Rt. Hon. Comrade Sunday Michael FIHR
Int’l President/CEO, Global Grassroot Youth Forum (4 Continents)
The CEO’s Desk: C/o 2A Effiwatt St. Mission Hill, Calabar Cross River State. Nigeria.
234 080 29093823, 64828163, ngryfpresident@yahoo.com, www.ggryf.org., www.freewebs.com/ngryf

NO GREATER NATION THAN OURS
BY
SUNDAY MICHAEL

Owing to the fact that no two persons are precisely the same in thoughts, reasoning and understanding, therefore, human beings tend to fancy things which other humans do not cherish. This however stem from individual difference, thus, a man worth or being is made up of the experience which he obtains, this experience or life manifestations fashions and packages a man and hence gives him a broader out looks in life, I will therefore say that our reactions to circumstances and situations determines what result we have. I was reading through the Vanguard Newspaper of June 1st, 2007 where Nigeria was ranked as the 117th most peaceful nation on earth visa- vis 6th most turbulent nation on earth and this is the same country that has been describe as a country with the most happiest people on earth. About 2 years ago, more than 10 Nations closed their embassies in Nigeria and warned their citizens not to visit or invest in Nigeria because they described Nigeria as one of the most unsafe country to visit on earth, recently, Nigeria last general election was described as the worst elections that has ever been conducted in the history of Mankind, many times former president Olusegun Obasanjo has been described as the worst president Nigeria has ever had. In fact in the fact of the earth, the International Community and some media organizations; nothing good ever comes out of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Today, we must note that we are in the world of the Survival of the Fittest, the world where only the strongest people live or survive and to this end, every person(s), organization(s), institution(s) and nation(s) is (are) trying very hard to be heard and therefore people develop ways whether negative or position to achieve this fit of been heard or recognize. It is based on the aforementioned facts that a person or group of persons could call themselves together to form an organization, institution, or a society for a particular selfish purpose of crediting and discrediting countries. In achieving this, some selfish people, aggrieved politicians, wicked monarchs and very unprofessional journalist who sees Nigeria Democratic establishment to be free wherein a people could boast of not only the right to freedom but also the right to openly challenge the action of the State uses this opportunity to say and write all manner of uncomplimentary things at the expense of the State, some commit fraud by faking violence and thereby exposing Nigeria to the International Community where all manner of unauthorized organization and institution will have the opportunity to write unwarranted and baseless report about the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The fight between the Israelis and the Hezbollah’s were not enough for the embassies and the diplomatic missions to be closed in Israel but a mere rumour of the presence of the Alquidas was enough for embassies and diplomatic mission to be closed down in Lagos- Nigeria.

The protest that lead to the lost of lives and properties during the last general election in France were not worth a threat of American government closing the U.S Embassy and placing sanctions on France, but a mere rumour of not conducting a free and fair election in Nigeria were worth the threat of placing diplomatic sanctions on Nigeria. All manner of evils are said to be from Nigeria because of information citizens gives to their friends and association in other part of the globe.

Various unauthorized organization comes out with all manner of reports that are fraudulent in nature, reports that lacks merits and cohesion and reports that are baseless and pointless. For instance between 2002 and 2005, Nigeria was said to be most corrupt, second, third, and sixth most corrupt nation on earth respectively by the transparency international in its Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released in London, and when this report came in the whole Nigerians received it and accepted it without asking how they arrived at the result.

You will agree with me that as far as fairness is concern, the said reports are fake, criminal and fraudulent. One, transparency International has no office in Nigeria, it has not field workers and it has not secure survey website so how did they get the report? The organization simply sat in her London office, fabricated it Nigerian and indeed other African nations report, based on what she read in the Nigeria Media, what she get from propagandas, reports she get from Nigerians and other incredible source. For a transparent organization to present a report base on the aforementioned facts is criminal. Secondly, this organization are not recognized by the United Nations, African Union or Government of Nation thus it has no moral or legal rights to carry out the reports, little wonder government of Nations refuse to associate itself with such reports. Despite the refusal of Nations to associate her government with fraudulent reports, people still believe much on such documents because of the two major beneficiaries, the media and the politician:

In the bid to make quick sales at the expense of their nation, media houses pick up this stories in banner headlines to draw the attention of the masses and the general public into buying her publications and listening/ viewing her radio and television stations. The second beneficiaries are the politicians who practically finance some of this institutions to carry out such projects for the sole aim of discrediting the sitting government by the time their aims are achieved, they have cause great damages to the nation and at this point CNN, BBC, Sky news, and other media houses will come out to sing to the world how corrupt Nigeria is.

