By Magnus Onyibe.
Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, co-chairman of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the world’s second richest man is unarguably one of the foremost philanthropist of our time. Were it not for the current outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, how many people knew that, after the USA which contributes roughly half a billion dollars annually to the financial resources utilized in sustaining the operations of the World Health Organization, WHO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the second highest donor to WHO.
Isn’t it amazing that not China , nor Japan which are the second and third richest countries in the world respectively contribute as much as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to WHO.
According to data from reliable United Nations, UN sources , while the USA contributes 14.67%, Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation contributes 9.76% to the funds that the WHO deploys in its management of public health care worldwide.
And following the recent threat by USA president Donald Trump to suspend further USA funding of WHO based on the suspicion that the global health agency fell short in its handling of information from the Chinese in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has stepped up its stake in the war against coronavirus. As such , the foundation which had previously pledged $100 million in February, has made a further commitment of $150m, making it a total of $250m “to support development of diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines; help strengthen African and South Asian health systems; and help mitigate the social and economic impacts of the virus,”
I can bet that not many people in the world are aware that a major contributor to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is Warren Buffet-founder of Berkshire Hathaway, and 4th richest man in the world nicknamed, the sage of Omaha.
Mr Buffet could have established his own foundation. But because he is self effacing and prefers not to court public adulation, he is a silent partner in the Gates foundation, hence not many people are aware of his involvement in philanthropy.
Like Warren Buffet , Bill & Melinda Gates are also so self effacing that you would not see them featured in any media promotion of the activities or good work of their charity organization.
Fortunately for us in Nigeria, goaded and poked by the Governor of the central bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, the deep pocketed amongst us are standing up to be counted by generously donating a fraction of their humongous wealth to the good cause of protecting vulnerable compatriots from the rampaging coronavirus monster.
In a country where the dearth of standard medical facilities is outrageously and legendarily horrific, and outward medical tourism gulps in excess of one billion dollars annually, (N400b), as recently revealed by the minister of health, Osagie Ehanire, the intervention of the billionaires through their donations now in excess of N25b towards the provision of the badly needed medical care facilities, is in my opinion humbling , and quite noble.
In fact, it is an open secret that the gap between medical facilities and the number of Nigerians based on World Health Organization, WHO standards which is 6.5 hospital beds to 10,000 population is so wide and unrealizable in Nigeria that, in the event that there was serious medical crisis stemming from Covid-19 pandemic , the consequences would be so dire, to the extent that the alarming situation of an average of 1000 death per day in New York, USA at a point, would pale compared to Lagos and Kano, the most densely populated cities in Nigeria.
Nothing illustrates the abysmally poor condition of health care delivery in Nigeria more than the fact that not even the hospital in Aso Rock Villa , the seat of power that receives billions of naira from the nation’s annual budget , was good enough to manage the compromised health condition of the late chief of staff, Abba kyari and even President Muhammadu Buhari who only three years ago, spent about five months in a UK hospital managing his poor health. So for stepping up to the plate and watching out for fellow Nigerians by donating their hard earned naira , l’m convinced most Nigerians are fascinated and grateful from the bottom of their hearts for the kind gesture of the modern day Good Samaritans.
But what informed the current parade of our celebrity billionaires and movie stars in advertorials placed on CNN programs at huge costs, and in the pretext that they are sensitizing Nigerians about the deadly coronavirus pandemic?
In my considered opinion , that misadventure is not only immoral, but reprehensible.
That’s more so because the majority of Nigerians that they purport to be enlightening about coronavirus are going to bed daily on empty stomachs because the lockdown has denied them of their livelihood since they usually eke out income on a daily basis , while huge sums of money is being exported to the USA via CNN adverts.
The World Food Program Executive Director David Beasley told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday 21/4/2020 that even before COVID-19 became an issue he was telling world leaders that 821 million people go to bed hungry every night all over the world, and 135 million more people of the estimated nearly 8 billion people on earth are facing crisis levels of hunger or worse.
According to him, new World Food Program analysis shows that as a result of COVID-19 an additional 130 million people could be pushed to the brink of starvation by the end of 2020.
Let’s tell it as it is.
