|
Malaria, Millions And Slums: Much Ado About Talk-Shops By Ahmed Dodo The look on my face when I first read the declaration of war on Malaria in one of the major dailies, by the chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum and the Honourable Chief Servant of Niger state, Alhaji Mua’zu Babangida Aliyu at the recently concluded first Northern States’ Health Summit held here in our hospitable state was that of a cynical citizen. I was skeptical and must confess that I was still wearing that skeptic mood as I penned these strokes. But with all sincerity I must give credits to the Chief Servant for giving me the heading for this week’s strokes, when he rightly described some of the summits frequently organized by various bodies across the country and the north in particular as ‘Talkshops’, and I could not but subscribed to that fitting tag with all my heart. I tell you if the Chief Servant had described them as chopshops he won’t have been wrong, for most of these seminars, summits, conferences, symposiums, or under whatever banner they come, have been nothing but quick avenues of making fast money by the organizers, the resource people and cliques within the cycles. Over the years, especially during the last eight years, this country I believe had witnessed some unprecedented summits, conferences, seminars that at the end of the day don’t solve nor proffer solutions backed with actions. We have witnessed different jumbo conferences and summits here in the north and I tell you, the problems are getting worse and these talkshops organizers are happily smiling to the banks and the problems left to either fade away or breed more problems. Take the current call on the War Against Malaria; a war that has long been declared in this country with occasional fanfares where billions of dollar and naira are purportedly spent. According to the Minister of State for Health, Mr. Gabriel Aduku, about N132 billion heavily-loaded naira is lost annually to Malaria in the country. I know someone out there might want to scream cynically aloud like me. Just imagine how many millions of Nigerians could really benefit from this huge sum if truthfully disbursed to fight this containable Man killer, as other patriotic citizens of other nations have wisely did for long. It is even more saddening to note that about 110 millions Nigerians are known to be active malaria patients with the cost of treatment estimated to be close to N800 billion; this according to the minister. Again, malaria is said to be responsible for high morbidity and mortality accounting for 11 percent of maternal mortality, 30 percent of childhood mortality and 25 percent of infant mortality in the country. How saddening and shameful that we have over the decade allowed a colony of small flying creatures triumph over our nation. From our villages, up to our so called developed cities, the mosquistoes have bravely captured everywhere, daily sending many of our citizens into their early graves, and yearly billions of Naira are ceremoniously expended to fight this scourge, mostly through summits, conferences, seminars and the rest ‘Talkshops’, while various slums are daily expanding in our towns, complementing our dirty, unkempt and neglected environment, making more rooms for these little creatures to breed in millions and the talkshops are still going on. I think it’s high time this talk-talk changed course and let the war on malaria be genuinely fought, with our resources patriotically spent to eradicate or control this torn on our side. Many Nigerians, I believe are tied of these ‘Talkshops’, where much talks have been discussed on some of the maladies bedeviling this nation, and at the end of the day no serious actions to back them. Well, me I am still managing my mosquito coil, waiting to see the latest war tools to be discussed in the next coming ‘Talkshop’ on malaria. |