Search for coronavirus remedy: Politics and directions

OUR ancestors in this continent of Africa taught us that when a man who killed a ram for his people is appreciated, he will kill a cow. It is therefore crucial to commence this piece by appreciating all health workers, gentlemen of the media, and security agents we refer to as frontline fighters in this anti-Coronavirus war, all over the world, for their sacrifices, humanity, and courage. In Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, through the Presidential Task Force under the able leadership of Mr. Boss Mustapha (SGF), and National Centre for Disease Control under the Director Generalship of Dr. Ihekweazu have been in firm control of the war trying to bottle-up the Coronavirus and prevent it from escalation. They deserve our thanks. I salute His Excellency, Babajide Sowolu, the Lagos State governor, for being the first to let Nigerians know that coronavirus infection is not a death sentence once detected and treated early, through those his government treated and sent home alive. This was at a point when Nigerians were hearing of hundreds of deaths in Wuhan China, and thought that once infected, the next thing was death.

I thank the Ooni of Ife Oba Enitan Ogunwusi Adeyeye, Ojaja II, for introducing the spiritual dimension for traditional remedies to coronavirus. I stand with the Ooni strongly on this, as it espouses my long standing advocacy on Strategic Spiritual Intelligence (SSI). In the same vein, I appreciate His Excellency, Eng. Seyi Makinde, Governor of Oyo State, for being the first to publicly mention the medical combination that enabled him come out of the coronavirus grip. He had mentioned his use of Blackseed oil and honey, Dongoyaro, etc.  I also appreciate the Governor of Bauchi State who came out clearly to say that he was treated with Hydroxychloquine, Zinc Sulphate, and Vitamin C. I thank the President of Madagascar for being the first to show that Africans have answer to coronavirus. It is also heartwarming to hear that 3 Nigerian remedies are now for testing. For better understanding of this piece, let us first define politics as the authoritative allocation of values, (David Easton); the process of determining who gets what, when and how (Laswell), and the struggle for the minds and resources of men and nations. (Nwolise). Nwolise informs us that in the struggle, gladiators apply all forms of strategies and tactics including propaganda and deception. Those who allow themselves to be deceived, lose resources and grow lean, while those that deceived them will gain resources and grow fat.

Africans need to wake up and sit up, now and understand the politics of the world. One immediate case is what is happening now in the African Development Bank, (AFDB) where the USA is digging ground to scuttle Africa’s accelerated development by scheming out greatly performing Dr. Akinwumi Adesina whom I see as miracle worker, a second term. Nothing good is ever allowed to stand for Africa, and African quislings are always used. If African leaders allow Dr. Adesina to be pulled down with trumped up allegations, then they should start preparing the coffin to bury the AFDB. In Chile, President Allende Gossins was performing miracles to positively change the lives of Chileans in the early 1970s. But America could not stand the nationalization of an American copper company by President Gossins. U.S agents spent over 18 million dollars to get him overthrown and murdered. This led to a reversal of all the gains Chile made under Gossins.

There has always been politics national and or international over the production of preventive/curative medicines for terminal/pandemic ailments, and this politics surrounds (share of) revenue, name and national or regional image. There was politics over the search for Hiv/Aids cure. I remember that in Nigeria for example, Dr. Abalaka was screaming that he had cure for Hiv. He wrote letters to all that matter in Nigeria’s government but nobody cared. People were more interested in getting their cuts from foreign donated funds, and one cannot rule out foreign pressure to disregard and discredit his remedies. During the colonial era and up to early 1960s, if any Nigerian was caught with ogogoro (Kinkana, apeteshi) he went to jail. It was labelled “illegal gin”. But there were all sorts of gins from Europe! So who enjoyed our money? It went to Europe. Again, all the traditional (native) doctors that took care of our health matters for centuries before oyibo came, were labelled “witchdoctors”, and so Africans lost touch with our herbs, roots, barks, and seeds that kept our forefathers alive for 150-250 years. Africans turned to oyibos’ synthetic drugs with all their side effects. Who gained? Oyibo of course. That’s part of the politics. But for how long shall we Africans be deceived away from our herbs by colonial mentality and local quislings?

Over the Coronavirus remedy, President Trump of America was the first to scream that Hydroxychloroquine is effective in the management of the novel virus. The World Health Organisation (WHO) opposed his view. Again when Madagascar came out with its herbal anti-coronavirus syrup, the WHO dismissed it probably because it did not go through their scientific protocols. Again, during the clinical trial of Hydroxychloroquine the WHO said the trial in Nigeria should be stopped but NAFDAC disagreed, and suggested continuation, after all, we in this part of the world are used to chloroquine. It is cheering to hear that the WHO is back on track with the clinical trial of Hydroxychloroquine but we must not lose sight of the long standing politics. On the search for coronavirus remedy, (preventive/curative), I can humbly identify three directions: One orthodox medicine; two, traditional (home grown African) medicine; and three, spiritual medicine. These three directions have guided my long standing call for the establishment in Nigeria or any serious African country, of an Integrated Triangular Health Care Delivery System, in which cases not treatable by the orthodox (such as Cancer, Leukemia, Sickle-cell, HIV, Coronavirus, or spiritual attacks) will go to the Traditional section; and cases not treatable by the Traditional section will go to the spiritual section. If we can establish this triangular Health System in Nigeria, we shall reverse the health tourism abroad, extend the life expectancy of Africans close to or above what Europe has today, and generate more foreign revenue than what comes from crude oil.

The prevention of coronavirus infection today surrounds wearing face mask, physical distancing, constant hand washing, use of sanitizers, drinking water frequently, etc.

