore, march down to engage the Americans in the South?

6) An American war anywhere leaves a bad taste in the mouth after, whether in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya. Will Nigeria be like them after?

We never know what may happen until events begin to unfold. Some of the countries on the Northern border who let in Sahelian invaders upon Nigeria, with the connivance of some Nigerians, have not only shut their borders but also barricaded them with military tanks and troops to prevent Nigerian refugee and escapee terrorist influxes into their countries!

President Tinubu

I pity President Tinubu because the buck stops in his hands. This problem began not with him. Yet, he has carefully navigated the Northern mines fields, mindful of the explosions a careless step may cause, without losing sight of the goal.

National Assembly

The National Assembly had been too slow in segregating the various political zones into semi-independent regions to free the Federal Government of needless administrative pressure. In my widow’s mite contribution made in this column and elsewhere on political restructuring of Nigeria, I suggested that each of the six regions be permitted to elect a Governal General to govern it like a mini President, building upon existing structure in the regions, while the Federal Government is limited to Defence, Currency, Immigration, Customs, Foreign Affairs etc. Each region will keep 40 percent of the resources in its dormains and all local governments 20 per cent while the Federal Government, for now, takes 40 per cent. We may think President Trump is garrulous. But can we any longer when only two weeks ago Amotekun  announced a clear and present danger in Ondo State, one of the six South Western Yoruba states? Amotekun, the unarmed vigilante response to banditry and kidnapping, mentioned that 40 Yoruba men had been recruited by AK 47 bearing Fulani herdsmen and paid N150,000 per person every month to work for them. These 40 men had even been trained to bear AK 47. Wasn’t this a “clear and present danger” ?

How it all began

This problem is believed to have begun with the Obasanjo Administration, hidden at that time around the right to Islamic jurisprudence. Obasanjo passed it to Yar’Adua, and Yar’Adua to Jonathan. The world’s powers assembled in Nigeria then to destroy this nagging bed bug. But the North told Jonathan the bandits could not be called terrorists because they were their children , and almost every family could be bereaved if the international army struck. Why could they not speak to their children who were killing and setting up parallel governments in the forests to tax communities and farmers, causing food shortages, unaffordable food prices and probably famine in some circumstances? To worsen matters, some state governments have been reported to be negotiating peace with the terrorists. Americans have no quarter for terrorists. From their perspective, if Nigeria becomes a terrorist haven, terrorism could raise its head again, upsetting the laborious work done in various regions of the globe to subdue it.

Questions begging for answers

We should not deceive ourselves in this travail. Why was Borno State the focus of Boko Haram at the start of the proceedings? Why have communities in Benue and Plateau become targets? Because they are flowing more towards the South and abandoning the North? What is the dominant religion of the states? Was the Bornu Kanem empire ever conquered by the Jihadists? It is true Boko Haram, which translates as Western education is poison, targeted niches of Western education, that is christians and later defocused to attack and to murder without reason worshippers on open ground Jumat services and in mosques. The Islamic states of West Africa is unambiguously anti Christian. The burning of christians and moslems believed to denigrate Islam in no small measure added to the conception of a Northern Nigeria intolerant of the religion of other persons.

President Goodluck Jonathan literally speaking fled from the North when he said he was “Not a Soldier” implying he did not wish to fight the Bokoharam. That was why some of his critics thought he deliberately abandoned the North to self- destruction, a charge he has debunked.

Muhammadu Buhari

Many people believe he caused the trouble because he always said he would make “the country ungovernable” if he did not become president. There is no palpable evidence as yet in the public square that he brought in the Fulani herdsmen from the Sahel who are now tormenting Nigeria.

 Some persons have wondered why he did not disarm them if he did not approve of them. To this, I always assume that he was held captive by the radical North who wanted to balloon the Fulani Population for vote power that would always give the North permanent control over the country.

President Buhari gave credence to this supposition with his half hearted backing for Bola Tinubu even on campaign grounds. What, I always wondered, was the meaning of “Vote For Your Conscience”. Still, I do not think this is sufficient evidence to catch him by the wrist. For I do not think a Christian Southern president could have done with El Zaki what he did to him in the face of the law supporting this malevolent Islamic disciple of Iran. It was in respect of this case that the concept developed of THE STATE is BIGGER THAN THE LAW.

