Ebola: Should we discard the bitter kola story?

If his tenure ended badly, Iwu seems to have bounced back to the public scene last week when government included him in the team set up to lead the fight against the dreaded Ebola virus. It was as if government had found cause to separate Iwu the election manager from Iwu, the scientist. May be […]

If his tenure ended badly, Iwu seems to have bounced back to the public scene last week when government included him in the team set up to lead the fight against the dreaded Ebola virus. It was as if government had found cause to separate Iwu the election manager from Iwu, the scientist. May be the story that he was respected in his United States base as a doctor with a combination of folk-remedy proficiency and a doctorate in Western pharmacology was instrumental
As a matter, Professor Iwu, had alongside some American researchers conducted a research in 1999 which reportedly showed that bitter kola could neutralize the effects of Ebola virus.  Of course not everyone would believe in Iwu the scientist or his acclaimed expertise. For instance, I have friends in the media who had for long been working on the theory that the Professor’s academic record was suspect. A more disturbing trend however is the posture of Iwu’s fellow scientists who used derogatory diction to distance themselves from the bitter kola thesis. Leading the group is Professor Innocent Ujah, Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR).
Ujah dismissed Iwu’s claim as scientifically unfounded and urged the nation to take with a grain of salt, what he described as delusive assertions by self-acclaimed medical professors, adding that there was no proven scientific connection between kola nuts and the repression or cure of the Ebola virus. On his part, the Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu stated categorically that there is no scientific evidence yet to suggest that to just eat bitter kola will prevent the disease or that it would cure whoever already has it. To put the subject in perspective, Minister Chukwu recalled the work done in 1999 by Prof. Maurice Iwu’s group and asserted that because that research was not concluded it cannot serve as a cure or preventive measure against Ebola Virus Disease.
Other African countries currently affected by the disease have taken the same stand. Reports from Sierra Leone reveal that the bitter kola story is not believed as the government insists that the effective way of preventing the virus is by washing hands with soap under running water, using chlorine or bleach. Liberia appears more drastic about the bitter kola story following the announcement last week by the country’s Assistant Health Minister for Preventive Services, Tolbert Nyenswah that anyone caught administering fake vaccine or tablets and even spreading wrong information on the Ebola disease would face prosecution.
It is quite difficult to disagree with the stand of medical experts that no drug should be put in the public domain until it is scientifically tested. But while commending the experts for saving us from quacks, we seem to have reached a situation now when we, laymen, must begin to call on them to become proactive. That all we hear from our experts is that discoveries need to be properly tested has become boring. When shall we hear of those that have been professionally tested? Also, when shall we hear of scientifically disproved claims instead of off-hand statements of condemnation? If Iwu’s bitter kola story was inconclusive, why did our governments and research institutes not ensure that such stories were scientifically concluded in the interest of the masses? Rather, the authorities are always contented with a report that a claim is yet to follow a particular procedure, while the disease concerned continues killing our people   
Some 15 years ago, Dr. Jeremiah Abalaka, Chief Medical Director of Medicrest Specialist Hospital in Gwagwalada, Abuja claimed he could cure the dreaded HIV Aids. The authorities denounced him because his drugs did not pass through some required stages but no one successfully refuted his claim that Nigerian soldiers who had just returned from ECOMOG mission in Liberia were cured by Abalaka.  Last year, the Dean of the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Benin Professor Isaiah Ibeh reportedly announced that he had discovered an oral drug made from plant extraction which could cure HIV/ Aids. Within a moment, the Provost of the College of Medical Sciences of the same university dismissed the claim on the grounds that Ibeh did not carry the university along!  No one responded to inquiries from this column on whether Nigerians were interested in who was carried along instead of the cure for HIV!!
In any case, why would a strong professional like Ibeh who holds the high office of Dean breach his own professional ethics and procedures? Could it be that in these days of materialism, our scientists are playing politics with such delicate matters? Or, are some professionals hustling for research grants while others are obstructing the grants by pulling down their colleagues? We can only hope that our medical experts in their bid to protect us are not behaving like robots who, as slaves to rules, turn the means to an end. They need to note that procedures are good but results are better.
Again, it is also possible that the exogenous nature of our people which makes us respect only foreign claims is playing some roles.  Is there nothing good about Africa?  Do people realize that western constructs are not favourable to African issues; otherwise why is it that it is only African names that the computer sees as faulty?  Why can’t we research into the herbs which kept our forefathers healthy and strong without western endorsement?  Of course it is time for us to rise up to the trend where it is only African diseases that have no cure. We can’t make it if while others are positively using their brains to keep their people alive, we tune ours to convoluted impeachments and electioneering during the period for governance.  Let those who have a mandate to take charge of our health overcome the current Ebola disaster NOW.