I have just been acquainted with a father of six who flees from the bedroom to the bathroom almost every night, his wings dropped and his spirit depressed because his doctors appear unable to help him. You may wonder: What have Labour Leader Joe Ajaero and former Kogi Governor Yahaya Bello got to do with nightly failure of Romeo and Juliet affairs in another man’s bedroom? It is all about stress in the Nigerian economy which is making almost everything, everywhere, comatose.
When doctors cannot readily tell the cause of a medical problem, they say it is Psychosomatic (in the mind) and of Idiopathic (unknown) origin. My new acquaintance said he had been told this for months and wondered if two proprietary plant medicines he read about in one of my Facebook posts (@ johnolufemi kusa) could be of any help to him. These medicines have exciting names. I am not going to dwell on them today beyond saying that they are Long Jack and re-fire. Long Jack appears designed for overcoming limping and Re-Fire for reloading of the rifle for another fire work.
About two weeks ago, a woman in her 50s had a stroke which defied all the popular trappings of hypertension, blood clots, calcifications in the brain, atherosclerosis, diabetes etc. Just about then, a father of six, four of them of his gender, said he had lost so much steam he seriously felt concerned for his marriage. He has not hung his boots, but his libido was on the canvass, his turgidity virtually gone and he despaired a lot in the bedroom. Even when he managed to try to prove he had not become a cold fish, he soon discovered to his dismay his body was merely responding to urinary urgency.
Once he was done with voiding in the small room, he was flat out. This man said, that being unable to help him so far, his hospital visits have begun to bore his doctors. This may very well be one of those psychosomatic problems doctors say have idiopathic origins when they cannot track them beyond the mind.
For understandable reasons, I have played down the language and anxiety of this man, and I have begun a conversation with him. As many men face similar sexual tribulations in the bedroom, I will share some of our discussion here, before I move on to what I said I suspected may be the outset of a new season of psychosomatic diseases in the making. Can our friend be under stress…psychological, financial, environmental (air pollution, noise etc), food poisoning (additives, heavy metals, estrogen from poultry egg, chicken and cow milk), bedroom terrorism (when a dis-satisfied wife bravely strikes the sharp edge of the knife with her knuckles) etc?
We cannot avoid stressors and their triggers. A marriage may not be a bed of roses that is made in Heaven. House rent, like school fees or feeding allowance, may be a problem. One’s job may constantly be on the line. What of the upkeep of old parents, of other family obligations? How well are the children fairing educationally? Is Madam a nagging wife? Literally speaking, there are a thousand and one obstacles a man must overcome everyday when he is on his feet before he retires to the bedroom at night, especially if the couple shares one room. There may be nothing wrong coming under stress once in a while, and for short periods. Mother Nature had provisions for that. Different organs make and pour what we may call anti-stress chemicals into the blood circulation that are right for the occasion.
Additionally, our bodies are wired with two major nervous systems which originate in the brain from about 100 billion nerves cells called neurons.The first is the Central Nervous System (CNS). The second is the peripheral nervous system (PNS). The CNS, which comprises the neurons and the spinal cord, controls our voluntary actions, such as sitting, talking, standing, running, boxing, walking etc.The peripheral system branches from the spinal cord into all tissues and organs, bringing signals or messages from the brain and taking feedback from them to the brain. This system subdivides into the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PSNS). Together, they form the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), which is parallel to the CNS. None of us would be alive or able to do anything without our nerves.
Many of us know little about the ANS. It deals with activities we cannot control such as digestion, breathing, detoxification, immunity, libido and sexual response etc. As stated earlier, the ANS sub divides into the (a) SNS and (b) PSNS. The latter two are crucial for overcoming the havoc of stress. The SNS really sympathises with us. When we are terrorised, it provides us with the “Fight or Flight” fuel or energy, and courage. We confront a gun-man if we have the guts, or flee from him. The SNS shuts down digestion, urination, libido, causes anorexia nervosa (an eating disorder), while its quickens the heart and enlarges blood vessels to supply the muscles with more blood, glucose and oxygen for “fight or flight”. In the bedroom, we can admit inadequacies and, like a man, face the consequences. One woman’s poison is another’s meat. There will always be someone whose standards we surpass.
