Feedback: Diaspora voting and Nano Silver

I plead guilty as charged. My tepid defence however is that events seem to be moving so fast in our country that every week appears to bring its own trouble, and with it a fresh urge to add my voice to what is often discordant conversations.  You remember the novella, One Week, One trouble (1972) […]

I plead guilty as charged. My tepid defence however is that events seem to be moving so fast in our country that every week appears to bring its own trouble, and with it a fresh urge to add my voice to what is often discordant conversations.  You remember the novella, One Week, One trouble (1972) by Dr Anezi Okoro which we read in primary school in ‘those good old days’?
I would have liked to use this week to reflect on the increasing audacity of Boko Haram and to interrogate whether their new assertiveness could, at least in part, be traced to their declaration (together with Ansaru) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the USA in November 2013 and the decision by a number of Western countries, including USA, United Kingdom, France, Australia and China to offer various forms of military and intelligence sharing  assistance to the country following the global outcry that followed the kidnap of the Chibok girls in April 2014. Both measures were from all indications well intentioned: the declaration of Boko Haram and Ansaru as FTOs was in part meant to choke off their sources of funding and by so doing weaken them. Some who opposed such a declaration at that time warned that one of the unintended consequences could be the glamorization of the two groups within the international terrorism franchise, which could embolden them even more. This seems to have happened.
Again after the ‘international community’ offered various forms of military assistance, including sending military advisers to help locate the missing Chibok girls, some of us opined that Boko Haram’s will to fight could be dampened if those military advisers were able to help locate and release the girls within a short time of arriving in the country but that the opposite would be the case, if, despite the media puffing, they were not able to deliver. Certainly the Boko Haram we knew before the kidnap of the Chibok girls does not seem to be the ones we are reading about these days. This raises an interesting question: Can the recent audacious moves by the sect, including the capturing and hoisting of their flags in some towns in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States be traced, at least in part,  to the failure of the ‘global community’  to live up to expectation after the outrage that followed the kidnap of the Chibok girls and the competitive offer of various forms of assistance by the West to locate and release the girls ? It will be recalled that in the aftermath of the kidnap of the Chibok girls, President Jonathan predicted that the move would be the beginning of the end of Boko Haram. The President was obviously hoping that the various offers of Western assistance which the country gladly accepted would be Boko Haram’s undoing.
I would have liked to do a deeper reflection on how the two apparently well- intentioned measures probably had the unintended effect of further emboldening Boko Haram. Remember the aphorism that the road to hell was paved with good intentions?
The point here is that every policy option, no matter how vicious or well- intended,  often has  unintended consequences, some good, others dire. The dreaded Ebola for instance is having the unintended effect of making many of us more hygiene conscious.  But let me reserve deeper reflections on these for another day.
Below are selected reactions to my last two articles.

Debating the Diaspora vote, (28 August 2014)
‘Adibe Sir, your piece on Diaspora voting is quite educating and honest. But you may know that Nigerian politicians and their foot soldiers are not committed to building a strong [nation]. Rather they are committed to building a weak and divided nation in which they would hold the sway. Thanks for a good contribution to the struggle.-Godwin Ogar (text message), 0803 095 9346’
Dr Jideofor,
‘Diaspora voting will only be another rigging tool for the party in power. Nigeria is too immature for that. More importantly now is to address the issues of ballot snatching and stuffing during elections before moving to the level of diaspora voting.-Muhammad, text message, 0806 532 7829’

Sir, Most of your opinions are both logically and socially rich. But these are exactly why the government won’t use them. Please kindly write extensively on ways to tackle the present insecurity in the nation. Thanks.-No name, text message: 0802 650 9202

‘Mr Jideofor.
Your piece in Daily Trust refers. All the points made, thanks, but no thanks to the idea. Haba, have we finished with conducting any sensible elections in Nigeria, not to talk of allowing Nigerian Diaspora to complicate things? That will tantamount to opening another frontier of rigging and manipulation. We like high stakes.  Simple election of 36 governors could not produce an acceptable outcome to both parties. Election of officials for church and mosque etc has always produced stalemates. No to your proposal please. No name, text message: 0806 561 1378’

‘Nigeria is a country that thrives on rumours and conspiracy theories but avoids taking on tough challenges that could lead to the betterment of the society in the long-run. Diaspora voting will not be without its challenges but since an increasing number of countries are embracing the option, I don’t see why the country should not evolve its own template to begin giving a voice to our fellow country men and women that circumstances have forced to live outside the shores of our country. This is the 21st century and the world has become a global village – thanks to developments in telecommunications. We can experiment with Diaspora voting with one or two countries – say United Kingdom and the USA – and then extend this to other countries as we gain more experience and confidence.
But to run away from facing the challenge that some of our nationals are disenfranchised during elections because we are afraid that trying to solve the problem will create other problems, does not seem to me, to be the right way to go.-John, Kogi state<[email protected]>;

‘My brother, thank you very much for your piece on Debating Diaspora (28 August 2014, Daily Trust). May God bless you.’-No name, 0803 314 6043

Re: Nano Silver: The Ebola drug that wasn’t (21 August 2014)
‘Jideofor my bros, tanx a million for making my day today with your article on Nano silver especially its perspective on the diaspora Nigerians. Also your snippet on Nuhu Ribadu, as I am from Adamawa. God bless & be with you always. Also did you notice Jega’s statement on diaspora voting ? Very interesting way to abdicate responsibility. Do nothing & when it is about time, say it is not possible. Dia is God oooh! I am shining my eyes well well. Bassi<[email protected]>;

‘Thank you so much for your piece today captioned ‘’Nano Silver: Ebola drug that wasn’t?,’’  I wrote to let you know that there are two phases of drug development namely: Preclinical and the clinical phases. The preclinical phase includes testing the drug initially on animal subjects. This to enable the investigator to document any unwanted side effects – drug, chemical makeup, solubility and stability in animal subjects. After this stage, the investigators will now approach a regulatory agent such as NAFDA or FDA for ethical approval to try the drug on human subjects. This marks the beginning of clinical phase. This phase is further divided into three or four stages or trials. The first is on healthy volunteers to know the potential side effects. The second trial is on small number of patients to know the efficacy of the drugs and the third phase is to administer the drug in a large sample of sick people. After this stage the drug is released into the market. The last phase is post market survey. The questions that the manufacturers need to answer are that where did they conducted their drug trials? What are their preclinical findings? Who gave them the approval for the clinical phase and what are their objective and subjective patients’ response to the new drugs? They need to provide that to the scientific community. Unless such is done a lot of people will doubt the efficacy of their drug. Dr Abdullahi Sadiq, NEC,Kaduna, [email protected]’

‘Hello Jideofor,
Thank you for insightful piece on the above topic; I really enjoyed it! You raised some questions with the view of ascertaining what the government used to cure those it claimed tested positive. As a medical practitioner, I have written an article contributing to the public discourse on Ebola Virus Disease, which has answered some of the questions you have raised. This is the link:
http://nigeriandailynewspaper.com/ebola-outbreak-in-sabisa-forest.htm
I hope you will find it useful. With kind regards, Bukar Abba: [email protected]’