Nigeria may not be good to an extend, but she is not the most sixth most corrupt nation, she is not a no go area, she is not 117th most peaceful nation as a matter of fact she is world most peaceful nation, a country where people don’t depend on government to earn their living, a country where international laws and treaties are obeyed and respected. Every nation has her own problem and one must be able to solve her problems before going to solve another’s.

Now, I will used the two most supposed powerful nations (America and the United Kingdom) to buttress my points and facts that our country is a good and better nation than what the world say we are: who ever cares to hear, should hear this: the United States of America is an historical accident, a brief parenthesizes that is closing before our eyes, this can be seen in the numerous end time scenarios that characterized the U.S.A, the Britain is becoming a failed State whose wickedness and exploitative nature has continue to this day, one of such wickedness was shown during a case involving the Cameroon and Nigeria over the formerly disputed Bakassi Peninsula.

A large portion of the world population is at present living under oppression, leaders of the G8, the U.N Security Council led by the Americans and the Britons often manipulates countries to be at war within itself for the purpose of discrediting such nations and being seen as Aristocratic Super World Powers. This G8 Nation especially America has always pretend to be freedom fighters, freedom fighters who wants the world to be under her commands, freedom fighters who disobeys constituted authorities (the United Nations), freedom fighters who refuses to allow the black Americans to govern the U.S, freedom fighters whose the word ‘indiscrimination’ has no place in her dictionary, freedom fighters who are at the verge of causing the Third World War, freedom fighters my foot. Between the year 2000 to 2007, man made devastating disaster occurred via the American: first, the Terrorist Madness in New York, Pentagon and Pennsylvania: second, the war on Afghanistan, the state of Iraq and the destructive influence on the Third World. But CNN has not seen these, BBC, International Media has not seen these, they only see the corruption and the looting of government funds by Nigerian and African Nations. There is no nation without problems, face yours and advice us where you can and we will face ours and advise you where we can.

Back home, I am most shocked by the corruption that has been going on in the National Assembly during the first six (6) years of their tenure, this was made known by a man I used to respect so much, Senator Jonathan Silas Zwingina who in his valedictory speech to the House, say that the Executive has been influencing the decision of the National Assembly because it see it as an extension and beside it has been behind the election of all the Senate President except Senator Ken Nnamani. This is to show how incompetence the Senate was because Chapter 5 Part 1 Section 50 Sub-Section 1 Paragraph A of the 1999 Constitution states that there shall be a President and a Deputy President of the Senate, who shall be elected by the member of that House from among themselves, so for them to allow the Executive to determine who leads them show that they were misfit to lead the Senate of the Federation of Nigeria.

Lastly, the uncomplimentary remarks of Journalists to the former President were unnecessary, this is in reaction to the May 29th Edition of the Sun Newspaper with the headline ‘Just Go’ this was very unfair to a man who has kept the democratic process we have been looking for and successfully handed over to a democratically elected civilian President.

I have always respected The Sun Newspaper because of its classic reporting and I have granted one or two interviews with them, but for this particular headline, I am suggesting that they should keep off such headlines, at least for such a day (29th May)

Finally, we should remember what I said earlier that a man worth or been is made up of the experience which he obtains; we have seen the way other citizen carries their countries, we should do same knowing fully well that we don’t have any other country than this Nigeria and we should always remember the introductory part of the Constitution “WE THE PEOPLE” this mean that it was our collective agreement to live as a people under God and to be known as the Federal Republic of Nigeria, so each time you say or write negative things about our country, it means that you are deviating from the original plan. Act well, behave well, respect the Constitution, sustain democracy, write well with a clear ‘conscience nurtured by truth’ ‘towards a better life for the people’ and ‘taking journalism to its classical tabloids’ continue to ‘be independent in all matters….. especially those concerning the well being of the Nigeria people’.