Mother Nature does not intend the SNS to be at work for too long in any condition, otherwise some havoc may arise. Do the Police stay on perpetually in a household they came to free from armed robbers? The SNS is expected to soon give way to the PSNS. This is the cleaner of the rubbish outcomes of a “war”. Unfortunately for many persons, the SNS stays on at work for too long, causing damage. One organ we should always pity and rescue from the stressors is the Adrenal Gland. There are two of them. One is located at the top of each kidney. The Yoruba say Ohun to ba oju ba imu (That which affects the eye, affects the nose). Among others reasons, the adrenals exist for removing stress from the system. Thus, they produce stress hormones for this purpose. In their work, they are like the shock absorbers of a motor vehicle. When the vehicle is driven over bumpy roads for too long, the shock absorbers wear out or are damaged.
Similarly, the adrenals may become overworked, weakened, fatigued and burnt out. In this situation, the brain decides whether to let the ravaging go on and kill the system or to call in reinforcement for the adrenals so the system can go on living. The brain always decides on the side of life. It mobilises Sex Hormonesfrom the genitalia for conversion into stress hormones to save the adrenals and ours live.
This saves the system from further ravaging via stress, but leaves the genitalia without Libido, Turgidity – two important elements of all of male sexual virility. What happens to men in this regard also happens to women. How to use diet and nutritional plant medicines to overcome the loss of sex hormones and other causes of the libido challenge will be our next conversation.
Other triggers
Our friend is now aware he has to tackle stress and other triggers or causes of erectile dysfunction (ED), which may include hormonal imbalance, heavy metal toxicity, blood circulation blockages between the heart and the penil shaft, and nervous system redundancy, among others. Regarding hormonal imbalance or low levels of testosterone, the male hormone, some men have more of the female hormone, estrogen and prolactin, in their bodies than their wives or spouses have in theirs. This may be because they are under- producing testosterone from inadequate dietary or nutritional support for their testes or because they eat more of foods produced with agricultural estrogen inputs such as poultry eggs, chickens, cow milk or cheese. The feed of the chickens is fortified with estrogen to make them lay eggs almost every day by over stimulating their ovaries. This is unnatural. The same is done to cows for their milk. The estrogen enters the egg, chicken flesh and the milk and the cow meat. Even women who consume much of such stuff may easily become estrogenated, that is suffer from hormonal imbalance, period pains, pre-menstrual syndrome and infertility.
The bodies of many of us are laden with heavy metals such as mercury, lead, and cadmium from food, water and air. We do not use nutrition to remove them. Omo ina ni a n ran si ina, the Yoruba say (it is the child of the fire we send after fire). Heavy metal poisoning may cause cancer. It may also impair nerve function. If a man sees a nude woman beside him, and the eyes dutifully tell the brain and the brain sends out the relevant messages for necessary action, what would happen if the hormones and the nerves cannot perform their functions? Their involvement is critical to success in the four-stage response to resolution. Even if the heart beats faster with excitement and pumps out more blood to fill the penile shaft and cause erection and turgidity with staying power, but the blood vessels are blocked and gradually shut down on the way due to inadequate nerve flow, isn’t all the effort a waste of time? All these and more were discussed with our friend. In later conversations when he would be advised of dietary and other measures that should make him overcome the challenges, the foregoing should help his condition. So will a discussion of the The Second Chakra and yet another quantum energy medicine support.
Ajaero, Labour, Yahaya Bello and the rest of us
This subhead is an offshoot of the headline above. What business do Joe Ajaero and Yahaya Bello have in the bedroom travails of a father of six?
Actually, that was the question in my mind until I remembered how political stress almost mangled the brain of an airline passenger heading from Lagos to Abuja just before May 19, last year. Like someone in stupor, he rose from his sit, yelling at other passengers: “What are you people doing here when Tinubu is about to be sworn in as President?” Even today, it is apparent that many persons still cannot accept that Tinubu became the President of Nigeria, in which case they may be undergoing psychosomatic affliction from an unrelenting SNS.The 2023 general elections were about the hottest and most dangerous in Nigeria’s history from several parameters. We barely had respite in the first year after inauguration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President. It would appear, that, from now on, the stage is being set for the General Elections campaigns of 2027 even if the electoral umpire has not flagged it off.
Joe Ajaero
There is no doubt, any more, that he is gunning for President, Vice President or Governor if he misses the President. His weapon is the firestorm economy and the belief of many workers that they need a mountainous salary driving in bus loads to get by. They do not wish to learn from the lessons of Nigerian history that more money does not necessarily solve money problems. Accordingly, Joe Ajaero is pressuring the Federal Government to pay the least paid worker N615,000 every month. That is a whole lot in a minimum wage basket. I guess everyone knows the least paid worker in Nigeria is the Messengers (Office Assistant/Janitor/Cleaner). Karl Marx may have been right when he said Religion is the opium of the masses.
