Decade Blogs - Mister Mobility - Not all those who wander are lost

Decade Blogs

Mister Mobility is a pseudonym and the preferred public identity of a man I have known from the blogging world many years ago when he was a no-nonsense exponent of biblical hermeneutics. I agreed with many of his views and some were compelling enough to force me to comment on some of his blogs.

At the same time he was what I would call a mobile phone propeller head, having owned over 100 devices, he is a compendium of knowledge on mobile device usage and usability.

Then again, he has one of the most grounded heads of my social media interactions, smart, wise and reasonable, he is definitely someone I would love to meet.

I am highly honoured to have Mister Mobility write for my #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series commemorating my Decade of Blogging.

Blog - To Celebrate My Decade of Blogging

Simplicity, fun and humour belie a seriousness in the messages and witticisms he shares on social media tweeting with the Twitter handle @Mister_Mobility and blogging at Mobility.ng.

In this article, takes the ordinary and gives it deeper significance, our version of the truth might not be the truth. There is much to learn from this.

Not all those who wander are lost

“There is no-one that I cannot speak the truth to!” Those were the words of my number one mentor some weeks ago when we sat down to discuss certain issues. As I sat there, I reflected on several situations in which he had supposedly spoken the truth to people, and how he had been off the mark to certain degrees, and how his biases had shown through each situation. There is no question about his being a bold, straightforward man. No, his boldness was not the question. Where the question mark lay was what he considered the truth.

I am only in mid-life, but I have seen and heard enough in life to now be amused whenever an individual arrogates sole possession of the truth to himself. More often than not, what he holds to so tightly is his version of what he believes to be the truth. And usually, that version is soiled in some way. That version may largely contain truth, but his outlook and upbringing are likely to have tainted the picture in some way, such that he is missing a key element. And this excludes no-one.

For example, even historical truth is largely a question of who you are reading or listening to. Consider also for a minute, a married couple who have had an altercation, and when each party tells recounts to a third party or counsellor, their two versions do not line up. Yet, neither set out to lie about anything. They have spoken “the truth” to the best capacity of their faculties. Frail, faulty human faculties. They have only recounted the episode as their mortal minds perceived that it happened.

Two pastors might pick up the same Bible, and even though they belong to the same denomination, and perhaps were taught by the same theologian, they still differ to varying degrees on certain subjects. Yet, each believes that he speaks the truth.

Oh, but I am a believer in truth. I believe that there is always a truth to every situation and to every subject. It just seems that God has designed the world and life to mock us each time that we get as smug as to think that we have become authorities on to what is and what is not in every situation. Perhaps He sits and laughs at the frailty of the human mind and our sense of capacity. I have long resigned to that. Perhaps He designed things to make sure that no-one knows it all, has it all, or has it all together. But then, my position might just be off the mark too.

Now, I live at peace with myself, secured in the comfort that I do not have to know it all or have it all together. I remain a learner and keep seeking truth at every point, exploring this huge universe, sometimes threading where others fear, sometimes hitting a wall and then retracing my steps. Life is certainly adventurous that way, though sometimes it hits had. But then, life hits us all hard at some point in time or the other. What do I have to lose? Life as an ongoing adventure works much better for me than life locked up in a mansion, no matter how magnificent and well equipped.

I stumbled upon a phrase some years back, and fell in love with it instantly. It has become one of my rallying cries, a slogan to live by. It is a line penned by J. R. R. Tolkien from the hugely successful The Lord of the Rings. Here is what it says:

"Not all those who wander are lost."

This is the summary of who I have become, the person that I have embraced and the life that I hope to live till my last breath. Perhaps there is another angle to Mister Mobility beyond the field of mobile phones. This is life on the go.

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

From the poem, All that is gold does not glitter in Chapter 10 of the Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings.

My congratulations to my egbon on his 10 years of blogging.

Decade Blogs - Japheth J. Omojuwa - The Power of Purpose and Persistence

Decade Blogs

Japheth J. Omojuwa probably needs no introduction on Social Media, he is one of the few young Nigerians who has found the means of leveraging reach and platform to inform, to change or to muster.

It was when he won the Nigerian Blog Awards 2011 for the Best Political Blog that I discovered him and his influence that had a really big following on Twitter.

