We live in a world that is governed by laws; in order to enjoy the beauty, glamour, splendor and the luxury of the planet earth, human beings must understand several universal laws and consciously abide with them.
Probably because homo- sapiens naturally enjoys disobeying laws, we have created a world of fiction where earthly laws can be suspended without repercussion. No matter the jurisdiction; laws that govern human being are the same everywhere. In movies and cartoons, we can suspend the law of gravity for example and begin to fly; this can only remain in the world of fiction.
It is, however, disheartening that in real life; there are so many challenges that Nigerians still battle with unbelievably, it ought to be in the realm of fiction but it is real. In the 21st century, it is appalling to know the huge number of Nigerians that are dying of malaria despite the level of advancement around us.
According to W.H.O., Nigeria’s share of the global malaria currently stands at 27%, 24 out of every hundred malaria death globally are Nigerians. Malaria still account for 11% of all pregnancy & birth related deaths in the country. It currently stands as the leading cause of death in Nigeria and 97% of Nigerians are prone to have malaria because of our environment.
Nigeria is not among the countries of the world that is working on totally eradicating malaria even though we claim to be the giant of the continent; there are countries around us that are working hard to eradicate this menace.
Malaria is a life- threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes, it is both preventable & curable; hence our countrymen need not die aimlessly at the hand of malaria with all the resources at our disposal.
A French Surgeon stationed somewhere around the present day Algeria, Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran was reported to be the 1st to have noticed parasites in the blood of a patient suffering from malaria and he was awarded a Nobel Prize for that discovery in 1907.
It is a shame to the government at all levels that our country has not been able to totally eradicate malaria. It is even more shameful to know that this scourge that killed 192, 284 Nigerians in 2015 has not been receiving so much attention from government at all levels.
The GMB government that was widely voted in 2015 promising change has been a high level fiasco on all sides. They have placed no value whatsoever on human lives as peaceful and hardworking citizens are being killed almost on daily basis in several parts of the country while the President and those around him act as if nothing happened.
Over the years, malaria has developed resistant to most of the drugs around. NIMR recently noted to have discovered mosquitoes resistant to nets in about 20 states of the federation.
Traditional, religious and community leaders in various communities are hereby encouraged to develop an action plan that will totally eradicate malaria from their communities because government at all levels have failed woefully in this role.
Campaign and training programmes on the prevention and eradication of malaria must be a top priority. Legislators are encouraged to pursue strategies that will reduce and or eradicate the menace of malaria from their constituencies.
There are numerous mosquito repellent plant species across the country, much more can be discovered and put to use through coordinated research and used on a national scale to repel mosquitoes from our communities.
Massive research on malaria vaccine is a necessity from our health care professionals and researchers.
Our communities must invest in the use of insecticide spraying on major mosquito breeding sites.
We must ask political office seekers the strategies they will put in place to eradicate the scourge of malaria within their catchment area.
Across the federation, we seem to have insincere folks in government who care less about the welfare of Nigerians. We have elected officials who do not care about the well being of our countrymen and a bunch of appointed officials whose sole interest is to cut a large portion of their share from the national cake not minding the fact that the long knife they are using is hurting others.
We must put political office holders to task to begin to solve the barrage of challenges facing Nigerians; they are not there to admire the challenges but to proffer solutions. A broom stick on its own cannot sweep effectively; it takes a bunch of broomsticks coming together to sweep adequately.
It is possible to totally eradicate malaria from Nigeria; there are better days ahead.
God bless you.
God bless Nigeria.
