How NOT to prepare for a protest (and more about how the Occupy Nigeria protest went)

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Good Naija Girl

Get home from your parents’ house at almost 2:00 in the morning.

Remember that you don’t have a placard. Also remember you meant to buy bristol board but didn’t.

Go to the kitchen to warm up your homemade pot of turkey soup so that it doesn’t spoil. Notice that you have a shallow cardboard box. Bring your find to the living room.

Cut off the sides of the box.

Think about the message you want to write on your placard.

Examine your Sharpie collection.

Think about the message you want to write on your placard.

Officially become the last person alive to discover Shirley Eniang‘s YouTube channel. Watch several videos.

Think about the message you want to write on your placard.

Pick a message that will fit on the placard.

Plan spacing of message. Plan poorly, requiring a restart.

Complete your message.

Head up to bed around 4:20, but not before realizing that the word “Nigeria” does not appear on your placard.

The above isn’t meant to take away from the seriousness of the Occupy Nigeria cause and the hardships that people are facing.

Here’s how today’s event went:

My plan was to go for a few hours as I was going to work later in the day. I went to bed too late to get to the Hi.gh Comm.ission (HC) for 10:00am and I didn’t arrive there until 11:30. I found a parking spot easily, in front of the police! I don’t know how these cops do it but they always seem to be prepared to manage protests. I guess people tip them off and they probably have people who do keyword searches for that sort of thing. I was still impressed.

I asked the police if they knew whether the protest was happening, because I was afraid that I could have missed it. They said as far as they knew the protest was happening, that it was the reason they were there. They also said the organizer of the protest was parked a few cars behind them. Because I was wary of joining a group of people that might have a different agenda other than appealing to the Nigerian gover.nment to end corruption and all that ails Nigeria, I decided to record a video of the HC. While I was recording, a guy I guessed was the organizer of the event came up to me and told me the protest would be starting in about 45 minutes, once a critical mass was reached. He named a number of people in our local community who would be joining the protest. He offered me one of their signs that was in his car but since I had made my own and didn’t want to inadvertently carry a sign that might be in support of a cause other than the main cause, I declined. He asked to see my sign and I showed him. About 30 minutes later he came to my car with the signs and another protester. They asked if I wanted to carry one of their signs. Since the signs were handwritten like mine and weren’t linked to any cause, I agreed to carry one in addition to my own. After a few minutes, another guy joined us. 15 minutes later, a close family friend and his daughter showed up and I love this guy: he asked what we were waiting for; and said we should go protest! The organizer said we should wait for more people but my family friend and his daughter grabbed two signs and went to stand in front of the HC, waving the signs. I grabbed my sign and the other sign, and ran to join the eager protesters, and the protest officially started about an hour after I got there. We chanted “Stop corruption, not subsidy!” and “Stop corruption…in Nigeria.” There were just six of us.

A few people tooted their car horns in support, and even those who didn’t show their support in that way tried to read our signs while they drove by, which is good. One elderly lady asked me questions about what we were protesting and you could tell she got it, saying that it’s the poor who suffer when subsidies are lifted.

Over the next 45 minutes we were joined by four people, two who were there to join the protest (one with a megaphone), and two who wanted to record the event for their own purposes (pardon my cynicism but when you’ve interacted with someone before you learn what they’re about. Hopefully I’m wrong though!). The guy who brought the megaphone kept saying the wrong thing, which was made worse by the fact that he had a megaphone. He was chanting “Stop corruption, stop subsidy!” until I reminded him that the subsidy was stopped already…we want them to bring it back! We passed the megaphone around and tried to create a peaceful commotion.

One guy had to leave, so we were down to seven protesters. After an hour and a half most of us had to leave: the family friend and his daughter had an appointment, another protester had to got to school, and I left for work. I heard a larger contingent was expected an hour from the time we left, but unfortunately I don’t know if that happened.

In all I don’t think we made an impact. The protest didn’t attract any local news stations and HC staff were not affected enough to look out their windows. Only those people who went into the HC for visa or passport issues seemed interested in peeking at us from inside the HC.

I’m glad I came out and chanted with all my heart because I really am thankful that I live in a country where I did not fear joining this protest, nor did I fear the police presence. I am thankful to live in a country where a member of the uninformed public would stop me to inquire, where drivers would honk their horns in support, even if they didn’t have a chance to digest what the cause actually was. The worst part about the protest was the temperatureâ€” -25 degrees Celcius is just too cold!

Aloted was kind enough to tell me that the strike was called off in Nigeria today, and maybe that’s why people in my city didn’t show up in large numbers. I learned the the price of fuel was lowered, from N141 to N97, but that is still significantly more than N65.

I’m not sure what will come next but for once in my life, I’ll be paying particular attention to what happens next on a political issue.