But the most important for me are prayers and building one’s body immunity. Prayers for divine mercy and exemption. This can be supported by Strategic Spiritual Intelligence that can tell one where not to go, and who not to meet. In addition, vitamin C, Vitamin D, Zinc and safe bitter substances that contain genuine are good for body immunity building. I must state here that I am a Political Scientist with focus on security. I see the health of citizens as part of national security calculus unlike our leaders in the continent.  However, I must state here that I am not a medical doctor or specialist in Oyibos’ phamarcognocy.  But I am a typical African with some indigenous knowledge  about African herbs and has also done works on African herbs. In fact my 2016 work is titled “The Future of Africa’s Effective Health Care Is in its Past History and Present Forests”.

On the orthodox medical direction, there is no vaccine now, but researches are going on in several oyibo and Asian laboratories for a curative vaccine against coronavirus. For now the management of the infection is through drugs as Hydroxychloroquine, Azithromycin, and Vitamin C).

On the traditional (or African Indigenous)medicine direction, we note that viruses, bacteria, and blood parasites succumb a lot to bitter herbs. SinceHydroxychloroquine  has been seen practically to be effective in the management of coronavirus, the truth is that the real active ingredient in chloroquine is quinine (C20 H24 N2O2), a bitter colourless alkaloid. Indigenousknowledge shows that quinine can be gotten from bitter leaf (Veronia amygdalina), Dongoyaro (neem tree), Obilitanilu tree (Igbo; Oruwo in Yoruba), Utazi (igbo), and Pawpaw (carica papaya)seeds. Zinc elements can be gotten from mango leave, pineapple, and several other vegetables; whileVitamin C can be gotten from citrus leaves, and Vitamin D from the sun. What we do in my house every two weeks is to boil bitter leaf, obilitanilu, utazi leaves, dongoyaro, mango leaves, guava leaves, carrot (for vitamin A), lemon grass, scent leaf, lemon (orange) leaves, as well as ugu (fluted pumpkin leaves), water leaf, (for blood) for 30 minutes, and drink morning and night for five days. These are the same things we used to treat malaria, typhoid and viruses during the civil war in Biafra when there were no oyibo drugs. The Ooni of Ife from SSI  mentioned Ewe akoko, Dongayaro, Alubasa elewa leaf, Eru, ewuro, (bitter leaf), Imiojo, Orisako yam Aidan, etc. Good spirited persons, companies, and governments who really love Africa and Africans should stand up to be counted today by sponsoring researches into Africa’s herbs, and herbal medicine.

For spiritual medicine, it is simple: anointed or prophetic oil, water, prayers, and fasting, and liberation healing from real men of God across religions are effective. This is why the reopening of churches and mosques is criticaleven though I know there are different levels of anointing. The lockdown and closure of churches and mosques have denied millions of people spiritual medicine. It is true that people can pray in their homes, but it is equally true that people have different levels of faith and spiritual power and in times like this, they need the intercession of those who really have the spirit. These men and women who have the anointing can visit isolation and treatment centres and pray for and liberate the sick, if government people believe in Spiritual medicine.

Africa must stop seeking oyibo vaccine always that we don’t know the content, when we have all we need to prevent and cure all ailments in our forests and bushes. I thank the Central Bank of Nigeria for offering research grants onCoronavirus remedy. I hope these cover researches on our herbs; and that more research grants will be given out for herbal remedies for (terminal) ailments that syphon our resources abroad.

This article has been motivated by several reasons. One, governments and humanity need to start taking Strategic Spiritual Intelligence seriously. Coronavirus attack was predicted by Sylvia Browne as far back as 2008. She even said that New York will be the epicenter. The prevention measures should have started that time and not all these face masks,Physical distancing and lockdowns we are hearing today. Two, we have been told that this virus will be with the world for long, and it may take a whole year or two before a generally accepted vaccine will be found. Therefore, we must plan far ahead. Some are even saying it may take the status of malaria. Three, governments across the world, and our NCDC and National Orientation Agency should emphasize to our people Body Immunity Building (BIB), and how to achieve it. Four, Africans must wake up and sit up now to understand the politics of the world especially surrounding health ailment cures, and economic resources. Five, due to corruption and nepotism, government and law enforcement personnel have been unable to enforce the ban on interstate travels. Six, markets and banks have been opened, churches and mosques, state borders and schools will follow soon. If Nigeria will not lose thousands of lives as in USA, China, Italy, etc, people must be told what to do to have high body immunity. Seven, Nigeria’s testing capacity is still too low. It needs to be beefed up drastically. We are suffering shortages in testing kits etc because we depend on Oyibos’ orthodox methods and neglect our indigenous methods,including SSI and herbal. There are leaves that a woman will hold in her palm for pregnancy test in this country and continent. So there are leaves some one can hold and in two minutes he or she can be confirmed positive or negative to coronavirus. It is a pity. Too much colonial mentality. Eight, government is focusing too much on coronavirus, while other ailments are killing more than the virus. Nine, our leaders should start respecting knowledge and funding research especially into Africa’s herbs because more viruses are coming as long as the heart of some men remainwicked. Coro was man-made. In fact, a prophet said a virus more than corona that will come with heat capable of raising body temperature to 380C, causing boils all over the body will come. This next virus he said will not respect lockdowns. Also Sylvia Browne that predicted the coming of Corona in 2008 said that it will go as suddenly as it came but will surface again after 10 years before it goes finally.

Our culture is communal not commercial. We tend to stick together – shaking hands, hugging, marketing, travelling, drinking and eating together. The message is that the three directions of securing remedies for coronavirus and any other future virus should be laid bare for our people. We must break away from the colonial mentality of always waiting for and using Oyibo remedies especially now that the WHO says it supports scientifically proven traditional medicine. In fact, the WHO has been appealing to African leaders for over two decades to focus on traditional medicine which most of their citizens use.

 

• Nwolise is Professor of Political Science

 

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