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Tag: polio

  • Board tasks religious leaders on polio immunisation

    Board tasks religious leaders on polio immunisation

    The Kano State Primary Health Care Management Board has urged religious leaders to support government efforts in achieving routine immunisation in the state.

    The Executive Secretary of the board, Dr Muhammad Nasir, made the call in a statement on Thursday in Kano after the Forum of Religious Focal Persons on Immunisation visited him.

    It said that the call was necessary to enable government to provide qualitative healthcare services to the citizenry.

    It attributed the success recorded in polio immunisation in the state to the strong commitment of religious leaders in the state.

    “The board is proud to be in collaboration with Imams to woo the public to come to terms with the reality on the importance of immunisation.

    “The recent delisting of Nigeria from the list of polio endemic countries by the United Nations was a great feat attained with an immense contribution of our religious leaders,’’ it said.

    The statement therefore urged them to continue to enlighten parents on the dangers associated with noncompliance to immunisation.

    It said that the board has adopted the policy of inclusiveness in approach to issues of polio eradication to give stakeholders opportunity to complement government effort in the fight against the disease.

    The statement also quoted the Chairman of the forum and Chief Imam of Hotoro Mosque, Sheikh Hadi Ibrahim, pledging to support the board to achieve the desired result in polio immunisation in the state.

     

  • NGO holds programme for polio

    NGO holds programme for polio

    A non-governmental organisation, Restraint Initiative held a walk, tagged: Walk Beyond Freedom.

    According to Executive Director, Ms Anongiah Abei, the initiative is aimed at promoting the well being and improve the quality of life of polio survivors to enable them lead a life of dignity.  The train was held at 647b Olutoyin Eleoramo Street, Omole Phase 2, Lagos.

    The organisation, which was founded by Dr Dapo Oshoniyi and Ms Abei, is holding a full-fledged campaign calling for care for people affected by polio. The patient also held a lecture entitled: Enabling Survivors through Rehabilitation as part of the Christmas season’s celebration.

    The lecture was delivered by the Coordinator of Polio Rescue, Olugbenga J. Kuye. The organisation also donating wheelchairs, crutches and other supportive aids to identified beneficiaries at the end of the lecture.

  • Commonwealth leaders, others unite to end Polio

    Commonwealth leaders, others unite to end Polio

    Leaders from Malta, Canada, Nigeria, Pakistan and UK, UN Secretary-General and Commonwealth Secretary-General Designate call for one last push to end deadly disease. Oyeyemi Gbenga-Mustapha writes.

    Commonwealth leaders have united in Malta to recommit to ending polio. During the high-level event hosted by Prime Minister Muscat of Malta at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, polio survivor Ramesh Ferris called on leaders to finish the job and eradicate polio.

    Standing shoulder to shoulder, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of Australia, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan, Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Dion of Canada, the Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Hugo Swire of the UK, and newly elected Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland joined a packed event to commend the historic progress made against polio and commit to ending the disease once and for all.

    “We will continue to offer our leadership on this issue. I believe with the support of fellow leaders we will manage to eradicate polio,” said host of the event Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

    In 1987, when Commonwealth leaders met in Vancouver, more than 350,000 cases of polio crippled and killed children in 125 countries annually. The following year, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) was formed to wipe polio off the face of the earth. Hundreds of millions of children have been reached since with lifesaving polio vaccines, which have protected an estimated 13 million people from lifelong paralysis. This year, only Pakistan and Afghanistan have had cases of wild poliovirus and there are signs of progress.

    “Pakistan has made polio eradication a national cause. Our priority is to reach out to each and every child so no child remains unvaccinated,” said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. “I am pleased to note that we have been able to significantly reduce the number of polio cases in Pakistan and we will not rest until polio is eradicated from our country.”

    Commonwealth heads of government have historically been at the forefront of work to eradicate polio. At the Commonwealth meeting in Perth in 2011, over $100 million in new funds were pledged toward ending polio. Since the Commonwealth’s statement of support four years ago, there has been unprecedented progress against the virus. India and the entire South East Asia Region were certified polio-free last year and dangerous outbreaks in the Horn of Africa and Middle East were stopped as well.

