27022020 - Insurgency: Depressed soldier shoots 7, kills self

NIGERIA has had two types
of leader. One is the
accidental type; the other the
intentional. The accidental
leaders never sought to be
president, but had it thrust on them.
But the intentional leaders
desperately wanted the office,
pursued it tenaciously, and finally
secured it. President Muhammadu
Buhari is the onlyone among
Nigeria’scivilian leaderswho
doggedly sought the office of
president; others were accidental
leaders who attained the highest
office serendipitously.
Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria’s first
Prime Minister, secured the
position at the behest of his leader,
Ahmadu Bello, the power behind
the throne. Shehu Shagari’s
highest ambition, by his own
admission, was to be a senator
before he was drafted to run for
president. Olusegun Obasanjo was
in jail from June 1995 until
General Abdulsalami Abubakar
released him in June 1998. He
never dreamt of becoming
president. But, as General Ishaya
Bamaiyi, the then chief of army
staff, wrote in his book, Vindication
of a General, the military
establishment decided to make
Obasanjo president in 1999. And
what about Presidents Umaru
Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck
Jonathan? Well,everyone knows
they were handpicked by
Obasanjo. They never, in their
wildest dreams, sought to be
president!
But not Buhari. He ran for
president three times before
eventually winning on the fourth.
From 2003 when he first vied for
the presidency to 2015 when he
Buhari wanted power so badly, yet
has done so little with it
finally won, Buhari had actively
sought the office for 12 years. Each
time he lost, he went all the way to
the Supreme Court to try and
overturn the result. So determined
was he to become president that,
in 2015, he opportunistically
formed an alliance with the
politicians that, as a military
dictator, he would have sent to jail
for corruption!
Now, I have a theory. If someone
has been trying actively for 12
years to govern his country, it must
be that he has clear ideas what he
would do to move the country
forward, if elected. A dogged
seeker of the office of president
should be more prepared than an
accidental occupier of the office.
Take Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
He was also tenacious in seeking
to be president, although he only
ran twice – in 1979 and 1983. But
those who knew Awolowo would
confirm that he spent night and
day planning to the minutest detail
what he would do if elected. Of
course, Awolowo never became
president; so we will never know
what kind of president he would
have turned out to be. But judging
by his superlative performance as
Premier of Western Nigeria, we
could say that, as a visionary and
competent leader of monumental
proportions, he would have
assembled the best brains from
across Nigeria, and provided
outstanding leadership, to
transform this country.
ButBuhari is not Awolowo. For a
start, Awolowo was an intellectual
giant–a voracious reader and
prolific writer. His intellectual
contributions to the development
of Nigeria, captured in several
outstanding books, are
unparalleled. His book, Path to
Nigerian Freedom, was almost as
seminal in shaping the debate
about Nigeria’s federalism as
Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2020 —31
Alexander Hamilton and James
Madison’s The Federalist Papers
were in influencing the American
Constitution.
The English philosopher Francis
Bacon famously said: “Reading
maketh a full man; conference a
ready man; and writing an exact
man”.Leaders are indeed readers.
But as Junaid Mohammed, a
former federal legislator, said in
an interview: “Buhari doesn’t
read.” So, then, it’s not surprising
that, despite seeking power for 12
years, Buhari committed no
serious intellectual effort to putting
together a coherent vision and a
credible programme of actions for
transforming this country.Yet,
Nigeria is too complex to be run
by intellectual vacuity. No one
should seek to lead this country,
let alone pursue that ambition
doggedly, without knowing what
he would do with the power.
Buhari, apparently, didn’t!
I mean, President Buhari is now
five years in power, and has only
three more before leaving office in
2023. So, what has he achieved to
date? Recently, there were calls for
his resignation due to his utter
inability to tackle the debilitating
insecurity in the country. His
government is completely
dysfunctional: the cabals are
fighting each other openly, and the
service chiefs,despite their
ineptitude, are too powerful to be
sacked, even though their tenures
have expired. Notwithstanding the
recent miniscule GDP growth, the
economy remains moribund and
poverty is deepening. Even
corruption, despite the anti-graft
hype, has not gone away, what with
the questionable handling of the
Abacha loot!
