Living on the force of hope

For a touch so human

The last time I had any human touch was over two months ago when I was in the hospital for my biannual check-up that would have involved phlebotomy and that touch was gloved the nurse in protective clothing and the needle went seeking veins in both arms without success that another nurse had to have a go too.

The other human contact I have had has socially distanced with friends in a park and with my neighbours on our weekly Sunday soirees for wine or port and a bit of banter.

Being alone at home as I have for months has been an exercise of mindfulness, the perspective formed of being in a retreat rather than in a lockdown situation. Thoughts of being restricted or limited are put in the background and away, as each day brings the promise of interesting things and my curiosity leads me to new discoveries that gladden and intrigue.

Phonetics from childhood

Even a chance encounter I forgot as I was out for a walk on Sunday, a father pushing his daughter in a stroller was on the phone as he was able to cross the road. What he was saying sounded familiar, he was speaking in Hausa. Obviously, I had a little chat to him, in Hausa, telling him my knowledge of Hausa was from over 40 years ago, before I bid him farewell, probing not further.

If my memory serves me right, I last saw someone speaking Hausa in Manchester probably 5 years ago in Argos, two ladies and their kids. We did not say much either, we just exchanged pleasantries.

On my mind, always

Another thing occupies my mind apart from work which is still not in as full as flow as one would like it to be. Brian, on my mind, in my head, and in my heart. Just how I wish I were counting down the days to something amazing. I miss travelling, I miss the company, I miss the companionship, I miss the embrace, the kisses, the love.

I look forward to a different time ahead, a wonderful time together, the fulfilment of a wish we both have and the promise we have made to each other, it is more than a consolation, it is a destination of good, wonderful and amazing things, I can hold on, he can hold on, we can hold on.

Thought Picnic: Making a retreat of the lockdown

Opening up from a lockdown

You begin to realise that what you see and experience becomes a matter of perspective and how you decide to relate to it. Looking around my bijoux apartment, everything seems so ordinary and mundane that a lockdown can pile on you in claustrophobic and mentally debilitating ways.

The lull in activities around the world could suggest that the world is not necessarily moving along without you. There is no rat race to enter, no bandwagon to join, though the routine gainful employment offers can be a welcome distraction. I have worked from home many times and worked remotely too.

With that thought in mind, I wonder how co-working environments would have to be reconfigured for the post-pandemic era when social distancing becomes the norm rather than the exception. The earnings of that industry per square foot might suffer. They are suffering now.

Retreating to change

Anyway, at the suggestion of Elizabeth Gilbert, maybe I should see this time as one of a retreat, I do not have to hold vigil, pretend I am in rehab, create a kibbutz, become monastic, or visit an ashram. I just have to make a contentment of peace and relaxation around me without exerting myself to anything. I can read, I can watch, I can learn, yet not stress myself whilst finding myself. It is possible and I will not beat myself up about it either.

Blog - Thought Picnic: I will remain curious and work on it

My friend who I have not seen in over a week used to come round to help around the house, especially from the time I fell ill in January. I did rise to get the rubbish out along with the recyclable things, it felt strange that I had not done it in a while.

Scrubbing to remember

Yesterday, I found the muscle to push a Brillo Pad around the electrical plates of my hob cooker, the collage of caked overspills from cooking from every shade of brown to black needed removal after my sister in the States could not ignore the state of my stove. Today, I got the leg of lamb that I bought on Tuesday out of the fridge and cooked it. The overspill will be seen to, as the stove cools down.

Amid all this, my lover and I constrained by many things work hard communicating our affection for each other in anticipation of this whole situation moving on and creating the opportunity for us to meet up again. It was exactly a year ago that we met up in Johannesburg for the second time and took a flight to Cape Town for an 18-day holiday together. Gosh! I miss my man.

Nigeria: The Senate Health Bill is rejected

A retreat in retreat

The Senate Committee for Health headed by Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello presented their National Health Bill to the Senate where the quality and standard of the bill was panned such that the deputy Chairman of the committee had to withdraw the bill.

You will remember, the committee was given N10 million from the illegally disbursed N300 million that the Ministry of Health should have returned to the treasury on the orders of the President.

Committee apparently went on retreat to Ghana to discuss this bill and finalise what they were to present to the Senate, the developments now show that the retreat achieved none of the objectives to make the bill suitable for presentation.

It sounds like a bad school report to have a results that indicate in the words of the Senate officials your work has irregularities.

The profile of the Health Committee

I am really saddened that this committee headed by someone who holds a PhD in some health delivery field, albeit veterinarian and was once a state health commissioner failed to grasp the remit of her brief.