THE CAN

If an armed gang is in your home in the dead of the night and the police won’t come, would you not gladly accept help from another or a friendlier gang? It is a person whose life is not palpably endangered who refers to the CONSTITUTION. Even lawyers and judges flee at the sounds of bombarding guns. A man who has lost all members of his family doesn’t understand SOVEREIGNTY. He wants release, vengeance. Although the Bible speaks against vengeance seeking or taking and the Lord Jesus forgave His murderers on the Cross, the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) are human, perhaps not even fully evolved into human beings. They made so much noise about MOSLEM-MOSLEM ticket as if LATEEF Jakande and RAFIU JAFOJO, once Governor and Deputy Governor in Lagos, were not moslems and ran the best state government. How could they have so easily forgotten that MOSHOOD KASHIMAWO ABIOLA and Babagana kingibe who won the later annuled Presidential election that was the fairest in Nigeria was not another joint Moslem ticket. We must thank Rev. Fr Kukah, one of the lone voices in Christianity, who dismissed the Christian genocide claims of CAN. Dr William Folorunso KUMUYI of the Deeper Life Church, was reported to have made a statement in favour of Nigeria which the church later refuted. General Overseers of the big churches are keeping silent as if a shaky firmament that will not not hurt members of their congregation if it crashes. Religious highway men on radio are busy promising prosperity and dictating bank account numbers as if The Almighty Creator arbitrarily dispenses His blessings on creatures who do not deserve them.

YOUNG NIGERIANS

Their displeasure with Nigeria is palpable. They willingly support President Trump. They believe their country had failed them. They probably do not know that President John F Kennedy in his inaugural address on 20 January 1961 told Americans: “ THINK NOT OF WHAT YOUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU, BUT WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY” . President Trump may be coming for WHAT HE CAN DO FOR HIS COUNTRY. He is probably focused on Nigeria’s huge lithium deposits which America needs to grow its economy. Elon Musk has come here several times for an export licence. Nigeria said no, set up a company here and export the products to America. Young Nigerians see their country as a blast furnace and America as Eldorado . President Trump may wish to edge China out of Nigeria’s market. What would that mean for Nigeria’s merchants? America doesn’t deal with people like them.

THE NORTH.

It has always been the problem of Nigeria or its sick baby. It denied the Government the political will to clear the insecurity mess it causes. When the Army managed to defeat some insurgents, they were not joyfully prosecuted, if they were at all. In the end, we are told they have “repented” ,have undergone psychotherapy and recruited into the armed forces. Hence, they became moles and endanger the lives of our troops. Now, the chicken has come home to roost … So, we should expect that the North would expect President Tinubu, to protect them. They know America knows them…

PRESIDENT TINUBU

There he goes, but not as a sacrificial lamb or martyr. He is a strong willed and street wise man with the tinge of heroism in his temperament. On top of that, he is courageous, strong willed, street wise and gifted as well with native Nigerian wisdom. Psychological war does not break him. He carries deep within the grains of diplomacy from his culture. He knows what to give and when to, and what to not take.

OUR HEALTH

I submitted a different column last Sunday, but had to write this one all through Monday night to Tuesday dawn when the crisis thickened. Many of us give too much of ourselves to our country. We have had sleepless nights, skipped heartbeats, experienced fear and anxiety since this trouble thickened. We may be close to brain questions, elevated blood pressure, elevated blood cholesterol, nervous system challenges, and other related health blues. For the President, first lady and cabinet, everyone who came to sleep over this “peculiar concern” is missing heart beats or rising blood cholesterol and hypertension, I suggest the following food supplements to be added to the diet immediately

BRAIN

Lecithin, Gingko biloba, Gotu kola, ginseng, Omega 3 fatty acid, magnesium threonate, co enzyme Q 10 or ubiquinol.

STRESS MANAGEMENT

Lavender, valerian root, kava, Ashwaghandah, chamomile, passion flower, Gingko biloba

NERVES

Lemon balm, high dosage Vitamin B Complex,

HEART, BLOOD QUESTIONS

Wheat grass, mixed tocopherols, selenium, chlorophyll-2, cayenne or black pepper, regenerating drink, CO Q 10 or ubiquinol. Although Nigeria has become a concern in the thinking of the American Presidency, many Nigerians are still confident to say ALO IRE O, ABO IRE O. (Goodness shall follow you to America and return with you).

For how long will the battle rage over whether sachet alcohol can be sold in Nigeria’s motor parks? In less than one month, the ban on the sale of sachet alcohol in motor parks is the second major crack down on soft plastic food packaging. The producers say the ban would cause them about N4 trillion,  harm their business or kill them, and erase about five million jobs. Sachet alcohol is sold not only in motor parks, but everywhere imaginable, and patronised especially by young persons who find in it a cheap means of “highing up” and creating social storms.The government of Lagos State and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) are up in arms against soft plastics food packaging for different reasons. For the government, the trylofoam or “take away” food packs constitute environmental and health nuisance. NAFDAC says alcohol sale in motor parks intoxicates drivers and endangers the life of road users.