Lassa fever and other plagues: When we eat our way to death
By KAYODE OJEWALE
OF serious health concern lately has been
the ravaging scourge and spread of
Lassa fever in Nigeria. Lassa fever has been a
major health challenge in West Africa and its
spread has created panic even as concerned
private and public health institutions battle
hard to curtail it every year when it raises its
ugly head.
As at first week in February 2020, the death
toll from Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria had
risen to 47 as disclosed by Nigeria Centre for
Disease Control in its weekly situation update
for week five (January 27 to February 2). The
spread of this killer-disease may not be easily
curbed since there is no known vaccine for the
prevention of the disease for now. However, it
could be curtailed and managed when
informed decisions are taken by every citizen.
What makes Lassa fever challenging and a
bit difficult to diagnose and treat is the fact
that it initially assumes and mimics the
symptoms of malaria. This in turn leads to
delays in treatment because only few
laboratories in Nigeria can diagnose Lassa
fever virus. Lack of treatment commencement
worsens the condition of an infected person as
early diagnosis and treatment of the disease
are key to any survival chance.
It is also important to bring to the attention
of Nigerians that we should be wary of smoked
meat slices (Suya), bean cake (popularly called
‘akara’ in local parlance), roasted corn and
other food items or snacks that are usually
sold by wrapping them in old newspapers or
other paper materials where rodents might
have excreted on them. That paper-wrapped
food item may not be washed or rinsed before
consuming so it becomes unhealthy to eat. It
is, therefore, not hygienic to keep food items in
used papers. These papers may not, by mere
visual inspection, reveal rodents’ urine or
excreta, so difficulty may arise in discerning
which ones are contaminated or not. One never
can tell if these papers have come in contact
with excreta from rats. When an individual then
consumes food items wrapped in these
contaminated papers, such a one may be at
high risk of contracting Lassa fever. It is,
therefore, advisable to play safe by taking your
container to receive the food items at the point
of sales or requesting them to be sold in a safe
and healthy wrapper.
Not too long ago, a Director of Public Health,
Enugu State, Dr. Boniface Okolo, warned
Nigerians against the consumption of cassava
flakes (garri) to avoid contacting Lassa fever.
Dr. Boniface said the rats that caused the
disease were mostly in contact with the most
popular Nigerian staple food, garri. When
garri is soaked in ordinary water and
consumed, one is exposed to the risk of
contracting Lassa fever. But if the water is boiled
to make ‘eba’, it could go a long way to kill the
bacteria caused by pest or rodents in garri.
Last month, Nigerians woke to receive a
shocking alert issued by the National Agency
for Food and Drug Administration and
Control, NAFDAC, on the use of paracetamol
as tenderizers to cook meat by some
unscrupulous food vendors. Paracetamol is
added to soften the meat thereby saving cost of
cooking for a longer time. Some households
and restaurants have adopted this fast but
deadly means of cooking meats meant for
consumption. No wonder some meats are so
soft and tender that they can be split into halves
with ordinary plastic spoons or bare hands. It
is not to say that there are no other healthy and
legitimate ways of tenderising meats but there
are other harmful, illegal and unhealthy ways
of boiling meats as revealed in a recent
warning issued by NAFDAC.
The public alert from NAFDAC reads: “The
members of the public, especially restaurant
operators are cautioned to desist from the
dangerous and unapproved use of
paracetamol tablets to soften meat used in food
preparation, as such illegal practice makes
food to become toxic, unwholesome and unfit
for human consumption.” The statement
further explains the effects and health
implications of consuming paracetamoltreated
meats. The statement adds: “When used
to cook, paracetamol is broken down (or
President Buhari
should leave the
economy to his vice
president, in a de facto
prime-ministerial
capacity, and focus on
restructuring Nigeria
hydrolyzed) into a toxic substance. This
substance untimely damages the liver and
some other organs in the body. Thus, the
consumption of toxic and unwholesome food
illegally prepared using paracetamol tablets
may result in serious health consequences,
including liver damage, kidney failure and
untimely death”.
As alternatives to paracetamol tablets,
NAFDAC suggested other established and safe
methods of tenderising meat. They include the
following: Cooking with a pressure cooker;
marinating (soaking) with vinegar, citrus juices
or wine before cooking; marinating with
enzymes (pineapple, pawpaw, kiwi, ginger and
To nip the spread of Lassa fever
and other plagues in the bud,
there should be continuous
sensitisation of the general public
on various personal preventive
measures
Asian pear contain enzymes which can soften
the meat); slow-cooking the meat or using
commercial meat tenderisers in moderation
which are sold in powder or liquid form.
