ZHUL-QI’DA 28, 1429 A.H.
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 26, 2008
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Pfizer’s trovan text and matters arising
BY Pekulia Meesi
aEver heard of Alhaji Maisekeli? He is the self-styled Chairman of the so-called Trovan Victims Association? He achieved fame when he barged his way into the leadership of the participants of the 1996 Trovan trials in Kano (the body he fondly calls the “Trovan Victims’ Association”) who are now in court. Maisekeli is educated. He certainly doesn’t belong in the class of the participants of the Trovan study. I took interest in him the moment he announced his arrival on the national stage because of my experience in the university of life. Having been around for close to six decades I should be forgiven if I tend to see a trend where ostensibly there appears to be none. There is nothing new under the sun. When a frog makes frantic leaps in the daytime, it is either after something or something is after its life. When do-gooders suddenly take over a cause and make hoopla in the press, you want to watch more closely. Is Maisekeli only concerned about the participants (including his own blood who reportedly participated in the process) or is there more than meets the eye?
To be able to answer that question, we have to quickly examine the issues involved once again.
Pfizer conducted a study on the efficacy of their drug, Trovan in 1996 during one of the worst epidemics of meningitis ever to ravage Kano. The state was in need of help. The Medicin Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders) rose to the occasion. So did Pfizer. The MSF used the gold standard drug while Pfizer placed some participants on its new drug, Trovan, which had been trial-tested in Europe and America before Nigeria. As happens when there is such an epidemic, it was too late to help some people. Inevitably some patients died, some on Trovan, others on the regular drugs. But the Trovan team recorded a higher survival rate than the Doctors Without Borders.
More than a decade later, both the federal and Kano state governments were nudged into action to drag Pfizer before the courts on account of the trials. It was being alleged that Pfizer carried out the tests without due authorization and that many people died as a result of their exposure to Trovan. The Doctors Without Borders are in the clear because they can’t be blackmailed to part with money – they are but an international Non-Governmental Organisation whereas Pfizer is a global giant in the pharmaceutical industry. Thus was born one of the most remarkable attempts at corporate shakedown in modern Nigeria.
Enter Alhaji Maisekeli and his bag of good intentions. One press conference after the other, he has claimed that Pfizer sneaked into Nigeria to decimate the population of Kano – a claim that flies in the face of verifiable facts. Is it possible to do such a thing clandestinely in Nigeria? Tell that to the marines. After going through the pleadings at the courts it is clear to me that tragic as the situation looks, those claiming to be fighting for the common man have some other agenda. Many well meaning Nigerians, including this columnist, came on the side of the participants in the study and urged Pfizer to be gracious in the circumstances and arrange to ameliorate the conditions of both the participants in its study and the generality of the people of Kano who patronize the ill-equipped Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH). I have gone on record as making a passionate plea in this direction. Pfizer heeded our call and reportedly offered to place $10 million in disbursable funds for those who participated in the study and also agreed to help rehabilitate the IDH to enable that hospital cope with emergencies such as was witnessed in 1996.
While some of us celebrated the breakthrough in the settlement talks, some of those who were hoping to make a kill from Pfizer cried foul. They wanted billions of dollars! Now, let’s do some simple arithmetic here. At the rate of N118 to the dollar, $10 million translates into N1.18 billion Naira. If only half of that sum was disbursed to the 53 people allegedly affected in the Trovan study, each of those families would be getting N11.13 million. Now as bad as things are in Nigeria, we all know the kind of turnaround that can be achieved with that kind of money – and we are looking at only HALF of what Pfizer has put on the table!
I think Governor Shekarau has been, by and large, reasonable in his utterances since the $10 million was offered. But the governor seems to be surrounded by hawks who are interested in what is in the whole saga for their own pockets. The Nigerian media must begin to take a closer look at who is benefitting from all this nonsense. The government of Kano State owes its people some explanation on how the IDH became worse than a consulting clinic. More than that, now that help is around the corner in the form of Pfizer’s offer, how could a government which cares about the lives of its citizens refuse such a gesture? Is it that those in government are expecting a trailer-load of money they can share? What becomes of the poor people who are directly concerned? If the Trovan participants know how much is on offer, I wager that they will invade their governor’s lodge and tell him to take a hike. Our people are dying of poverty while the government and its acolytes are playing Ludo with their destiny. It is so unfair. It beggars belief.
Sometime ago, I read about the report compiled by Dr Nasidi on the Trovan Trials. It could have been laughable if it wasn’t so tragic. I mean, how could one man, in a bid to nail a corporate citizen, serve as Chairman of the investigative panel and at the same time give evidence to his own panel and act as prosecutor and judge? Haba! Even in the jungle where, according to Mazi Chukwukadibia, “monkeys move by-gang-by-gang”, there is a pattern to the madness of the wild. If the Kano State and federal governments think they can rely on such evidence, then there is no hope in hell for the affected Trovan participants.
We have seen this kind of situation before. All these do-gooders are probably raking in something by the side. We are watching. We are monitoring them closely. We are investigating if the state government gave the traditional Sallah gifts to the Trovan participants – and if the gifts got to the intended recipients intact. The media of mass communication in Nigeria are keeping their ears close to the ground to know what other reasons informed the foot-dragging of the government in reaching an out-of-court settlement. If I were Governor Ibrahim Shekarau, I would seize the bull by the horns and make a millionaire of each of the affected families by immediately accepting the Pfizer offer and telling the do-gooders to look for another set of victims to exploit.
I would indeed be surprised if Shekarau doesn’t do so.
*Pekulia Meesi contributes articles to NigerianMuse
