WHO treats Madagascar like Biafra

Malnutrition killed more Biafrans than bombs and bullets during the Civil War until some paediatricians led by Theodore Chukwunyere Okeahialam, Winifred Kaine and Aaron Ifegbuni came out with what became known as the  Kwashiorkor Mixture in 1968. It was a formula made by Africans with no foreign contribution and quoted in medical journals outside the continent.

The World Health Organisation [WHO] later adopted the formula and gave it a different name. That is exactly what the world body wants to do with the coronavirus cure, Covid-Organics, facilitated by the Madagascar Institute of Applied Research [MIAR].

During the Nigerian Civil War, WHO sat idle in Geneva while millions of Biafran children starved to death due to blockade by the Federal Government. All air and sea routes were taken over by Lagos leaving Col. Emeka Ojukwu and his war commanders helpless in the bid to stem  what they regarded as aggression. Biafran doctors  and engineers found a way out of the mess.

Okeahialam, from Otulu, Ahaira-Mbaise who is now a retired professor of Paediatrics said :”We discovered that if you add crayfish to certain leaves, you could increase protein intake and that was what we used in treating children. We used crayfish or dried fish, ground it to powder, mixed it with milk, oil and some other chemicals and came out with what I called kwashiorkor mixture. We administered the mixture to these hapless children through gastric tubes, especially those that came in very ill”

Treating the children was one step forward but Nigerian Air Force fighter jets, piloted majorly by Egyptian pilots targeted the sickbays were the weak were kept and bombed life out of many of them. The Biafran engineers found a way out. In less than three months, three new airports were constructed at Uli, Uga and Obilagu. The brain behind this was Engineer Clement Chukwukadibia Onyemelukwe, from Nanka.

Uli Airport started taking in relief supplies after Swedish philanthropist, Count Gustaf von Rosen, made the risky inaugural flight in August 1968 from Sao Tome. The Airport, better known as Anabelle became the second busiest in Africa. Dare devil pilots risked their lives as Nigerian bombers kept vigil. It was sheer ingenuity that  flights touched down and goods were evacuated under the cover of darkness.

There was nothing from WHO to save the suffering children of Biafra. It was  left to such agencies as Caritas, Oxfam, World Council of Churches [WCC], Save the Children Fund, Irish Catholic Fathers and Joint Church Aid [JCA] to show support. JCA chartered relief flights and named them Jesus Christ Airlines. Many volunteers moved into Biafra on some of these flights.