A UK-based healthcare professional and
medical doctor, Seyi Olanipekun, is of the
opinion that quantity has to be taken into
account before paracetamol, PCM, can
become toxic to the body. He condemned the
strange use of PCM in cooking as a discovery
or research trend in a wrong direction by
whoever did. In his words: “Consuming meat
that was cooked with a lot of PCM can cause
its overdose. PCM is metabolised by the liver,
and hence it gets hit and this can result in liver
failure.” In order to corroborate his point on
the damaging effects of large doses of PCM
on the body, Dr. Olanipekun revealed that,
people now commit suicide by ingesting large
quantities of PCM. According to the UK-based
medical expert, an individual who takes a large
overdose of PCM may die within a short period
if not treated.
It becomes scary and worrisome to know
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So, back to the question: Why did
Buhari doggedly chase the
presidencyfor 12 years? I have
another theory. Remember Buhari
was overthrown by his military
colleagues in 1985. Well, he did not
forget or forgive the “betrayal”
and saw becoming president as a
sweet revenge, the only way to
redeem his honour and continue
what he saw as his unfinished
business. Indeed, in 2016, Buhari
gloated about his victory. “I can
claim superior knowledge over the
opposition because, in the end, I
have succeeded”. But where
exactly is the “superior
knowledge”? Well, it’s in the fact
that he “succeeded”in becoming
president, a vindication, as he saw
it, of his “achievements” as a
military head of state.
Truth is, Buhari came to power
in 2015, after 12 years of
relentlessly trying to be president,
with no fresh ideas. As a result, he
has been running Nigeria almost
exactly as he ran it from 1983 to
1985. His economic dirigisme,
antipathy to political reforms and
passé approaches to tackling
corruption and insecurity have left
Nigeria adrift and chaotic.
A word of advice. President
Buhari should leave the economy
to his vice president, in a de facto
prime-ministerial capacity, and
focus on restructuring Nigeria.
Time is short. Helping Nigeria to
create an enduring political and
constitutional settlement is a
legacy Buhari must seek to leave
behind; otherwise, he would be
remembered as someone who
wanted power so badly but did
nothing with it. A bad legacy
indeed!
that some food vendors deliberately indulge
in toxic processing practices. It was recently
revealed by some government officials in Osun
State that some food vendors in the state use
bleach to process cassava used for garri. This
practice is not only unhealthy it is heartless
and barbaric too. It, therefore, becomes
imperative for NAFDAC, the food safety agency
in the country, to arrest, prosecute and make
public culprits who put consumers in harm’s
way through such deadly practice.
Another plague, coronavirus, has claimed
more lives than SARS did in 2002/2003
worldwide. Although there is no reported case
of coronavirus yet in Nigeria, Nigerians must,
in order to protect their health and prevent this
disease outbreak, begin to practise protective
measures against the deadly coronavirus
presently tearing China apart. One of such
measures is washing of hands with soap and
water frequently. Also avoid touching your
mouth, nose or eyes with unclean hands. Some
health experts have also warned against
consumption of raw or undercooked animal
products.
We should deploy the best practice of food
storage to prevent contracting and spreading
of diseases that could be avoided by simple
hygiene practice at home. Air-tight containers
must be used to store food items, especially
grains/cereals and powdery food items. Fruits
and raw vegetables should be thoroughly and
properly washed before consuming.
Above all, diseases of any kind can be reduced
if not kept at bay if we adopt regular
handwashing practice to prevent easy spread
of diseases. Our preparedness for and response
to disease outbreaks, especially Lassa fever
which ravages Africa’s most populous country
yearly, would go a long way in reducing deaths
that may arise from the spread of the disease.
Furthermore, to nip the spread of Lassa fever
and other plagues in the bud, there should be
public awareness and continuous sensitisation
of the general public on various personal
preventive measures to curtail diseases indoors
or outdoors.
* Ojewale, a commentator on national issues,
wrote from Idimu, Lagos via
kayodeojewale@gmail.com.