₦airaland Forum

NIGERIA ADVANCES THE FIGHT AGAINST POLIO
                    BILL GATES
                    Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation



Northern India and northern Nigeria are two areas where polio continues to be a problem. I visited northern India in May this year to see the progress there. I was very excited to visit northern Nigeria in June, because the progress there since my last visit in February 2009 has been especially impressive. As of July 14th, only five cases due to wild polio viruses were reported in Nigeria this year, versus hundreds last year.

I spent most of my first day in Kano, one of the northern states most vulnerable to polio. I met with community leaders, visited a local health center and stopped in at an informal school where students study the Koran in Arabic. On the streets and most everywhere else we went, I noticed so many young children around. Nigeria has more people by far than any other African country, and more than 40 percent of them are under the age of 15. That makes polio immunization a big challenge. Kano had just begun a campaign to immunize more than 6 million children under the age of five.

Part of the challenge is overcoming fear and suspicion. In Kano in the past, false rumors linked immunization to sterility and HIV. Community leaders told me that because polio vaccine is free and brought to people in their homes, some people think there must be something wrong with it. Community leaders play a critically important role in helping to overcome mistrust, and a big focus of anti-polio efforts is on informing these leaders and enlisting their support.

Another ironic thing I noticed was that because polio cases have been dramatically reduced, it's more difficult to know whether local immunization campaigns are reaching everyone they need to reach, particularly sub-populations that may be more at risk. Without many actual cases, you have to rely on other ways of monitoring immunization rates, and the different measures are sometimes quite inconsistent. I think we need to look at how to help get more reliable data to guide our efforts and ensure they're effective.

Also of concern is the risk that progress against polio in Kano might be undermined by the virus filtering back in from neighboring countries and other parts of northern Nigeria. Increasingly, the problem needs to be approached on a regional basis.

The school we visited was very interesting. It didn't really look like a school. There were no classrooms, just children sitting on the street, against a wall or under a tree, holding slates with Arabic script written on them. I asked one of the boys to recite the lesson from his slate, and he did.

That night in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, I had dinner with government officials including the Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu. It was interesting to learn about some of the creative approaches being used to inform Nigerians about the importance of immunization. Pro-immunization messages are being embedded in the plotlines of popular TV entertainment programs, for example. One of Nigeria's largest mobile phone service providers has agreed to send out about 25 million free text messages on polio and health.

The next day I had a number of meetings including a session with several state governors and one with Nigeria's new President, Goodluck Jonathan. Commitment from Nigeria's leaders has been crucial in advancing the nation's fight against polio.

A recurring theme I picked up from the people I talked to was the importance of using what we've learned and accomplished in the drive against polio to fight other illnesses such as infant diarrhea, respiratory ailments and malaria. I do believe that polio eradication helps strengthen routine immunization, which has the potential to save the lives of large numbers of children.

Wherever I go, I always find that saving children's lives is a universal concern. I was very impressed with Nigeria's progress against polio. I tried to encourage everyone to not let up.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-gates/nigeria-advances-the-figh_b_659749.html

My opinion: I remember a few years ago when some Muslim leaders decided that the polio vaccines were some plot by Americans to damage their young people and forbade that the vaccines be administered. Hundreds of kids fell victims to that illness, worse yet it spread even to Ghana where polio had been previously eradicated. Glad to see those Muslim leaders have been educated.

Maple:
Our teacher na oyinbo!!!

Olupese says he will provide for u.

This is not the way forward. I'd much rather have seen the bigwigs in Nolyhood hold a press conference highlighting Ghana's position and says we are not going to follow that path, as it would not advance the industry in the region. Hey, may be I'm being naive.

abhosts:
Those White farmers where virtually the ones that powered the agricultural sector in Zimbabwe but Mogabe drove them out in the name of Land Redistribution. Now who is paying the price?

Zimbabwe was once known as the "bread basket"  of Southern Africa because it could produce enough food not only to feed herself but to export throughout the region. Those white farmers where the main reason for that success. These guys are very efficient at what they do. Inviting these farmers to settle in Kwara state is one the few things that can go on the credit ledger of Obasenjo.

5p1naz:
so far they have playd well, US shudnt b a problm

ha,ha! this is what's called "whistling past the graveyard."

Is bleaching big in Nigeria? The way it is in India?
In India those people are truly sick in the head. Companies
that trade in that stuff are making a fortune.

Lately,

A big butt, and a smile.

That's not what has always motivated me.
I'm sure something else will in the future.
But for now, yeah, that's it.

Justcash:
Tell that individual that he/she is a full blooded Nigerian, both by right and birth. The only difference is that the place of birth confers another citizenship to him/her.

