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 Send Opinions & Letters to: opinions1234@yahoo.com 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.
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