7 YEAR OLD BOY BEATEN & BURNED TO DEATH IN NIGERIA

It is with a very heavy heart that I write this post today. It actually began when I found myself reading some friends' outraged reactions on their status messages on facebook concerning the beating and burning to death of a seven year old child in Nigeria. Out of curiosity of course, I went in search of the video/photos - sorry I couldn't bring myself to post the videos/photos here. What I saw was horrifying!!! I couldn't believe my eyes. It was so horrible, I wept! I couldn't watch the entire video. I went on to make a comment and somehow I started reading through the previous comments. Almost all of the reactions ranged from outrage to disgust to sadness, then I read one blaming the president for the mishap. This really made me angry, and so for the first time in six months, I am blogging. I have only two things to say;

First of all, what is the world turning into? How can people watch others committing an injustice or even watch something bad happening and all they can think to do is bring out their smart phones and start filming so they can upload to internet to get views and become popular? It is simply unfathomable to me. It is exactly the same thing that happened when the dana flight crashed and caught on fire some years ago. People started filming instead of helping or looking for help. How does your filming save a live? Yes, I know some people will say they filmed it to have evidence and to fight against such injustice. But, let me ask, what if you actually make a call (the original reason for phone production) to the police or similar agencies, even the media houses and report the incident as it happens. Let no one say they don't have the numbers of these people because all you need to do to get it, is search for it on google. Google is not for searching for the latest sexiest videos and photos.

Secondly, how could the actions of 20+ adults who beat another individual -a child no less- to a pulp and proceeded to burn him, be the fault of the president? Is this the first time that this has happened in this country? A child stole something (not sure exactly what it was) and he is killed in cold blood and you blame the president for it because of "the situation of the nation"? This is the dumbest excuse or argument I ever heard. In other words, the people who brought on the excuse/argument are saying to me "if anyone crosses my path or maybe the path of someone who crossed my path, kill them and when asked, say the president caused the nation to be in a situation that made you so angry". Wow! Are you a fish? these people can't even qualify to be a fish. Right from secondary school we are taught the characteristics of a living thing - MR NIGER DAL C. The "A" stands for adaptation, that is what is expected of human beings, not kill each other at the slightest provocation.

After I saw the video, my first reaction was to curse down the perpetrators including the cameraman or woman who most likely did nothing to help - which i did in my home. But all I have to say to them is that God will be the final Judge of this matter. 

"......He that is without sin, let him first cast the stone ...." - John 8:7

Dear Nigerians, let us not let the internet steal away our humanity

Cheers All

See you soon

1 YEAR GONE - PMB's REPORT CARD

In exactly seventeen days, it would be 1 year since the current president was sworn into office. How has he fared so far I ask? What has he been able to accomplish? Is the office worse than he expected? Is it no more what it used to be in the early 80's? Well, that is for Mr. President to answer. Today, I just want to give my own personal appraisal of his time so far. For so reason, I don't have the patience to wait for seventeen more days. 

The last post I wrote before I took an almost 1 year holiday from blogging was one with the country in a terrible fuel crisis, funny that I should begin publishing  again with the same fuel kpalava. In the last one year, Nigeria has seen some of the worse fuel crisis in its history (well since I was born and that's a lot of years). Funny enough, sometimes I can't seem to rationalize the reasons behind these crisis. It's either the independent marketers are not satisfied or the Niger-deltans are blowing up the pipelines like they always do or just some other funny story. So, today you can imagine the feelings of many Nigerians when it was announced that the current price of fuel is N145/per litre since fuel subsidy has been removed. Well, let's all watch and see how it all plays out.

Secondly, let's take a look at the dollar, the exchange rate moved from N150 to $1 to well "they say the official exchange rate is N197 per $1 but I can't seen to find anyone who has changed at that rate in the last one year. Last I checked, a dollar was going for N320+. For a country that is highly dependent on importation, I wonder how we are suppose to fare. God dey.

PMB promised us security, well in that aspect, maybe there has been some improvement, because it's been awhile since I heard any gist on boko haram. So it's either really true that they have been slowed down or I don't really watch the news. But how do we explain these fulani herdsmen who are attacking people randomly all over the country? The worst part is oga president has not said a word to rebuke it. I'm not saying it's his fault oh! But when you are the leader of a large amount of people from diverse cultures who are maybe 50% ignorant and who get most news from hearsay/gossip (salt and pepper added), it is better to say a few words to pacify than to be quite.

The biafra issue of a few months ago is story for another day. I simply can't go into that now. (If you really want to know what I think of the matter, just hit me up in the comment box below).

Who can tell me the exact number of trips the president has been on in the past year. I've lost count and worse part is we mostly don't know the reasons for these travels. We still dey look.

Finally, the policies are killing us, and not softly. I think I believe PMB like GEJ has good plans for the country, the problem is the implementation. While GEJ couldn't seem to find the courage to implement and carry out "his plans", PMB is pouring his out without checks. He bans the ability of people to pay-in dollars to their domiciliary accounts, that plan backfires, then it's reversed. He bans the importation of generators, increase the light bill when PHCN (the Nigerian light company) carries out it's daily operations on generator. As I write this post, I'm running on generator. And so many policies I can't even bear to remember right now.