He comes across as passionate, engaging and forceful, sometimes almost forgetting the huge responsibility on his shoulders as his simple humanity takes to the fore in a cause, a campaign or a controversy, yet he can be as effective in raising funds for charitable and humanitarian causes or getting the ear of the powerful as he can be devastating in rubbishing positions, people or policies that appear to serve hypocritical or selfish interests.

I am honoured to have him contribute a blog to my #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series commemorating my Decade of Blogging.

Blog - To Celebrate My Decade of Blogging

Omojuwa as we know him, blogs on at Omojuwa.com which he also offers as a platform for the views and opinions of others, he tweets with the @omojuwa Twitter handle and he writes for various media organs.

Here, he writes about how time, patience, dedication, determination, purpose and persistence governs longevity and success. Please enjoy reading this piece.

The power of Purpose and Persistence

Anyone can do a thing consistently for a decade if they get paid for it, doing it for that long without pay is noteworthy; even more extraordinary if it is a venture that helps to make others better.

If there were ever anything I’d guess would keep such a person going, persistence would be my first guess. Whatever Akin Akintayo has going for him that keeps him running a blog for ten consecutive years, persistence must definitely be part of that mix.

I have a reason for thinking persistence must have played a huge part in his story, but this must never be assumed to mean his being persistent was all he needed to keep going. This is about his persistence though. There are exceptions, but the central theme in the stories of most successful people is that of persistence. There are people who have succeeded without being overly talented; there are loads of people who have succeeded without attending the best universities.

I can bet you know many people who have succeeded despite their very poor backgrounds, but if you were tasked to find ten men or women who succeeded without persistence, you’d need a bit of persistence to endure the search and even at that, you’d be lucky to find any.

Why is persistence such a crucial factor for success? It is simple enough; everything takes time. Time is one of the fundamental realities in our world. Everything we do is subjected to it. Our universal laws are a function of time. We live within time so we’d never get to succeed at anything without time as a sort of reactant in our mix.

It is a kind of limiting reality, but like Friction, it helps us in ways we may never really appreciate. If you ever do a thing that does not take time, please kindly reach me to tap into your powers. How much you are able to succeed depends on how long you are able to wait.

Stories abound of people who missed out on greatness because they left their craft just before they got the break. We all know people that missed out on being rewarded just because they were impatient to wait a day, a month or maybe even a year longer.

It takes persistence to spend 4 weeks focused on passing an examination without being distracted by anything else. Those four weeks, if wasted by some others could be the difference between a life of great success and a life of mediocrity.

Sometimes, if you are not willing to wait, you are not deserving of the prize. When next you meet a man or woman you deem successful, ask him or her how hard it was to persist at their craft. They’d tell you it never came cheap but it is what it is, if you really want it, why give up on it?

So you see, we have lessons of our own to learn in this story. We should ask him many questions about how he kept going for so long but before then we should thank him for showing us it can be done!

Christmas & New Year Greetings

This Christmas and beyond

Dear friends, acquaintances, well-wishers, fans, followers, people and you are many who have crossed my path and blessed me with your presence, engagement, conversation, interaction and much else.

May the joy of Christmas,
the story of happiness, wellness,
and peace be yours.

Let the New Year of 2014,
bring the fulfilment of dreams,
amazing adventure,
new experiences,
fun and laughter.

It has been a long year, and I have everything to be grateful for, old friends, new friends, new places, adventure, work plenty and work unavailable, in means and in little, being myself more and enjoying the things I do. I am blessed.

I have benefitted from such generosity that humbles me, in help, in encouragement, in kind, in love shown unconditionally, in kindness offered without reservation, you all have been the wind beneath my wings, you made me soar.

On Twitter, I gained over a third more followers and met new people, on Facebook, the banter ranged from levity to robust and serious, my blog reached a milestone, a decade of blogging.

I am five birthdays after a cancer diagnosis and my eye is not dimmed in the things I expect and hope for, there is a life to live out there and with as much strength as I have had, I have engaged in the pursuit of happiness with vigour.

I am thankful to God, yes, my beliefs do sustain me.

Thank you and here’s to a better year and future ahead of us.