And for the leaders of the Federation, I will borrow the words of Rev. James Cogswell (1757) I will entreat you President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, the entire Executives, the Legislatures, the Judiciaries, State Governors, State Houses of Assembly, LGA Chairmen, and those in the position of authority, to see to it that you engage in so noble a cause for right ends. Let your principal motives be the honour of God and the defence of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

CONGRATULATIONS TO HER EXCELLENCY, THE RT. HON. MRS. PATRICIA OLUBUNMI ETTEH, FIRST FEMALE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA.

LONG LIVE NIGERIA!

Sunday Michael
ngryfpresident@yahoo.com
080 29093823
Writes from Calabar
8th June, 2007

http://profiles.takingitglobal.org/NGRYF300

Address by the international President/CEO of the Global Grassroot Youth Forum, Rt. Hon. Comrade. Sunday Michael on the occasion of the conference “the road to Vienna 2008-European alternatives in drug policy” holding in the European parliament, Brussels, Belgium between 6th and 7th November 2006.

Your Excellencies, members of the diplomatic corps
Your Excellencies honorable speakers
Your Excellency, Mr. Joep Oomen
Invited guests
Gentlefriends of the press
Honorable ladies and gentlemen

I feel highly honored to have been invited as a representative from Africa to attend this all important epoch making event wish is aim at discussing the alternatives in drug policies and presenting the result therein to the 2008 United Nations convention in Vienna. To me I believe that this is a welcome development hashed in the right direction as it present to us the opportunity of putting our minds together with the best and busy brains towards the realization of a good and effective drug policy that will enhance the wellbeing and prosperity of humankind.

What ever decision we take today if adopted by the world governing body the (United Nations) will determine the future of the human habitat, so I charge and encourage this conference to make good policies and should think about the merits and demerit of such policies before adopting it.

I have looked and studied the programme of this conference and I have discovered that invited speakers are men full of experience and are among the best available hands in the world when it has to do with drug related issues however from my personal research and little experience I will want to make my own modest contributions on “Harm Reduction: policies and principles”


Harm reduction has being defined as a practical strategy that reduces negative consequences of drug use, incorporating a gamut of strategies from safer use, to managed use, to abstinence.

Harm reduction strategies is also meant to meet drug users "where they' are at," addressing conditions of use along with the use itself. The following are the examples of harm reduction: syringe exchanges and safer injection facilities (SESIF), Methadone and heroin assisted treatment (HAT) however I will speak on the one I consider most important for the study of this conference.

