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Deadlier than HIV: Hepatitis B – by Darasimi Oshodi

by Darasimi Oshodi

The World Hepatitis Day was recently observed. So this post is my own way of contributing to the sensitisation on Hepatitis.

The First Service in my church on Sunday is tagged ‘Empowerment Service’, where issues like entrepreneurship, academics, health, wealth, purpose, etc., are addressed. At one of our services, a medical doctor, spoke on the deadliness of Hepatitis infection and its prevalence in Nigeria. A staggering revelation the speaker made was that Hepatitis infection is deadlier than HIV and costlier to manage. Hepatitis B, he said, is incurable while Hepatitis C can be treated but can you imagine spending 30,000 naira per week on treatment for 48 consecutive weeks? That should be around 200 dollars per week. Please try to calculate what that amounts to. How many people in Nigeria can afford such a treatment? It is however surprising to know that vaccination for this disease is not supposed to be more than 1000 naira (that should be around 7 dollars) and I want to hazard a guess that many people are not aware of this. What is painful about this disease is the fact it is prevalent in Nigeria and many people are ignorant about it. How many Nigerians have died from Hepatitis infection with the death attributed to something else? Continue reading “Deadlier than HIV: Hepatitis B – by Darasimi Oshodi”

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Cliff Young

Darasimi Oshodi

I came across the story of Cliff Young and I was wowed. I just couldn’t resist the urge to share it with others. So please enjoy his story.

In 1983 when Cliff stepped to the line ready to run the Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultra Marathon no one took him seriously. He didn’t look like he was ready to complete a 5K let alone the 544 mile race from Sidney to Melbourne. He was a side show clown for the media to dramatize; a satirical distraction from the real competitors who took training and racing seriously. In 1983, a man named Cliff Young showed up at the start of this race. Cliff was 61 years old and wore overalls and work boots. To everyone’s shock, Cliff wasn’t a spectator. He picked up his race number and joined the other runners. He was told that he was crazy and could not finish the race. He explained to them that he grew up on a 2,000-acre farm, with thousands of sheep. His family could afford neither horses nor tractors so, when the storms came, his job was to round up the sheep. Sometimes, he said, it would take two or three days of running. “It took a long time, but I’d always catch them. I believe I can run this race,” he said.

When the gun went off, Cliff immediately fell to the very back of the pack. Soon even the back of the pack disappeared ahead of him. But a 61 year old toothless farmer, racing in overalls and galoshes, was still compelling television so the cameras continued to cover his journey. Calls reportedly came into the station begging for race officials to make him stop. Many spectators believed he would certainly die before he made it even half way to Melbourne. After 18 hours of running, the leaders stopped for some rest. The conventional wisdom was that running 18 hours straight and then sleeping for 6 was the best recipe for success over this distance. The first night of the race Cliff did not sleep. Continue reading “Cliff Young”

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Two Things You Can Still Do This Year, by Darasimi Oshodi

by Darasimi Oshodi

Darasimi Oshodi, the author
Darasimi Oshodi, the author

Sometime ago, I took my wife to the hospital for treatment of cough and catarrh. It was our first time of visiting that hospital to see a doctor so we had to obtain a new patient’s card. We paid for the card without stress but it was not the same with obtaining the card. Since my wife was not feeling too well, I had to help her obtain the card while she sat down. The queue that confronted me where I was to obtain the card was scary but I did not have any option but to fall in line if I wanted to get the card. There were about five disorderly lines (the disorderliness actually accounts for why I cannot be exact about the number of lines) being attended to by two persons – the number later increased to three.

While waiting to be attended to, I observed something: some people who just joined the queue were attended to before those they met on the line. A man who was behind me found his way to the front and he was attended to before me. My first reaction to the man’s attitude was to wonder at his impatience and disregard for order. But it didn’t take me long to come to terms with what I concluded was the reality of life. I thought to myself that there was no need to blame him because his action only exemplified that life will hand to you what you demand of it and not necessarily what you deserve. In life, some people wait for a good fortune to drop on their laps like ripe mangoes while others go about life with such a determination to make life give them what they want. This does not mean I support disorderliness. In fact, I am a firm believer in the first come, first served principle.