Akin

Decade Blogs - Abubakar A. Musa - Challenging the humanity in us

Decade Blogs

One of the reasons why I gave everyone offering to contribute to my #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series commemorating my Decade of Blogging free rein to write on whatever issue, topic or story that they like, was it opened a window into the diversity of our human existence.

Blog - To Celebrate My Decade of Blogging

Indeed, I have loved reading the blogs that have showered underserved praise on me, but just because I provide a platform does not mean I should take the best seat. My job here is to introduce, to curate, to edit, to schedule and to publish – I do this with a great duty of responsibility that people would trust me with their opinions, a sense of honour that people would respond to my request to write for my blog and with deep gratitude and thanks for the many who have appreciated me enough write.

I wish I could say more about Abubakar A. Musa, I cannot, apart from some exchanges we have had on Twitter, but after reading this blog, I found this is someone I would love to meet, in gain and in pain, for a person whose eyes are open to the recognise the core of our humanity is the person that can be true in all things.

We have had five Popes in my lifetime, they have over their reigns done maybe significant things, but Pope Francis seems to have reached deeper into the soul of our humanity with his touching and simple compassion, he has become the Good Samaritan example of our times.

Blog - Pope Francis taking us back to the core of our humanity

Abubakar A. Musa brings to this page, many pictures of suffering, pain and grief, the vulnerabilities and frailties of our humanity and asks that we begin to understand what people go through, how it affects them and how it affects us. Most of all he asks us to visit the sick, offering comfort and succour to them. We must become considerately responsive with humaneness and our humanity.

I completely relate to this, I have been in a situation where a visit, a word, a touch, a smile, a hand was all I needed to ease the pain, if only for a while.

Blog - Thought Picnic: What the gravely ill need

Abubakar A. Musa, once had a blog, but he sometimes contributes to Omojuwa.com and AfricanLiberty.org and his Twitter handle is @blinkingam

Challenging the humanity in us

I was just a little under ten years old, my father held my hand and walked me through the various wards of the then, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital Kaduna (now in Shika, Zaria). Ward after ward, bed after bed, lots of people lying down with relatives and love ones rendering their support and immortal comforts.

As we walked through, I saw certain family members in shatters and disarray. While some were trying to comfort others, many were in high degree tears. Poor me, my brain couldn't comprehend any bit of the actions of those people nor the ones that surrounded them. I decided not to remain silent by asking my father why those people were crying. I remember vividly, yes, I won't forget, how my dad shook his head and said to me “at this stage, you will never understand what they are going through.”

While walking through life, those words of his keep shaping my thoughts and actions. Each time I was to be taken, either as a patient or escort, to the hospital, the feeling of seeing people crying and or in pain always echoed loudly in my head. True, I've seen many others since, but being my first contact with such incidents and at my developmental stage of life, that first event was my greatest TURNING POINT.

Today, I clearly understand such feelings. Today, I know what it means to be lying on a sick bed battling for survival. Today, I totally comprehend what it means to lose a loved one, a close associate, a companion, and even an enemy. Ironically, it's today, after I can relate with such feelings and reflect on its effects upon the humanity, that such incidents are becoming more than regular to my eyes.

Every time I walk through our hospitals, public or private, the sympathy of human souls battling for existence always met my first step. From the less disturbing to the most severe ones, people screaming, others seeking comfort and some saying goodbye. At that stage, the words of my dad always reverberate in my head. But, unlike then, now I clearly understand what the sick ones are going through, and what the relatives of the recently died are also equally going through. Each time I find myself across certain wards of the hospital, the feelings aren't just frightening, but the core of my humanity is always shaken.

Going through the oncology ward, the sight of many Cancer patients will always make you weep, if only you're the strong type. Going through the special care units and special care baby units, infants that are yet to know the meaning of their existence and parents alike battling to exist against deathly ailments. Walking through the female, labour, and the obstetric/gynaecology wards are equally deeply painful and emotionally scary episodes. Mothers and primers trying to escape the sword of maternal mortality.

While some deliveries are as successful as Michael Jackson in the music industry, others end up with difficult complications leading to many kissing the world goodbye. At the anti-retroviral screening (ARS) centres, the story is less comforting. Depression upon depression, and the fear of stigmatization are well embedded on the faces of the usually many patients. Many couldn't just understand the meaning of life any longer while the few that could, end up facing the challenge of societal rejection.