Heroin assisted treatment (HAT)
Over the years government and policy makers have being taking actions that suggest that drug reduction treatment is not a priority to them and that what there are interested in is to get more people addicted. check out the following study and research: the Senlis Council, an international drug policy organization based in Europe, issued its controversial recommendations regarding Afghan opium in Sept. 2005. Reuters reported on Sept. 25, 2005 that "Afghanistan, the world's biggest producer of illicit opium and heroin, is not ready to adopt a controversial proposal to use its opium to help ease a global shortage of painkillers, and research shows that licensed Afghan opium production could be used to produce morphine and codeine wish is very important to human treatment. According to reports the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime also rejected the Senlis Council proposal, base on an unacceptable fact that it risked creating confusion among farmers and raising false expectations. Wares there is an estimated worldwide shortage of morphine and codeine at about 10,000 tones of opium equivalent a year, while Afghanistan produces roughly 4,000 tonnes of opium a year. Meanwhile this UN agency that has rejected this proposal conceded that there is a shortage of narcotics for medical purposes, and went further to says that lawful production of opiates worldwide had considerably exceeded global consumption in the past years and could be increased should demand increase." And as it is now the shortage of opiate medicines even hits the nations which currently produce legal opium. The San Jose Mercury News reported on July 15, 2005) that "India is the world's largest producer of legal opium, the raw material for codeine, morphine and other painkillers. But corruption and red tape have left thousands of Indians such as Nevatia to die in agony. And strict licensing hasn't stopped drug gangs from diverting opium meant for medicines to smuggling routes shared by heroin and morphine traffickers, gun-runners and Islamist militants, police say. 'Organized crime and politics join together in this to make life miserable,' said A. Shankar Rao, zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau, a national police unit." Dear friends we are not been fair to our selves when we want to solve a problem without first looking for the rut of the problem Mercury News, reported that "Mala Srivastava, the federal official who oversees the licensing system, denied that it had serious flaws. 'Whatever little diversion there is internal,' she said. 'We have never heard of Indian opium, or Indian heroin, traveling abroad.' But the U.S. State Department's annual report on narcotics-control strategy calls India 'a modest but growing producer of heroin for the international market.' In an effort to keep opium out of criminal hands, India's federal and state governments license every step of the process, from growing poppies to stocking and transporting the painkilling drugs they produce. But officials who issue the permits often don't answer the phone, are away from their desks or let applications languish for weeks, doctors and pharmacists complain. Sometimes hospitals run out of morphine while waiting for permit applications to work their way through the bureaucratic labyrinth. 'We have so many patients suffering,' said Dr. Dwarkadas K. Baheti, a pain-management specialist at Bombay Hospital, in India's largest city, Mumbai. 'After two or three months, suddenly we have no morphine left, and for the next month, none is available.'"
The Mercury News noted that "But licensing hasn't stopped traffickers, aided by corrupt officials, from getting opium and other drugs, Rao said. 'With the support of local police and politicians, they convert this opium into 'smack,'' slang for heroin, said Vinod Kumar Shahi, a lawyer in Lucknow, capital of northern India's Uttar Pradesh state. Shahi has learned a lot about the drug trade in 20 years of defending many of the region's top gangsters. By helping traffickers, police can earn 50 times their official monthly salary of about $230, Shahi said. So they pay large bribes to superiors to be posted at police stations in the opium belt of northern India, he said. Tons of tarlike opium gum are skimmed off India's legal supply each year and sent to ad hoc chemists. With a plastic tub, a cup and chemicals easily found on the black market, they make the low-grade heroin base known as 'brown sugar' on the street. There, illegal morphine is worth as much as 25 times what the government pays for it, Rao said. India is a transit country for almost-pure Afghan heroin, which is smuggled in from neighboring Pakistan, often in inflated tire tubes that are floated across rivers along the border. The high-grade heroin produced from Afghan opium accounts for about 87 percent of the world supply, according to the United Nations. Indian drugs also go south to Sri Lanka, where guerrillas with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam use money from heroin trafficking to fund their war for independence. Meanwhile, those who need the painkilling peace that opium-based drugs bring go without." So what are we talking about? When we say “policies and principles” the government and the United Nations most agree to do something that will enhance harm reduction by accepting the recommendation of organizations most especially the outcome of this ENCOD conference on drug policy.

