NAIJA MONDAYS: "Chronic Pericarditis: it's not just a "Yar Adua" Disease!!!"

Theme: Revival

Touch your chest and feel your heart-beat. You may not have any disease, but your heart may be beating fast. Especially as the tension and heat rises right where you are standing or sitting. Or maybe your heart is beating fast because you are bleeding internally, for the sanity of your country...

Chronic pericarditis occurs as a result of inflammation that builds up gradually, resulting in fluid accumulation in the pericardial space (the space that surrounds the region of the heart). Symptoms include coughing, shortness of breath, and fatigue. In extreme cases, it becomes a medical issue and the entire pericardium would need to be surgically removed. To the best of my knowledge, the President, Yar Adua, has been hospitalized in Saudi Arabia due to acute pericarditis which is now progressing towards chronic pericarditis, which will eventually require more hospitalization than the people of the country are prepared to understand. Yet, today we will not talk about Yar Adua or the plans that are currently being made to transfer him from a hospital in Saudi Arabia to another hospital in the United States or Germany. It is besides the point that the people under this presidency have little or no information because of the high level of secrecy that surrounds the details of their president's disease.

But we will try as much as possible to sway our focus into another dimension...which I have deemed wise to call "the prevailing ailing chronic pericarditis of the heart of Nigeria!"

Yes, the heart is sick, and dangerously so...it is chronically ill. Sometimes, I sit back and think of the intelligence of people in this country and the amount of stuff they can do. I received an email some days ago from one of the administrators of N4C, saying that I should vote for one of the nominees of the Future Awards for 2010, of which I'm proud to say that one of my acquaintances was part of. And I looked at their names, and went down the list with pride, reading about their inventions and level of talent. Reading about their abilities to take Nigeria to the next level. I cannot really describe how I felt, but something shifted inside me. The amount of intelligence we have could be quite scary to an on-looker.

But the country is chronically ill. The society progressively deteriorates because we have no direction as to what the medical treatment should be. I'm grateful for the open doors that N4C has started to create in terms of accumulating buckets of intelligence into which passionate people can throw their ideas. Some of the chronically sick areas are as follows:

- BRAIN DRAIN/DISPLACED TALENTS: It is becoming worse, feels like many have given up. But N4C will not. Students graduate as lawyers, doctors, engineers, and other levels of graduate and PhD degrees, only to find themselves with the only option of working in a bank. Or standing in line for a visa to find "the good life" in a foreign country. This chronic illness will have to be surgically terminated.

-MEDICINE: It behooves a country that it should be able to supply the necessary medical equipment and expertise needed to treat its own president's acute pericarditis. Go figure out that there are smaller medical problems than this, but remember it starts from the small problems and progresses to a chronic problem. It started with false medical degrees, fake and expired medications, and ill-equipped Government hospitals.

- ELECTRICITY: Let it be known that there is an agreement that Nigeria has to keep: to supply another country with 100% electricity and let its own people suffer in consistent darkness. As the LightUpNigeria crew put it after studying a survey conducted by Sheila Ojey, Nigerians themselves have stated that electricity is 1) the most important infrastructure needed for the economic development of an emerging market (most people selected "electricity supply" over telecommunication or transportation); 2) the major catalyst for attracting foreign investors; and 3) what makes emerging countries less developed than "developed" countries. In 2010, my dream is that a group of people, inspired by the N4C Team will really start to think of possibilities to end this sickness.

That being said, I don't want to make this post elongated, but I want to make sure I say something: N4C is not a joke! It is not one of those unfinished businesses that people start and don't complete. It is the dream of an entire Nation being reborn. In 2010, this organization plans to start several projects that we will keep you abreast of as time goes on.

Remain subscribed and stay tuned. Watch the pericarditis become healed.

Naija Mondays: Theme: Revival

“Lord, Send a Revival and Let it Begin with Me”
Hmm…so I wondered…Why am I doing this to myself? I’m so tired every single day. I wake up between 4-5am everyday thinking, “Here we go again” Sigh. Everything seemed like a pain in the neck. Every movement seemed like a chore. Waking up, getting ready for work. It slowly started becoming routine. Whatever happened to the passion that led me this far?

I remember once I had a conversation with a 16-year old and we talked about her goals in life. She was so precise. She seemed to have it all figured out. I was so impressed. Then I asked myself silently if I could clearly outline my own life that way and realized that I couldn’t. When I was 12 years old, I could have told you everything I wanted to accomplish- career goals, plans for a family etc, with a time table. But at some point, I seemed to lose it all. Or did I just forget?

Like an answer to my question, an attending physician at work approached me and asked “Where are you from?” When I replied Nigeria, it seemed something shifted in him. He went ahead to discuss how thinking of Nigeria, Congo and Haiti (his home country) always broke his heart. Curious I asked him to explain. He talked about how Nigeria had the potential to be one of the richest countries in the world- how we have so many resources but are plagued with corruption and mismanagement. Of course this wasn’t news to me. The unique part was that my country’s issues broke the heart of a Haitian.

He asked me if I planned to return to Nigeria. I said yes, but not anytime soon. “I want to return as an asset and not a burden.” Then he asked what I wanted to do career-wise. I’m training to become a surgeon but I haven’t decided what subspecialty. He replied, “Well whatever you decide, when you are done with your training here, you will be an asset!!”

I had a recent meeting with my program director and she referred me back to my personal statement where I had written about becoming a leader in health issues in Nigeria. Needless to say, I started some self-reflection. I reread my own personal statement…wow, it made me sound like a star-in-the-making. (Amazing the things you write about yourself when you are trying to get employed.) I called my parents and they psyched me up. Random people started saying encouraging things to me. And then I started to feel like Nigeria itself- an entity with tremendous potential but little drive for excellence.

I started to remember things I had left half-done on undone for different reasons. A recent phone conversation with a friend revolved around self-reflection, and constant self improvement. Remembering lessons from past experiences without dwelling on mistakes. I stumbled on texts that hypothesized on the purpose of earthly life. An N4C admin called for a meeting and we had a phone conference. For a while it seemed everything around me was pointing me back to the beginning, back to the reason, back to the initial fire behind most of my endeavors. It felt like a revival. And so I prayed, “Lord, send a revival and let it begin with me!”

My point is it’s easy to forget the initial reason for the things we do. It’s easy to fall into a routine and forget the purpose for your actions. It’s helpful to self-reflect and ask yourself why you do the things you do. Keep the big picture in mind. N4C’s big picture is changing Nigeria for the better. If you are reading this I assume you have a similar goal in mind. Don’t lose your passion. Bring the spark back and rekindle that fire. You are not alone. We are UNITED for change.