Of all these, one needs a deep human perspective to understand what they and their relatives are going through. Unlike then, I do not need to ask anyone anymore, because now, I understand what they are going through. I understand their feelings and that of their love ones. I understand that life could be so cruel when you least expect it. I, now, understanding that no human soul is more important than any other. The words of my dad had made me to understand that no flesh is immune to illness much as no soul is immune to dying. But above all, my constant visitation of the sick ones has helped in shaping my positive reactionary human tendency.

Should anyone visit the above mentioned hospital wards and not feel touched to the core of their human compassion, such person should re-examine their human moral consciousness. Looking at my general looks, the healthy lifestyle I'd lived and still living, I feel much lucky as a person. In between, I'd fallen sick and might still do again, that I know. But I've every reason to be grateful for the journey so far.

If you find yourself healthy today, if you find yourself comfortable at this moment, irrespective of your past turmoil and challenges, cherish it, live it, enjoy it, and be grateful to your creator as well. But do remember, you aren't much wiser than those lying on the sick beds or those passing away every second.

It could easily be you on that sick bed, it could be you going through that pain, and it could have been you that passed away. Everyone would, at a point, go back to where we all came from. Reeling the feelings of good health today shouldn't becloud our trait of sympathy towards those being tested by nature.

We should be thankful to God for such opportunity and ensure regular hospital visitation to rewire our virtues of humanity. In the theory of relationships, there's always a point of first contact. Your visitation to hospitals today and fervent prayers could change some other person’s live. Challenge the other side of you and explore the virtue of humanity within your composite make up. This life is nothing but a test of our collective thoughts.

Decade Blogs - Sira Sokari - Writing is the Liberator

Decade Blogs

Sira Sokari probably presents one of the more uncanny stories of my #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series commemorating my Decade of Blogging.

Blog - To Celebrate My Decade of Blogging

She must have read my request for blogs and an email landed in my inbox offering to write for me. I acceded the request but was curious as to where she might of learnt of me.

In her words:

Where I learnt of you:

Well, this is pretty easy. When I joined Twitter, you were a suggestion. No, that didn't sound well. I mean, the Twitter search engine suggested your handle.

Your Twitter avatar has the Taj Mahal in the background. I lived in India for quite a while so I guess that also made me click the 'follow' button.

Then I found out about your blog.

I must say, your views on some topics like abortion, religion and sexuality are not ideologies many Nigerians will agree with.

She had me from Taj Mahal, everything else from there on had to be a yes and that is how I got to make an acquaintance with Sira.

Blog - Incredible India: The Majesty of the Taj Mahal

In her interesting piece below, she says writing is a liberator, well, it has been my crude therapy for a decade, an outlet for pent-up emotions, angry outbursts, considered meditations and reaching out for help.

One thing you can take away from her is this, “You don't have to be overly gifted. Just write.”

Sira Sokari blogs at http://ogonisira.wordpress.com and has the Twitter handle @sirasokari

Writing: She is the Liberator.

Usually when people talk about literature and society, there is more emphasis placed on the reading aspect. You can easily find quotes that say, 'when you read, your imagination takes you to a world of singing gorillas and there you will be made the queen mother of all furry creatures' or some other kind of motivational phrases. I'm not denying that reading is fun, I just want the art of writing to also be properly represented.

You don't have to be overly gifted. Just write.

I want people to know that when you pick up a pen or your iPad (for the savvy people) and decide to write down a story, whether scientific or fiction it means you have power.

Writing gives your imagination the power to create a whole new world. A world you can escape to, a world that is tailored to your needs simply because you wrote it.

When you write, you can create a world of peace for children who long for a story before they fall asleep.

When you write, you can create a world of happy ever afters that will comfort a spinster.

When you write, you inform, you educate, you plant ideas in the minds of people, and you give people hope.

The pen is mightier than the sword.

If you are like Olusegun Obasanjo and you write, the Nigerian Twitter Empire will tell you not to call a pot black because you are a fat, old kettle who has been in the game of boiling water for a long time and is angry now because your fire has quenched. [The ex-President had written an open letter to the President.]

