Are Nigerian scientists aware that Covid-19 appears to be the flip side of malaria and that the solution to both of them is sitting right under our noses?

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) I am not surprised at the contents of these two maps. The malaria and Covid-19 maps are totally converse. It appears that the two ailments are actually avoiding each other

(2) One is a tropical disease, while the other is a temperate virus. There is very little overlap between them

(3) However, from what we know so far, anti-malaria drugs like Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have enjoyed some success against coronavirus

(4) Personally, I have always taken the view that the solution to Covid-19 is tropical. Both a vaccine and a cure lie out there somewhere in the tropics. One of our African plants contains the cure for coronavirus

(5) I am shocked that a team of Nigerian scientists are not trying everything from papaya seeds, to yam peelings, to cocoyam leaves, to cassava shoots, to neem bark, to kolanut coating, to plantain skin, etc. One of them contains the pharmaceutical remedy we are looking for

(6) If our native “Agbo” is 100% effective against malaria, it can be made 100% effective against coronavirus with the necessary adjustments once the legwork and research is put in

(7) Where are our virologists, pharmacists, microbiologists and biochemists, to lead the research on this? Nigerians have got to get out of this bad habit of waiting for the government to come up with ideas

(8) I cannot believe that no Nigerian scientist has put anything together and taken it to Governor Sanwoolu’ isolation hospital at Onikan to show the doctors and officials there

(9) My people are waiting for a drug to be manufactured in the West so they can buy. Hmmmm. Why waste all that foreign exchange enriching those pharmaceutical companies when you can be the one generating billions from the sale of the drug?

(10) Once more, our intellectual laziness is proving to be an albatross around our collective necks. As the world’s largest black nation, I believe Nigeria owes the world a cure for coronavirus. If I was Nigeria’s president, I would lock our top 100 scientists in a laboratory and not let them out until they come up with a cure