Dear Governor Abdulaziz Yari,
Your statements about the cause of the outbreak of Type C Neisseria Meningitides continue to confound us. You must know that we have spent a lot of time poring over them, combing them out for elements of sense and we are sure by now that there is none. Especially after the defensive one you released today. We are just confounded.
We are confused. Not just about how you became Governor over human beings who should look to you for governance and sensible direction at a time like this but how you can believe that by trying to appeal to the “Godly” sense of many Nigerians who compelely believe in the true supremacy of God and His ability to control every situation, you’ll wiggle out of your completely quotable misyarns that came from a deep and angry place within your belly.
We are just tired. But help you understand, we must. So we will.
It’s not that your fundamental reasoning is entirely off the mark. That God is the mover and shaker of all things is not a flawed way of seeing things – Pastor Sam Adeyemi can tell you that. He’ll probably however also be the first to tell you that it is not a good idea to just point fingers at the big G over any situation that has clear medical indications. Situations like meningitis.
[Catch up: “There is a controversy amongst Christians on #MentalHealth issues because we believe it is a Spiritual issue” – Pastor Sam Adeyemi]
We will tell you all about meningitis but there is nothing we can say again that we haven’t already explained in this dummies’ guide to understanding the epidemic. Hopefully, you’ll take time to read and understand.
However, more pressing and directly imperative for you to know – considering the things you have already said – are these five simple facts we have identified:
1. There are many different types of meningitis.
Could be bacterial, viral, fungal, parasitic, amoebic and even more. You must understand that saying that “what we used to know as far as meningitis is concerned is the Type A virus” not only makes yousound medically ignorant (which is fine since no one has come to you for anti-retroviral treatments and hopefully they never will, lest you condemn them to hell). It actually clearly makes you seem historically ignorant. An unforgivable kind of ignorance for a Governor of your calibre.
You see, those vaccines that were administered by the World Health Organisation, health authorities in Nigeria and other developmental partners against Type A Neissseria Meningitides could have only prevented that type of meningitis and only to a 94% degree at that. A different type of bacteria caused this one and that vaccine could not have prvented it.
2. It’s not through just kissing that the infection occurs.
The bacteria must have infected a person before he/she can transmit to another through kissing – or coughing and sneezing close to people; or using the same utensils, or eating contaminated food and all the many other transmission methods that have nothing to do with fornication. So take your mind out of the gutter quick.
3. People who are close to God and follow all commandments get sick too.
And we cannot even believe we have to tell you this. Or are you not the same man that explained away President Buhari’s sickness by saying: “looking at his age coupled with the heavy and huge task of running Nigeria, it is not surprising to know he is sick.”
4. Next time, when you have nothing to say, just do that: Don’t say anything!
And finally!
When you squarely blame God for situations like this, you end up sounding like these other crazy people! Even worse when you continue being adamant after you have been corrected.
Besides, you should know this too:
https://twitter.com/Gidimeister/status/849556376229732355