The first part of this series pointed out crude petroleum as the origin of plastics and suggested that when they are heated, petroleum residue in them leach into the food and drinks stored in them.  Reference was made to baby feeding bottles, plastic plates and cutlery, water bottles, palm oil and “ogogoro” stored in plastic containers, over-head plastic water storage tanks and plastic pipes buried in the earth, biscuits, sweets, chewing gum, condoms and many more. The bottom line was that these petroleum residues may end up in the blood in the brain and in other organs, causing health havoc, including mental health challenges often mistaken for lunacy or insanity. Many of these conditions are approaching or have arrived at near epidemic proportions, and raising questions about whether a relationship exists between their numbers and the upsurge in plastic consumption.

Since that publication last Thursday,  February 15, 2024, there has been an announcement on a Lagos radio station that air pollution has been associated with an increasing wave of suicide in Nigeria. Air pollutants such as lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury from the petroleum residues in traffic exhalt must be leading culprits.  In due course, this column will strive to differentiate lunacy from possession, from which many persons  may be suffering. Only few Nigerian neurologists, such as Dr. Abayomi Aiyesimoju and some general practitioners, appreciate the difference. I am acquainted, also, with some psychologists and psychiatrists who understand the conception of possession by earth bound human souls and can deal with it. Better still   is the understanding and healing capacity in Nigeria’s Traditional Medicine (NTM). Last week, I suspected Possession in a criminal act that was announced in a radio news bulletin in Lagos. Somewhere in the country, a motorist drove against the traffic in what we call “ONE-WAY” driving in Nigeria, a serious traffic offence which, in some states, could warrant mental health investigation of the suspect. A traffic policeman stopped the motorist. In the twinkle of an eye, however, the motorist reached out for petrol stored in a plastic container he kept in the vehicle, opened it, poured it on the policeman and then lit a match to set the law enforcer on fire! The Policeman died agonisingly. This was a clear case of Split Personality which  may be more of possession than lunacy and had various variants – some calm, some aggressive, depending on the earth bound soul which may be struggling to take possession of the physical body from the rightful owner. The motorist recognised what he did, and fled. In traditional medicine, the healing therapy for “possession”, which his action resembles, is from the body to the soul “through the right kinds of foods and drinks”to improve blood composition and radiation or voltage, and from the soul to the body for the same purpose through engagements in “positive thinking and joyful activities. (this subject will be addressed in more details in future).

I am sorry for the sachet alcohol market.  It will lose a huge captive customer base in motor parks nationwide. I am sorry for NAFDAC too. It will rid the motor parks of sachet alcohol alright, but can it effectively police all the bus-stops where dislodged sellers of sachet alcohol may now be meeting their customers? This is a serious battle with no end in sight, in my view.

Sachet alcohol is too tempting to give up. It is cheap. It is readily available. The producers of all kinds of alcohol are scrambling over one another in the market with colourful designs and appeal. Passenger bus drivers and bus conductors in Nigeria virtually live on it for stamina to engage their herculean tasks of pursuing “delivery money”, chasing after passengers, beating their competitors, overcoming the Police and other traffic agents and outsmarting the control of their own trade union. Accidents often occur as a result. Policemen on duty, too, may be  high-up on sachet alcohol. Who on a cold night would kiss his wife good-bye and head for the office and, without any pep up, bear arms in pursuit of armed robbers? In the newsroom, only few teetotalers such as Lade Bonuola and  Eluem Emeka Izeze may not have touched the sachet alcohol in their career. In the newsroom, I already knew of the dangers of alcohol in sachets and avoided it. My favourite was  Baileys. I drank it from the bottle. I do not know how Mr. Olumhense, of Night Shift in those days, got to know it was my favorite drink. Night shift was the cooling spot for governors and the high and mighty of the society. I was not a patron,although I lived about 500 meters away. What took me there was Mr. Gbenga Omotosho’s bachelor’s night. I stopped over from work at about 2am for just about an hour or two. Mr. Olumhense filled my table with several of the largest size of Baileys and gave the gate men instruction to not let me out. It was a hilarious night. All the who was who among the spinsters of The Comet newspaper were there. Their Editor was getting married and their Editor- in-Chief was in attendance. They made mow. That night reminded me of my boyhood days. I danced all through the night with the young women in groups, returning to the table only to fill up and return to the dance floor. By 7am, Mr. Olumhense let me go.  I went home, only to bathe, change clothes, get to into the car and drive off to the office. Baileys was also the favourite drink of my wife. Whenever we had a storm and I went to work without saying good bye, I was sure to receive a telephone call early in the evening, announcing that a bottle was chilling in the fridge. That meant she wanted to make up and  a bottle could be downed in the night over sweet nothings.