    “We are very committed to this campaign and this issue. It is of vital importance to the people of every country,” said Australia’s Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull. “It’s a great tribute to the generosity, the philanthropy, in the truest sense of the world, of the Commonwealth that polio eradication is deemed such a big priority in Malta.”

    Recent estimates suggest it will cost an additional $1.5 billion to end polio and ensure that hundreds of millions of children are vaccinated multiple times against the disease. Surveillance systems will also need to be improved so that if polio outbreaks do happen, they can be stopped quickly and effectively.

    “Polio struck down many of my generation, and now we are on the verge of striking down polio,” said Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations. “My thanks to the Commonwealth leaders for their support, and together, let us make the final push and wipe out polio from this earth.”

    For the first time, Nigeria, one of the last polio strongholds, made history by reaching one year without registering a case of wild polio, and all countries on the African continent have now gone a year without a single case of wild polio. However, to ensure Nigeria and the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) African region do not let polio return, there will need to be increased investments in vaccinating children in hard to reach areas and strengthening surveillance.

    “No case of polio was reported since July 2014. This unprecedented feat informed the decision of the WHO to delist Nigeria from polio endemic countries in October this year,” said Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama. “The country is poised and committed to remaining vigilant to ensure that we completely eradicate polio from Nigeria.”

    It is on record that Rotary Club and Dangote Foundation equally lent a massive financial and logistics support in the fight against polio in Nigeria.

    Several countries that made financial commitments at the Global Vaccine Summit, which took place in Abu Dhabi in 2013, outlined their ongoing commitment.

    “Canada has changed its government, but our commitment remains,” said Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Dion. “We were proud to commit $250 million in Abu Dhabi at the 2013 Global Vaccine Summit. We are proud to be a donor of global polio eradication efforts and we will continue to do so until polio is gone.”

    “I am proud of the role the United Kingdom has played (in polio eradication), including our pledge of £300 million pounds to support the GPEI,” said the UK’s Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Hugo Swire.

    “I urge Commonwealth countries to demonstrate their continued resolve in this fight. Together, I believe their leadership and commitment will help the world achieve one of its greatest ever public health success stories.”

    The theme of this year’s Commonwealth meeting is, ‘Adding Global Value’. Eradicating polio will not only be a major public health success, it will also mean global savings of more than US$50 billion over the next 20 years, and allow public health workers, governments and communities to apply the lessons learned in eradicating polio to other health priorities. Although polio is still endemic in only two countries, the potential for new outbreaks will persist until every country is certified polio free.

    “Until polio is gone everywhere, it is a threat everywhere,” said Ravi Ravindran, President of Rotary International. “In 1988, we committed Rotary to ending polio. We’re sticking with it, until we have delivered a polio-free world to all future generations.

    “Newly elected Commonwealth Secretary-General, Baroness Patricia Scotland also joined the meeting and pledged ongoing Commonwealth support to the polio effort.”I think this is an exemplary example of what the Commonwealth can do when it collaborates and works together with focus to bring something about, and I hope this is just the beginning.”

  • Other killer-diseases next as polio is gone

    Other killer-diseases next as polio is gone

    After the country was certified polio-free, the authorities have mounted a vaccination campaign to tackle other childhood killer- diseases, reports GRACE OBIKE

    It was just as well that after polio was kicked out of the country, the health authorities did not go to sleep. In fact, Minister of Health Dr. Isaac Adewole, just weeks on the job, led a road show to drive the importance of vaccination home. After all, even with polio out of the way, there are still such killer diseases as pneumonia, measles, diphtheria, tetanus and tuberculosis.

    In the campaign, the federal government aims to immunise as many as 39 million Nigerian children against measles and hopefully give the scourge the polio treatment.

    The campaign took place all over the country, but in Abuja the Minister led volunteers, staff of the Primary Health Care board, Non-Governmental Organisations and other donor agencies into the streets, schools, mosques and churches to immunise children between the ages of nine months and five years.