When you write, you cause change. What greater power is there than the power of change?

And most of all when you write, you liberate yourself of burdens that cannot be unloaded except on paper or on your iPad.

Times are changing, I have to keep up with this paper and iPad thing.

Nigeria: These Sub-Standard ARV Drugs are Completely Unacceptable

Until now

Just over a month ago, I wrote about the issue of sub-standard anti-retro viral drugs (ARVs) in Nigeria, and when some of my friends contacted people who were supposed to be in the know about the management and distribution of ARVs in Nigeria, they appeared to pooh-pooh the idea.

Blog - Nigeria: The issue of sub-standard ARV drugs is a critical emergency

The message coming back was that the complainers were not interested in using drugs manufactured in Nigeria, that they wanted foreign-sourced drugs.

Handling the ARV drugs

Well, this afternoon, I handled with my own hands the drugs, a bottle from India and Nigeria of the same formulary of ARVs (Zidovudine [AZT] 300mg, Nevirapine 200mg, Lamivudine [3TC] 150mg), but that is where the similarity ends.

It is important that we clarify that the drugs are not fake, they are sub-standard, and I would illustrate what I mean with pictures to follow.

The Indian manufactured bottle is on the left, the Nigerian manufactured bottle is on the right, and the first thing that you see is the poor quality of the labelling.

By comparison the shelf-life of the drugs is 35 months for the Indian version and 23 months for the Nigerian version – A first indication of a difference in quality or standards.

The question of Storage

The problem seems to come down to information on this part of the bottle label. The Indian version is to be stored below 30°C and protected from light and moisture, the Nigerian version should be stored in a dry place below 25°C and protected from sunlight.

A double-take to the World Bank website for the average temperature and rainfall in Nigeria  and in India for the 110 years to 2009 suggests the average temperature in Nigeria only dips below 25°C in December and January, and it has a higher average range than that of India. [World Bank Group][World Bank Group]

Besides this, whilst Nigeria does not have as much rain as the monsoons of India, the rainfall is spread across more months suggesting the climate in Nigeria is broadly humid resulting in more months of precipitation.

It goes without saying from this basic observation that the instructions on the bottle of the Nigerian manufacture ARVs must at least be the same as the ones for India – Store at below 30°C, in dry place, protected from light and moisture.

Between English and French

It is also interesting to note the difference been the English and the French instructions on the Nigerian bottle. Apart from the typographical errors where the obvious one is physician spelt as pyhsician, why Anglophones should be concerned about sunlight and the Francophones are more affected by humidity, escapes me.

A French-speaking observer of this said, “It is full of typos, and badly translated from English.” In other words, this is patently shoddy work and that is just the labels on bottles on life-saving medication.

With the permission, my French-speaking friend, reviewed the French part of the label and his comments appear below:

Chaque ma' dicament contient:
[...]

La prescription des pyhsician seulement.
Gader tout medicament hors de la portes des enfants.
Mettax su frais bas de 25°C. Protegez de l'humidite.

It is just about understandable.
It should be:
- médicament not ma'dicament
- physician, wrongly spelt is an Anglicism, in French it should read: Seulement sur prescription médicale
- gader (keep) is misspelled = garder
- la portée (reach) misspelled
- Mettax misspelled = mettre (keep/store) but should be "conserver"
- su misspelled = au (at)
- bas: poor translation of "bellow" = en-dessous

All the accents are missing and overall it say on prescription only, keep away from children store below 25°C, protect from humidity.

It does not make any reference to sunlight.

Why Tyonex could not get a French speaker in Nigeria to properly translate the English portion of the label to French escapes me. I am sure Google Translate would have done a better job. It is unprofessional, shoddy and really dampening in confidence.

Inside the bottle

Opening the bottles, the quality becomes evident, the Indian version has a desiccant, the Nigerian version does not, the tablets or caplets as the label indicates are in a cling film bag all coated with the white dusty powder of the pills.

The Indian version remains intact to the touch whilst the Nigerian version leaves a chalky residue on the fingers when touched and when held firmly between the thumb and a finger, it disintegrates as seen below.

