Daily Independent Online.
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Wednesday, July 07, 2004.
The FGGC, Bwari ordeal
It is disheartening to hear the reaction of the Minister of
Education, Prof Fabian Osuji, to the strange illness that is plaguing the
Federal Government Girls College, Bwari, Abuja.
According to reports, the minister had dismissed the
crippling illness as an examination fever, even when experts keep saying they
could not ascertain the direct cause of the sudden sickness that had threatened
to snuff life out of the affected students.
In one of the televised scenes, some teenage students had to
be assisted to get onto their hospital beds, with traces of suspected paralysis
of the limbs.
How then can one dismiss this as exam fever?
If our leaders care enough, they would have allowed medical
personnel to conduct a thorough research into what may be ailing the students,
with a view to finding a permanent solution to it.
It would be recalled that some years ago, in Briarcliff
Manor, New York, a strange disease that paralysed its victims just started
afflicting the people, young and old.
Initially, doctors could not lay their hands on what was
responsible. But with more victims that cut across all ages, pains-taking
researches were conducted by experts. These showed that the strange
paralysis-inducing sickness came about as a result of bite from ticks, the
minuscule pests found on deers that were rampant in the locality.,
According to reports, the strange disease, later termed Lyme
Disease, afflicted 71,000 Americans! We certainly do not have to wait to reach
this epidemic figure before something is done. What I am saying, in essence, is
that an insect or any such agent peculiar to the school's location might be
responsible for the strange Bwari affliction.
The Federal Government will do well, therefore to sponsor
scientific tests that will reveal the real reason for the illness, instead of
dismissing it as examination fever. After all, this is not the first time the
students will be writing exams, or is it?
• Adetoun Caleb,
Lagos