My guess is culturally she will be American. Add to the fact that she was born here in America, that makes her American. I was born and raised in America, and no one is saying anything about me a full blooded Upper Voltan (sorry I prefer Upper Volta to Burkima Faso). At the end of it all, you are what you feel like: If she feels she's American, then that's what she is.

Jaylone:
Why on earth should the award take place in NY? While trying to celebrate 50 anniversary. This country will never move forward with the kind of attitude. Think of it America holding the AMA in Lagos

I'm glad it's being held in NYC. I want to attend the ceremony and holla at some Nigerian babes. I've never dated a Nigerian. Main reason is, I have no idea where to go and meet one. I know there's a small community of Nigerians in the Bronx, but I really don't go to that place.

Akwasi:
Could someone please convert the amount to dollars for me?

17,000 / 150 = 133 US Dollars.

  @Ikengawo
"in NY i blew almost 40 dollars a day easily on public transport. you're better off having you own car, and yeah i heard they pay tax now in nigeria to. it's a great thing and im happy for the country but its no where near US tax and we both know this."

Dude, stop lying. Only the well off are spending 40 US dollars or N 6000  on transportation everyday.  Even if you live in the farthest part of Long Island, you can easily get a monthly pass for 392 US dollars or N 58800; if you live in NYC, a weekly pass will only set you back 27 dollars or N 4050.  As for the other nonsense that you've been spewing, people on minimum wage usually will find other jobs to supplement their income if they're adults. You get help from the government and plenty of non profit organizations.  What I'll say is that it's not fun to be at the bottom in any society. But, making minimum wage in America is not really comparable to making minimum wage in Nigeria.

I think it's cool, going to school by canoe.  Of course, had the craft looked a little cleaner, and the kids better dressed, that would have made all the difference.  As a kid, I would have killed for that mode of transportation to school. You bring in your little snacks, enjoy the cool marine breeze while chatting up girls. That situation in my opinion is a lot  less stressful than being on some bus with a bunch of noisy little prats.

pc guru:
Point of Correction N900 will accomodate the new Meego which is far better than maemo after all Meego is Pure Qt native Code also maemo is not obsolete Maemo too is based on Qt read before posting wrong information, after all both Maemo and meego are linux so adapting the later is not biggie.

N900 is is being used as set of reference to develop meego.
My reaction might have been exxagerated, but c'mon.
How long did it take NOKIA to put out pr 1.2?

Early adapters usually get what they deserve, oftentimes the thrill of being involved with things that very few have experienced, and at other times with stuff that becomes irrelevant very quickly. There is anger over this Nokia snafu as a lot of so called "geeks" feel it's the latest betrayal from Nokia. What you have to keep in
mind is that a lot of those same people who have been working to evolve the maemo os have already migrated to meemo. Therefore the chance of this device ever seeing its full potential is nil. Well, I'm on with the Android crowd now--but like hundreds and thousands of others, I'm still sore about the lack of vision by that company's
management.

[quote author=[n3rve]link=topic=469253.msg6313203#msg6313203 date=1277975249]
I don't see why that's a shame? Maemo (a Linux based mobile phone operating system develeped by Nokia), and Moblin (a Linux based mobile device operating system developed by Intel) are two companies with similar objectives, the two companies decided to merge forces to form a new system called MeeGo. MeeGo will have a larger scope than the original two systems. It is intended to support multiple hardware platforms, and run a variety of devices, including netbooks, tablet PCs, smart phones, TV sets, and vehicle entertainment systems. It's only logical that they drop support for Maemo, so that's more of good news

zdnet.co.uk/news/mobile-working/2010/02/15/maemo-and-moblin-combine-into-meego-40041774/

-[n3rve][/quote]How about those people who spent their hard earned money on an expensive device (n900) and then to be basically told a few months later that your device is obsolete? There was hope when the N900 first came out that it would compatible with the meego os--used in a dual boot system--but then NOKIA came out and said no deuce. Basically Nokia is not even promising further updates for the Maemo os or firmwares for the n900; that's why I said it was a shame.

Azanor:
The N900 doesn't have a considerable price, no matter where you go

The price for the N900 just dropped to 425 US dollars here in America. I was going to get it but NOkia has decided not to actively support the maemo OS; they're pushing symbian 4 and meego. That's a shame though.

XKZ:
Despite what the BlackBerry has or what it doesn't have, it does what it does and does that very well. And this is why the BlackBerry is the leading smartphone worldwide in terms of market share.
So yes the HTC Incredible was, and now the iPhone4 is the most technologically advanced phone, but it is the BlackBerry that is recommended by the various National Security Agencies and Private Corporations. It is reliable and secure enough for their national and corporate secrets (and yes Obama uses one).
And so until one of your favorites overtakes BB, it isn't a phone to be dismissed off-hand (although I'll admit RIM has some serious work to do to ensure all your toys stay down were they belong).

