The Malaria I Know is Better Than the Flu I do Not Know

DISCLAIMER: This write-up is likely to be full of fallacies, prejudices and may seem illogical. It is the ramblings of an emotional female in recovery who recently became aware of the injustice perpetuated at her home-grown illness

As I write this, I struggle to type on my keyboard because my limbs feel lifeless and dead. I’ve been down with the flu for four days. The worst is over but I still feel like I have been trampled upon by elephants and a hippopotamuses chasing each other (had to recite the nursery thyme to spell hippopotamus).

With no iota of pride, but with utmost gratitude to God, I’m one of the healthiest people on planet earth. I can count on my right palm, the number of times I have visited a doctor for diagnosis and I have never in my life been admitted into a hospital. *Knock on wood*

On a good day I would not write about my illness but the circumstances of my new found discovery demands that I speak out against the prejudice and bias against poor innocent malaria* and I  feel so wronged! There has been so much injustice meted out at malaria and I simply cannot fathom why! Why on earth should a patient be quarantined for Malaria which even doctors acknowledge is not contagious and patients with Flu which is as contagious as yawning (you just yawned right?) are allowed to roam the streets and spread the disease? Anyway, not like I would have enjoyed being quarantined for flu, I just think its unjust to make all that unnecessary hullabaloo over poor, harmless malaria.

As a Nigerian, I have had my fair share of malaria, but never have I felt as ill as I did these past few days. With malaria, I just need to pop whatever “reigning” pills the anopheles mosquito and its trypanosomiasis  secretion (I remember my biology) is yet to develop a resistance to and life goes on as usual. Yes the slight headache and heightened fever here and there but with little weakness, in fact most times, I “manage” to go around my day to day business.

But this flu, kai, this flu!!! It is another thing entirely. As you know, I do not have a high pitched voice, I’m quite soft- spoken, but that soft spoken “sweet-sounding”  voice went a million and one decibels lower all because of this flu, “as in” I could not say nada; then my body temperature, that was another story entirely – you could boil yam on my body;  the headache – I’ve never experienced that type before! All my life, the headache I know happens on your forehead, this one was at the back of my head, between my right ear and the middle of my head (mi o ri iru e ri l’aye mi!). Then the weakness – that one is yet to leave my body and sleep, kai, sleep, sweet sleep – totally eluded me and I was unable to do anything else so I just laid on my bed and stared at my blank, uninteresting ceiling and wall.

Anyway, I’m totally grateful to God almighty that I can type this now, my strength is gradually returning and I know I’ll be back as new ASAP. However I DEMAND that there should be a reversal on the unfair treatment currently meted out at malaria and malaria patients by the white man. In fact, appropriate restitution needs to made ASAP!

I warned you! This was not supposed to make much sense :)

*In this write up, malaria is limited to the Nigerian malaria which I know for sure is easily curable and not other strains of malaria which I know nothing about.

Omo Naija Without Values

My favorite class this term happens to be “MORS 430- Leadership in Organizations” for three reasons, primarily because it is a business course without numbers! Yup, I still have that distaste for numbers, a vast improvement from having a phobia which used to be the case. *deep breath in, deep breath out* , I have confronted and conquered my fears, I can tolerate numbers now but I still don’t like ‘em or any course that has to do with ‘em.  Secondly, it’s about people, people fascinate me, I’m a people-liker/observer, (not pleaser), and any course that gives me insight into how humans reason or how to relate with people totally catches my fancy, in my next life, I’ll probably come as a behavioral scientist, a psychologist perhaps . Finally, it’s taught by a fascinating professor who continually bombards us with interesting stories, anecdotes and videos - historical, fictional, familial… He’s never out of stories so I need not lose sleep over familiarizing myself with the principles taught.

