Covid-19 and Search for Vaccine
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Amobi P. Chiamogu
Apr 27, 2020, 7:07:23 AM4/27/20
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The search for a Covid-19 vaccine has sparked off international media controversy and negative sentiment around the potential harm of people taking part in clinical trials once the research enters its human testing phase. Anger and unfounded animosity are ignited by a presumed joker from 2 French doctors that corona virus vaccines should be tested on poor Africans while observing that the continent is populated by largely impoverished people who are unable to protect themselves.
Undoubtedly, Africans are impoverished and unable to protect themselves for reasons emanating from colonialism, imperialism, globalization and poverty of political leadership. Yes, the latter factor is about the most ravaging in contemporary terms. Leadership and followership have continually constituted the most debilitating challenge to African development such that the narrative has changed from ‘How Europe underdeveloped Africa’ to ‘How Africans are under-developing Africa’. Surface it to state that colonialism is perhaps no longer the major problem with African underdevelopment but cast your mind back to the bequeathed legacies and maintained chains of relationships to decipher the possible relatedness of the forces of colonialism and their recent trends in globalisation and internationalisation of all kinds that are today prime determinants of the relevance of nations in the international arena. Many scholars believe that Africa is being held by the jugular and constrained to behave the way it does in the interests of the West.
The foregoing position notwithstanding, the truth is that Africa is rendered most vulnerable by the activities of Africans. We have given our hearts away in a sordid doom. We accepted the spell cast on us by the West and decided to live by their ways. Opened up our lives and economies for them to feast and control. We abandoned our culture and tradition for western culture which we obviously cannot meet. We thus are neither Africans nor Westerners. Africans are bats of globalization and as such susceptible to any and every antidote. Everything bad, ugly and negative is Africa.
As usual, since we adopted and have wished our minds, hearts and even personalities away in pursuit of western approaches to life, Africans are committed to fate and condemned to hearsay from western propaganda. The West has caged us all over: economics, medicine and technology. From SAP, we have migrated amidst tumultuously through pseudo-democracy, globalisation to dying painfully without reactions at home in lockdown. In very sordid ways, the west has made Africa and Africans test fields and instruments that we are today (in their eyes and calculations) less than human beings. What the hook is this? I believe nature is more generous to Africa but the culture of chopping the national cake has pushed the continent to the dustbin of history. Continent on the periphery of international politics. The culture of sharing cake and eating without working have doomed the continent especially Nigeria.
The people of the continent have refused to think and make good use of their brains. Who said that solution to the pandemic cannot come from us? As a way of managing the Covid-19 pandemic, the West locked down their countries in line with their socio-economic developmental status and allowed operation of research institutions in search of solutions but Africa replicated lockdown without cognizance of our socio-economic realities. African countries locked every citizen up without thought of feeding, medication to ailments not related to Covid-19, pregnancy and child care, attention to the aged. Many have died of hunger and other ailments without getting reported. We even locked down villages and constrained farmers from cultivating their farmlands thereby planning for massive hunger and starvation. We closed down all universities and research institutions because we know for sure that they are not just irrelevant but without results. Perhaps, the institutions do not carry out researches or are mere copying centers where underpaid staff who are being groomed to be praise singers to the ruling class are kept. The institutions are relegated to empty centers for copying and duplicating theories from their western counterparts. No wonder the children of the well-to-do and the political elites are trained abroad in western universities.
I am however disturbed because African students excel in western universities and practice even medicine with resounding expertise over there. Why don't we bring them back to Africa to train others in orthodox medicine and get African traditional medical practitioners to synergize with them? I guess many of the western trained medical doctors will never accept to return to the hell called countries of Africa. Poverty of leadership and disgruntled followership have pushed the continent to unfathomable woes. Undoubtedly, traditional medicine was sustaining Africa before the advent of western education. If we closed down our copy-cat schools in the face of the ravaging pandemic for obvious reasons, why not try out the potency and efficacy of African traditional medicine. At least, I know and believe most sincerely that local orthopedic homes across south eastern states are booming despite the establishment of national orthopedic hospitals in Nigeria. Africa nay Nigeria, cannot be english and we must take it home as the fact. Many people have alluded to the potentials of Neem (dogonyaro) leaves and other herbs and roots (ginger, garlic, onions, etc) in the treatment of corona virus. These leaves, herbs and roots are in abundance in Africa but because the postulations are not coming from the western propagandists, they are not acceptable and should not be tried out. Ask the serving Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly (a survivor of Covid-19) about the relevance of those leaves and he will attest to their potentials. There is urgent need to unlock the doors, roads and streets in Africa for traditional medicine. Subject their mixtures to testing to take dominion over African environment. Re-evaluate the relevance of traditional medicine. Those studying medicine in medical colleges in Africa should be trained in line with their cultural background.
If the claim by William Bryan, an American scientist and technology adviser to the Department of Homeland Security, that ultraviolet rays have potent impact on the pathogen is anything to go by, then, my earlier position that nature is more generous to Africa accounts for why the rate of infection on the continent has not met western predictions. Clearly, scorching sunlight must have been the sustaining factor for Africans. Let us utilize our potentials and save Africans.