    Dr Adewole said that measles has not only caused untold hardship and death in the country but has ravaged the country for so long, adding that the Federal Government intends to educate Nigerians on the fact that vaccines are safer and cheaper to prevent measles than to treat the complications of measles like pneumonia, deafness, blindness, etc.

    The minister also said the new administration of President Muhammadu Buhari intends to take health care to the doorsteps of every Nigerian, knowing the fact that over 65% of the populace are poor and unable to transport themselves to hospitals and healthcare centres.

    He said, “This as I learnt is the first time that a minister of health will be in attendance of such an event; it is quite significant, it shows the commitment of the present administration to bring health to the doorsteps of our people. Since our mantra is change, there must be a change, my presence is an indication of our commitment to change.

    “Measles has ravaged our land, decimated our children, inflicted untold miseries on our children and killed many of them, as of year 2000, estimate indicated that about 523,000 children died from measles, this will be unacceptable to any serious government and therefore we join the campaign of the WHO to contribute to the elimination of measles by 2020.

    “For this campaign, the goal is to immunise 39 million Nigerian children, this we shall do and if their is the need to go beyond that, we will do so, I want to assure you that we should make sure that this becomes a routine, so that we do not have to conduct follow-up campaigns every now and then, we should spread the gospel that the vaccine is safe and cheaper to prevent measles than treat the complications of measles like pneumonia, deafness, blindness etc.

    “It is going to be an administration with a change, change in the sense that we want to cover Nigerians, we want to target poor people, over 65% of our people are poor and so we must take health to their doorsteps, we recognise the fact that many of them cannot pay for the cost of transportation, so our duty as a responsible administration is to put health at their doorsteps, so that they can contribute meaningfully as Nigerians to the development of our great nation.”

    WHO country representative Dr. Fiona Bracca explained that the measles vaccine has been in use for over 50 years and it is safe, effective and inexpensive, over the past three years, measles vaccination has prevented an estimated 17 million deaths globally, making it one of the most cost effective, intervention plans in public health. The efforts in the African region has resulted in over 90% reduction measles however the continent continuous to experience measles outbreak that pose a real challenge towards achieving elimination efforts in the region and country as a whole.

    She said, “WHO recommends that every child should receive at least two doses of measles vaccine and we are happy to note that many countries including Nigeria have reached many children through mass vaccination campaigns.”

    Representative of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Acting Secretary of Health, Mrs Odeh Achu stated that the administration has been doing everything possible to improve the health of women and children in the FCT.

    She also added, “This intervention has shown to be cost effective, have high impact and result oriented in respect of improving child health in the FCT and Nigeria as a whole. In the FCT presently like in the other states of the federation, the FCT is shifting away from the stand alone vertical campaign to a more integrated approach that is why it has embarked on other programs that positively impacts the lives of women and children like the free anti-natal care programme, the free under five distribution of long lasting insecticide nets to households.

    “This event is yet another avenue for the FCTA to further strengthen action that will increase health care delivery to the people of the FCT, although modest achievements have been recorded in certain areas, it is my believe that we still need to do more, I am aware that the vitamin A coverage was 87% in 2010 as against the 76.6% in 2015. The FCT cumulative penta three coverage rate was 92% in 2015 and 83% in 2009.

    “The FCT Administration has placed for attainment the global target of measles elimination by the year 2020, all the necessary arrangement that will ensure the availability of relevant supplies to meet the demands for this intervention. No eligible child should be allowed to miss any of the interventions that will be provided.”

     

  • Polio: EU commits N4b to immunisation in Nigeria

    Polio: EU commits N4b to immunisation in Nigeria

    THE European Union (EU) has spent N4 billion on the country’s immunisation programme for this year, it was learnt yesterday.

    The support came under the EU Support to Immunisation Governance in Nigeria (EU-SIGN).