I’m sure by now; you’re probably wondering what all this has to do with “omo Naija” or values, paddle this canoe gently, I will get there someday, hopefully in this same article.  Okay, before you crucify me, or stop reading, here goes. We had this interesting discussion on “Motivation” in the last Leadership class, basically, people are motivated intrinsically or extrinsically and that is what makes them tick, be good employees, make life choices etc.  Without going into details and giving you free lessons in lessons I am paying dearly for, I’ll go straight into that which pertains to my thoughts on Omo Naija.

In my opinion, “Omo Naija” and the Naija parents violate and defy the principles on which the extrinsic motivation theory is built. Contrary to earlier theories that people could be motivated or unmotivated and that those motivated are extrinsically motivated by the same things, (status, money, achievement , power), it is now generally accepted that all humans are motivated, people are only motivated by different values which consequently determines their actions. So a person who values power will likely be a career person who is an achiever with a desire for promotion, status, wealth, publicity etc. Examples include big- shot lawyers, investment bankers, accountants etc., (all those professions the Naija parent consider to be the that of a motivated and good child). On the other hand a person who values universalism will be all out for social justice, philanthropy, good deeds, poverty alleviation etc., such people end up being public defenders, public health practitioners, environmentalists, nuns, NGO volunteers or workers etc. (those professions that if you choose, the Naija parent thinks you've lost it or you’ve been brainwashed). Then a person who values hedonism is a free spirit, open to change and fads, to a large extent selfish, considered lazy by most, has no care in the world and is only interested in those activities that gratify self and will make an effort in such activities. Such people basically include artists, writers, poets, musicians, actors, adventurers, sports people etc. (the lazy, unmotivated and “olodo” child as viewed by the Nigerian parent).  However, everyone, irrespective of values that motivate each person, is a hard worker. They only value different things and should be allowed to harness whatever values they have through any expression or profession. In other words, don’t despise the 15 year old that wants to drop out of secondary school pursue an acting career or become a footballer or the 17 year old that doesn’t want to write JAMB or WAEC but wants to join the monastery. They are only finding expressions for their values.

That colorful circle at the beginning of this article that you’ve been wondering about is the Shwartz Values Model. It shows various values and places similar values next to each other and clashing values opposite each other, so typically you ought not to value achievement and benevolence in the same proportion at the same time, you ought not be driven by both. I look at omo Naija brought up by the Naija parent and I cry “fa fa fa foul! Iro  nla!!”. Omo Naija completely defies and violates the Shwartz model, not necessarily by choice but by parental decree and promulgation. You see, I could never have told my parents, neither do I expect my children to tell me of any plans of dropping out of secondary school to pursue any “non-professional” career or expression. The difference between I and my parents is that with my parents, you have to tow that professional path till death but magnanimous, modern 21st century me will allow my child express his/herself in anyway (s)he desires but first that child  must not only finish that university education but it also has to be in a potentially money making course too.

I run a quick mental check through my friends, I see poets and artistes who have no business working in banks, oil companies or being lawyers, I see family members that have been deemed crazy and discouraged from taking a path that would serve others but bring no prestige or wealth. I recall secondary school classmates considered “olodos” and lazy who excelled in sports, were forced to pursue “professional” career paths and are now wasting away. I look through the Nigerian entertainment industry, almost everyone in the industry is “university educated” and for those without a university education, it was not by choice or in a quest to express themselves, it is most likely as a result of circumstances that could not be helped. Talents that could have been harnessed and channeled at an early age wasting away, frustration gnawing at them as they forced to participate in the rat race.-------------- *static, press STOP, sober idealistic moment over, press REALITY CONTROL BUTTON*

C’est la vie, that doesn't mean I will not treat my children the same way, actually, I cannot say, but from where I stand today, the tradition continues. Call me draconian, call me archaic, call me dictatorial. I really cannot be bothered, my child must be a “professional” first, “first” being the operative word, (modern me will simultaneously encourage and harness the "other expressions" sha), after all my parents ensured I was a professional, their parents before them ensured same too. It is a family tradition that has to be passed on and more so, I am Naija! In the famous Obama words “You cannot put a lipstick on a pig.”  Once Naija, always Naija.