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Mouth and gum

In the 1980s, I joined the vogue of dental scaling and polishing of teeth. I was warned that I might lose six teeth if I did not fill them up. I stopped the young dentist when I realised he was drilling my teeth, not resurfacing the wear. Mercury is one of the most poisonous heavy metals on earth. Hundreds of millions of us world-wide have it in our mouths. It vaporises especially under heat. Who does not eat hot food or drink hot tea? A German conference exposed the dental industry swindle, and many patients sued their dentists. Medicine immediately switched over to Plastic Amalgams only to discover this is no better either. Vaporisation affects the gum and may visit the eyes. Thus, life-long Detoxification may be the answer to Gingivitis and Pyhorea (tofoth inflammation) and gum disease. Imagine a war in the teeth, root canals and gums to which toxins from Take-Aways are added!

This reminds me of Dr. Fafure, a Medical Laboratory Technologist who brought to the table a few decades ago, a proprietary product called Papiteeth. When one of my female colleagues was to undergo root canal surgery for ailing teeth but had no money and was scouting for herbal remedies, I told her the one I had expired five years before then. She took it and used it and had no need for the surgery.  I, too, need Papiteeth today, but  cannot find Doctor Fafure, a fellow  member of the National Council of Physicians of Natural Medicine (NCPNM) . 

Esophagus

The rate of esophageal cancer is growing. The causes may be different from those of other cancers, central to which must be free radicals, toxins, acidosis and fungi among others. I remember, two persons, Mrs. Florence Fusi, 57, and a Personal Assistant to Babatunde Fashola as Governor of Lagos State. Mrs. Fusi’s weight had crashed to about 38kg when Simeon Ekor, introduced her to me. He would later develop cancer of the foot from which he passed on despite the amputation of the leg from below the knee. Mrs. Fusi could not eat or drink water. Her diagnosis kept indicating esophagitis (inflammation of the esophagus). I told her to ask her doctors to be sincere with her. They wanted to bore a hole from the abdomen to the stomach and insert a plastic tube through which she could feed  liquefied food. They said if she could make 80kg, they would remove bad portions of the esophagus and replace it with a healthy portion of her intestine. She objected. I persuaded her to agree. Her meals were well chosen to include easily assimilable proteins and bone marrow meals which we obtained from New Zealand. Her weight hit 70kg, but cancer cells may have dropped into the stomach to cause such excruciating pain which led to chemotherapy from which she passed on. I suspect the plastic tube insert worsened the pain. The stomach must have considered it something to be digested and over produced hydrochloric acid and enzymes necessary for this purpose.  The gentleman was luckier. He was thin and often wore three tops for cold. He was seeing doctors in England and helping himself with nutritional supplements in Lagos. His favourites were Calamus Root, Wheatgrass, Graviola,  SlipperyElm, Vitamin  C, Spirulina, etc. I was in the office of my neighbour, Mrs. Bukola  Azeez, CEO of  Budget Travel, when he came on a visit one day. I did not recognise him. He wore a beautiful suit and had filled out. I had to be re-introduced to him!  Some colon cancer patients do not make it, despite complete nutrition changes and Alkalisation.

The liver

This is the most important organ for detoxification in the body. It is now known that no cancer can take root anywhere in the body if the liver functions optimally. All toxins pass through it to be broken down.

It must be protected to do this job well. Researchers did a good job in their studies of Hepa-protectives (liver-protecting substances). In some experiments, three groups of animals were fed with Carbon Tetrachloride, a terrible liver-damaging chemical. The first group was unprotected. All animals in the group died. The second group was fed the poison and mikthistle,liver protecting herb. simultaneously, the second group was fed the poison a Milk Thistle, a liver-protecting herb. They fell ill but not many died. In the third group, which was on Milk Thistle before they were fed the poison, none of the animals died. Milk Thistle won its reputation as a Hepa-protective.

Many persons who are exposed to petroleum and other toxins in take-away food packaging and other plastic poisoning do not know about Milk Thistle and do not regularly protect their liver against any form of danger. Thus, the liver may function sub-normally and, over a period of time, toxins which escape detoxification may aggregate in weak organs and cause havoc. The havoc is often seen in endocrine glands.