    Training, Contracting Adviser and Procurement Expert for the EU-SIGN, Aminata Sidibe, explained that the support was part of EU’s determination to ensure that Nigeria overcome the disease and obtain the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) certification as a polio-free nation by 2017.

    Sidibe, who spoke at the Bi-annual Review Meeting of 23 states and the FCT, which benefited from the fund in Abuja, said: “The EU is committing €150 million into the programme. For this specific programme estimate, N4.3 billion has been committed.”

    Anna McAthur, director, CONSEIL SANTE, an organisation through which the EU funds the SIGN programme in Nigeria, said: “The EU-SIGN actually came in at real good time for Nigeria because we’ve just got to the elimination of polio, and we are working towards eradication of polio. Government has set up state primary health care agencies and has advisory body in each state.

    “It is good for Nigeria to strengthen its primary health care agencies and strengthen its immunisation, which will help to make polio eradication in Nigeria a success.”

    The Director of Department of Logistics and Health Commodities at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Mustapha Zubair Mahmud, said the nation must maintain the de-listing for the next two years to enable it get certification.

    “We must do all we can to maintain a polio-free country up to 2017, so that we are certified free of polio,” he said.

    Focal Person for the EU-SIGN in Nigeria Dr. Adamu Dawud said the highlight of the meeting was to re-emphasise on the nation’s routine immunisation.

    The WHO recently delisted Nigeria from the three polio-endemic nations. The others remaining are Afghanistan and Pakistan.

  • Kano winning war against polio, says commissioner

    Kano winning war against polio, says commissioner

    Kano State has employed 430 victims of poliomyelitis since 2013, Commissioner for Health, Dr Kabiru Getso, said yesterday.

    The state, he added, has also provided wheel chairs and tricycles to many other victims handicapped by the disease.

    He spoke with reporters yesterday in his office in commemoration of the World Polio Day with the theme: End Polio now.

    Getso declared that between 2012 and 2015, incidences of Polio reduced drastically in the state owing to government efforts.

    Giving the breakdowns, he said in 2012, Kano recorded 24 cases, 15 cases in 2013 and five cases in 2014.

    “This year, we only had one cases and that was the last one in July 24. With this data, I can say that we are winning the war against polio.”

    Reporting on what the state has been doing, he said: “During employments, we have a special quota for the disabled, particularly, people that are afflicted by poliomyelitis.

    “Kano state government has created slots for people disabled by Polio.

    “Just last month, the state government distributed some materials to people with different kinds of disabilities and victims of Poliomyelitis were among the people that benefitted from this gesture from Kano state government.

    “I can remember that wheel chairs and special tricycles were distributed to them. So, Kano State government is doing quite a lot to people that really disabled by this disease.”

    Noting that the fight Polio was far from over, the commissioner said there would still be more rounds of campaigns.

    According to him: “To ensure that this battle is convincingly won, the government has upgraded and is still upgrading primary and secondary health care facilities in the state to offer qualitative health services, including routine immunisation, which is a cornerstone in ending poliomyelitis.”

     

