SELF MEDICATION.

One of the 'brothers' of fake drugs in Nigeria is self medication.
At least 85% of the general population is guilty and only God knows how many have died as a direct result of or from complications arising from our penchant for knowing what is wrong with ourselves and then buying meds to treat themselves.
I cannot count how many times I have been guilty of this offense but the older i get, the more pain & suffering my body goes through just because I think I know it all.
I know at least two people I can identify who have died because they did this. One young lady felt feverish and bought over the counter anti-malaria tablets.... it subsided but after a week, the symptoms came on stronger so she went to a chemist who said she had malaria parasite & she needed "dual therapy" treatment.
She took the meds and was o.k. for two weeks when she collapsed on her way to an exam. She was rushed to the hospital and tests revealed she had advanced typhoid fever. She was placed on drip & meds but she had complications-her intestines were perforated... she gave up after battling for four days.
A week ago my back, my waist in particular hurting like mad!, (it still is)... i don't like taking meds, I'm used to pain because I'm a sportsman, always spraining & straining something...but this is a nuisance. I can't bend and straiten up, lift stuff, sit in one place for long... so looked around for help- i saw some tabs i was given for a chest pain till my x-ray results were ready...(it was for a pain, surely it would work for this one too!)
I took them- no luck...so i asked my friends & colleagues @ work. A friend (and fellow blogger suggested a Chiropractor on the island) A Chiro gini? The Nija man in me kicked in...Who go pay for that one?! Lailai!!!
So here I am a full grown man,educated, well travelled, punching this story through to the world wide web on my notebook and drinking a murky concoction of bark,garlic,herbs & God knows what else is inside this crazy bitterest-shit-u-ever-tasted bottle, squirming & looking like a hundred year old from wrinkling my face !!
(to be continued)

MY PEOPLE (PART I)

I decided to step up my social work through additional church work/volunteering.
The first task was evangelism/outreach through our B2B (Blessed to Be a Blessing program) in the Ketu area(a suburb near ikeja in Lagos). It was drizzling & i was scared i would catch a cold or worse especially as I had suffered from pneumonia two years ago & went through sheer hell before i got well. But i decided to just go with the flow, trust in God and besides me thinks it might help me get over my shyness.
We started from the Highway and stormed into the area about a hundred strong with a mini-marching band.
The houses were fairly spaced, mostly two/three story buildings with four, six, eight or twelve flats as the case may be. Most of the houses were quiet with many families or parents out, we came across an average of two to four kids in each house we got access too.
The striking part was as we went deeper & deeper into the suburb, the houses got denser & smaller....and of course the kids tripled per house or more!!
We had tracts and motivational pamphlets for people & free branded exercise books for the kids! They were a big hit! The kids poured out like rats trying to escape from the sinking Titanic, begging, pushing, scraping for the books, parents didn't want to hear the gospel they wanted books for their kids- real & imaginary!
They got angry when we didn't give them, promising the kids were out on one chore or the other, blah- blah- blah.... i made them understand that the main purpose of our outreach was to make people realise that change starts from within before without. We were doing this by pooling resources together & they could start a chain reaction by touching a life in their area no matter how small the gesture is- they were not buying the idea!!!
Deeper still we went and you had to begin to wonder if we were in Lagos not...the road were disappearing, the utilities had disappeared & the people looked broken - (no pun intended.) Resigned to their fate-whatever that maybe.Just this heavy depression hung like a wet sweater on a weary traveler all around...

PLACEBO

I feel like I need this but deep down I know don’t.

Walking to my office or up & down the streets of Lagos my feet weep, my shoes suffer and my mind, I feel has finally gone numb. Why am I so sensitive? I wish I wasn’t, I wish it didn’t cut me up to pieces inside when I see so much pain caused by our own hands, has greed and (what else can I call it but) sin eroded our souls so?

When did we decide that human life had the same value as a chicken’s? Or that only the so called strongest deserve to survive?

I could go on and on but even a three year old could recite a litany of our problems. I have decided to look for and apply real solutions, affect the space around and pray, pray really hard for the best… what else can I do?!

If you agree, please join me or as my people say…make we rub minds! and let’s exchange ideas (and have fun too) because that’s the only way we can make it through.

Thanks and God Bless!!- Bijimi