Which Nigerian is not aware that death from coronavirus is real and that the simplest antidote for it, for now is hand washing with soap and social distancing ? Does any one in the CA-Covid-19 team -the private sector coalition against Covid-19, really, truly believe that hearing and seeing ‘big men’ from the commanding heights of the economy and nollywood stars speak on tv would persuade the average Nigerian who is hungry , angry, unemployed and perhaps homeless to engage in social distancing and observe the shelter at home rule?
Although , so far not more than 25 people ( even one death is too much) is recorded to have died from Covid-19 in Nigeria , and over seven hundred and eighty two (782) amongst the very few tested so far , are positive, it has dawned on everyone that the threat of coronavirus is real.
If any Nigerian was in doubt about the deadly effect of Covid-19 pandemic, the unfortunate passage in the past two weeks of high profile personalities such as the former CoS, Abba Kyari , billionaire automobiles magnate, and founder of Globe Motors, Willy Anumudu and Ex-managing Director of PPMC, an NNPC subsidiary, Farouk Achimogu amongst others from complications arising from covid-19, has driven the point home by creating tremendous buzz and generating enough awareness amongst Nigerians.Since most of us are people of faith , that the pope and leader of Christianity has not been holding church services in Saint John cathedral and Saudi Arabia, the head quarters of Islamic religion has cancelled the traditional Jumat prayers, speaks volumes.
No alarm about the threat of coronavirus can be louder for Nigerians of both Christian and Islamic faith to hear than those sounded by the pope in Rome and Saudi Arabia’s leaders.
So, who and what is behind the charade of billionaires and performing artists preening on CNN?
Were there to be any need for the use of traditional media to mobilize Nigerians, why not concentrate it on Nigerian broadcasting stations? If it’s about taking advantage of the wider coverage area of the CNN , how about syndicating the adverts to local tv stations nationwide back in the rural areas where the bulk of Nigerians reside? Better still, why not produce the adverts in the three major Nigerian dialects of Hausa, Yoruba and lgbo spoken widely by practically every Nigerian from the regions? Is Aliko Dangote, not Hausa, are Jim Ovia and Tony Elumelu not Delta lbo and is Femi Otedola not Yoruba. Wouldn’t it have been novel if they spoke to each of the audiences with affinity to them in their local dialects? Without a doubt, these ‘big men’ speaking English on CNN could have connected better with the folks back in their homesteads if they spoke to them in their dialects?
It was very refreshing for me recently when l saw a video clip of former CNN anchor lady , Aisha Sesay enlightening her people in patois spoken widely in her homestead, Sierra Leone.
She simply stripped herself of the Western garb and climbed down to the level of the ordinary Sierra Leonians at the bottom rung of the ladder by communicating with them about coronavirus in flawless patois.
Is it that the people managing the communications responsibility for the Cacovid have forgotten about the data that indicates that the number of households in Nigeria that have access to dstv/cable tv is a mere three (3) million compared to the number of households with access to regular tv which is thirteen million?
This means that there is a ten million households advantage of regular tv watchers over dstv/cable tv that features CNN etc.
Granted that the three million households that subscribe to DSTv may comprise of the premium consumers in Nigeria that are business decision makers and have the purchasing power which is critical to fast consumer goods marketing companies like Dangote group and financial institutions like Zenithbank, UBA, Access bank and telcos like MTN, GLO etc whose adverts dominate CNN, but if the target for Covid-19 enlightenment is the critical mass of Nigerians who are vulnerable , then CNN is the wrong medium or platform through which they can be reached more easily and cost effectively.
Clearly, local Nigerian traditional media channels are better by far for reaching out to the masses.
Also , given that it is settled principle in mass communication ethos, that media consumers are attracted more to news that’s more local to them, before external news, utilizing the local tv stations and communicating in local dialects would have been the best options.
And if the excuse for the CNN blitz is to target the elite, the same people are already on social media platforms that is awash with information about Covid-19 pandemic.
It is more likely than not that , the billionaire donors were misled by the managers of the communications aspect of CACOVID because most of the donors, Aliko Dangote( Dangote lndustries) Jim Ovia (Zenithbank) Tony Elumelu (UBA) and Herbert Wigwe( Acessbank) currently have corporate adverts running on CNN and most of the personalities are not featured in the adverts, except one or two and in corporate social responsibility roles.
So how come they suddenly want to give to the public with the right hand, and appear to be using the left hand to take away the same funds through the personal aggrandizement of being featured in CNN adverts ?
Let it not be that by the time the invoice from CNN for the advertisements on the channel is discounted from the estimated sum of N25b so far raised , we may be surprised at how much might have been inadvertently exported out of Nigeria from the CACOVID funds to Atlanta Georgia,USA,CNN’s head office.
Perhaps, it is for the avoidance of the scenario above that our legislators contributed a minuscule part of their income to the private sector driven funds to give them the impetus to start clamoring to be the ones to appropriate the funds.
Their justification for their contention is that as legislators, they are constitutionally empowered to appropriate funds, not only Govt funds but public/ private sector funds too.
I reckon that they were admonished not to further expose their greed and ignorance , by a wise person who has their interest at heart, hence they climbed down from their high horses .
To be fair, the lack of adequate funding for the health sector in Nigeria transcends the govt in power. Patience Jonathan, wife of ex president Goodluck Jonathan was known to have literally disappeared from Aso Rock villa for a considerable length of time to an undisclosed location where she was receiving medical care.
President Umar Yar’adua of blessed memory is also known to have received medical treatment in Germany and Saudi Arabia before he passed away in 2010.
Before Yar’adua, military president Ibrahim Babangida, IBB also traveled from Aso Rock villa to Germany to receive medical attention for radiculopathy or foot disease.
Invariably, since the past 20 years of return to party democracy in Nigeria , the legislators who were angling to be the ones to ‘share’ the funds raised in the private sector did not deem it fit to provide adequate funds for the provision of robust healthcare infrastructure in the past 20 of so budgets that they have prepared and passed into law from 1999 till date.
Instead of our law makers to avert their minds why the World Health Organisation, WHO rule that stipulates that at least 5% of national budget should be spent on the health sector, has been largely flouted in the budgeting process, they chose to become meddlesome interlopers when they strove to play the role of alpha and omega in the disbursement of privately raised funds aimed at giving long suffering Nigerians protection from coronavirus , which is the height of absurdity.
And you know what, it is only in Nigeria that such mindlessness is condoned.
Magnus onyibe, a development strategist,alumnus of the fletcher school of law and diplomacy, tufts University, Massachusetts, USA , and a former cabinet member of delta state Govt , sent this piece from lagos.
Tag: Magnus Onyibe
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Covid-19 Pandemic: Do Nigerians Need Celebrity Enlightenment On CNN?, By Magnus Onyibe
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COVID-19 And The Dark Sides of The Medical World, By Magnus Onyibe
By Magnus Onyibe.
According to preliminary test trial reports, of 350 patients administered with a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin medication in the state of New York , within 3-4 hours, breathing was restored, zero intubation, zero hospitalization and zero death.
If the above very encouraging statistics coming out of New York turns out to be authentic , then governor Andrew Cuomo, who damned the bureaucratic red herrings in Washington by authorizing the test trial, will go into history book as a true hero of Covid-19 pandemic that deserves to be celebrated as it is a tangible evidence that the killer virus which has so far forced the elderly amongst us to their early graves is about to be reined in.
For the nearly four months or so since covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan city in the Kobe district of China , coronavirus had busted the notion of indefatigability built around the powerful, by sending many world leaders into quarantine. From Boris Yelsin, the UK,prime minister, to Justin Trudeau, the Canadian president and Angela Merkhel, the prime minister of Germany who are currently ‘sheltering in place’ after testing positive for the virus , the deadly coronavirus is exhibiting the tendencies of not differentiating between the plebeians and the powerful leaders of some of the richest and most powerful nations on earth.
Not even some of the most famous monarchs and princes are spared as the queen of England Elizabeth ll has retreated into her alternative abode deep in the countryside for the fear of catching the dreaded coronavirus sickness. The 93 years old queen’s over 70 years old son, prince Charles, having been diagnosed positive of the virus, has also now taken refuge in a remote part of England deep in the woods for treatment and recuperation.
With so much doom and gloom pervading the global space as reflected by the alarming number of people on track to hit a million mark infected, and nearly thirty (30) thousand so far dead , the good news that a combination of the common malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin has overwhelmed the virus is supposed to bring the much needed sunshine into a palpably death laden global atmosphere.
So it is disheartening and disappointing that some unseen hands in the organized medical/ pharmaceutical products development and marketing sector of the world, embedded in the inner recesses of the establishment in New York and Washington may be pursuing selfish and exploitative agenda, hence this otherwise cherry development is not being ventilated or given the attention that it deserves.
Is it not quixotic that the tested and proven combination of anti malaria remedy of hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic, azithromycin which have produced positive effects of successfully curing coronavirus patients is not even being considered a frontline antidote for the killer virus by the US Centre For Disease Control, CDC and Food and Drugs Administration,FDA?
It is my suspicion that the tzars of the industry regulatory agencies that are claiming that hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin need more extensive clinical trials-a bureaucratic process that takes a very long period and therefore an unwise measure to take at this critical point in time are being manipulated by the unseen hands of vested interests. How else can one explain a situation whereby an effective, perhaps not the most efficient medication needed to stem the tide of death that now pervades the world is bring taken off the equation as a potential cure, if not to create some delay that would allow the medications currently in the pipelines-Remdesivir first developed as trial antidote for Ebola and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, MERS now being targeted at coronavirus,come into gestation?
Isn’t it preposterous that it’s only two or so that are on full trials in the USA ? Contrast that with China which has on clinical trial about twelve, including the good old chloroquine.
In the war front, which leaders of all nations now have a consensus of opinion that the coronavirus pandemic has become, does effective treatment of a wounded soldier not trump the efficient dressing of the wound ?
So why are the medical/ pharmaceutical products regulatory agencies and the dark, powerful and manipulative forces promoting some yet to be clinically tested drugs, while discountenancing the established efficacy of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin ?
A number of reasons could be adduced for that .
The most plausible in my view is probably because chloroquine with a World War II origin is about a century old medication and in that status it has become generic, very cheap and therefore a spoiler for the big players in the medical/ pharmaceutical world waiting to cash in on the business opportunity created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The excuse being made by the opponents of the use of chloroquine-the popular anti malaria solution is that there may be harmful side effects of the therapy which the drug regulatory authorities don’t want to expose Americans to. Truth is that there is no drug that does not have a side effect.
Even if the fears about unsavory side effects were to be true, coronavirus kills its patients, evidence of which is that about 30,000 and counting human beings have died worldwide in the past three months of the of the pandemic.
Is it not better a sufferer from Covid-19 illness saves his/her life by taking chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine solution and risk suffering a side effect as a living being , than dying from the disease owing to no treatment at all?
As things currently stand, it is as if it is being argued and considered better to let coronavirus patients die by not being given the opportunity to be treated with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to stay alive simply because of the unfounded fear that a cure via hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin combination might impair other organs in the body.
Ironically , it is being stated by doctors that those who recover from coronavirus attacks even without hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin solution would suffer permanent damage to their breathing system.
If that outcome is acceptable by the authorities, why is it that the yet to be established possible negative side-effects from hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin be such a big deal, as the Americans would say?
I suspect that it is the vice grip of the under ground forces on the medical world that is strengthening the demurring attitude of the leaders of CDC and FDA over the use of the well documented hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin. If my suspicion is correct, it would not be the first time in the history of the USA that vested interests would be putting the agenda of money making over the safety of lives.
To put my things in context, let’s recall the high wired conspiracy by the NFL to prevent Bennett Omalu, a US/Nigerian neurosurgeon based in West Virginia from publishing his discovery in 2005 that persistent head butting in the course of the sport was responsible for the mental illness of NFL players after retirement.
Hitherto, there was no knowledge of the cause of the very mentally debilitating diseases amongst NFL players who more often than not ended up going nuts. Since Omalu’s sudden discovery of the disease during his routine work in the university of West Virginia laboratory that he named Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy,CTE was going to dramatically change the course and cost of engaging in or doing business in the National Football League, NFL, America’s favorite game, the movers and shakers of the multi billion dollars industry, resolved to discredit Omalu’s CTE report despite the unimpeachable science behind it, in order not to upturn the money spinning Apple cart-NFL.
In a special report titled Game Brain by Jeanne Marie Laskas in GQ magazine , October 2009, in narrating his sordid experience, Ben Omalu said “There are times I wish I never looked at Mike Webster’s brain. It has dragged me into worldly affairs I do not want to be associated with. Human meanness, wickedness, and selfishness. People trying to cover up, to control how information is released. I started this not knowing I was walking into a minefield. That is my only regret.”
I see a repeat of the well documented and celebrated conspiracy of NFL leadership against the now renown scientist, but hitherto unknown Ben Omalu after he discovered CTE as being a strong factor for the deadly mental conditions of players to the chagrin of the NFL top dogs. The discovery became one of the critical factors that changed the NFL game for the better as Omalu persistently proved the case against the tidal wave of NFL’s crushing power.
By discountenancing a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a possible cure for the all conquering monster of a virus-Covid-19 which is somehow quixotic, the vested interests in the multi billion dollars medical industry , it is pretty clear that the major stake holders are not ready to allow a very inexpensive cocktail of medication to be the solution into the project of finding cure for coronavirus of which they have invested several millions of dollars in researching and developing.
Heartily, the US president, Donald Trump who is very anxious to put the menace of covid-19 behind him so that he can get on with the business of getting re-elected for a second term in office later in November, don’t have that kind of optics or share in what seems like the sinister agenda of the medical/pharmaceutical industry goons hellbent on maintaining a stranglehold on the sector, hence he was excited when he first got wind of the intelligence that a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin could be the elixir for the issues giving him political cramps-Covid-19 pandemic that he is currently grappling with.
Similarly, despite the reservations being expressed by the medical industry regulators , FDA and CDC, New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo decided to cut through the bluster by also embracing the proposal to try hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin combination on New Yorkers infected with the novel coronavirus. That’s ostensibly because of the governor’s desire to spare himself the torture of staying up at night to ponder what he can humanly possibly do to stem the ugly tide of burying so many members of his political constituents being killed in droves by the monster-coronavirus pandemic.
Although, both the president of the USA and the governor of the state of New York seem to be aligned on the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin,it is not for the same noble goal of upending the vested interest in the medical/pharmaceutical industry whose enlightened self interest may be causing the world to loose more lives that could have been saved with the cheap drug being despised. Rather it is for the personal selfish interests of politicians representing both the Republican and Democratic parties in the USA .
So in a manner that reflects the conventional wise crack ‘different strokes for different folks,’ the separate agendas of the two politicians at federal and state levels are combining to have a common positive effect on the medical/pharmaceutical industry in the way that the discovery of CTE by Ben Omalu initially rankled the leadership of the NFL before his discovery eventually culminated into positive outcome for USA’s favorite sports-NFL. In fact, Ben Omalu’s ordeal in the hands of the seedy powers behind the scene pulling the puppet strings in the world of NFL actually inspired a blockbuster movie titled:CONCUSSION which stars Will Smith as Dr Omalu.
Being in tropical Africa, a malaria prone zone, there is hardly any adult Nigerian that has not been treated with chloroquine in his or her life time because at some point in time it was the preferred and almost exclusive anti malaria medication. As President Trump remarked in one of his media briefings, Africans have been using chloroquine without untoward consequences. And by the same token l would argue that some chloroquine residues ingested long ago might still abide in the blood stream of most of us. Arising from the above , I’m of the conviction that our physicians would not subscribe to the New York and Washington conspiracy against the tested and proven chloroquine by exposing Nigerians that test positive for the coronavirus virus to an unnecessary wait for the full evolution of the work-in-progress drugs still in undergoing clinical trial.
Rather, l’m persuaded that they won’t be distracted by the buccaneers in the USA who are engaging in the shenanigans of denouncing the application of the century old medicine as remedy for the coronavirus disease that has exhibited the characteristics of malaria and other ailments that were previously treated with chloroquine.
In the absence of a new cure for a monster of a disease that is killing humans for daring to breathe in a manner akin to how atomic or nuclear force sucks away oxygen in the atmosphere leading to the horrific end of human life, the consequences of which are the death toll now spiraling out of control , a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin medication becomes the real cure or one of the antidotes for the almighty coronavirus disease.
Sticking to the good old dictum that the devil you know is better than the angel you don’t know, Nigerian medical practitioners should not be swayed by the powerful underworld of the medical/pharmaceutical industry who are pursuing their selfish and narrow interests . It is only when the medical community in Nigeria elect to rely on their experience rather than practice, would Nigerians and indeed the world have a happy ending to this hell on earth experience (Covid-19) previously imagined to exist only in the realm of Steven king’s hair raising book on pandemics ‘The Stand’ or similar Ski-fi movies and other works of fiction .
Magnus onyibe, a development strategist and alumnus of the Fletcher school of law and diplomacy, Tufts university, Massachusetts USA, is the founder/ CEO of Germbusters.ng:by Inspire Consulting ltd. He sent this piece from lagos.