I note that in the blog I wrote last month, this is what the AIDS Healthcare Foundation said – ‘The press release suggests the drugs “are brittle, break easily and dissolve in one's mouth before swallowing, and furthermore the package presentation is substandard, with poor labelling that resembles the work of professional counterfeit drugs peddlers.” [AIDS Healthcare Foundation]’

The standards are poor

It goes without saying that poor manufacturing standards without consideration for the socio-economic and climate conditions in which the drugs would be used can inform the rapid deterioration of the medications leading to sub-par efficaciousness of the medicines, the consequences which can be dire and life-threatening to patients who need these drugs to survive.

Even if the drugs were to be kept in a fridge, the power situation in Nigeria precludes that, it only means that standards should be significantly raised to improve the quality of these drugs, and one cannot say what other drugs are poorly packaged and distributed as these.

This ARV is Manufactured by, Divine Essential Formulations and Distributed by Tyonex Nigeria Limited at the same address in Igando, Lagos State, Nigeria. [Other Tyonex Anti-Retro Viral Drugs]

What is NAFDAC doing?

It is more shocking to read from the label that these copies of the ARV drugs are manufactured under licence from the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) under the auspices of the MDGs 2009 Conditional Grant Scheme. [UNDP NIG (PDF)]

The label also has a NAFDAC Reg. No: A4-6854, which begs the question of what standards of inspection and quality that organisation imposes on drug manufacturing companies to ensure the general public are not put at risk.

There is every reason to believe that the manufacture of short shelf-life, poorly labelled, badly packaged and low integrity ARVs means corners have been cut in the system, somewhere between the bureaucracy and the businessmen who are probably paid to do a better job than this.

Act now!

It is the duty of everyone to ensure that the chain from sourcing of formulation through dispensing to the patient ingesting the drugs is maintained to the highest standard of manufacture and integrity for us to be confident that drugs meant to save lives are not placebo effect dummies with no efficacious value.

I also hope everyone involved including activists ensure that they are compromised and bought off by the system where the lives of ordinary people are impacted.

When I was contacted about this issue last month, the person had suffered a precipitous fall in their CD4 count to 25% of what it was 6 months before. That is just unacceptable, and it indicates a sense of urgency and an emergency that needs to be addressed with immediate alacrity.

There were no other indications in the bloods that could account for that result apart from the Nigerian manufactured ARVs, and it would appear more of the Indian manufactured ARVs are now being distributed in Nigeria.

Additional Information:

NGOs Condemn the Supply of Sub-standard ARVs at Treatment Centres in Nigeria: http://youtu.be/YO4r1sZffrM

Thought Picnic: An implausibility of junkies

Losing the mind

One is left quite befuddled by it all, the desire for some to lose their minds as if it confers a sense of fulfilled excitement and a strange sense of happiness.

They revel amongst friends, that is a good thing but the drink is quaffed in quantities that would drown fish in their habitats and a person who left home, fully aware, fully conscious and fully coherent suddenly begins to demonstrate the height of stupefaction.

This morning I watched with incredulity and embarrassment for both myself and the slightly less inebriated friends who could not get their friend to do anything reasonable.

He had drugged up on something that he began making animal sounds apart from the weird unmentionable things that accompanied his actions.

Not mindful of it

Of the four that were with him, three departed but one was left behind, running out of patience with exasperation to the point that he would have deserted his friend.

Then I wondered, why they did not arrest the situation before it got out of hand, or maybe they were caught unawares but that would be a backstory many would not know until he comes to and flatly denies he was playing up.

Yet, an obvious risk was pending as the establishment was ready to call either an ambulance or the police, both presenting a humbling of the hubris of wastage on recreational substances.

Medically, he might find accord, the health personnel aware of what to do, but the police would record an infringement of sorts, which depending on what he does when his head is sitting right on shoulders could presage serious regret.

Getting to the mind

The threat of the latter seemed to get through the barrier of the drug-addled state he was in and reason seeped through as he found his voice to forestall the looming tragedy of excess.

Whilst I did not see the end of the saga, it occurred to me that a new animal grouping was possible as an implausibility of junkies or an embarrassment of friends. Though the usual application is an implausibility of gnus and an embarrassment of pandas.

If there are ways to manage an implausibility of an embarrassment, it would take more than whispering into the ears of people to consider their options and their choices.