May 20, 2001
NEW YORK. Few weeks ago, when the New York African Film Festival wrapped up, one of the most talked about movies to emerge from the two-week fest was a Nigerian entry "Thunderbolt AIDS’’ by director Tunde Kelani.
For those who have not seen it, Thunderbolt examined the longtime divergent viewpoints between Western medicine and traditional remedies. In a nutshell, the movie was about a man who suspects his wife of cheating and inflicts her with "Magun" a disease that brings swift death to anyone who sleeps with her.
Then she herself dies, in a matter of weeks. The only problem is "Magun" is not detectible by doctors. Only herbalists know when one has been infected and they alone can cleanse one. This extraordinary film dealt with many things all at once and at least ended on a happy note. It’s only a movie all.
Soon after, I was quite pleased to hear that our commander-in-chief, Olusegun Obasanjo was in the Bush White House with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, asking for a financial commitment to deal with AIDS in Africa.
Finally, it appeared our globetrotting leader was recognizing that Nigeria could soon become the next nation to fall apart to AIDS.
George W. Bush, the oilman scion turned president, who probably could care less about Africa, did decide to commit $200 million to the epidemic, in the entire continent.
AIDS advocates here have told me that the sum is like using bottled water to try and combat a raging brushfire, and my president should not have the left the White House as happy as he was.
After his meeting he told reporters, "Now, he (Bush) knows my face so when I call on him he knows who I am." Or something to that effect.
One Nigerian woman who went to the sit-down said simply: "Obansanjo did not go there, begging oh! He was like a proud African man."
Obasanjo should have checked his enormous ego at the door and gotten on his knees if necessary and begged because in his own backyard, AIDS rages on silently. I mean from all indications he wants to be an African world leader.
Simply flying to the White House to give lip service to the AIDS issue is not going to cut it. AIDS in Africa is more than an epidemic. It is a war that has devastated Southern African nations and is making its across the continent to Nigeria and other West African nations.
Attitudes have to change fast. In Nigeria, we missed a boat when our beloved Afro-beat King, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti died of AIDS few years back. Such a high profile death to AIDS should have been a wake-up call. Sadly it was not.
Even in South Africa where President Thabo Mbeki, shocked the World with his outrageous comments that poverty causes AIDS, the country has managed to force Western pharmaceutical giants to make their life saving cocktails available at low cost prices.
Was Obasanjo so fascinated with the Rose Garden and Oval office that he did not get attempt to secure a commitment like medicine for Nigeria rather than a vague lump sum for all of Africa?
Or does he think herbalists who cure Magun will be able to handle the scourge as it hits harder and harder in our towns and cities. Perhaps, the president believes in the doctor just steps away from him in Aso Rock who claims to have cured many.
Secretary of State, Colin Powell said just days after the Obasanjo’s Washington trip that he was Africa bound and would assess the problems of AIDS there. He is making several stops. Guess which country is not included?
Here’s the fact. HIV infection may be deadly, but it can be aggressively controlled by powerful and aggressive anti-HIV drug cocktails.
In an era when poorer African nations are getting the life saving drugs, if not the cocktails, the single tablets that stop pregnant mothers from infecting their unborn, the giant of Africa should not be sleeping while people suffer and die in silence.
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