# Fuck you, Nigeria's government **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 23, 2004, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742 "2004-02-23T21:06:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sam\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Sam\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_H)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/1 "2004-02-23T21:06:45Z")
[http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20040222/ap\_on\_re\_af/west\_africa\_polio](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20040222/ap_on_re_af/west_africa_polio) Because it’s always better to have polio than not have it. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/2 "2004-02-23T21:26:21Z")
According to the article to which you linked, it is not the national goverment of Nigeria that is boycotting polio vaccination but Kano, a northern state in Nigeria. > [@](#): > > “Kano state will not participate in tomorrow’s polio campaign. Our team made the discovery of contaminants first, remember,” state government spokesman Sule Ya’u Sule told The Associated Press, referring to tests the state says its scientists conducted on the polio vaccine last year. > > “Unless we are convinced by our committee (of health experts) that the oral polio vaccines are safe, the exercise remains suspended in Kano state,” Sule said. The Nigerian Health Minister says he’ll immunize the rest of the country as planned. > [@](#): > > Nigeria Health Minister Eyitayo Lambo would not divulge the outcome of the visit, which he said ended last week. He gave no explanation of why the results were not being revealed — saying only that Nigeria’s government would forge ahead with the campaign regardless of opposition. > > “We are not going to be bothered” by the boycott, Lambo told The Associated Press, without elaborating. “The immunization is going ahead as planned. We have got our results and we are going ahead with the immunization.” This quote from your link bears repeating, though: > [@](#): > > “We risk reversing our gains. We can’t eradicate polio globally if everyone does not take action,” Beger said. Gerrit Beger is the spokesman for the United Nations Children’s Fund in Abuja. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Sam\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_H)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/3 "2004-02-23T21:50:57Z")
Sorry about not being more specific in my pitting. I’ve never done this before. 😉 Methinks we need a few ignorance fighters sent there stat. ---
**Author:** ![Dizzy\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dizzy\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dizzy_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/4 "2004-02-23T22:27:51Z")
Hey, at least they elected a [black president](http://www.theonion.com/onion3706/nigeria_elects_black_pres.html). ---
**Author:** ![5que](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/3bc359/32.png) [@5que](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5que)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/5 "2004-02-23T22:32:11Z")
Just for that, I’m not going to help them get that money out of the country… ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/6 "2004-02-24T00:47:52Z")
It is a cruel irony that their paranoia _shall, in fact_, produce the kind of results that they fear–fewer Muslims in Nigeria. Crueler to the children, though. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/7 "2004-02-24T00:57:47Z")
I was in Lagos in 1994 for about two weeks. I cannot begin to describe the horrible poverty, the homeless crowds on the streets, the corruption and despair. At the same time, we met many wonderful people, bright, well-educated, pleasant to be with. The country is a haphazard collection of ancient tribes that warred with each other, held together only by English as the colonial language. The oil companies pour enormous amounts of money into the pockets of the corrupt politicians, and little or none of it goes for the badly needed infrastructure. The rural areas are disrupted by the oil companies, and so the people come to Lagos hoping for work and survival. If you’ve experienced Third World countries, Nigeria is at the bottom. If you haven’t, you need to. I wouldn’t be in the least surprised to learn that the folks who are forbidding vaccinations as a U.S. plot are, in fact, just waiting for some health agency to bribe them sufficiently to overcome their objections. Oh, sorry, they have a word for it, it’s not bribery, it’s called “dash.” ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/8 "2004-02-24T01:27:45Z")
> [@5que](#): > > Just for that, I’m not going to help them get that money out of the country… Especially not if I get it first! ---
**Author:** ![deb2world](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@deb2world](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deb2world)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/9 "2004-02-24T02:04:31Z")
I know a few who believe that the US is spreading AIDS thru polio vacine. These are well educated, church going, conservative people who hold college degrees. They also believe that there has been a systematic agenda by certain healthcare workers hired by the US Government to commit genecide against blacks. ---
**Author:** ![deb2world](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@deb2world](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deb2world)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/10 "2004-02-24T03:00:49Z")
I realized I did not state the reason for my post. If there are people in the US who do not trust the government when it comes to the spreading of AIDS, how can we expect other governments to trust us. Whether AIDS was spread to predominately black countries via polio vaccine is a debate still being looked into as well as why it was allowed. There are those who believe this is just an urban legend and those who believe it is a continuation of the government’s poor treatment of minorities. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Sam\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_H)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/11 "2004-02-24T04:26:41Z")
