Sign of the times; Coro & A season of protests: Dr Emmanunl, students parents, and then, CAN - Ik Muo, PhD.
Recent developments from the Coro war front have been encouraging. Schools are opening across the country; modified religious worships and restaurants are being allowed in Lagos; three of our governors have just survived the Coro scare and then like joke like joke, the numbers are nosediving from 340 on August 1 to 288 on August 3. I am elated but as always, I warn against premature celebration. Those who opened up are closing down again following Coro recrudescence, and they include China, Germany, South-Korea, Madagascar Singapore Hong Kong and Australia.. Countries are suffering from second and third waves of Coro and in Ghana, 55 pupils of Accra Senior Girls High School have tested positive since the reopening of schools. I am glad that things are looking up here and I thank God for little mercies. I pray that this unwanted guest goes and goes finally but before then, let us keep all precautions because our people say that taking precaution is not an act of cowardice.
I had scheduled the
issues to dissect this week and my plans were on track until I viewed the
Channels TV 2pm news on 3/8/20. I was enjoying my lunch with spicy nsala
soup garnished with dry fish and roasted goat meat when Channels invaded my
privacy. And headline after headline, it was about protest, protests and more
protests. And most of these protests were related to Coro and other issues of
the moment (corruption and insecurity). I therefore changed my route and here
we are.
Last week (30/7/20), I
commended Victor Osagie for doing us proud at the global stage with his
immeasurable contributions to the war against Coro through the democratisation
of ventilators. Before that piece was published, another of ‘our own’ Dr Stella
Emmanuel, attracted an even greater
attention on the same Coro war
front. The Cameroonian pediatrician who
studied at University of Calabar and
practices medicine in the US, stormed Washington and in an obviously agitated spoken and body
language, ranted without restraint and
declared unequivocally that hydroxychloroquine,
zinc, and antibacterial drug, Zithromax, were effective cures for the Coro; that she had successfully treated 350
people, including those with underlining conditions and the aged; and that face-mask was not necessary. The first person
who gave her a thumbs-up was Trump; who had promoted hydroxychloroquine
as a cure and who refused to mask his face until just the other day. She spoke
on the sidelines of a whitecoat summit which had the objective of countering “massive disinformation campaign” about Coro,
arguing stridently that most of the establishment doctors were deceiving
people, that people needed not die for Coro and dared Dr Fauci and CNN staff to
prove through an independent urine test, that they were are not already using chloroquine.
She was so agitated or aggrieved that she indulged in typical ‘street protest’ and a lot has been said about her motive and methods, including that she was sponsored by Trump or Trumpeters. But she gained visibility and historic social medial followership, her being yanked off by Facebook et al notwithstanding. And some asked: if Bill Gates, an IT man with no medical background can freely and boldly make declarative statements about cure and vaccine for Coro, why is she, a doctor, being hounded for speaking about Coro treatment?. But she is a doctor and knows their idiosyncratic procedures of her profession and should thus not have resorted to the least in the hierarchy of proof in medical sciences( anecdotal evidence). She is also not the first to speak in praise of hydroxychloroquine. Prof Otegbayo, Chief Medical Director of UCH, Ibadan said he was treated with it and Governor Mohammed of Bauchi took full responsibility and directed his medical team to deploy it in Bauchi State. Her case is however different because of har aluta approach and for condemning other contrary medical opinions, calling their purveyors fake and comparing them to ‘good Nazis’ who watched while Jews were slaughtered. Whatever the case, she has attained visibility and her office would be overflowing with patients while manufacturers and dealers in the drug should be going for thanksgiving. A pharmacist in Nigeria is reportedly selling the medicine for N50,000( for 60 tablets)! NCDC, NAFDAC and NMA also have to do greater job in convincing people not to engage in chloroquine-based self-medication.
That was
the first in this season of protests. It was a one-woman protest; it was about
coro but it was off-shore and we got involved because she was mistaken for a
Nigerian, because she is a black and
because she schooled in Nigeria. Other protests followed.
The National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) protested at Ibadan and has promised dislocate the already comatose economy if the government did not reopen higher institutions withing 2 weeks.
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Students doing their own thing! |
They wondered why markets and
Churches should be opened while schools were shut. They argued that Coro was
not a death sentence, warned the Federal Government to avoid getting entangled
with global Coro-politics and advised the government to stop the salaries of
lecturers who did not return to school-if and when they were opened! Parents of
exit-class students in private secondary schools in Ogun State, also protested
the Coro-Test requirement for returning to school as imposed by Ogun State
Government. The government had undertaken to fund the testing of public school
candidates but negotiated a 50% discount for private school candidates, who
would then pay N25000 for the tests. The parents were not against the tests but
insisted that the government should bear the burden and that asking them
to pay N25, 000, to get a child tested, without being mindful of the current
economic reality in the country, was the height of insensitivity.
Away from the Coro warfront, students on
NCDC scholarship protested in front of the Nigerian High Commission in
London, over the non-payment of their fees and allowances just as youths in
Yenegoa protested against the rut in
NCDC and supported the forensic audit.NDDC pikins , London
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Niger Delta Youths, Yenegoa |
In a very amusing twist, NCDC has invited the president to
come and commission some of its projects. At least to show that all the money
did not disappear! And then, not long after the women of Southern Kaduna had undertaken
a naked-protest over the systemic slaughter by unknown gun men, Christian
leaders of different denominations protested against the killings by armed herdsmen in Kaduna State accusing
the President the Governor of adopting a do-nothing strategy in
the genocide and ethnic cleansing. They accused the government of culpability because
of its actions and inactions and tacit support for the Fulani.Religious leaders in Kaduna
One thing has however intrigued me
about all these protests. By the act of God, all the protesters have received
some responses from the authorities! The ministry of Education has given the
universities up to 5th August to showcase their readiness for
resumption; the Ogun state government has made a U-turn on the contentious testing requirement,
saying it lacks the capacity to test all the public students before the
due-date and that school management and PTAs should decide how they do their
own thing for private schools. The President has ordered NDDC to pay the fees and allowances of its scholars within a
week while he also summoned a security
council meeting on 4/8/20. In effect, the Polytechnic Students, the private
schools’ parents, the stranded NDDC pikins and the protesting
Southern Kaduna indigenes, have all received one form of response or the other
to their requests. I am gathering a group so that we protest about the
increasing provision of darkness by the DISCOs and the 1001 police tollgates
from Sagamu to Onitsha. I pray that we shall also receive some reactions when
we do so.
As I was writing this, (4/8/20) I attended
virtual afternoon mass at Holy Cross Cathedral and it happened to be the
celebration of the 8th anniversary of Archbishop Alfred Adewale
Martins. I join the lay faithful in Lagos to pray: Oh Lord, bless our
Chief Shephard and also pray for the fruition of the proposed ‘jurisdictional
units’
-Ik Muo, PhD.
Department of Business Administration, OOU, Ago-Iwoye.08033026625
It's heartwarming to learn that protests in Nigeria now receive responses and mostly positive ones. So, while the authorities ears are still functional you can try your luck in those two areas. I bet you'll gather mammoth crowd for the protest. Good luck sir!
ReplyDeleteI love this ..... Kudos Sir👍
ReplyDelete