RAMADAN AMID CORONAVIRUS 3 – ‘THROW EVERYTHING AT IT!’

Whom do we believe? Would you believe World Health Organisation (WHO) who tells us there’s no vaccine or cure for COVID-19, and calls every unorthodox (or non-Western) ‘solution’ as ‘untested’? Or would you rather believe individuals and countries that are throwing everything at the virus in the hope that SOMETHING, ANYTHING, will work? If one […]

Whom do we believe? Would you believe World Health Organisation (WHO) who tells us there’s no vaccine or cure for COVID-19, and calls every unorthodox (or non-Western) ‘solution’ as ‘untested’? Or would you rather believe individuals and countries that are throwing everything at the virus in the hope that SOMETHING, ANYTHING, will work? If one is sensible, one should trust the latter. Definitely.

More ‘ammunition’ for the second option was given this Thursday by none other than our colleague Prof. AbdurRazzaq Garba Habib, co-chairman of Kano State Task Force on COVID-19 (and professor of medicine at BUK and Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital), who has just thankfully recovered from the same disease he was leading the fight against. Inside the statement he released were the words: “…treated with many medications…as well as steam inhalation using black seed, clove oil, ginger tea among other things.”

When, several years ago, I discovered Herb 25 (Azadirachta Indica, known in Hausa and Tamashek as ‘Tazargade’) as an-antimalarial and celebrated it on this page on World Malaria Days ever since, I took it to a doctor friend who was always keen to put me on those terrible malaria medications that attempt to ‘kill’ you first before they kill the offending plasmodium. Lo and behold! He took out the same Herb 25 – he was also using it; but I shouldn’t tell anyone!

That’s the legendary power of Big Pharma! As these big pharmaceutical companies rush in search of vaccine or cure for COVID-19, their propaganda is on top gear to discourage you from using grandmother-tested and -trusted medicines, which we should be using too. Therefore, since there is neither prevention nor cure for COVID-19, it will not harm anyone to throw everything at it, as Prof Habib did.

Some Nigerian governors similarly afflicted with the virus in the recent past also narrated their use of honey and Black Seed (Nigella sativa/’Habbatus Sauda’). Of honey, Allah (exalted be His Name) Himself says in the Qur’an: “Fi hi shifa’un lin nas…” (‘In it there is healing for humankind’). And of black seed, Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, said: “Use this Black Seed regularly, because it is a cure for every disease, except death.”

Throw everything at COVID-19 while keeping the other protocols of lockdown, self-isolation, social distancing, masks, hand washing, etc. After all, it was on this page very recently that we quoted the Prophet, upon whom be peace, ordering someone who was letting his camel loose, and depending on divine protection, that: “Tie your camel first, and then rely on Allah.” Throw everything at COVID-19, while relying on Allah for vaccine and cure.

God bless Madagascar! They have thrown in their invention known as ‘Covid-Organics’ (an Artemisinin-based drug). Despite the derision by Western medicine which, incidentally, uses lots of Artemisinin in their own antimalarials, President Rajoelina is pushing ahead. And what a shame – a miniscule ECOWAS’ West African Health Organisation (WAHO, built in the image of WHO) is denying claims that it had ordered the Madagascar Potion. Were it possible to have it in Kano!

Those potions, used in moderation, will not kill you (in all likelihood), but the virus can! They may even end up helping boost your immunity against COVID-19. So throw everything you have against it – honey, ginger, lime, lemon, onion, cloves, garlic, black seed, steaming leaves and herbs – at COVID-19. May Allah protect us!

The other day on a ZOOM Videoconference, a prominent scholar asked me he heard many Kano residents are using traditional medicine to tackle the virus. I answered yes’; perhaps he would have been shocked had I admitted that I, myself, had just finished ‘Surace’, a daily steaming session containing all sorts of leaves and herbs and condiments, and had just gargled another potion of many combinations – lemon, lime and salt. Don’t ask me what they do – I don’t know, but I do it. I’m throwing everything at COVID-19 – and so should you.

Note that when US President Trump spoke on Hydroxychloroquine as a promising cure, protestations were meek. First, the person who said it can very well defend himself, even if by Twitter. Second, Hydroxychloroquine is manufactured by Big Pharma – after they robbed Africa of our original Quinine. So throw some chloroquine into the mix – after all it used to be ‘traditional’ medicine before the Whiteman discovered it could cure malaria which was then denying him access to Africa’s gold and tea and coffee.

Back to Kano. People continue to die. We are no longer counting how many, but who next (may Allah forgive us if we are next). Note that everyone above forty in Nigeria should consider themselves middle-aged, whether we like it or not (personally I don’t like it too!) But when our country’s life expectancy is below 50 (compared to Japan’s 92, for example), we here are automatically elderly because all the ailments identified with the elderly (hypertension, kidney failure, diabetes, arthritis or a combination thereof) started manifesting from our late 40s and early 50s (whereas they afflict those in their 70s and 80s elsewhere). So, my friend, we are ALL elderly, and should throw everything we have at this novel coronavirus.

Still on Herb 25, its ‘discoverer’, our sister Prof Hadiza Nuhu of ABU Zaria’s Pharmacognosy Department, said: “Antimalarial drugs are promising against the virus as seen for Hydroxychloroquine in Europe and Artemisia Annua in Madagascar. Herb 25 is a similar drug and is made in Nigeria with Nigerian medicinal plants. Since globally there is no proven cure for the coronavirus, we recommend Herb 25, taken as hot tea along with Vitamin C, Zinc or other immune boosters for prevention and treatment of COVID-19.”

(And as our – Daily Trust – advertising revenues have plummeted due to COVID-19, Prof Hadiza will do well to send a portion of her profits to cover for this ‘marketing’ couched as ‘public service announcement’).

May Allah make our ‘throwing everything’ effective, as He did David’s slingshot at Goliath! May Allah protect us!