Sickle Cell Awareness Month

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Good Naija Girl

I just learned today that September is Sickle Cell Awareness Month, and I’m glad there is a time to focus on this disease and the work being done to eradicate it. I encourage you to read up on sickle cell anemia/sickle cell disease if you know nothing about it; a quick search on google will reveal a lot of sources of information. I also encourage you to donate to a local organization if you have the means. Any amount is helpful, and if you spend a couple of dollars on coffee, a new nail polish, or lunch out every day or every week, it’s easy to justify making a contribution. I know money is tight so I’m only asking those who know in their hearts they can spare $10, $30 or more. Like last year I chose The Sickle Cell Association of Ontario.

The only time I’ve written about sickle cell anemia was when I connected it to a question I was increasingly being asked while trying to meet a Good Naija Man. These potential husbands would ask me: “What’s your genotype?“, a strange question unless you were born and raised in Nigeria. At the time of that entry (March 2010) I did not know my genotype, though I knew my mom was AS. My view was that if it turned out I was AS, I would not let that stop me from marrying another AS and I received quite a few comments from people who disagreed with my view. It’s an emotionally charged topic: those who have had direct contact with people who are suffering with sickle cell anemia cannot understand how someone carrying the trait (genotype AS) would knowingly marry and risk getting pregnant with someone who has the same genotype.

I have not known anyone who has suffered from sickle cell disease, and the reading I have done on the treatment of the disease in North America has been encouraging, though I know that not everyone in the world has access to the available treatments. I now feel that if I was AS and was marrying another AS, we would have to meet with a genetic counselor to examine our options very carefully. I am not comfortable with some of the options out there, such as terminating a pregnancy that reveals the child has sickle cell anemia, but I know that a genetic counselor would give us a lot of food for thought. Also, when it comes to calculating the odds, one cannot forget the God factor either, and the whole experience would definitely be faith-testing.

I wrote an update on my original entry saying that I was AA, and I got tested again this year to make sure the first test was accurate. I encouraged my sister to take the test and she is AS. When she asked a few questions about what it means to be AS, her doctor referred her to a geneticist and she has received more information than she cared to know, including ethnic backgrounds she should think twice about getting involved with due to a thalassemia that is present among that race (I think it’s beta thalassemia, but I could be wrong…I hope the doctors among us will correct me!). I find the genetics side of things so interesting.

All of this to say that I applaud those who have the disease and are fighting it and keeping strong in the face of all it entails. I pray that we will see a cure in our lifetimes.

Updated to add: This entry by Ginger on Sickle Cell Anemia is a must read!

What’s your genotype?

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Good Naija Girl

When I used to think of what I’d want to know about my future spouse before marriage, it was things like if he wanted kids, if we shared similar religious beliefs, if he was an alcoholic or drug addict, if he had a history of infidelity or if he had any sexually transmitted diseases. Many Nigerians would add another thing to the aforementioned incomplete list though: whether their potential spouse has the sickle cell trait; that is, if they are AS. The question “What’s your genotype?” is about as foreign to me as being asked “Baby, what’s your sign?”…well, it used to be. Now I have been asked twice by prospective beaus.

Sickle cell disease is serious and anyone wanting more information about this can consult:

If you would like to donate to this cause, you can support Sickle Cell Ontario by donating here, or support the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, Inc. here. Give what you can; even if it’s just your coffee money!

For those unfamiliar with how sickle cell disease transfer from parent to child works (and those in the know, especially the doctors among us, please correct me if I get any of this wrong), if you are AA, you do not have the sickle cell trait or disease; you are completely healthy (as regards sickle cell disease). If you are AS you have the trait, which means you are a carrier of sickle cell disease. You generally show no signs of the disease but may have or develop some conditions as a result (though generally not sickle cell disease). If you are SS you have sickle cell disease.

So, if you know you’re a carrier, to give yourself the lowest chance of having a child who is also a carrier or a child who has sickle cell disease, it’s ideal to match yourself with someone who is AA as that nearly guarantees you won’t have children who have sickle cell disease. If you and your spouse are AS, there’s about a 25% chance that your offspring could have sickle cell disease, a 25% chance that your child could be AA, and a 50% chance that your offspring could be a carrier like you.

As far as I can tell, these are only odds. It doesn’t mean that if two AS parents have four children, two of them will definitely be AS. You sometimes hear that despite the odds of having a child with a certain condition, some families have multiple children with the same “rare” or “uncommon” condition.

I think the older generation cares more about the answer to the question asked in the title of this entry. One example is the pastor of a friend of mine who told her to make sure she finds out the genotype of a guy she was getting to know before things get more serious. Among the younger set, some don’t know their genotype and aren’t in a rush to find out, and don’t care about the genotype their significant other. I currently don’t know my genotype, but I will be requesting that it be checked in the blood test following my annual physical exam next month, along with my blood type (which I’m embarrassed to confess I don’t know either). I know it won’t affect who I decide to be with, but my potential future partner may feel differently.

I have some questions for you:

Does the genotype of your (future) spouse matter to you?
Have you ever ended a relationship or decided not to enter into a relationship due to genotype?
Have your parents or others tried to influence a budding relationship due to “incompatible” genotypes?

Please vote on the poll on the right regarding whether or not you know your genotype!