Ibeh deserves our encouragement

At times, Nigeria is an unusual place to be. It has been described as the worst place for one to be a mother, an indictment on her high maternal mortality rate and poor ante-natal care.

Her high child mortality rate is also legendary as Nigeria's under-five children still die of preventable child-killer diseases. To Transparency International, Nigeria is one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Our anti-graft war is never meant to fight corruption. Most times, it is used to fight political opponents.


This giant of Africa is among the leading crude-oil exporting countries in the world, yet petroleum products are imported. Her citizens often experience petrol and kerosene scarcity, especially during major festive periods like Christmas and Easter. Its major refineries are not working. All efforts to build new cost-effective modular refineries are aborted by the so-called cabals.


Nigeria is an oil-rich country with plenty poor citizens who live below one US dollar per day and where electricity supply is so epileptic and a luxury. Ten percent of Nigerians are believed to be super rich while over 70 percent live under excruciating poverty. There are more private jets in the country than commercial airlines. Despite these man-made and avoidable contradictions of our daily existence, Nigerians have been described as the happiest people in the world. That rating is still being contested.


How can Nigerians be the happiest people on earth in the face of glaring socio-economic inequities and deprivations? How can Nigerians be the happiest people on earth with kidnapping, armed banditry and now Boko Haram insurgency?


Though Niger Delta militancy has been brought under control through Amnesty programme, they can still make a surprise comeback if things don't go their way. Nigeria houses pockets of separatist agitators like MASSOB, OPC, AREWA YOUTHS and others, yet we are seen as the happiest people on earth. That claim is false and is hereby rejected. Nigerians are also seen as a very religious people.


This fact can hardly be contested in that Africans are by nature very religious. Before the coming of Arabs and Europeans, most African lives were guided by indigenous religious practices. The ancestor worship is common in Africa hence the multiplicity of gods and shrines. But since the advent of Christianity, there is religion on every Nigerian street and we tend to carry our religiousity on the face with little of it in our mind. We have richer clergy and poorer congregation.


Perhaps, it is this culture of unusualness that ignited the outright condemnation of AIDS cure claim by Professor Isaiah Ibeh of the University of Benin. Professor Isaiah Ibeh, the Dean of the School of Basic Medical Sciences of the University of Benin, Benin-City, Edo State, Nigeria, had recently announced to the whole world that he has manufactured a herbal drug, Bioclean II (DXL-Deconcuction X-Liquid), that has the capacity to wipe out HIV or significantly lower its load within a month in infected persons. Ibeh said that the new wonder drug has gone series of tests in Nigeria and the United States and that it showed high promise in the management of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) that had posed a nightmare to world's scientists.


As soon as Ibeh made his research finding public, his employer, the University of Benin was the first to disown him. The authorities through the Provost, College of Medical Sciences of the University, Prof. Vincent Iyawe said they could not vouch for Ibeh's claims because the institution was not carried along in the research. The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and even the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) have all joined the fray in condemning Ibeh and his new found drug. All these are happening when an inquiry has not been done to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of Ibeh's claims. What is actually happening in Nigeria and the research community?


Does it mean that a Nigerian would not be capable of making any invention? The way and manner the University of Benin handled Ibeh's matter is unbecoming of an institution set up mainly for teaching and research. One had thought that the University should have rallied support for one of its own in his hour of need. The university should have spearheaded an investigative inquiry or lend support to Ibeh in his research effort. Is it not a pride to the university that its employee has performed such a medical feat? The role of NMA and NAFDAC in the matter is no less unpatriotic and anti-intellectualism.


In fact, these bodies ought to have insisted on Ibeh's findings being further investigated. NACA should not come into the matter at all. NACA should be interested on how to attract AIDS donor funds and managing them well than bother with scientific invention which is not part of its obligations. All these talks about publications of an invention in international journals before making the claims public shouldn't have cropped up at all at this stage. Every invention should be jealously guided especially a money spinner-invention as AIDS cure drug.


I do not blame Ibeh for hoarding the information. It is his intellectual property. He has the right to hold the information or disclose it. After all, the person that made coke from which the modern day Cocacola drink is made did not publish it in these journals yet the entire world is consuming coke. The same can be said of the discovery of penicillin and other drugs used in curing some ailments. Inventions are jealously guided. If you expose yours, others will copy it and claim originality. Ibeh should go further and patent his product before copycats swamp on it.


The way we shoot down our own in this part of the world is bad and does not augur well for innovative spirit. Ibeh deserves our encouragement and praise for his scientific feat. He should not be vilified for making attempt to find a cure for AIDS. Who says that a Nigerian cannot manufacture a drug that can cure AIDS? We should stop limiting our people and our capability for invention. The same way they shot down Professor Augustine Njoku-Obi's cholera vaccine, Dr.Oliver Ugo's in vitro-fertilization and Dr. Jeremiah Abalaka's AIDS cure vaccine is the same way they want to stop Ibeh's initiative. There is no way we can make great progress with the pull-him-down (PHD) syndrome. Our scientific inquiry cannot develop in an atmosphere of skepticism. What those shooting Ibeh down should do now is to subject his claim to test to determine the truth or otherwise of the matter. Other researchers can still improve on what Ibeh has done if his is not yet perfect. Life is about improvement. Our scientists should not be afraid to improve on existing knowledge. In the fight to find AIDS cure, no race or country should be left out and no source should be dismissed with a wave of the hand. Ibeh is not an ordinary man in the street. He is a scientist whose claims should be tested before being dismissed. The condemnation that greeted his effort is not the way to encourage research.

Posted: at 25-01-2013 08:51 PM (12 years ago) | Hero

 

Posted: at 26-01-2013 06:52 AM (12 years ago) | Hero

The problem we are having in Nigeria is that we don't believe in ourselves. We think the whites are more superior and they have the final say on anything we do...

Posted: at 26-01-2013 12:50 PM (12 years ago) | Upcoming