Jeremiah Abalaka
Whatever remains to be known about Dr Abalaka, as he is fondly called, is the manner Africa and Nigeria treat her professional local inventors especially those in the medical practice as against their foreigners counterparts. Abalaka, for instance, came to limelight around 1999 when HIV/AIDS pandemic was highly dreaded in the country. This Kogi state-born surgeon came up with a discovery that can reduce the HIV viral load in the body but had a running battle with the powers-that-be when he announced his breakthrough. His case became even worse by the fact that the Ministry of Health under Dr Tim Menakaya as minister which was supposed to give him all the needed supports became his worst critic. Abalaka, while speaking with the press said, “The point must be made clear again and again that I do not claim and has never claimed to have discovered a cure or prevention for AIDS. I have only developed safe and effective vaccines for the prevention and treatment of HIV, the causative agents of AIDS”. In the year 2000 however, the Obasanjo administration banned the use of every drug in the country which were being used as cure for HIV/AIDS until, according to them, proper verifications were carried out. Abalaka however contested the order and sued the federal government over the ban, the court later ruled in his favour. According to a Federal High court in Makurdi where the case was instituted, “Since the government is not doing anything to help people with the case, it is only proper for persons so affected to have a right to decide for themselves whether to use Abalaka’s vaccine or not.” Since then, even though Dr Abalaka has been practising his art with dexterity quietly, not much have been heard about him any longer. A pharmacist, Teidi Omede, however told Blueprint Weekend years back that nothing has changed about Abalaka. “In fact, he now enjoys more patronage than before even though he is no more in the news. His hospital located in Gwagwalada is home to many people living with the condition”, he said. However, since then, nothing has been heard about him again.
Fanny Amun
When the history of Nigerian football would be written, one of the prominent names that would never be forgotten would be Fanny Amun. He is a professional coach who led Nigeria’s football teams to so many international competitions at different times. For instance, in 1993, Amun coached Nigeria’s national under-17 team at the 1993 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Japan; he also coached the under-20 team in 1995 at the African Youth Championship hosted by Nigeria and was later as assistant coach of Super Eagles for the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France where Sunday Oliseh made Nigeria proud by his long shot in one of the matches. It is on record that Amun guided the likes of Celestine Babayaro, Nwankwo Kanu, Wilson Oruma and others to lift titles for Nigeria in many international competitions. Beside being a coach, Amun is also a sports administrator; for example, he was one time secretary-general of Nigeria Football Federation before he retired from the Ministry of Sports as assistant director in 2007. Amun no doubt made his own contributions to the progress of football in Nigeria; hence he is a recipient of the Order of the Niger. Despite his laurels, he has had his low moments in the course of his career. For instance while reflecting on some failed bid to secure a first place for Nigeria in the 1995 African Youth Championship hosted by Nigeria in which the country came third, he lamented that the failure was not his but his bosses who refused to give him free hands to select the best squad that should have prosecuted the match.
“I did all I could. There is no assignment given to me that has not been a huge success at all levels. I won the U-17 World Cup in 1993 and I said allow me to use the same players like Oruma and others to prosecute the U20 World Cup, but they formed a clique against me.
“The then association and sports ministry said I wanted to waste funds and that we have already qualified as hosts of the U-20; so should use home-based players.
“I told them it was not possible. We played a lot of friendly matches where I saw the lapses. The then Head of State invited me to meet him because I was reported to him as being stubborn.
“They then gave me money and I took the team to Germany where we played Leverkusen and other teams, but I still kept on saying we would never be able to prosecute the U-20 with that team.
“I asked for even five players from the ’93 squad in the likes of Celestine and others so that I could be ‘sleeping’ on the bench because those players were mature due to texposure, but they refused, insisting that I wanted to waste funds. The outcome was what we saw in that tournament,” he said. His finest hour in the national team was as coach of Golden Eaglets for Japan ’93. Following that impressive outing in ’93, he was entrusted with the mandate of leading Nigeria to the final of the 1995 African Youth Championship but with a team primarily composed of home-based players, the Flying Eagles could not fly as it settled for third position while Cameroon won with Burundi as runner-up. Since his formal retirement from the ministry, it seems that also ended his active sports career as not much has been heard about him in the recent past despite football activities going on.
Mohammed Sanusi Dagash
He was a former law maker and very prominent in the senate between 1999 and 2007. Senator Daggash was later appointed a minister after he lost out in his bid to return to the senate the third time on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Former President Musa Yar Adua appointed him as the minister of National Planning and later as Works and Housing. As a senator, he served in various committees of the senate such as Population Commission and National Identity Card, FCT, Capital Market, Loans and Debt, among others. As a National Planning minister in 2008, he announced that Nigeria had cut the benchmark oil price in the 2009 budget to 45 dollars per barrel due to the uncertainty in global oil price. As if that announcement was done without proper consultation, he was unceremoniously removed from office. However, following the emergence of Dr Goodluck Jonathan as Acting president after the death of Yar Adua, he was again appointed as Works and Housing minister. Because of the closeness this Borno state-born technocrat shared with Jonathan, it was alleged that he was forced into exile due to the threat to his life from the extremist Boko Haram insurgents whom it was said were not happy with the role he was said to have played in the victory of Jonathan in 2011 as against Buhari in that election. According to Citizen online publication, “His commitment to President Jonathan had riled the Islamists group Boko Haram and their shadowy sponsors who were said to have made overt and covert threats on the brilliant politician. It was learnt that the people close to him warned him not to take the threat slightly, compelling him to flee the country. Today, he is one person who has been off the political space of the country for some time, especially now that is services may have been needed by the country or his state.
