COVID-19: NGIJ throws weight behind finding homegrown solutions

The Nigeria Guild of Investigative Journalists (NGIJ) Abuja Chapter charge the FG that looking inward is the only way forward for us as a people and as a nation out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement, by the Acting Secretary, Abuja Chapter, NGIJ, Abdulrahman Obaje, he said Nigeria must take her own destiny by her hand by fostering home made solution for her problems.

Obaje said, “It is either the Federal Government seems to prefer the billions of money coming from donations and grants from domestic individuals, private sectors, overseas, WHO and other international agencies than a cure to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Or Nigeria as a country, tempering corruption with cluelessness is devoid of a way out of the COVID-19 pandemic that is not only gaining momentum in Nigeria and Africa as a whole; but also ravaging the entire world right now.

“The FG has though taken some notable measures to contain the spread, but given the deepening fear and anxiety in the polity over the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Government and the Legislative arm has not taken any feasible steps towards a way out of the pandemic. They have continue to take unpopular stand that continue to brazen distrust in the citizenry.

“For instance, despite warnings from Nigeria Medical Association NMA, the civil society group, stakeholders in the health sector and notable individuals; in our confusion, we had request a team of 15 Chinese medical experts – including doctors, nurses and laboratory technicians, to help strengthen testing and management of Covid-19 cases in Nigeria, nothing much is heard about the Chinese activity anymore. The success we have recorded so far is as a result of our indigenous medical experts.

“In the midst of the deepening confusion, The National Assembly introduced a controversial bill titled: “Control of Infection Diseases Bill 2020” sponsored by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila. Critics say that some of the provisions in the bill appear “draconian” and therefore “not tenable in a democratic setting. The bill among others, sought to make vaccination (vaccine takes between six months and one year to develop) compulsory for every Nigerians. Ground of argument is that what if (like HIV) the vaccine is never found!

“There is currently no scientifically proven cure for the COVID-19, despite countries and corporates across the world investing heavily in research and development. The most optimistic estimates suggest that a vaccine will likely not be found until early next year, and even in that case experts say it would require extensive testing to be proven safe.

“However, according to Madagascan authorities, the African island country has already found a cure – a drinkable herbal tonic, which it is now exporting abroad.

“Madagascar has begun exporting a herbal tonic which authorities have claimed is a cure for the COVID-19 coronavirus to countries across the African continent.

“On Saturday, Madagascar shipped the drink to West Africa’s Guinea-Bissau, with the country’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo at the airport to oversee the cargo, AFP correspondents reported. Tanzania and Comoros are now set to import the product, which is produced from the artemisia plant known for its anti-malarial properties, and has separate preventative and cure versions.

“In the home front, a team of researchers led by professor of Pharmacognosy from the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Maurice Iwu had presented a plant-based patented treatment for COVID-19 to the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu.

“Iwu, who is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bioresources Development Group (BDG), presented the cure to Onu in the presence of Minister of State for Health, Adeleke Olurunnimbe Mamora, Minister of State for Science and Technology, Mohammed H. Abdullahi and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Dr Mohammed Bello.

“Despite Professor Iwu’s claim that the cure that got a patent since 2015, shortly after the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria for SARS Coronavirus, which is deadlier than COVID-19 can deal heavy blow on the coronavirus, clinical trial of his product has not been activated up till now.

“The NGIJ insinuate that we should take our destiny in our own hand and there by implore the FG to wake up to the reality that we cannot continue to allow other people or nation to think for us as a people and as a nation. The early we wake up to this reality, the better for us.

“The NGIJ also implore the Federal Government that as a matter of urgency, we must begin to look inward; brazening, sponsoring and supporting our indigenous pharmaceutical company and traditional medicine practitioners so as to be able to come up with homegrown medicine for the COVID-19 disease and other future health crisis.”, He concluded.