By Christian Tom esq
Very many Nigerians have been caught in the
discussional web of the president’s health status in recent time. The
social media have been inundated daily with series of debates as to the
president’s Fitness to continue piloting the affairs of its troubled and
ladened one hundred and twenty million and over citizens.
Before I retired to my rest room the previous night, I had read the
articulations of many learned authors on this issue objectively like a
judge in a non-election petition case going through the pleadings and
brief of counsel with a view to drawing an unbiased conclusion.
Even in my dream, I recalled still asking the question “lord why is
Nigerian always thrown into political murky waters often and often? But I
woke up with no positive reply. Still concerned, troubled and
inquisitive, I logged into Facebook and I noticed with keen interest a
post by one Abdul Aziz Nyako with the tittle “Mohammadu Buhari-The human
being”.
As a hungry factory worker served with his choice meal, I
hurriedly devoured the piece over and over again. That author in an
attempt at drawing sympathy to the ailing president lifted up the veil
of a strong man, army general, politician and president of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria from Mr. Mohammadu Buhari to reveal an old stressed
up and sick man who is traumatized, languishing in pains, yelling and
yearning for survival.
In his words, “…today I tried to look at
Mohammadu Buhari with the following questions on my mind, what if he
were my father and in this condition, how could I have felt, what if he
were my brother, uncle, grandfather or friend...what would I have felt.
These questions made me reflect deeply and empathies with him. They made
me feel sympathy for him, his family, friends and associates.[sisc]
I did not finish reading the piece when unconsciously tears started
rolling down my cheeks but for the intervention of my little boy who
came cuddling and extending me a tiny piece of clothing to whip my tears
with. By the lad’s show of love and affection, the essence of family
was again rekindled in my mind which caused me to have serious pity and
compassion on the children and grandchildren of President Mohammadu
Buhari whose utmost interest are doomed by the nefarious activities and
political bigotry flowing from the pecuniary interest of the cabals.
I was caught in a deep thought and sincere concern for Mr President.
“How I wish I were a medical doctor, maybe I would have dedicated myself
and service towards finding solution to the ailment of Mr. President”
that was my first thought or probably, if I were financially buoyant in
the ranks of Otedolas, Adenugas, Akpabios et al, I would have been armed
with the needed resources to contact, consult and mobilize Doctor Ben
Carson to assemble the best medical team in the world ever to come to
the rescue of our dear president. Yet, my financial muscles failed me
and I was reminded of the aphorism: “If wishes were horses, beggars too
would rode”.
Again I took a second appraisal of Mr. Abdul Nyako’s
post and the succeeding comments. They only settled at mere wishes
without proffering any positive direction, could it be an oversight on
the path of the author to deliberately settle for fate, or was he timid
to say the much dreaded truth? I questioned myself.
Even if the
later reason afforded that author, it will not avail myself, as some
time ago while serving my father land in a faraway Sokoto State, my dear
friends and colleagues -Mr Faruk Yunusa, Frederick Ayotunde and Mr.
Chibuike Okparagu at Umaru Skinkafi Polytechnic had complimentarily told
me “Christian you speak too much truth than necessary in our present
world” they stated. I recalled the response I uttered: “I believe in the
power of truth and justice as a tool for influencing the world”. We all
laughed over it on a bottle of Kunugyida.
Guided by the
admonition of our lord Jesus Christ when he stated that whoever hide the
fault of others God will hide his fault on the Day of Judgment and
whosoever removes the worldly difficulty of his brother, God will remove
his difficulty in the Day of Judgment.
On the strength of the
above stated instruction, I proceed to champion the removal of the
worldly difficulty of our dear president by suggesting his immediate
resignation. This is the only way of reducing his stress and saving him
from himself.
It has repeatedly been said that when organic
causes of illness are unknown, it is tempting to invent psychological
explanation. This is not the case of our president. It is evident that
stress is the remote cause of Mr. President’s ill health and he needs to
rest.
A Canadian scientist Han Selye (1936-1976) in his General
Adaptation syndrome (Gas) theory stated and categorized stress in three
states –Alarm, Resistance and exhaustion. To buttress this point let’s
take this analogy.
Lets say one suffers a physical, environmental
or emotional trauma, in the first phase, the person experience an alarm
reaction due to the sudden activation of the sympathetic nervous
system, the heart rate zooms. Blood is diverted to the skeletal muscle.
There is a feeling of faintness of shock with the resources mobilized;
one is now ready to fight the challenge during the second phase,
resistance. The temperature, blood pressure and respiration remain high.
There is a sudden outpouring of hormones. If persistent, as in the
Nigerian case where the country is littered with stressors, the stress
may eventually deplete the body’s reserves during the third phase,
exhaustion. With exhaustion, one is more vulnerable to illness or even,
in extreme cases, collapse and death.
Pathetically, this is the unfortunate situation that the president is bedeviled with daily.
Stressors are unavoidable, the fact coupled with the growing awareness
that recurring stress correlate with heart disease lowered immunity and
other bodily ailments gives us a clear message. If we cannot eliminate
stress by changing or ignoring a situation. We had best learn to manage
it by confronting or escaping the problem and taking steps to prevent
its occurrence.
The kitchen cabinet owes Mr. President a moral
obligation to protect his interest and in this instance the interest to
stay alive supersedes every other interest. His beneficiaries should
know that Mr. President’s grandchildren will not forgive them if they
are deprived by the cabals for selfish purposes, their grandfather who
would have taken them to cinemas, tell them the Nigerian Civil War
stories and his gallant adventures and experiences to motivate them to
success in their respective endeavors.
Nobody loves Mr. President
more than myself but I am constrained to shield my interest in the wake
of superseding family interest.
God bless Nigeria.
Christian Tom is a legal practitioner based in Akwa Ibom state. Could be reached on christiantom57@gmail.com
+2348063496406.