The vaccine for covid-19 might be somewhere in Africa and staring us in the face without our recognising it.
--
Undoubtedly, Africans are impoverished and unable to protect themselves for reasons emanating from colonialism, imperialism, globalization and poverty of political leadership. Yes, the latter factor is about the most ravaging in contemporary terms. Leadership and followership have continually constituted the most debilitating challenge to African development such that the narrative has changed from ‘How Europe underdeveloped Africa’ to ‘How Africans are under-developing Africa’. Surface it to state that colonialism is perhaps no longer the major problem with African underdevelopment but cast your mind back to the bequeathed legacies and maintained chains of relationships to decipher the possible relatedness of the forces of colonialism and their recent trends in globalisation and internationalisation of all kinds that are today prime determinants of the relevance of nations in the international arena. Many scholars believe that Africa is being held by the jugular and constrained to behave the way it does in the interests of the West.
The foregoing position notwithstanding, the truth is that Africa is rendered most vulnerable by the activities of Africans. We have given our hearts away in a sordid doom. We accepted the spell cast on us by the West and decided to live by their ways. Opened up our lives and economies for them to feast and control. We abandoned our culture and tradition for western culture which we obviously cannot meet. We thus are neither Africans nor Westerners. Africans are bats of globalization and as such susceptible to any and every antidote. Everything bad, ugly and negative is Africa.
As usual, since we adopted and have wished our minds, hearts and even personalities away in pursuit of western approaches to life, Africans are committed to fate and condemned to hearsay from western propaganda. The West has caged us all over: economics, medicine and technology. From SAP, we have migrated amidst tumultuously through pseudo-democracy, globalisation to dying painfully without reactions at home in lockdown. In very sordid ways, the west has made Africa and Africans test fields and instruments that we are today (in their eyes and calculations) less than human beings. What the hook is this? I believe nature is more generous to Africa but the culture of chopping the national cake has pushed the continent to the dustbin of history. Continent on the periphery of international politics. The culture of sharing cake and eating without working have doomed the continent especially Nigeria.
The people of the continent have refused to think and make good use of their brains. Who said that solution to the pandemic cannot come from us? As a way of managing the Covid-19 pandemic, the West locked down their countries in line with their socio-economic developmental status and allowed operation of research institutions in search of solutions but Africa replicated lockdown without cognizance of our socio-economic realities. African countries locked every citizen up without thought of feeding, medication to ailments not related to Covid-19, pregnancy and child care, attention to the aged. Many have died of hunger and other ailments without getting reported. We even locked down villages and constrained farmers from cultivating their farmlands thereby planning for massive hunger and starvation. We closed down all universities and research institutions because we know for sure that they are not just irrelevant but without results. Perhaps, the institutions do not carry out researches or are mere copying centers where underpaid staff who are being groomed to be praise singers to the ruling class are kept. The institutions are relegated to empty centers for copying and duplicating theories from their western counterparts. No wonder the children of the well-to-do and the political elites are trained abroad in western universities.
I am however disturbed because African students excel in western universities and practice even medicine with resounding expertise over there. Why don't we bring them back to Africa to train others in orthodox medicine and get African traditional medical practitioners to synergize with them? I guess many of the western trained medical doctors will never accept to return to the hell called countries of Africa. Poverty of leadership and disgruntled followership have pushed the continent to unfathomable woes. Undoubtedly, traditional medicine was sustaining Africa before the advent of western education. If we closed down our copy-cat schools in the face of the ravaging pandemic for obvious reasons, why not try out the potency and efficacy of African traditional medicine. At least, I know and believe most sincerely that local orthopedic homes across south eastern states are booming despite the establishment of national orthopedic hospitals in Nigeria. Africa nay Nigeria, cannot be english and we must take it home as the fact. Many people have alluded to the potentials of Neem (dogonyaro) leaves and other herbs and roots (ginger, garlic, onions, etc) in the treatment of corona virus. These leaves, herbs and roots are in abundance in Africa but because the postulations are not coming from the western propagandists, they are not acceptable and should not be tried out. Ask the serving Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly (a survivor of Covid-19) about the relevance of those leaves and he will attest to their potentials. There is urgent need to unlock the doors, roads and streets in Africa for traditional medicine. Subject their mixtures to testing to take dominion over African environment. Re-evaluate the relevance of traditional medicine. Those studying medicine in medical colleges in Africa should be trained in line with their cultural background.
If the claim by William Bryan, an American scientist and technology adviser to the Department of Homeland Security, that ultraviolet rays have potent impact on the pathogen is anything to go by, then, my earlier position that nature is more generous to Africa accounts for why the rate of infection on the continent has not met western predictions. Clearly, scorching sunlight must have been the sustaining factor for Africans. Let us utilize our potentials and save Africans.
The vaccine for covid-19 might be somewhere in Africa and staring us in the face without our recognising it.
Amobi P. Chiamogu
Lecturer, Department of Public Administration
Lecturer, Department of Public Administration
Special Assistant to the Former Rector, Federal Polytechnic, Oko
Anambra State - Nigeria
+2348034306261, +2348123232658, +2348093522073
Anambra State - Nigeria
+2348034306261, +2348123232658, +2348093522073
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