Another observation I made while waiting to get the card was that patients who knew hospital officials enlisted the support of such officials to help them get whatever they wanted quickly. This also did not anger me because I have come to realise that relationships can help you get ahead in life or take you where your knowledge or status may not take you. These patients who knew hospital officials were only enjoying the benefits of the relationships they had developed. And I am not one to blame the hospital officials for calling in favours in their workplace. Where else would they call in such favours if not in their workplace? Continue reading “Two Things You Can Still Do This Year, by Darasimi Oshodi”

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Kenya to Launch Tourism Promotion Outfit in Germany, by Mickie Ojijo

by Mickie Ojijo

After ten years of futile effort to persuade Kenya Government to review its decision leading to closure of the Tourism Marketing offices in Germany, Kenya Development Associates-Germany will launch a private bureau to market Kenya in August.

It is the public domain Kenya’s tourism trade has been plagued with an assortment of problems and has been operating below expectations since the late 1970s.

Every successive government since independence has raised the bar, making the country the hub of hunting/tourist expeditions in the entire east and western parts of Africa.

The journey to success however, is fraught with government ineptitude, greed and lack of patriotism. Many believed the devolved system of governance in the new Constitution would transfer tourism marketing docket to the relevant county governments, to the contrary, the central government, has unfortunately, remained adamant – not wishing to cede its hegemony.

Numerous excuses have been advanced as to why tourism trade is stagnating. This has not cut it because there are several examples of countries operating under the same adverse circumstances of political squabbles and insecurity but flourishing in their tourism trade. It was for this reason in 2003, Kenya Development Associates (KDA) plunged itself in selling Kenya as the only answer.

As a patriotic Kenyans, through our experts, we know the answer lies in effective consultations with the German tours and travel agencies and not the armchair state marketing agency, which more often than not, continues to replicate anachronistic sales strategies that has seen the country’s tourism sector, plummet to worrying levels.. Continue reading “Kenya to Launch Tourism Promotion Outfit in Germany, by Mickie Ojijo”

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Drugged, Raped, Mocked but Undaunted: I #StandwithJada, by Darasimi Oshodi

 

Jada, a 16-year-old girl, was invited to a party. When she got there, the host gave her a drink of punch and after taking the drink, she passed out and was not aware of every other thing that happened at the party. A few weeks later, she realised that she had been raped and that her photo was taken while she was lying on the ground unconscious. She only became aware of what happened that night when photos of her naked body started circulating on the Internet. As if that was not worrisome enough, some Internet users started taking pictures of themselves mimicking Jada’s pose while she was lying unconscious on the ground and posted those pictures on the Internet with the hash tag #jadapose, which some have termed as a social media low. Some even posted videos, including dance videos to mock her.

But in a rare show of courage, she has decided to come out and speak about the whole incident. Jada, who revealed that she was angry about the whole thing, said, “I had no control. I didn’t tell anyone to take my clothes off and do what they did to me.” And about her reason for coming out, she said, “There’s no point in hiding. Everybody has already seen my face and my body, but that’s not what I am and who I am.”

What is heartwarming is the support Jada has received since she came out to tell her side of the story. These people have also come up with counter hash tags like: #jadacounterpose and #standwithjada with the aim of drumming up support for Jada and also to discourage attacks on the female gender by males. Even the #jadapose meme has been hijacked and is now being used to attack its initial aim. Continue reading “Drugged, Raped, Mocked but Undaunted: I #StandwithJada, by Darasimi Oshodi”

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Unprofessionalism: The Nigerian Experience, by Yinka Ogunlana

by Yinka Ogunlana

The effects of professionalism can never be over-emphasized in developed nations around the world. In this vein, it is imperative to look into Nigeria; the biggest, largest, most populous and biggest oil-rich country in Africa, which is equally blessed with both immense human and natural resources. Most times, one begins to ponder on the devastating, dehumanizing and deteriorating conditions faced by Nigerians and even the country as a whole despite its wealth and enviable resources. One of the major challenges which is not only affecting the growth of the country but is also a dent on the nation’s
integrity is unprofessionalism.

It is disheartening to note that a country with about 170 million people and to some reasonable extent values education as it records over 7,000 graduates and 2,000 M.Sc. holders every year is unable to
boast a reasonable  level of manpower in most of its sectors. But then, for Nigeria to record the desirable success in every of facet of her national life, it is my thinking that professionalism is crucial
towards re-branding and rebuilding the country.

As a matter of fact, unprofessionalism is unarguably that microscopic flu that has eaten deep down into the affairs of the nation and is on the verge of destroying the economy though many will easily look at
corruption as the bigger flu; but it’s important to know that corruption is a product of unprofessionalism. A right-thinking individual won’t expect an agriculturist to serve as a doctor; this
also applies to most of our leaders. It has become a chorus on almost everyone’s mouth that corruption is that common and infectious disease confronting the county but as an average professional Nigerian will not only help to re-build the economy but also make sure that there is an equitable distribution of resources as he won’t want to involve in corrupt acts. Continue reading “Unprofessionalism: The Nigerian Experience, by Yinka Ogunlana”

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The Hegemonic Politics in the Middle East: Time for America to Act, by Abiodun Fatai

by Abiodun Fatai

If the “war of attrition” currently going on in Palestine-Gaza strip is anything to go come by, it is a war in which humans temperament is not of antagonistic culture as postulated by Samuel Huntington, but of dangerous hatred and injustice, orchestrated by the US and its allies against the Muslim world. No doubt the Muslim world has always been a thorn in the flesh of the United State of America and has always prevented its tendency towards infiltrating its culture. In the same vein, Israel has emerged as America allies and a regional geo-strategic enemy to the solidarity of the Muslim collectives in the
Middle East. Ever since then Israel and Palestinian has been in a cut-throat relations. They both have dumped good neighborliness; yet, it is Israel that has prided itself as an arrogant lot partly because
of the biblical question of superiority and the support it enjoys from America. In many instances Israel has chosen to impress America out of it idiosyncratic believed that she must dominate the Palestinian,
albeit the middle Ease. This factor lends credence to the root of the Israeli-Palestine land dispute and identity crisis. While this long drawn conflict has defied all odds, Israel in any of the arbitration
process has always raised the bar so high that the Palestine is always at its mercy. Yet, not even America, as the global hegemon, has been able to call Israel to order for the sake of peace and stability in the Middle East.

This is the basis upon which we can situate the American complicity in the madness going on in the Palestinian -Gaza strip, in which millions of innocent Palestinian are dying from the clutches of Israeli
wickedness and injustice. Has the Hamas really erred, to have justified Israel never-ending violence against the Palestinians? I don’t believe so because the prevailing condition of the Palestinian is a function of their belligerent posture, especially in a realist world where they suffering increasing persecution and hatred. If this issue is put into further perspective in the realist paradigm, both
Israeli and Palestinians are right in the use of force as rationalization for the promotion of their national interest. On the other hand they are both culpable for committing “war crime” by killing and maiming innocent citizens. Even at that, Israel is more culpable than the Palestinian especially against the backdrop of a changing world where peace and stability is the grand norm, with
Israel being a fraction of the dominant World order. This new order has in it inherent human values, freedom and dignity as core characteristics. In the context that the protagonist of that order
chooses to violate those principles as consequence of their self-driven interest, the implication is that the stability of the global regime is threatened. My position therefore is that, in the context that Israel seeks to violate the global order of peace and stability, by assuming a mindless war against the Palestinian is a clear threat to the world order. However, America is yet to see
reasons why it should call Israel to order. This is not a new attitude, I know of so many UNSC resolutions which Israel has refused to honour in the past, without any reprimand from America. This has
thus created a situation of instability and raises question on the legitimacy of the global system. Where lies the logic and sanity in America-Britain obsessive invasion of Iraq, mindless of the interest of the “common Iraqis”, despite the obvious that, Iraq is not in possession of WMD. America has always been quick to fix what is terroristic, yet all of its ardent have been slow in conceptualizing how America terror activities and complicity has amounted to such, albeit the bombing of Hiroshima-Nagasaki in which America not only killed millions but also dehumanize the Japanese population in the final stage of the second world war is still fresh in our mind.