Nokia has 40 percent share of the world's smart phones, with Blackberry rim at about 20 percent. But guess what? Their era of dominance is about over. Their big advantage came from corporations who would by phones by the thousands, but now normal people are buying smartphones and these two and their crappy os's don't really excite people. 2011 will be interesting in that there will be a shift in momentum. But who among those will seize it? Windows 7 phones, Bada os, Will Nokia's meego have some killer devices, what about the evolution of Android? Can't wait.

The feeling that Fashola is the best governor seems unanimous. I took it upon myself to go check out the website of the governor of Lagos.   http://www.tundefashola.com/.  The guy is quite eloquent, and has some very interesting ideas. I hope there are more like him in the pipeline.

malone5923:
@Vquest. I've been screaming Samsung Galaxy S but just like you nobody here noticed my post.
@Tex. What are the major changes in the new IP OS compared to the OS on 3GS? What do you have to say about the 'the right way to hold an Iphone 4'? I might get a 3GS soon but I wanna know if IP 4 is worth the wait and extra money. Even if I'm a Nokia fanboy I wanna try out a new OS like the android or IP OS.

I agree about the Samsung Galaxy I heard that super AMOLED 4 inch screeen is a total joy to look at. The touch sensors on top of the Amoled screen is a great idea as far as touch sensitivity goes. Because of that and other innovations, it's definitely top 10. Now, I'm just gonna sit tight and wait for the first 4.7 inches screen smartphone.

malone5923:
"child's doddle, " harsh words from someone who only saw a low quality pic of the menu, the menu!

Fine we'll just agree to disagree. The phone will be out soon enough. But if you think The UI will
be revolutionary, you're sadly mistaken. This is coming from somebody who still has an N95 8gb
as a second phone. I'm not bashing NOKIA, but the company kind of rested on its laurel, and Google
and Apple rushed right by.

malone5923:
@Vquest. Symbian ^3 is not even out yet and you already scored it. Let me guess, a guy from the future sent you a detailed spec, right?
@Davenet. You might want to take a look at the topic name and this time read it slowly.
Is Samsung Galaxy S a smartphone?

Why do you think Nokia is so hard at work on symbian ^4 and most particularly meego?
The s^3 is better than the OS now but still is not even troubling to Android or Iphone.
As for the hardware of that phone it's awesome. But the Os and the UI-- Meh! The UI on
this phone is like child's doodle compared to the HTC sense UI.

People in the blogoshphere have already gotten their hands on the N8. Here's just one review:

[url=http://www.mobile-review.com/review/nokia-n8-secondlook-en.shtml ]http://www.mobile-review.com/review/nokia-n8-secondlook-en.shtml   [/url]

Azanor:
Do we always have to bring this "I hate Blackberry vs I love Blackberry" arguments to every thread that the Phone is mentioned in? It's becoming a little tiring to open a topic and once a person mentions that he loves blackberry another comes up with a contrary opinion and we start all over again. It's like some people search Nairaland for any thread mentioning Blackberry and just comment on all of them. Even me that I don't like them, I'm beginning to pity them.

Anyways, my top ten smartphones for 2010 (both released and unreleased) are in no particular order:
1.     Nokia N8
2.     Motorola Droid X
3.     Dell Streak
4.     Dell Lightning
5.     HTC Incredible
6.     HTC EVO 4G
7.     Nokia N900
8.     Google Nexus One
9.     Nokia E72
10.   iPhone 4 (grudgingly qualifies)

nice list. But the n8 cannot be top because that new OS symbian^3 is mediocre, and the UI is as crappy as the n97's.  Those dell phones look good as heck. But the Evo has to be on top for me. Evo has 1gz processor, the 4.3 inch screen, and not a bad music player.

I like the football that Ghana plays but they lack realism.
On the other hand while the Yanks football may not be
as pretty, it's more concrete as their six goals (two unjustly
annuled) can bear witness. The Yanks in with a shout.

Vquest:
that 300 million # should be relevant to only a few hundred people, once every 10 years, and that is those dopey censors who give us an estimate of how many souls are in the country. But if you like numbers, I'll couch my argument in some of these.
The 17 million taken by itself, makes no sense. You have to contrast it against numbers of the well established sports in the country.
1) The NBA finals that just ended, averaged 18.2 million people per game--the games were at night (viewer rich time) vs The England USA match (17 million) played during the day
2)The Baseball final games averaged 19 million people per game--again the so called national past time did not really crush the soccer viewing there.

I laugh at people who have a snapshot of America and think they know what this country is all about. This is a country that is very fractured, there's no consensus basically anywhere. And that also extends to sports.

As for the licensed players, there are a lot semi pro leagues. And the license is a legal document that protects both the player and whoever is funding the league.