PMB may have great plans, but he can only succeed if he carries Nigerians along. That is one task I don't wish on anyone because frankly speaking, majority of us are a bunch of culturally, religiously, politically biased impatience people. My fellow Naija people try patient small,maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Like I've always said PMB is not the messiah of Nigeria, he may be the John the baptist or even Isaiah , who knows? We still have a long way to go.

I don talk my own. Talk your own make we hear.

Cheers...

I'M BACK!!!

Hello friends and readers,

It's  been almost a year since I took a break from blogging, and I promise it was with good reason. I had so much stuff to attend to and I needed to focus on so other aspects of my life, unfortunately, blogging had to take back seat.

Since I've been gone, quite a lot has happened,(personally, nationally and internationally), and so many times I wish I could just sit on my computer and write about it without feeling like I'm cheating on my books. Well, now I'm free to come back to my writing without guilt.

Taking a quick stock of events that happened since my disappearance;

• First, I've missed all of you! thanks to those who kept on reading the blog and thanks to those who checked up on me +Ajibola Robinson +Michael Abayomi 
• Secondly, so much good news I can't even begin to enumerate them but just to say THANK YOU LORD!!
• Thirdly, my fellow Nigerians have not let the present president breathe since he entered office and seriously I don't blame us. The president should have known what he is up against.
• Then, there was that Lassa fever scare late last year and the fuel scarcity issue is still on. (that is one matter I can't seem to understand seriously)
• The international scene is always filled with stories of conflicts and I don't want to get into that
• Lastly, I missed the #AprilA2ZChallenge I hope I don't miss it next year.

Anyway, I'm just blabbing and all I want to say is I'm back and thanks for sticking around.

Cheers

FUEL CRISIS IN NIGERIA

Hello everyone,

I know it's been a while and it seems like I abandoned ship for almost one month now, however, I just have to take a break from blogging after the month long blogging challenge I got into for April. I never realized how tasking it would be. The reason for my sudden reappearance is nothing else but vent out my frustration. (Blogging helps me do that sometimes). Also, it wouldn't seem right to me if for the first time in my life, I was actively involved in Nigerian politics/electoral process and didn't see it through to the end. In other words, my reappearance is like a teaser. Kpele.

To start off, let's take a look at the nation 4 days to the handover ceremony. A picture is more than a thousand words and as such here is one such photo.

This is my city from my balcony. That little light is powered by a generator.

In the last 24 hours, many corporate bodies have issued warnings of an inability to function optimally should the current crisis continue. (photos of such warnings can be seen below). Some radio stations have shut down operations till further notice and so on.

Normally, I would have analyzed the whole situation for you,. How PDP is accusing APC (the incoming government) is sabotaging everything. How the so called transition committee is refusing to transition properly and waiting till May 28th, a day to the handing over, (who does that by the way). How people somehow want to blame Buhari the president elect for not handling this problems very well and even having to grant an interview where he said he doesn't believe in the subsidy (something he has always said by the way). Normally, I'd even write on how an oil producing country like Nigeria shouldn't have fuel crisis as one of its major problems at all.

No, none of that today. Today, I give you funny photos which Nigerians have used as a source of comic relief. Something I now realize has become a part of Nigerians when faced with stressful, near impossible situations. We did the same thing with Ebola, remember? Enjoy!

This is what the filling stations that have fuel look like these days

We got lucky though and the strikes, (plenty of them going on at the same time) have been called off. Hopefully, we look forward to a better and brighter future.

Cheers... 

ZAPPED

Last day of the challenge and phew! It has been wonderful and stressful at the same time. I have discovered some new blogs, made some friends (I hope) and learnt many new things. Also, something else that was awesome was that my pageviews went up a bit more than the usual (quite exciting). I just had ice-cream to celebrate the end of the challenge, not very healthy, I know, but it had lots of fruits and nuts it in (that’s got to count for something right?) Plus I didn’t finish the whole bowl.

For today’s post, I’d go back to my psychiatric posting. I already told how my undergraduate psychiatric exposure was next to nothing here, however, it wasn’t until I heard the word “ECT – electroconvulsive therapy” that I realized how little I really knew in psychiatry. Electroconvulsive therapy is a form of psychiatric treatment in which seizures (convulsions) are induced in patients to provide relief from psychiatric illnesses like major depression, mania, schizophrenia e.t.c. It is usually used as a last line of intervention. 

After hearing about ECT for a week, I decided it was time to witness one. Basically, electrodes (almost similar to those used during an ECG) are applied to the temples of the head and the patient is zapped. They begin to convulse (lasts a few minutes) then they fall asleep. This procedure is repeated about 5-6x or stopped when the patient is responding. 

