Sanusi's Sack: Why, Abati? Why?

Better to die ten thousand deaths,
Than wound my honour.
Joseph Addison, Cato, A Tragedy (1713), Act I, scene 4.

I am sad. I am really sad. I am for a man who used to be seen by many Nigerians as a beacon of hope. I am sad for Reuben Abati, Special Adviser to Nigeria’s President on Media and Publicity, because what he did yesterday meant he lost the last vestige of respect some Nigerians might still have had for him. It meant he has now sunk so low to the deepest level of ignominy a person can sink to. When I saw Abati on TV yesterday explaining the government's decision to suspend Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi from his position as the Governor of Nigeria's Central Bank, I felt pity for him. I felt pity for a man who has become a captive to his employers; a man who has found it absolutely impossible to wriggle himself free from the clutches of his employers because of his role as the one with the unenviable task of defending the indefensible and selling the unsellable to the Nigerian populace. I felt pity for him because I believed in his heart of heart, Abati knew his explanations were unconvincing and Nigerians would not be sucked in by his mendacity - except of course if he has totally sold his soul to the gods at the Rock.

While addressing State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa yesterday,

Abati claimed that Sanusi was suspended based on allegations of financial recklessness, violation of due process and another bothering on the mandate of the CBN but this claim will not wash with Nigerians. Why did the government have to suspend Sanusi when the furore created by his allegation of missing fund was yet to clear? Why will a government that took four months before sacking a minister who had been indicted of financial misappropriation by the country's House of Representatives quickly relieve another person who alerted the nation to another case of corruption? (I hope some of us still remember the recent sacking of Festus Odimegwu?) Please can someone tell me who the advisers of Mr. President are? What has become of the government's much vaunted anti-corruption war? By this action, government has unwittingly made a hero out of Sanusi. In fact, I believe the government has practically kick started his presidential or vice-presidential candidature.

Why does Abati continue to stay in a government that has made his job so difficult? Why is he refusing to toe the path of honour? Or is it that once an individual gets into government, it becomes impossible to get out? I do not think so. I think it is because of lack or loss of the value of honour in our society. I almost concluded that our society lacks the value of honour but I remembered that we were told, growing up, that centuries ago in Yoruba land, kings would commit suicide rather than lose their honour. I think it is appropriate then to say that we have lost our value or sense of honour and that is why people in our society find it difficult to walk away from positions that will cause them to compromise their values and good name. That is why a word like ‘hara-kiri' is difficult for us to understand and that is why we justify our actions of dishonour. Instead, what we understand as hara-kiri is going the establishment/government, which is what happened to

Festus Odimegwu and has now happened to Lamido Sanusi. The kind of people we need in Nigeria, and Africa, are people like Sanusi, people who are not afraid to commit our own version of hara-kiri.

I am ending this post by asking this question: Why, Abati? Why?

HEPATITIS: Reasons why you should know your status and why it is deadlier than HIV

This post was first published last year but a recent event prompted me to publish it again, especially for the benefit of those who didn’t have the opportunity to read it then. I have also added new information in this post. Please read and share the message with those who may not know. It is claimed that contracting a particular strain of hepatitis is like death sentence for most people living in Africa. So, please help spread the awareness in Africa about the deadliness of hepatitis.

The First Service in my church on Sunday is tagged “Empowerment Service’, where issues like entrepreneurship, academics, health, wealth, purpose, etc., are addressed. Last Sunday’s Empowerment Service was on health and it was a revealing and enlightening experience for most of us who were present at the service. The speaker at the programme, a medical doctor, spoke on the deadliness of Hepatitis infection and its prevalence in Nigeria. So, I am using this platform to present some of the things I gleaned from the talk.

A staggering revelation the speaker made was that Hepatitis infection is deadlier than HIV and costlier to manage. Hepatitis B, he told us, 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? How many Nigerian are carrying the virus around now? We may not know. I believe that our society should embark on an aggressive drive to sensitise and vaccinate people against this deadly disease.

The Hepatitis infection is an inflammation affecting the liver. It can be contagious or non-contagious. It can also be fulminant. I looked up ‘fulminant’ in the dictionary and I got these meanings: coming on suddenly and with great severity; (of a disease or symptom) severe and sudden in onset. This means Hepatitis infection can come upon one suddenly with very severe effects. Some cases of Hepatitis infection may give you signs, some may not. There are different types of Hepatitis: A, B, C, D, E... Some of the symptoms of Hepatitis infection are: passage of dark urine, yellowing of the eyes (jaundice), abdominal discomfort on the right side, weight loss, easy bruising, bleeding tendencies, swelling,

and it can be contracted through blood transfusion, sex, seminal fluids, etc.

My advice to you is to go for Hepatitis test, if you haven’t done that. And if you test negative, please go for vaccination against this disease. If you test positive, please seek medical advice immediately. I have done the test and I have been vaccinated.

I came across the following facts about hepatitis B virus by Iprodigy Group Nigeria and I decided to share them with you:

1. Despite there being a vaccine, Hepatitis B Virus(HBV) infection kills one person every 30-45 seconds.

2. Most of the people who are infected (almost two-thirds) are unaware of their infection and this has resulted in the silent HBV infection becoming one of the biggest threat to the health of the world.

3. HBV is about 10 times more prevalent than HIV infection worldwide. HIV is more prevalent in Africa, HPV is more prevalent in Asia.

4. The general perception is that HIV virus is very infectious and contagious however Hepatitis B Virus is 100 times more infectious than HIV.

5. If not properly monitored or treated HBV infection can kill 25% of the infected people due to liver cancer or liver failure from cirrhosis.

6. Hepatitis C is caused by another lethal virus like HBV and infects about 180 million people worldwide. There is no cure from this infection and there is no vaccine that has been developed.

7. HBV and Hepatitis C together have infected 530 million of the 6 billion people worldwide.

8. Pregnant women who have hepatitis B infection or those who are carriers of hepatitis B virus can pass this infection to their babies when they are born.

9. Individuals with high risk of infection with HBV include – illegal injection of drugs, haemophiliacs, homosexual and bisexual males, sexually active heterosexual persons with multiple partners, prisoners, patients on haemodialysis, health care staff who have needle stick injury and people who indulge in body piercing and tattooing. Certain world population have a higher incidence and include – Alaskan Eskimos, Pacific Islanders, Haitian and Indo-chinese immigrants. Travellers to these regions should take all the precautions.

10. Hepatitis B recombinant vaccine is a very safe vaccine as it has no human blood or blood products and it is produced by genetic re-engineering process and usually requires three injections for protection over a six months period.