Ebola and a Brief History of Scientific Research by Chika Omeje

I did sign the online petition asking the Americans to release the experimental ebola drug to treat Africans but that increased my contempt for Africans in many ways.

On the discovery of nuclear fusion at the onset of World War Two in 1939 ,USA,Canada and Britain immediately initiated the Manhattan Project which produced the atomic bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively on August 6 and 9 ,1945.One week later Japan surrendered and the war was over.Americans,the entire West and the world felt safer.

The Soviets did not petition the Americans to give them the atomic bombs to deter another Nazi-styled foreign invasion.They worked on it and stole the American blueprint which made them also test their own atomic bombs only four years later in 1949.The Chinese worked hard and tried copying the Americans and Soviets.They tested theirs in 1964 and so the beat goes on.

Ebola was discovered in Zaire and Sudan in 1976 before many of us were even born;around the time Mobutu was in power(1965-1997) squandering billions of dollars of Congo's wealth,the same decade Nigeria's head of state;Yakubu Gowon said Nigeria's problem is not money but what to do with our money.

38 years later,Nigeria is releasing about $12 million to fight ebola, you are berating the Americans for not giving you their own ebola drugs and haranguing me to join the campaign.The cost of the Manhattan Project was nearly $2 billion (about $27bn in today's money) and you did not raise any eyebrows when $20 bn was allegedly stolen from the NNPC.You did not see anything wrong in governors,political office holders flying private jets worth over $50 million after just a year or so in office......

Well,good luck in your campaign.When ebola is gone.We will take a cue from Zamfara women and ask the Americans to come and get us wives and husbands, give us mosquito nets and make beds for us to sleep with our wives/husbands.

We are Nigerians!We are the smartest Africans!!