Consequent upon this, I make bold to theorize that America is guilty of double-speak and that the current global contour resulting in renewed insecurity and terror should be laid at the doorstep of
America’s mindless politics, which seeks to exterminate the Muslim world to foist Israel’s dominance in the Middle East, with the consequence of consolidating America’s hegemony. Maybe America’s
justification is rooted in their fear of the Nostradamus theory of 3WW, which it claims would start in the Middle East and the unsavory fear, that it would unseat America hegemony. Even though that theory
is yet to come to fruition, America may well be sowing the seed of this prophesy as the double standard and complicity of America in serious global peace and security issues would consequently come back
against America. As much as America has invented fantastic human values and dignity, which make it to be renowned and respected as global hegemon, it has also stood against those principles. For
example, recently, a young American stood by identifying with the Palestinian course; you won’t believe what happens to him, he was humiliated and harassed by the America “security mad-dogs” just
because he expressed his freedom of speech about the Israeli madness in Gaza. Where lays justice and human dignity? What principle do
America represents? Is America putting every issue on the chessboard of foreign policy and or national interest, even as a global hegemon? That is not the question for this discuss. Yet again, Israeli madness
is in American obsession to curtail the Arab world, it would therefore not see a wrong in Israeli brutalization of Palestinian. The only response from America in almost two week of brutalization in
Palestine-Gaza strip was Obama sympathy for the wounded Israeli young girls. This called to question the “thinking and disposition of America to terror” especially in the context that Palestine is being
ruined and many young innocent Palestinians boys and girls are now in their grave beyond. The US should be careful as some recent studies are leveraging on the China-Russia relations to upstage the US
hegemony. American critics have argued that the recent take of Crimea by Russian, is a sign that American hegemony is been challenged. Thus America can only put its act right by doing the expected, as its disposition and reaction to global security and injustices are the precursor to world order and stability.

It is therefore not because one is quick to defend the Palestinian position as some would argues; the question is if America’s claims to global hegemons is anything to come by, it should be more sensitive
and takes responsibility in ensuring global order, peace and stability without necessarily being value-laden. It must take the global interest beyond the interest of any state, at least for the collective security and stability of the world. Israel cannot continue this madness, the bloodshed is becoming so much that even global Christendom’s are becoming “weary and worry” on the state of killing and destruction in Palestine. Enough of this bloodshed, we have seen enough in Palestine-Gaza strip, Nigeria, Pakistan, Libya Syria all of which are Muslim enclave, otherwise a time would come that “the blood they are shedding” in Nigeria’s first lady language [That is the common slang in Nigeria today, she is also referred to as “Madam Wayek”] would definitely come to hunt America. Certainly, for America as the global hegemons to speak to the Palestinian question, once for all with a view to engendering peace and security in the middle East as well as other part of the world where war of persecution and injustice is undermining global collective global peace and stability.

Abiodun Fatai is a doctoral candidate at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He is currently working on Elections and Democratic Consolidation in West Africa and has also written substantially on global politics and security.

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Ekiti Election: Street Credibility, Elitism and all that, by Dr. Tunde Oseni

The recent governorship election in Ekiti will no doubt remain a subject of interest for a long time to come. Although it was generally perceived as free and fair, it was indeed not free from fear. As the people say, the devil is in the details. Granted, there were no reports of violence on the Election Day, and the incumbent Governor Fayemi has congratulated Governor-elect Fayose, reasons for winning or losing elections are never clear-cut. There are at least three major reasons for the dimension of the electoral outcomes of that fateful Saturday.

 

One, the governor is seen as an elite politician, who is far removed from the ‘ordinary people’ of Ekiti. No doubt, Governor Fayemi’s education, experience and exposure far outweighed that of his opponent but, the governor, it is said, lacks street credibility. Unlike Mr. Fayose, Dr Fayemi is an urbane, refined and grammar-speaking gentleman. Unlike Mr. Fayose, Dr Fayemi is hardly seen on the street; he seldom attends social parties, especially owambe type. Although the street credibility hitherto espoused by Mr. Fayose as governor in three years was largely populist, the masses, including the street traders and roadside mechanics understand him better than they do Dr Fayemi. But populism could be tricky; nobody truly knows the mind of a populist politician. Yet, even the most theoretical political scientist would judge a man by what he says and does, since the psychology of the politician is as hard to read as the psychology of the people that follows him. Yet, the question begs for answer as to why the very populist Fayose could not win the senatorial seat when he contested on the platform of the Labour Party in 2011. Continue reading “Ekiti Election: Street Credibility, Elitism and all that, by Dr. Tunde Oseni”