As for the ticket thing, are you kidding me?
FIFA had already allocated 10 thousand tickets for USA and that's it. You have to be a die hard and also well off, to be betting that you would be the one chosen, and only with a couple of months notice? and fly all the way to S AFrica.?

thanks, man. I'm just glad the argument didn't devolve into name calling.
Just to emphasize how fractured the scene is when it comes sports viewing:
There are some states here in America(Alabama, Nebraska, ect.) where it's all
about university football (american football). Where 30,000+ fans would
travel to another state to watch their beloved teams. (you should see them forming
this long trail on the highway in their trailers, vans, pickup trucks.scary)
You never see that kind of fanaticism for professional sports.

Sagamite:
As Shania Twain said: "That don't impress me much".

17m out of a population of 300m for a huge game is not impressive.

That does not even cover for the adult Latinos and non-white immigrants that are into football.

40,000 application from a nation of 300m and some of the richest on average is not impressive. How many would order for tickets if LA Lakers vs Boston Celtics are playing each other in Kazakhstan? I suspect it would be close to 100k.

What are licensed soccer players? I can only assume those I played football with under Gbagada bridge would not be bothered to be licensed, that does not mean they are not keem on football.

that 300 million # should be relevant to only a few hundred people, once every 10 years, and that is those dopey censors who give us an estimate of how many souls are in the country. But if you like numbers, I'll couch my argument in some of these.
The 17 million taken by itself, makes no sense. You have to contrast it against numbers of the well established sports in the country.
1) The NBA finals that just ended, averaged 18.2 million people per game--the games were at night (viewer rich time) vs The England USA match (17 million) played during the day
2)The Baseball final games averaged 19 million people per game--again the so called national past time did not really crush the soccer viewing there.

I laugh at people who have a snapshot of America and think they know what this country is all about. This is a country that is very fractured, there's no consensus basically anywhere. And that also extends to sports.

As for the licensed players, there are a lot semi pro leagues. And the license is a legal document that protects both the player and whoever is funding the league.

As for the ticket thing, are you kidding me?
FIFA had already allocated 10 thousand tickets for USA and that's it. You have to be a die hard and also well off, to be betting that you would be the one chosen, and only with a couple of months notice? and fly all the way to S AFrica.?

RuuDie:
Must be like an average of 5000 yanks in every US game thus far. . . . wonder why the general perception that the US public don't really give a hoot about the WC!?

I know, people are either ignorant about soccer in America or want to slight our position in the game just from pure hatred. Let me remind them of a few things:

1.the most successful World Cup ever was held in the United States in '94
2. More than 17 million people watched the England USA  match on TV. These numbers will probably increase if the US make it to the round of 16
3.FIFA received more than 40,000 application requests for wc tickets out of the US. that's twice as much as any other country.
4. There are more licensed soccer players in the US than any other country in the word.

finally I'd like to say. GO USA. BEAT ALGERIA. WIN THE GROUP.[size=8pt][/size]

otokx:
Shame on Africa; they should go and find out from the South Americans how they play so well.

My guess is, whatever corruption there is in those south American countries they keep it
out of Football. Or, at the very least, football has a limited exposure to it. Can't say the same
about the African countries.

honeric01:
Yes we do, maybe with the help of FIFA stopping us from firing any coach that qualify us for the worldcup.

A coach who is fit enough to qualify a country to the worldcup is fit enough to lead them to the worldcup.

I have no idea where this great love for Amodu is coming from. The guy is a mediocre coach.
Besides we all know that Nigeria's problem goes beyond coaching.

As for deserving the five spots, I'm almost certain Fifa is going to revisit this whole thing.
There's a good chance the six teams between them will have produced only 1 victory. Embarrassing.

The simple and logical answer to this question is no.
  The continent had six teams this time, and zero made it to the 2nd round.
  Contrast that appalling performance with that of the
  Concacaf group with 3 teams sent and 2 standing a
   pretty good chance of winning their group b(Mexico, USA).
  Do you guys think Fiffa would be in the right to take away one
   spot from the continent and give it to the Concacaf region?

If Ghana cannot win against 10 man Australia, that means AFrican football is pretty much useless.
FiFa should look to take away a spot from them and give it to the Concacaf region.

buzugee:
you are talking out of your azz. if anything the refree was making calls against slovenia all night. i thought he was an american plant after a while

buzugee:
shut your uncle tom-white man butt licking azz up. when all the white refrees were making bad calls against all african teams were you this vocal ?

Your ignorance, sir, is Kaita-like. Did you read my profile? Not every body on this site is Nigerian, or even Black for that matter.  This ref, just like the
one who officiated the Germany Serbia game, has no business officiating a professional game, let alone one at this stage.

Fifa needs to stop with that quota nonsense.

 That was one of the best referees from the African region?

  The guy was totally incompetent.

  There are some seriously qualified referees out there at home watching
  this butchering of the game. Enough.