  • WHO delists Nigeria from polio list

    WHO delists Nigeria from polio list

    The World Health Organization (WHO) is set to formally pronounce the delisting of Nigeria as a polio endemic country before President Muhammadu Buhari.
    The event, which is slated for the State House, Abuja, on October 26 will see the country hosting the Director-General of WHO, Dr. Margaret Chan, who will be represented by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso R. Moeti.
    According to the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Mr. Linus Awute, “The Regional Director will meet with Mr. President to formally announce to the Government of Nigeria the WHO’s decision to remove Nigeria from the list of Polio endemic countries, as a recognition of the immediate achievement of Nigeria in stopping the transmission of the Wild Polio Virus for a period of fourteen months, which has exceeded WHO’s target for interruption”.
    The Regional Director, Dr. Moeti, is also expected to emphasize to policy makers and major stakeholders, that despite tremendous progress in Nigeria, complacency is not a luxury at the disposal of the Government and partners until the gains of this great feat is sustained for two years to be able to achieve the certification of Nigeria as a Polio-free Nation by 2017.
    In order to boost population immunity of children between the ages of zero to five years, as well as achieve eradication status in 2017, Nigeria will continue to vaccinate children, irrespective of their previous immunization status.
    The President, Muhammadu Buhari, during his interface with the High Level Advocacy Team on Poliomyelitis, headed by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, emphasized that his administration “Would provide the necessary oversight over the Programme to ensure no child ever gets paralyzed again by Wild Polio Virus”.
    He therefore directed the Federal Ministry of Health and its Agency to come up with programme elements that would sustain the gains and maintain the momentum towards achieving a final certification.
    Consequently, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), under the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Health, has developed a robust Polio Emergency Plan with corresponding roadmap detailing strategies to sustain the achievement.
    According to the Executive Director, NPHCDA, Dr. Ado Muhammad, “The Programme will continue to carry out high quality Polio campaigns, intensify routine immunization and enhance surveillance system, all aimed at sustaining the Polio zero case status of the Country”.
    He said that this is ‘critical’ to achieving eradication and attaining certification by 2017.
  • Freedom from polio

    Freedom from polio

    •A great feat but it calls for more advocacy

    This year’s World Polio Day on October 24 coincides with the deletion of Nigeria from the list of polio endemic countries by the World Health Organisation (WHO).  The good news, reported on September 27, marks the first interruption of transmission of wild poliovirus in the country, bringing it and the African continent closer to a polio-free status. It is a measure of the significance of the development that the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), the public-private partnership leading the effort to eradicate polio, described it as a “historic achievement” in global health.

    According to official statistics, Nigeria has not reported a case of wild poliovirus since July 2014, and 12 months have passed without any new case. Considering that in 2012, only three years ago, the WHO said Nigeria accounted for over half of all polio cases worldwide, the remarkable change in the narrative represents a great positive leap indeed.

    The journey to this juncture, the WHO noted, involved a plurality of factors that worked for good. The organisation said:  ”This success is the result of a concerted effort by all levels of government, civil society, religious leaders and tens of thousands of dedicated health workers. More than 200,000 volunteers across the country repeatedly immunised more than 45 million children under the age of five years, to ensure that no child would suffer from this paralysing disease. Innovative approaches, such as increased community involvement and the establishment of Emergency Operations Centres at the national and state level, have also been pivotal to Nigeria’s success.”

    Notably, Nigeria’s success means only Pakistan and Afghanistan remain on the official list of polio endemic countries. Although removal from the list is not a definitive indication of freedom from polio, there is cause for optimism that the two-year wait to qualify for full polio-free certification by the WHO will perfect Nigeria’s polio-free status.

    However, it must be appreciated that eradicating polio in the country will require sustained focus and effort. Relevantly, Rotary International District 9110 Governor Bola Onabadejo was quoted as saying at a forum in Lagos: “We have two more years of hard work to ensure that Nigeria is out of polio.”  Given the conditions that promote the polio virus, there is a need for intensification of advocacy and awareness programmes in the country, apart from greater funding of immunisation schemes.

    According to medical information: “People living in areas with limited access to running water or flush toilets often get the virus from drinking water contaminated by human waste that contains the virus. Pregnant women, people with weakened immune systems, such as HIV+ people, and young children are the most susceptible to the polio virus.” Polio, also known as poliomyelitis, “is a highly contagious viral infection that can lead to paralysis, breathing problems, or even death.”

    Against this backdrop, the country’s political and health authorities have their work cut out for them. It is necessary to provide unrestricted running water to the people, and to ensure hygienic human waste disposal, among other important actions.

    Rotary International established the World Polio Day over a decade ago in reinforcement of the work of Jonas Salk, the leader of the first team to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis. It is a testimony to the effectiveness of international polio eradication activities that the establishment of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988 resulted in a rising number of polio-free countries.  The spread of poliovirus was internationally recognised as a public health emergency in May 2014.

    It is a big plus for science, and a credit to international cooperation, that global polio eradication is looking increasingly achievable. Nigeria must win the battle.