Photo credit: wikipedia

Typically, I’ve been taught my whole life that seizures are bad for the brain, so I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around the fact that doctors would intentionally induce one on people and it would be beneficial for that matter. Well, I saw for myself that these patients did improve with ECT before the end of my posting. 

ECTs have some side effects though and they are confusion and memory loss. Anyway, now I’ve seen that something good could come out from something bad like been zapped.

Cheers all, see you again next year.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT

Have you taken out time to go through the nutritional content of the foods you eat? After my recent update, I've learnt a lot about food especially junk food. Yes, I agree, by Nigerian standard I am too skinny to bother about what I eat. I shouldn't even be thinking of such a topic. However, I strongly disagree mainly because I don't intend to start the battle later in the future. As they say, "prevention is always better than cure". Besides, what kind of a family physician will I make if I don't prevent you from getting a disease and wait to treat something that will most likely be untreatable but manageable like obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease?

Last year, a few of my friends went on a weight watching exercise. I didn’t join them, (don’t need to), but I observed very closely, in combination with my experience working in a weight loss clinic and that gathered from my tutors for when I might need it in the future or for when I meet a person in need of it. I have written a few posts on how to lose some weight here and here, however, I realized that if we actually watch what we eat, then we can actually avoid much more than spare tires in the mid-section. Experts say that there are 5 key ingredients to losing weight and they are;

• Diet
• Diet
• Diet
• Diet
• Exercise

When I say diet, I don’t mean starve yourself, we’ve already learnt how that could lead to ulcers. I simply mean eat in moderation and avoid a few harmful substances in your diet while adding some others. A lot of African women pride themselves in been well endowed and many try everything on earth to put on a little weight (I was in that band wagon by the way). Somehow, more weight got translated to wealth in Nigeria. Somewhere along the line though, a Nigerian won the miss world contest and more harmful diseases closely related to our diets came to limelight and there was the turning point (for a few).

Here’s what I learnt, as you probably already know. The caloric need for an adult female is between 1400 – 1600kcal/day and for a male, about 1800 – 2000kcal/day. If you intend to lose weight though, you’d need to reduce your caloric intake. The key to controlling your diet is in counting the calories. I have met people who tell me that they eat only one meal in a day and the rest are just snacks. Well, if you belong to this category of people then I’ve got news for you. Let me site a few examples using a few snacks commonly known to many people especially Nigerians. This is because in Nigeria, manufacturers rarely give you the caloric intake on the packaging of the snack. They believe that writing out the ingredients and the net weight of the product is good enough.

Take shortbread biscuits as an example, did you know that each one of those yummy milky biscuit is 100kcal? You eat the whole packet of 10 or 12 and wash it down with a bottle of 50cl coke, which is about 250kcal by the way, and you say you just took a snack. And it may be just that – a snack, because it isn’t filling. But you have 1250 – 1450kcal already and you haven’t eaten your meal for the day. Let’s take a look at gala (sausage), each pack is 330kcal and usually we eat 2 with a bottle of coke for snack. That gives a total of 900kcal that is not your breakfast, lunch or dinner. Chocolates! (oh! I die!) Each bar of 50g contains about 250kcal. Take 2 and that’s 500kcal. Noodles?- that’s 350kcal for each 70g pack, and we can’t have just 1, it has to be 2 with carrots, green peas, tomatoes, sweet corn and eggs. Guess what total that would bring you to for a single meal. It’s unbelievable right? For your information, I was guilty of all these, just beginning to change.

I realized that there are a few foods that don’t add as much calories to our diets and also help our intestines and prevent or reduce the likelihood of diseases like colon cancer, diabetes, hypertension, obesity and so on. These foods are fruits, vegetables and water. Add these regularly to your diet and you would be surprised. They fill you up without adding as much calories.

X-RAYS

As a child, I have numerous episodes of upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs); from sinusitis to tonsilitis and so on, (still do occasionally). Unfortunately, it was never diagnosed, the doctors then just kept giving me lots and lots of pink cough syrup. I also remember having repeated chest x-rays.

As I grew up and became a medical student and then a medical doctor, I realized these must be what I'd suffered from as a child since I saw the same symptoms as I had. These days though, we have more specialists and more diagnostic tools and it makes diagnosing easier. I learnt that the x-rays needed for the diagnosis of URTIs especially sinusitis and tonsilitis aren't just chest x-rays but also x-rays of the postnasal space and the paranasal sinuses.

X-rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz (3×1016 Hz to 3×1019 Hz) and energies in the range 100 eV to 100 keV. X-ray wavelengths are shorter than those of UV rays and typically longer than those of gamma rays.

X-rays have numerous uses, medical and others, for example it can be used for airport security. In medicine, it has both diagnostic (x-rays, mammography, CT scans, e.t.c.) and therapeutic (radiotherapy) uses. Be careful though, they can also be harmful as they cause cancers as they have been classified as carcinogen. Before a pregnant women does an x-ray, the benefits or the x-ray should be weigh against its risks. For further reading, go here.

Have you ever had an x-ray or any other form of  radiological procedure done before?
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray