Ranka shi dede, please pardon my impertinence for writing this letter to you. It should ideally be sent to Baba, but you have recently put your integrity on the line and vouched for his intelligence. I totally agree with you, even Awolowo found out too late, much to his chagrin. You can ask, why me, why not write through AD senators? the reason is not farfetched, Baba knows the mindset of his people it is ‘ti nwa, ti nwa’ time, whatever he says and does, goes. I could go through Uwazuruike but Baba has a visceral distrust of the Eboes., ever since Okadigbo was caught leaking information about Baba’s strategies at the PDP’s presidential convention, I cannot go through him either. Going through his advisers wouldn’t work. They are from the southern minority states, and they set him up with the fuel increase imbroglio., but if you want to claim it as the work of the northern oligarch’s, I would not fight you over it. [I know my position in the scheme of things] and finally, the telephone numbers at Aso Rock have not been changed, don’t ask me how I know but I know he listens to you, after all you have confessed that you are a northern feudalist.

Mallam Wada, I have never been to medical school, I am even ashamed to mention my school certificate result in this letter, but I have this mark on my left arm which proves I have been vaccinated against small pox, and I also heard that you cannot use vaccines to treat but to prevent. This latest pronouncement by the Health Minister, Dr. Menakaya: ‘The president has directed the suspension of the use of all drugs to prevent or cure HIV/AIDS etc’ is making me feel uneasy. Please, bear with me, I am not holding fort for Abalaka who is a northerner, but, why is this government treating this man like a stepchild? Are northerners keeping quiet because he is a Christian? Have we forgotten that the first northern medical doctor, Dr. Dikko, was a Fulani Christian? How can one man sit down in Aso rock and make policy statements that have wide reaching economic implications which can adversely affect the lives of millions of people without subjecting it to ‘due process’? How fair is it to single out a single disease and say all forms of treatment are banned?. Where is the enabling decree to back such an action since we are in a diarchy.

There is something about Baba Aremu and loans. We know he is yet to find a loan he could not take. He introduced loans into our national economic lexicon and he even had the immoral gall to attempt a buy back deal with IBB. The cock crowed last night and the child died in the morning, who does not know that the crowing of the cock has something to do with the death of the child? On July 19, 2000, The Export-Import Bank of the United States offered to provide a $1 billion a year in five year term financing to support the purchase of United States drug companies HIV/AIDS medication and related equipment by sub Saharan African nations, and the next day Baba descended on our local quacks!

Chances are Abalaka et al are just buffoons, and he got his degree based on the quota system, but I remember my neighborhood quack Mr. Patrick, God knows where he got his penicillin from, but between him and my grandmother’s agbo [Yoruba word for native medicine] I am still alive today. Does Baba know his pronouncement is capable of putting all the native doctors and herbalists in Yoruba land out of business? Does he know that Dr. Abalaka could challenge that fiat in court, and the fall out might be the closure of all patent medicine stores most of which are owned by Eboes? If there is a law banning all drug efficacy trials and human experiments in Nigeria why isn’t it enforced across the board? How many medical doctors in Nigeria today receive drugs which are not licensed in the western world, to try out on patients and get paid for their troubles?

Alhaji, you see this Aremu man talking of being born into poverty, what does he know? Anybody in his generation that managed to acquire a secondary education cannot be regarded as poor. The problem with him is, he keeps comparing his childhood to that of the Ransome Kutis’. It is even rumored that he had his orderly with him while in prison. Please tell him to stop laughing at us. Now, not only as he gone on and banned Abalaka, as if we did anything to him after his fiasco on Western Avenue repairs. He is even challenging our collective faith in Gods’ healing powers. What is the governments problem if I believe that a drink of holy water will cure me of AIDS? After all, the alternative is still death anyway.

Mallam, ‘enough is enough’ as you must have realized by now, I am a minority third class citizen of Nigeria who wants out. My reason, somebody has already made my people the Jews of Nigeria. Do you notice how Baba Aremu sends for our governor Mr. Alamayies… [why do troublesome people have such difficult names?] any time he Baba has a problem with one of his wives. Even when the poor guy tries to dodge, he orders him down to Abuja in his personal jet at huge costs to the nation, only to bully and threaten him with another Odi. Need I remind you that the OPC have killed more policemen than any group in Nigeria’s history. Tell me, if the OPC’s seeming invincibility is based on charms with a little blessing from Sunday Mbang, why is this leverage being denied other Nigerians? "The Northerners being the most cheated more than others in the Nigerian nation’’. Haba! Ranka dede, the difference between me and you is that whereas you are only telling the Yoruba’s to back off, my people are being constantly raped and pillaged by the Nigerian state and we are being told to relax and enjoy it, because it is God’s will. Truly, enough is enough, Araba ka na so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A government cannot function by making ‘knee jerk reflex’ pronouncements. It is similar to me writing an article for publication through the internet. I read through it a couple of times and bingo, I start singing, Kongi here I come. I send it through, it gets published, I rush to read it and, shoot! the grammatical error just jumps at my face and I start thanking God, that my old English teacher does not know my address. Please tell him that these pronouncements are beginning to give me indigestion and Mr. Patrick is out of business.

Orok Edem

Calabar Development Association

New York 7/23/00