  • Rotary International celebrates polio-free year

    Rotary International has scored itself high for its contributions to ensure that the country is free of polio. Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) pronounced Nigeria one year free of polio virus and removed it from list of endemic nations.

    At a briefing at the weekend in Lagos, the group’s Nigeria National PolioPlus Committee (NNPPC) Chairman, Dr Tunji Funsho, who described the feat as ‘’a milestone,’’ said it came about as result of many factors: its members’ contributions, donors and government’s cooperation.

    He said since 1996, Rotary has spent $207million on the disease’s eradication, its partners $8billion, adding that worldwide, the organisation spent over $1.9billion.

    He said while there were 12 cases in 2012, the figure came down to six in 2013 and last year, adding that since July 24, last year, there had been no case of the virus in the country.

    He said the achievements would have been recorded much earlier if not for the insurgency and the apathy towards the polio immunisation programme in the North.

    Funsho recalled that in 2000, in some states in the North, the immunisation programme was abandoned because some parents refused to cooperate with its officials, claiming that the drugs were anti-fertile.

    He said it took the intervention of the government and Rotary to solve the problem.

    But Funsho urged Nigerians not to rest on its oars to ensure that Nigeria is polio free by 2017 so that it can be given the certification status by WHO.

    He called for intensified routine immunisation; ensure children in insecurity-prone areas were reached, timely response to any outbreak and fortification of Nigeria’s borders against the importation of the disease.

    He called for more advocacy, funds, more awareness and volunteers.

    “Polio remains our focus. Until it is eradicated, we will not leave it. We are not yet polio free. So, all hands must be on deck,’’ he said.

    Rotary International District 9110 Governor  Bola Onabadejo also called more efforts to meet the 2017 target. He sought for peace in the conflict areas of the country to enable the immunisation officials reach them.

    “We have two more years of hard work to ensure that Nigeria is out of polio,’’ he added.

    Vice Chairman, NNPPC, Abayomi Adewunmi said Rotary was set to celebrate the World Polio Day on October 24. He said activities had been planned for a week to end on the Polio day.

  • Our Girls; Polio, Martyrs & Billionaires; Falae; HID Awolowo;  Pupil: ‘Awo? He owns Awo Univ’

    Our Girls, kidnapped since April 14, 2014 are yet to be freed. Chief Falae was luckier. The large number of Boko Haram members surrendering or being captured should have among them those with information on some Chibok Girls. The interrogation teams must please ‘KEEP THEM APART AND SINGLE UNTIL AFTER INTERROGATION.’ It is unprofessional for suspects to be herded into one room or vehicle where they can concoct alibis or intimidate others.

    Great sympathy to our Muslim brothers and sisters for the huge Hajj losses.

    Hurray, Nigeria is polio-free. Wow, great!!! We owe the success to billions of dollars raised worldwide by Polio-Plus, a selfless-service initiative of Rotary International entering a PPP, Private Public Partnership, with the UN, governments, religious and traditional ruler levels. The battle cost Nigeria ‘8 Murdered Polio Martyrs’, health workers murdered on duty. What are their names? Has Nigeria immortalised them and cared for their families? They were murdered on the ‘Polio War Front’ saving Nigeria’s children.

    Did the Dangote, Odetola, Adenuga, Babangida, Abdusalam, Abacha remnants, Elumelu, FBN, UBA, MTN, Etisalat, Dozie, Ovia, Osagie, Dantata, Oba Otudeko, Okorocha, Alakija, and other Foundations, the ‘BLACK MONEY’ fund any of this Polio MMM -Major Medical Miracle which would not have happened without the billions in ‘WHITE MONEY’? O Nigeria! Where are your saviours? Foreign as usual? You no shame, plus all your billions?

    Nigerian billionaires have missed opportunities for impact. Bill Gates’s America is already built. Nigeria is underdeveloped and needs Nigerian billionaires’ money. Yet Nigeria’s billionaires are still in the ‘TAKE’ and not the ‘GIVE’ mode. $1b will change thousands of hospitals and schools in Nigeria. Get on your phone and ask your personal billionaire ‘What is your Legacy Project’. Having $1billion is not a legacy or even an achievement. It is a burden. Helping a billion people is an achievement. Ask me, if you have no ideas on bringing your billions to the people. How about an Aquarium in Lagos?

    Chief Olu Falae is free. The police, congrats to them, should investigate the possibility that the kidnapping Fulani Herdsmen may also have kidnapped a Commissioner in Kogi. The police must not discriminate. They must use the same manpower for every kidnap. Too many innocent Nigerians have paid huge sums for freedom or paid with their lives. Yes, the jobs of the Police IGP and his zonal AIGs, did depend on rescuing Pa Falae alive. Their jobs are still at risk if police extrajudicial killings and police corruption are not eliminated immediately and certainly by the October monthly Presidential Anti-corruption Meeting of Heads of Uniformed and Armed Services. Just today I saw two ‘yellow fever’ and one black uniform taking money. In the last week, Police have killed three or four innocent citizens. Who exempted the police from ‘Buhari Change’? Buhari must soon sack someone in the Police as an example.

    LET US ANNOUNCE TO NIGERIAN UNIFORMS THAT ‘IN THE NAME OF THEIR CHILDREN, THEY MUST GIVE UP EXTRAJUDICARY KILLINGS AND CORRUPTION’. Then, we will expose the recalcitrant bribe-takers. Problem solved, people saved and corruption eliminated. Simply by secretly using our millions of cellphones, switched on at stop-and-search points, to record proof, we can gather a million pictures and transmit them to media websites. Then the police will arrest their murderous psychopathic and wayward corrupt colleagues.

    We the citizens demand that before unleashing armed police, the government must force the police to recruit 200 psychologists to carry out psychological tests on its weapon-carrying personnel who need programmes of breathalyser testing for alcohol before weapons are issued.

    A shocking history lesson! I met a 15 year old attending College in Ibadan.. ‘I study government’, he replied my chitchat. I asked ‘What political incident took place this last weekend?’. He replied ‘I do not know’. I said ‘Mama HID Awolowo died at 100 years minus 2 months’. He showed no understanding. ‘Have you heard of Mama HID Awolowo?’ He replied ‘No.’ I asked ‘Do you know of ‘Awo’ or ‘Awolowo?’. The reply was ‘Yes. He owns the Awo University, in Ife’.

    For a Western Region youth in school in 2015 to be so ignorant of Awoism is an indictment of education at home and school. Awolowo is beyond politics. Over-centralised curricula are stunting our youth. Eliminating local history will not create unity or federalism. We must teach geography, history- local, Federal, African and world. The young mind needs the challenges of scratching the surface of the Zulu, Kiriji, Fulani, Boar wars. Teach history – international, national and local. Every school must teach some unique local historical, geographic, personality and political content.  I had the honour of giving the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation Lecture at NIIA, Lagos, when Abacha misruled. Mama HID Awolowo will indeed Rest In Perfect Peace, RIPP, but the Awolowo story must be taught in South-west schools.

    The British and Americans immortalise figures and events in history through TV, radio, music, plays, films, cartoons, documentaries and study. We Nigerians should too through Nollywood et cetera. Where is the film ‘Awolowo’ starring whom as Awo the youth?

    So FIFA and VW are exposed for corruption. The VW boss has gone and Blatter is going. Saraki will likely follow with his name expunged from being Senate President if proven to be fraudulently obtained. He should refund any salary illegally received.

    The 40km Ibadan Lagos expressway jam needs urgent patch/patch filling of potholes at Redeemed, Mowe and Ibafo, today.

    ‘For a Western Region youth in school in 2015 to be so ignorant of Awoism is an indictment of education at home and school. Awolowo is beyond politics. Over-centralised curricula are stunting our youth. Eliminating local history will not create unity or federalism. We must teach geography, history- local, Federal, African and world’