> [@deb2world](#): > > I realized I did not state the reason for my post. If there are people in the US who do not trust the government when it comes to the spreading of AIDS, how can we expect other governments to trust us. Whether AIDS was spread to predominately black countries via polio vaccine is a debate still being looked into as well as why it was allowed. There are those who believe this is just an urban legend and those who believe it is a continuation of the government’s poor treatment of minorities. Cite for any of the above? Because everything I’ve ever read about the polio vaccine is that it merely does what it promises to do: end polio. If the government really wanted to treat minorities poorly it would deny them access to the vaccine. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/12 "2004-02-24T14:06:16Z")
This is one of two major vaccine scandals going on now - the other involves the "civilized world’. In England, the medical journal Lancet says a now-discredited study involving an alleged link between the MMR vaccine for children and autism involved a “fatal” conflict of interest. The journal’s editor says the lead author of the study didn’t tell them he’d taken money from an attorneys’ group to do a parallel study using some of the same patients. \*"Dr Horton said the goal of the Legal Aid Board-funded study was to find out if there was evidence to support a multi-party litigation case by parents who claimed the MMR jab had harmed their children. “We did not know that he had a dual role with the Legal Aid Board…and we certainly had no idea that he had received money to do that.” Dr Horton said it was “perverse” that Dr Wakefield had accepted the facts of his dual role and that he had received money from the Legal Aid Board, but denied a conflict of interest."\* The rate of vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella in England has dropped off from something like 95% to 79%, and there have been renewed measles outbreaks (the disease can have serious and even fatal complications). Subsequent studies have not shown a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. It has also been reported that Tony Blair has refused to reveal whether his own son has gotten the MMR shot (it would certainly boost public confidence in the shot if it was revealed that he had). So backwardness is not confined to the Dark Continent. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/13 "2004-02-24T14:09:45Z")
I should mention that the excerpt quoted above is from [this BBC story](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3510721.stm). ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/14 "2004-02-24T14:42:08Z")
I don’t know about the"urban legend" nor have I gone to the trouble to find a cite. I suppose I’ll see what I can find later. However, I do recall several years ago mid to late 80’s there was a (Red Cross IIRC) documentary done showing vaccines/shots being given to the children in Africa. They were lined up by the dozens to get their shots. The syringe was one of the old multishot guns which had a large bottle of syrum and a rotating needle which was used many times before it was changed. Sounds a lot like the hypodermic gun my father described when he talks about getting his shots for the military in the forties. I didn’t make this up and I’ve never heard any rumor. Although a few of my friends remember the fundraising documentary I’ve described. I think I’ll do some research later on this, see ya. ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/15 "2004-02-24T14:53:09Z")
I’m not promoting a conspiracy here, but y’all don’t believe the US would condone an epidemic to genocide a country to exploit it’s natural resources do you? Well not since native Americans anyway. Nor would the Whitehouse at the time (GHWB) and even now (GWB) support a Nazi-like attitude toward a population of people and allow this occur. Nope, not our government, we’re the good guys! ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/16 "2004-02-24T15:00:58Z")
**deb2world** , **t-keela** --I feel your pain. :rolleyes: But you’d better have some damn good proof to back up your crazy jabber, or I’m a-callin’ BS on both of you. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/17 "2004-02-24T16:55:06Z")
Here’s an interesting story in the Jan/Feb issue of _Skeptical Inquirer_ about what happens when anti-vaccination fervor, arising out of whatever reason, displaces common sense. It ain’t pretty. The story’s about whooping cough, but the principles are the same. [http://www.csicop.org/si/2004-01/anti-vaccination.html](http://www.csicop.org/si/2004-01/anti-vaccination.html) ---
**Author:** ![deb2world](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@deb2world](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deb2world)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/18 "2004-02-24T19:00:04Z")
I first heard this AIDS and polio conspiracy theory from the pulpit about 7 or 8 years ago. It was black history month and a doctor of theology was speaking. Sorry for not providing cites, but I have heard this theory so many times I assumed it was widespread knowledge, my bad. So here is a couple of cites that mention a _Rolling Stones Magazine_ article [here](http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/) and [here](http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:Etci-GTq3D8J:www.chiroweb.com/archives/18/23/05.html+AIDS+%26+polio+%26+africa&hl=en&ie=UTF-8). The Martin paper I have cited above gives another [cite](http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n07/hoop01_.html) from Edward Hooper who wrote a book on it. If you would like to continue this research, just google AIDS & polio & Africa and you too can get 66, 500 hits. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/19 "2004-02-24T19:36:40Z")
According to what I read, it is the muslim imams who are promoting the story about the polio vaccine being a genocide against muslims. So, there you have it…allah must be pleased! ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742/20 "2004-02-24T20:40:27Z")
For more on the conspiracy theorists and junk science promoters who drive the anti-vaccine movement, [here’s an interesting anti-quackery website.](http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/vaxliars1.htm) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-you-nigerias-government/230742.md?page=2)