We now know of many Hepa-protectives, including Jerusalem Artichoke, Carqueja, Dandelion, Burdock root and Maria Treben’s  Swedish Bitters.

Thaumatococcus Danielli

 This is a great hepa-protective leaf in which many Africans cooked their food or wrapped them for hundreds of years before the advent of soft plastics in food packaging. This is the great, old healing leaf our forebears in Nigeria cooked and ate Agidi (Igbo) eko (Yoruba) moin- moin or Oole (Yoruba) and fufu. I did not know it had medicinal value until I had my last child at Duro Solaye Hospital on Allen Avenue Ikeja in Lagos.

  My children came with neonatal jaundice. In this condition, the baby’s liver was too weak to clear the yellow factor, Bilirubin, in the blood as red blood cells break down. Over the years, I had known how to help the baby through the mother’s breast milk.  I remove from her bed side cupboard all carbonated drinks with sugar in them.  I dodged the ever watchful eyes of that great Paedetrician,  Dr. Egejuru, and  the nurses to give my wife liver-strengthening herbs which she would pass through breast milk to the baby. The drinks were well diluted for baby tolerance. Three beds away was a woman whose baby had three exchange blood transfusions (EBTs). That meant the baby’s  polluted blood was substantially removed and replaced with cleaner blood.  I couldn’t help her out because we were in a hospital environment where only the doctor’s protocols could be used without queries. She sought the discharge of her baby. To everyone’s surprise and joy, her baby made the first antenatal clinic, one of the most robust. What happened? In her village, Epe, the elders boiled Thaumatococcus  Daniellii leaf   for the baby to drink and for bathing. The yellowing all over the body cleared. I did not pay serious attention to this information for years, but gave it some thought only if I heard of a sickle cell challenged person in crisis, especially when jaundice had set in and the liver was inflamed and painful. I told them to do what this woman did, and they returned to thank me. About five years ago, I researched Thaumatococcus Daniellii and had a shocker. It was a liver-protecting leaf which helps even alcohol-damaged livers to recover.  It was used for food packaging not only in Nigeria but in several African countries as well. Our forebears were wise. They worked with Mother Nature. We are foolish because we depend only on the intellect which is limited to space and time. Otherwise, how could we have been eating toxins in plastic with food while we have medicinal leaf for food wrapping at our beck and call. Thanks to Mrs. Comfort Obayuana, a.k.a Madam flower of health ways, who helped me to make the first powder products of this leaf.

Today, Nena Uche is no longer with us for her to see how the copy which challenged her cub reporter investigative Journalism skills had finally seen the light of day. Nothing is lost in CREATION. Every thought, word (spoken or written) and deed is a seed which sprouts, germinates, flowers and bears fruits in the fullness of time.

The intestine

Colon cancer is almost as common nowadays as breast and prostate gland cancers. The intestine, especially the colon, is about the most punished of the organs by toxins. It is therefore, not surprising that Mother Nature devotes between 70-75 percent immune energy to this region. To help the intestine, the liver must be helped to produce enough bile to mop up soluble poisons and possess soluble and insoluble fiber to help flush them out. A fiber-free diet may encourage accumulation of toxins in the colon. Green leafy vegetables are a  good source of fiber. My favourites are Slippery Elm, Chia Seed, Oregano Leaf, Pawpaw Leaf, Water Leaf, Orange Peel, Banana Peel, Plantain Peel, Baob Leaf and Flak Seeds.

Battle cry

Weaning a baby off breast milk can be a difficult task. That is why the Take-away business sector is up in arms against the ban, asking for more time and sentimentally warning about job losses. Have the business leaders in this sector wondered if their profits are causing cancer deaths? Are they saying some more persons should die while they wind up their businesses? Can they not accept business as a risk? They had it good while public ignorance lasted. I am told China produced Take-aways for the Nigerian market. In the 1990s, I was aware that China objected to Aluminium Foil package for food and developed a bio-degradable option from the cover of maize, which is thrown away in Nigeria. There are wise Nigerians, who grind them into powder and use as fertiliser for crops. We have 29 research institutes in Nigeria. It is surprising that none of them has come up with how the maize covers can be utilised.

Intestinal problems can be difficult to deal with because they may end up as cancers. Nevertheless, there are several herbs which may offer useful therapy if trouble comes. Among them are Slippery Elm, Psylum Husk, Chia Seed, Calamus Root,  Pau’ d’Arco, Cayenne Pepper and Bitter Leaf.