By Chimezie Godfrey
A retired Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG. Mohammed Katsina (Rtd) has urged government and all stakeholders to give priority to measures that will roll back malaria and other infectious diseases in the country.
DIG Katsina who is the Chairman/CEO of Musharak Esteem Nigeria Ltd gave the advice during an interview with Newsdiaryonline correspondent.
He decried the fact that so much resources have been lavished on the acquisition of mosquito nets, treatment of malaria and other infectious diseases instead of tackling the root causes of these diseases.
According to him, government should fumigate and decontaminate places of public health importance which will eliminate mosquitoes and prevent citizens from malaria infections.
He added that this strategy will be cheaper than the enormous expenditure on mosquito nets and the treatment of malaria by the government and citizens as well.
He said,”The presence of mosquitoes is a menace to the society. Basically there are two things in cleaning an area: cleaning and decontamination.
“Yes, when we talk of decontamination, we are talking about it because we have a pandemic at hand if not what we should do is disinfestation.
“Disinfestation comes after infestation which means something that is not needed in a place (pest). So when you disinfect it is expected that you live up to expectations. That is why the medical doctors abroad live up to expectations because there is no room for them in treatment of malaria.
“Here in Nigeria when you fall sick you get malaria treatment, you get mosquitoe nets. But we forget that when a person needs to ease himself at night it would require him to move from the mosquito net to the bathroom thereby attracting mosquito bite which apparently means what we have been trying to avoid has happened. But imagine if there was no mosquitoes at all, what business would he have with malaria!
“Automatically disinfestation takes food away from people’s mouth. The pharmacies will go without selling malaria drugs because there will be no malaria, because there will be disinfestation.
“We keep rolling back malaria, why don’t we roll back mosquitoes so that we don’t have it all.
“What it takes is to tell, let’s say the residents of Garki, Maitama, Asokoro to stay indoors so that disinfestation routine against mosquitoes can take place. If this is done continuously for six months, there is no way mosquitoes would be found in the areas disinfested, not even malaria, its drugs, nor manufacturing of its drugs.
“India would not bring their malaria drugs. It also means that if there are abattoirs within the areas disinfested the abattoirs would be free from contaminants within the six months of disinfestation.
“Mosquitos thrive between 6:15pm to 8:45pm, but we roll out our mosquito nets by 11:00pm. This is the psyche they have put in us. Nobody wants to give priority to pest control, but there’s utmost priority for the latest malaria drugs.”
On the possibility of applying the idea of rolling back mosquitoes on rolling back coronavirus, the Musharak Esteem CEO said that it is possible if surfaces that have the virus are decontaminated.
He stressed that this strategy can be used to roll back the COVID-19 pandemic instead of investing so much resources on the vaccine.
He said,”Yes we can roll back Covid-19 and that is what we are doing. Decontamination of surfaces: for example, if you decontaminate a surface that has COVID on it, you have automatically rolled back COVID-19 from that area.
“Also when you go to parks, there are drivers who use one face mask for one month and they continue to use it forgetting it could be contaminated.
“In Interstate transportation, you hardly find all passengers wearing their masks, as a result they become carriers of Covid-19 but if the vehicles are decontaminated routinely it would roll back COVID-19 and mosquitoes in the parks.
“For the abattoirs, the health implications of not taking cognizance of these and not applying them is the cause of the problems we’re facing.
“We also talked about newly completed buildings. These buildings are newly completed, like the mass housing estates.
“You always see the VIPs going to cut the tape, declare it open and he is taken round but we don’t know the number of people that have visited that place before and after the opening of the house. So if these places are not decontaminated, by the time you give keys to individuals do you know the cummulative catalogue of the bacteria, and other viruses that people would be exposed to?
“So what we are saying is that if we carry out these activities then the viruses would reduce to the bearest minimum.
“Like the vaccine, nobody has asked whether when it is administered we would not wear face mask anymore, practice social distancing anymore, whether we can now cough in public. So these are some of the basic problems we have so we need to start from the grassroots.
“During last year’s lockdown there was no interstate movement because the authorities know that transportation is the major carrier of the viruse which means if we take care of the viruses we could move freely.”
DIG Katsina advised the government and healthcare providers to rather focus on preventing the citizens from getting sick which will be cheaper, instead of spending so much on their treatment.
“When you travel to the UK and India you don’t go with mosquitoes nets because they do not have mosquitoes but you must get packets of malaria drugs because if you fall ill there they will be surprised.
“But here in Nigeria, we have every type of malaria drugs all over the place, whereby some of them are not even good.
“If you see the budget for a local government for malaria drug and the budget for free malaria drugs for pregnant women in hospitals, you will marvel.
“In fact one percent of the money used for malaria drug budget in a local government is enough to take care of mosquitoes in that local government instead of taking care of malaria drugs.
“I will advice the government to speak with the pharmacists and the doctors the importance of this, which they already know. There is no need to let the citizens get sick before they get treated when you can prevent them from getting sick in the first place.
“So the governmet across all tiers can take decontamination seriously by calling expert companies, engaging them for decontamination against several contaminants for example decontamination against rodents to prevent Laser Fever, and against virus for COVID-19,” he advised.
The el0der statesman stressed that taking care of places of public health importance will assist in curbing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to the other preventive protocols including the vaccine.
According to him, this can be achieved through the decontamination of motor parks, commercial vehicles, especially those engaged in inter-state movement, markets, abbateouirs, places of worship, among others.
He urged the FCT administration and government across the federation to encourage the decontamination of places of public health importance.
The Musharak Esteem, Chairman, also encouraged citizens to take responsibility by fumigating and decontaminating their environments and not to wait on the government for everything.
Newsdiaryonline recalls that Musharak Esteem Nigeria Ltd recently commenced the nationwide fumigation and decontamination of all police schools, which started with the POWA International School, Area 11 Garki, Abuja.
It also kick-started the fumigation and decontamination of motor parks, commercial vehicles and abbateouirs as part of its corporate social responsibility to the society.
Musharak Esteem Nig. Ltd is a multi-purpose private Limited Company, incorporated in 2019 that renders high quality services to prospective clients and customers within the country and other parts of the world.
Its mandate includes Real Estate Management and Development, Quantity Survey and Estate Valuing, Engineering, Manufacturers’ representatives, Borehole Drilling, Consultancy, Architectural Designs, Import/Export, Training, Bakery, Oil & Gas, General Contract and Supplies, Fumigation (decontamination, deratting, pest and vector control etc.)
The company was birthed by Baby Rahama Farm Nig. Ltd which was established in 1998 at Kilometer 74, Abuja-Kaduna express way.
It was founded by DIG Muhammad Musa Katsina (NPM,PSC+, mni rtd),a Police Officer who saw the need to not only ensure food sufficiency in the country but also to provide employment to the teeming youths. This veritable venture has recorded tremendous success in feeding the nation.
For more than two decades of unbroken romance with Nigerian taste, the management of Baby Rahama Farms Nig. Ltd has always ensured that their products are nurtured in hygienically tailored environment that guarantees food security to their teeming clients. This uncommon feat has recorded exceptional success over the years.