Today, I guess he would say Money is the opium of the masses. Is religion not merely their access road to miracles, which would bring money? If the messenger and cleaner earn N615,000 every month, how much will a General Manger or a Director or the Chairman agree to earn?
The poor are likely to flock after castles that are built in the air for them as Paradise on Earth. Joe Ajaero has told us of how a family of four persons, for example, can hardly survive on N615,000 a month as Living Wage for the least paid worker. He made serious blunder, though in his analysis which many persons who should stop and correct him have let go, and this is what I wish to do.
Minimum wage
This wage is for the secondary school leaver who is employed as a cleaner, messenger or clerk. He has no family. He is aged between 18 and 20 and looking forward to higher education. He is, therefore, like a bird of passage in a work place, who is just looking for something to do so that he or she is not idle – the idle hand is the devil’s workshop
In 1969, I came out of Higher School Certificate (HSC) in one year of a two-year programme. In January of 1970, I took a book seller’s job with Odusote Book Store on Herbert Macaulay Street, Ebute- Metta, Lagos, on the minimum wage of 16 Nigerian Pounds a month. In March 1971, the following year, I took a trainee Sub- Editor’s job with the Daily Times on 36 pounds a month. The university Arts graduate earned 60 pounds and the Science graduate 72 pounds.
In 1973, the Naira replaced the Pound as Nigeria’s currency. In 1974, the oil boom brought Nigeria’s minimum wage to N60 a month. I do not remember how much I earned then, but life was so good that, on my savings, I sent myself to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka for three years. Some of my colleagues were business inclined and made more money from side hustle. I groomed my professional skills to earn more than the university graduates. I graduated from the university in 1977 and earned N180 a month in National Youth Service. From this, I sent N5 home every month to each of six persons, kept myself and bought shares in some Nigerian companies. When I was building my house from my gratuity in the latter part of the first decade of 2020, I sold half the shares of one company for N1.5 million to raise money for the roof.
Back to the daily…
By December 1982 when I resigned my job as Deputy Production Editor, my annual salary was N7,000 and my housing allowance was N4,500. As Assistant Editor of The Guardian newspaper, one month later in January in 1983, my annual salary rose to N11,000 and the housing to N7,500. I bought a plot of land immediately from the difference. The fresh or greenhorn university graduate was on N4,274 yearly pay. Money wise, Nigeria was a more peaceful country in those days.
I tell this story to expose one serious flaw in Joe Ajaero minimum wage campaign.
•Youngsters who have just left school and are living with their parents, being fed by them and clothed by them, are the Minimum Wage persons. Their jobs are messengers and cleaners. They have no serious skills to offer. They have responsibilities over no one. The minimum wage is sometimes too much for them that they have substantial savings from it. At Odusote Book store, I opened a saving account with the then Cooperative Bank of Western Nigeria.
•A married man with four children who is on minimum wage is a Sluggard in the race of life. This type of man must be over 35 years. He must have begun work at about age 20. How did he spend 15 years stagnant without acquiring skills that would help him to move on and upward? Did I not upscale my book seller skills within one year? Would I have been able to earn higher, save money and send myself to the university if I didn’t? There are many Nigerians whose stories are more fascinating than mine.
Joe Ajaero should teach stagnant members of the NLC how to upscale their life rather than asking society to stuff their pocket with humongous salaries. His minimum wage dream will cause job losses, terrible inflation, loss of foreign investment, social mayhem, stress, and many a bedroom problem.
Yahaya Bello
He is 48 and an embarrassment to the campaigners for young persons to take over the country. An institution of state accused him of stealing money when he was a Governor of Kogi State and invited him for questioning. Rather than oblige investigation of his records, Yahaya Bello went into hiding and had to be declared a wanted man. Now, he is indirectly trying to say President Tinubu wishes to get him out of the way of 2027 polls. Fighting back, he says Labour Party’s Peter Obi won the Presidential election in Kogi State but he, as Governor, rigged it in favour of Bola Tinubu.
Yahaya Bello should know this is volatile statement for which he may go to jail if he has no proof beyond reasonable doubt because his conduct is capable of disturbing public peace and releasing many stressors into an already delicate polity.