However, when you see that the committee also includes that instigator of the indecent dressing bill (Senator Eme Ufot-Ekaette), the quality might have been dampened by ideas of someone given to frivolities. As a pharmacist, she seems to have no medicine for Nigeria’s health needs; she chairs the Women and Youth Committee.

The quality of the presentation does not seem to have exhibited the presumed talents of Senator Chris N. Anyanwu who as a journalist suffered incarceration for her profession. She is the vice-chairman - Committee on Defence & Army

One senator and former governor refused to put his name to the bill that was Senator Chimaroke Nnamani of Enugu State who seems to be preoccupied with causing ructions in his old state.

Senator Mohammed I. Ahmed was a senator in the last legislative session, so should be conversant with senate procedures, he was once a Secretary to the Kwara State government and holds the coveted title of Member of the National Institute.

He also chairs the Establishment & Public Service Committee; in a position like that, he should have known better not to accept money from a ministry that his committee oversees, maybe he knows nothing about possible conflicts of interest.

Senator George Akume was once the governor of Benue State, a Director General and Permanent Secretary; he holds degrees in Library Science and chairs the Integration & Cooperation Committee.

Senator Adego Erhiawarie Eferakeya holds a PhD in Pharmacy (1975) and is a Doctor of Medicine (1977), he was Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Benin, and he is the vice-chairman of the Ethics & Petition Committee.

Senator Adeleke Olorunnimbe Mamora is a medical practitioner and the vice-chairman of the Federal Character & Inter-Governmental Affairs Committee.

Senator Umaru Dahiru is a legal practitioner, he was a Senator in the last legislative term and is now the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Senator Hassan Gusau was a member of the last legislative term and is the vice-chairman of the Employment, Labour & Productivity Committee.

Senator Mujitaba Mohammed Mallam holds a degree in educational biology and chemistry and he was once the commissioner for health of Jigawa State, he is the vice-chairman of the Housing Committee.

Senator Manzo G. Anthony is the vice-chairman of the Information & Media Committee.

Senator Gyang Dalyop Dantong was a member of the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2003 and a Senator since 2003, he is the vice-chairman of the Health Committee, he presented the bill and voluntarily withdrew it after the criticism of the quality and standard of the bill - he should at least know how things are done in the Nigerian legislature, one would think.

It beggars belief

This committee has 5 people who are either highly qualified health practitioners or have held positions of state health commissioner, it has 5 chairmen of Senate committees and 7 vice-chairmen of Senate committes, 2 were governors, 3 were Senators in the last legislative term, they all must have been involved in report preparations either academically or professionally.

This was no committee of nonentities, they were probably the best qualified of all senators to produce a bill of the standard that really addresses the health problems of Nigeria.

We have record numbers of people dying from malaria, religious organisations impeding their adherents from using health delivery programmes, sub-standard drugs are found in our teaching hospitals, Ministers of Health do not seem to have the right priorities and we do not have any institution in the country to treat our President when he has an allergic reaction and we end up with a bill for a junket in Ghana and no sound bill on health.

It is a disgrace.

Address the issue objectively

The Chairman in the person of Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello has responsibilities to manage, if her personal troubles are getting in the way of performing her duties with dispatch she should honourably resign her chairmanship and allow the committee to deliver without being hindered by these external factors.

I am disappointed that some political movements have failed to address the issue of the problems that Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello is having with her business dealings and indictments as completely separate from other matters that concern the activities of the regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo (Rtd.) the erstwhile President of Nigeria, who happens to be her father.

One is not surprised because from my observation Nigerians have a tendency to forget the issues and get carried away with peripheral subjective matters such that all objectivity necessary to address and scrutinise the real issue is lost.

If indeed Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello is answerable to any charges, she should be dealt with as an individual in her own right and she be accorded all the means and courtesies to defend herself vigorously in any chosen forum of accusation, rebuttal, consideration and judgment.

The daughter is not the ex-President

She however should never be used as a conduit to get at her father who obviously has many enemies but is looking like a Teflon demi-god – if no one can legally and confidently indict General Obasanjo as an individual or head of a past government that is presumed to have been less than scrupulous, then he should be left alone to live out his years in pseudo-retirement.

This lack of objective focus on the issues allows the Senator to plead that she is being victimised and suggest that her life is in danger; it helps generate unnecessary sympathy for what should be a straight-forward legal issue whilst exciting commentary that could lead to exonerating her long before her cases are properly tried and proven.

It does no serve us well at all and it skews our criminal justice system.