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The Collapse of Daily Trust’s Health Interactive Column: Our Triumph By Adalat Yusuf (BSc, MSc in Virology) Polio Consultant and Expert, Abuja, Nigeria
Let me begin by saying that as a keen and regular reader of Health Interactive Column which hitherto always appears in the Tuesday Edition of Daily Trust in the last two years, I have developed a very strong affinity towards the articles that always feature on that page and over the time I have become a regular critic of what the young doctor from the riot state (Kano) used to write. Some of my criticisms were published by Daily Trust, such as ‘Dr Magashi versus Us, What happened to Health Interactive and X-raying Dr Magashi’s Rivalry among Health Professionals: The Polio Experience. Many of my rejoinders of his discourses were posted at Gamji, Amana and Lagos Forum websites.
Some of his readers that used to send me private mails over my comments , termed me as a Yoruba Irredentist and Hater of Northerners and Hausa- Fulani , which I have no apology or regret over such assertion . To say I hate the young doctor is an under statement, but never the less I respect him for being consistent in his many stands concerning public health issues. During the Polio Controversy which lasted almost a year, He carved his niche of being the defender of all the stupidity being exhibited by Kano State and other Polio Rejectionists. He attacked the International Donor Agencies with passion and at times attempted to rubbish our personality and created doubt in the mind of so many stakeholders about our sincere intention to rid the northern states of Polio Wild Virus.
Over the time, I begin to watch him from a distance but perhaps closely, he not only writes but was interviewed on many occasions by Voice of America ( VOA ) and other local radio stations and some of his comments were adopted by some papers. He desperately wanted to become the only credible public health commentator from the North. Even though the North has sizable public health physicians, but bunch of cowards that allowed a small boy to highjack public health analysis. On so many occasions, attempt was made to reach out to the young doctor about the possibility of partnering on Polio Research and Advocacy, notable among such, was , when the leading international polio stakeholders sent him a message that, the team was willing to finance his NGO to undertake a research on Polio. For those in that cycle, that would have been the beginning of a new era to him and his NGO in terms of funding, capacity and facilities and to be involved in implementation of programmes. Magashi not only turned down such offer but mentioned that as far as he was concern, the partners should focused on Measles, side by side with Wild Polio Virus, typical of him; he provided his juvenile and naïve reasons that were thrown to the dustbin by the partners.
On many occasion, his column had forced so many decisions to be changed and had the tendency of cajoling what I termed ‘The best advocacy strategy towards implementation of projects. Over the time, he had become a pain in the ass, a fresh wound on an exposed area of the body to many development partners. His probably the last article on his page ‘Anti Retro Viral therapy in Nigeria published on Tuesday, 15th February, 2005 provided a thought provoking insight and as usual proffered some recommendation. When the subsequent two Tuesdays, I went through Daily Trust, could not find Health Interactive, I became alarm, because, here was someone who was always there. With respect to consistency, I can only equate Health Interactive with Haruna’s Wednesday Column. The reason why I was alarmed, was because I made it my duty to keep a constant tab on that column. When the third subsequent Tuesday, the column was not published, my number six sense told that, there must be something fishy and I was bend on finding out.
First of all , I called Magashi’s number as his ardent reader , but he was not forthcoming in providing answer , he was in a hurry to drop the phone and just said , it was a slight problem that would be resolved soon . Residing in Abuja for long and during the Polio Brouhaha I have made a lot of contacts and friends in the media and I sought the opinion of someone within the Media Trust Company. My suspicion became a reality , the person told me that , the editor of the paper , Mal Ishaq Modibbo briefed other editors during one of their meetings , that he believed Dr Magashi was using his column to promote his NGO and as such , the column had to be suspended . When the person told me the reason Modibbo gave for suspending publishing Health Interactive, I laughed to coma. I told my contact that unknown to the management of Media Trust , Dr Magashi’s NGO in Kano over the last two and half years of the existence of his column , has not written a single proposal to any donor agency and has not collect a single kobo in the name of that NGO from any donor . The NGO has remained a Mush-Room all that while without implementing any project. How the young doctor survives and makes a living beat my imagination.
So, I really wonder, the meaning of promoting an NGO, when he has turned down a project from us worth millions of Naira, simply as he naively and stupidly claimed that , he wanted to maintain an independent mind while writing. Any way , I still asked my contact , what was the views of other sub -editors that attended the meeting , very shockingly , the person said that , ‘ We only heard him and being the senior editor of the paper , he has such privileges and legitimacy to complain about a column and even stop it . How ever, many of us that attended the meeting silently did not agree with him, because we equally read the page every Tuesday and above all, if the articles are promoting his NGO, what about the Questions and Answers Section that provides medical advice to teeming readers of the paper.
The person told me that, there were three possibilities as to the reason why the page was stopped
What ever was the rationale for stopping the page by Ishaq Modibbo Kawu , I in particular and many other stakeholders and I am sure other doctors in the North who were uncomfortable about the young doctor’s intimidating posture are very much happy and it is indeed a welcome development . By stopping or killing the only public health voice from the North by a Northerner is something worth celebrating and I say kudos to Ishaq Moddibo. On the platter of gold, he did to us what we wished to happen for long.
With respect to Dr Magashi, I say to him that, he has a long way to go, still a baby crawling and cannot dare us and his shenanigan, rabid and useless weekly comments in Daily Trust are over and to be candid with him, he is nothing but an opportunist, a Fulani Man that is supposed to be rearing cattle and please when ever his cattle develop any Zoonoses, remember to send E mail, certainly I will link him with W.H.O. Ha-ha-ha.
This article will be widely circulated via E mail and Fax to many people and Newspapers, in case the Northern Based Papers refuse to publish it.
Mr. Adalat Yusuf is a Polio Consultant and Expert who resides in Abuja, Nigeria and can be reached via yuadalat@yahoo.com |