Discussions and more! (1)

 Hello Readers!

As usual, it’s been a flurry of activities since my last post. I’m talking essays and heated academic class discussions to presidential elections in my country and certain career landmarks … and just trying to juggle so many aspects of living together.

I would first of all, love to congratulate my country Nigeria for a relatively successful and peaceful political elections. The Presidential elections was undertaken two weeks ago while the Governorship took place yesterday, 11^th April, 2015. In case you don’t know, I’m an ardent follower of politics and it was quite the excitement and tension following up on the daily political dramas that occurred in my country up to the election days. The drama isn't totally over yet but I am quite satisfied with the presentation of the new President-elect and new crop of State Governors. I am looking forward to a better and more progressive Nigeria. I am also grateful to the international community for their on-line and off-line support. Its been a remarkable 2015 for Nigeria so far and a big shout-out to everyone! As it is commonly said here, “Nothing dey happen” (Translation, It is going to be alright), I strongly believe that we shall all overcome and Nigeria will get more alright.

Now unto my academics…

So in my just-concluded course ‘Understanding Infectious Diseases”, we were entrusted with this scientific journal and were given the ultimate power to make our own versions of a compelling summary out of some major parts of the journal. Personally, I considered the journal quite akin to cryptography and I was beginning to get a little worried about that upon the first few reads.  Believe me, I always assumed that I was pretty good with summarizing especially when it comes to taking into perspectives, the analytical part of journals, but this took some sweat out of me. I was relieved to find out that I was not the only person in this boat when we had our class discussion on the journal as some of my colleagues also shared their experiences with difficulties encountered in breaking down the technical languages and complexities of the journal.

Anyway, as expected, the contents of the journal stimulated one of the most interesting, controversial and engaging discussions that I have experienced so far in my ODL course of study. I mean how do you really explain and/or confirm that infection with helminths (worms!) could be a preventive cure for your asthma and other allergies??? – Yes! That was the topic discussion/debate. 

Unfortunately for me, during most of the period when these heated discussions were on, I had been diagnosed with a lethal combination of malaria/typhoid infection. I was unable to attend to much of the discussion except  to read through, monitor, learn and also do some more research on the topic of discussion as I could. But of course, at some point, I did get off my feet to contribute (not unless I wanted to forfeit the associated marks). 

As usual, when you have a controversial discussion as this and you have very bright students as colleagues, you cannot but learn more than a thing or two from such discussions. My colleagues all contributed to the learning experience by sharing personal experiences from all parts of the world, notes from other scientific journals, news reports, giving accounts of on-site professional experiences and providing generally intelligent deductions from cases presented for discussion from the journal. This was highly expository for me and I look forward to having more of this in my next course after the spring break.

To be continued….

N.B: It is now 362 days today that the Chibok girls were abducted from their schools by Boko Haram Terrorists in Nigeria. This happened last year 14^th, April 2014. Kindly join us in our prayers and solidarity as we continue to ardently hope for their return and for justice.

Please use the hashtags #BringBackOurGirls #ChibokGirls #NeverToBeForgotten to join the solidarity on Twitter. Thank you.