THE ESSENCE OF LOGIC IN MEDICINE AND THE SCIENCES. Written by KEMKA S. IBEJI

Sometime in 2006 while undergoing my National Service under NYSC, I got into an argument with a friend who was in Religion unit of my then Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy. I spoke with Jeriks Utchman for some moment and he was merely attacking my personality than the issue of our concern; HIV and AIDS.

In university, he was my very good friend and we respected each other very well. But this discussion had him tell me that I was very unreasonable and unteachable. Throughout the discussion, he totally went off the topic and could use all fallacies - imaginable and unimaginable. Get this at the back of your mind; he was a member of PET CDS Group. This group was a community development service group under NYSC then. Their aim was teaching the corps members about the HIV and AIDS; how it worked and killed people. I could simply say that it was a religion and dogma infuser which aimed at just getting our young minds bigoted. It did!

So while discussing with my friend Jeriks and having been a student of logic, I quickly wore my armour guards. I remembered the socratic dialogues and the philosophical method of Dialectics. I also called to mind my learning in Philosophy of Education where Socrates talked about learning as sharing semblance with pregnancy labour. I soaked in the fallacies expressed by my friend but focused more on ensuring that we come to a point where our reasoning will take a higher seat than our emotions.

Unfortunately he was neither willing nor ready to listen to me. For him then, I was just a stupid mad man who was allowed to handle the tools of such skills as logic and now on rampage to destroy the world around. But fortunately for us, I decided to talk and let him at least hear even if without interest to know. My mindset was that once he gets the sounds from my ideas, he definitely will think about them in his private moment whether as useless or otherwise. So I went on with my views no minding if he paid attention or not. At the end of the day, he said I was talking nonsense. I was however very happy with his submission for one good reason; he eventually heard me and got my point though he considered it as nonsense. I was sure he will give it a thought soon.

What was my argument with Jeriks? I told him that the stories of HIV and AIDS told by NACA, PET and the entire world of that jaundiced medical evangelism, just like this Covid-19 illogics, were bizarre to good reasoning. I was querying the idea behind the World Health Organisation (WHO) and all bodies of the HIV and AIDS not giving any consideration to cure for the HIV? I asked why everyone and anyone who mentioned cure for HIV was seen as the worst enemy of the world and mankind? I was dismayed by the fact that the WHO and company could prevent a foetus from contacting or contracting the virus from the mother but could not cure the virus. Is it not clear to even an imbecile that such prevention is a higher class technology and knowledge than cure? I gave my friend examples of people, not just people but professionals, who have been cowed and gagged, chased out and into oblivion, intimidated and humiliated because they asked for a research into cure for HIV and AIDS. I ruminated on the possible reason why WHO and other outfits as such could earmark, budget, appropriate and expend as much as billions of dollars for just publicity, prevention and management of the HIV and AIDS and not a penny or shilling is considered for a research into possible cure for HIV and AIDS. Terrific!

Instead of my friend to give a slightest thought to these provoking questions, he only was willing to honour the Holy Grail of "Don't think cure, just think management of the infected and prevention through  publicity". That's all and all his mental capabilities and capacity was shut down. He refused to think anything else. God! I was disturbed knowing how much damage has been done to our generation and age by those HIV and AIDS organisations and apostles. But there was hope for me as I will not stop tickling their reasoning. I was also sure that reasoning is one thing that enjoys immortality. It may be humbled, humiliated, disoriented and misguided for a while but it surely must return to itself. I was very sure of that and so it was important I stamped my feet on their hearts for the days of recovery. I therefore went ahead placing my intellectual signposts energized by my tools of logic.

The reward of joy was soon to come and it came even earlier than I expected it. One day, my friend Jeriks called almost a thousand times on a dial and pressed to see me. For him, it was not something to discuss over that phone. I already was drawing back with some feelings that he was full of insults and sorts. Well, I could give it a try; who knows why he want to see me. Of course, I had so much respect for him.

I created the space for us to met and we did.

Jeriks was full of apologies. He went on endlessly trying to ensure I was pacified. I told him I had no ill feelings kept in my mind. He now opened up to me his findings. He told me that I armed him with necessary tools to reevaluate his engagements with PET. He already was so disappointed with the organisation and regretted associating with them. He however agreed that he was enriched with so much knowledge now. He told me how a lady who was a member of their CDS Group (PET) was hushed down and cautioned for daring to mention that a certain man in her state (Delta) was curing people of HIV and AIDS. This young lady was a witness to a number of people who were already cured of this disease and had the testimony strong to tell. All this happened during her youth service year. Jeriks could get closer to the lady for more questions and got more. He was convinced that something was actually wrong somewhere and that the HIV and AIDS mission was indeed unclear. He now went ahead of me in doubt and could go as far as getting the phone number and details of the man in Delta State who was curing people. He transmitted those numbers to me and I eventually spoke with the man for few years before I lost my lines then while retrieving contacts was not common. So I lost touch with the man - Papa...

The moral of my story is how sentiments, bias, prejudice and presuppositions can halt human thinking capacities and how logic can help in restoring and reinstating humanity to its good positions. This again is to call humans into the world of good reasoning and the essence of the art of logic. No wonder one of the great thinkers avowed that "whoever passes this world without a tincture of philosophy in him/her is a dead man". Imagine a world without thinkers!

Now again, the challenge is at hand. We are now bullied to shut up. We are warned never to think. We are being intimidated to keep silence and not reason anymore. But we will keep asking these questions;

What is Covid-19?

What is vaccine?