Leadership (Abuja)
Vincent Ekhoragbon
4 May 2008
If the students and authorities of Government Girls Secondary School GGSS, Doma in Gombe metropolis were told of the looming disaster of food poisoning by a prophet, they would have dismissed it as a ridiculous joke.
This is because beans and meals made from the leguminous species had become one of the most commonly consumed staple food for boarding school students in Gombe state and all are accustomed to eating it harmlessly over the years. Perhaps, it is patronized because of its nutritional value as the handiest alternative source to animal protein coupled with the fact that it could be served with yam, gari and bread among others. This was the practice before disaster came calling.
On Sunday, April 21, 2008, students of the above school settled for the day's lunch of beans. Unknown to them, death lurked in the corner. But fate did not wish them such cruel end and thanks to the keen power of observation of the school authorities. The teachers were alert and quick enough to notice on time that an unplanned genocide was about to catch up with them.
Moments after consuming what turned out a lethal chemical weapon, students numbering about one hundred and twenty clutched their stomachs, writhing in agony, not knowing what has hit them. This was followed by excessive vomiting and foaming at the mouths. An epidemic had broken loose.
Eventually, about one hundred and twenty students that day were rushed to the Specialist Hospital in the state capital with about ten out of the number admitted on hospital beds for intensified treatment and observation as they were in a critical condition. The others were discharged almost immediately after preliminary medications.
One of the victims, who prefers anonymity, told LEADERSHIP Sunday that on noticing the danger to her, she was enveloped in fear of an untimely death and even regretted enrolling in school in the first place. "If I knew this is how I would die, I would better have remained illiterate, or better still, die of a more worthy cause than this" she said she had pondered.
"All our teachers, especially the kitchen staff were confused! I think they would have regretted being on duty the day the ugly incident happened because you could see nothing on their faces but fear and confusion. I pitied them because of what people may say and I pitied my parents too, because I was convinced they were about to loose me. I felt life being unfair for such cruelty" another student said.
Perhaps, the most gladdening news in the entire episode is that the incident occurred when students were on vacation and those affected were students on extension. Otherwise, said a source, "the incident would have best been better imagined.
At the time of this report, the consumption of beans remain banned in boarding schools across the state, says the Permanent Secretary of the state Ministry of Education, Dr. Garba Saidu, who on the day of the incidence, said the state government, in its attempt to forestall further occurrence, had in the meantime directed all principals of boarding schools in the state to immediately suspend the use of beans for meals in schools.
The Permanent Secretary also revealed that officials of the state Ministry of Health had taken samples of beans from the school store to the laboratory for further investigation and testing by NAFDAC in order to ascertain if it is the actual cause of the incidence. Abdulsalam Ozigis, the state Director of NAFDAC on the other hand as at press time stated that they were expecting the result, noting that the delay was consequent upon the fact that their office in Gombe lacked the equipment capacity to conduct such test.
Checks revealed that the supply of beans to boarding schools in the state is the responsibility of Cooperative Financing Agency CFA and that the schools (GGSS, Doma to be precise) use the commodity almost immediately they are supplied. It is not clear how CFA stockpile or store up the commodity, how they get it and how long it is kept before supplying because no enquiry was made due to the exigency of time. But it is common knowledge in the state that merchants apply powdered insecticides and pesticide to beans before storage to prevent destruction. These chemicals last for quite some time before they cease to be threats to life when eaten through beans or other foodstuff.
For now, it seems danger is averted and government is looking for a permanent solution to the problem, even as it does not intend to phase out the consumption of beans in boarding schools.
It would be recalled that as part of the solution to the plethora of problems hampering teaching and learning conditions in boarding school across the state, government had increased the average cost of meals per day for boarding students in the state as against the hitherto N20= inherited from the then Bauchi state.
The decision was consequent upon finding of a committee set up to examine the problems hampering teaching and learning conditions in boarding school within. A whooping sum of N11 billion was projected as sufficient amount to take care of the problems at least in the nearest future. Government then decided to implement solution proffered systematically, pleading for time but ordered an immediate upward review of average cost of feeding a student per meal a day.
Concerned parents and members of the public hail the authorities of the school for taking the prompt action that saved the lives of the students the same way they expressed their joy that the Specialist Hospital was able to rise to the occasion.
They however asked for the head of CFA, if the said beans is discovered to be the cause of the problem, crying out to government to descend heavily on the agency.
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