Buprenorphine Treatment
New York's Health Dept. commences a potentially significant promotion of Buprenorphine healing for the city's opiate fanatic. July 2005 New York Newsday reported under the caption "New Option To Wean Off Heroin" that "In an unusual move, city Health Department officials are quietly encouraging physicians, hospitals, methadone clinics and prisons to prescribe the drug buprenorphine to heroin addicts, believing it will lure more addicts into treatment. Buprenorphine - a relatively new drug that goes by the nickname 'bupe' and comes in a pill form - offers a new set of treatment options for opiate abusers, said Dr. Lloyd Sederer, executive deputy commissioner of the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene."
The Health Department's goals are ambitious. According to Newsday, "Despite the potential benefits of buprenorphine, the drug remains virtually unknown and unused by the city's heroin addicts and it remains much unknown to millions of bupe users worldwide. City health officials reported that, only about 1,000 people use it, compared with an estimated 34,000 taking methadone. Sederer and other city health officials want to see a significant change in those numbers. The goal is to have more than 100,000 opiate addicts using buprenorphine for detox maintenance by 2010. 'We are not reaching enough people with the treatments that we have,' Sederer said. 'Not everybody should be on methadone.' Like methadone, buprenorphine is heavily regulated, and may be prescribed only by certified doctors, of which there currently are 345 statewide. In addition, those prescribing the drug are bound by a 30-patient limit; a federal restriction guarding against prescription abuse that Sederer and other health officials hope will be changed so that more patients can be treated. Some private doctors have been reluctant to prescribe the drug, fearing their offices would be inundated with addicts. The drug's pill form would be more attractive to white-collar users trying to avoid methadone clinics, experts said."
It is a well recognized fact that the size of New York City's addicted populace and the present costs of healing are dazzling. Newsday report shows that "The goal, drug treatment experts said, is for more doctors to be able to prescribe buprenorphine and for patients to be able to pick it up at the pharmacy. Potentially, thousands of people could benefit from the drug. The city spends $50 million annually on treatment of an estimated 200,000 heroin addicts and 200,000 others addicted to prescription painkillers like Vicodin, Percocet and OxyContin. The state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services will spend $313.7 million in 2005-06 to treat those battling against alcohol and other drug-related addictions, spokeswoman Jennifer Farrell said. 'Buprenorphine expands the availability of treatment for those who are addicted to opiates and allows recovering addicts to more likely follow treatment to completion,' Farrell said. Opiate addicts on buprenorphine for maintenance have a better chance of working because it has fewer side effects than methadone, Sederer said. Also, having more opiate addicts in recovery would reduce crime and the spread of HIV and other diseases related to needle use, he said." I think we should adopt this strategies as one of our (ENCOD) recommendation to the 2008 Vienna UN confrence
First North American Clinical Trial of Prescription Heroin Begins In Canada
The first clinical trial of prescription heroin in North America began in Feb. 2005. As the Canadian health ministry, Health Canada, wrote in its news release of Feb. 9, 2005 "The North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI) is a carefully controlled (clinical trial) that will test whether medically prescribed heroin can successfully attract and retain street-heroin users who have not benefited from previous repeated attempts at methadone maintenance and abstinence programs. The NAOMI study will enrol 470 participants at three sites in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. The Toronto and Montreal sites are expected to begin recruitment this spring. Each site will enroll about 157 participants. About half of these volunteers will be assigned to receive pharmaceutical-grade heroin (the experimental group) and half will receive methadone (the control group). The prescribed heroin will be self-administered under careful medical supervision within a specially designed clinic. Those in the heroin group will be treated for 12 months then transitioned, over three months, into either methadone-maintenance therapy or another treatment program. The researchers expect a 6-9 month recruitment period, so that the total time to complete the study will be 21 to 24 months."
"According to Health Canada, "In 1973 the federal Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs recommended that heroin-assisted therapy be tested in clinical trials. More recently, large studies in Switzerland and the Netherlands have indicated that heroin-assisted therapy is useful in helping some chronic users to stabilize their addictions, reduce criminal activity and lead more healthy and productive lives. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is providing at total of $8.1 million and the study is approved by Health Canada. The principal investigator is Dr. Martin Schechter of the University Of British Columbia Faculty Of Medicine. Ethical review boards at each of NAOMI's three sponsoring institutions-the University of British Columbia, Toronto's Centre for Addictions and Mental Health and University of Montréal-have approved the study. 'Results from the European studies suggest that medically prescribed heroin could greatly help our most troubled heroin addicts --those for whom we have no effective treatments,' said Dr. Schechter. 'But we won't know whether the same results hold true in the Canadian setting until we complete this carefully designed scientific study.' 'Heroin addiction afflicts an estimated 60 to 90,000 Canadians and the costs associated with it--in terms of human misery, public health, social problems and crime--are staggering,' said Dr. Alan Bernstein, President of CIHR. 'Canada, and many other countries, therefore, need studies such as NAOMI to investigate new approaches to reducing the harm caused by heroin addiction.'"
Though the plan has some critics, particularly the US Office of National Drug Control Policy (the 'Drug Czar'), many are lining up in support of the NAOMI project. The Globe & Mail reported on Jan. 31, 2005 that "In Vancouver, the plan has the support of top politicians and law enforcers, including the mayor and the police chief. Mayor Larry Campbell, who was once a coroner and drug cop, said the trials are needed because current treatments aren't working for hard-core addicts. 'The critical thing is to accept this as a medical condition,' Mr. Campbell said. 'The side effects of this medical condition is that it forces you to do things that you would never do, be it work as a sex-trade worker, be a B and E [break-and-enter] artist or a purse snatcher. So if I can mitigate that by putting you on heroin, imagine the changes you could have.'" These are policies and principles that could help in harm reduction any where in the world because the present laws and policies by government and policy makers are corrupt and are capable of turning 60% of the world population into drug addicts by the year 2045 and again because many of them (policy makers) are corrupt their policies are creating more harm than good.
I am sure we are aware that Africa and Asia are looking up to Europe and America and because of this the aforementioned problems are now affecting this continents as 35% of the population of Africa now take into smoking cannabis sativa popularly called “Indian hemp” or “Igbo” or “wewe” in Nigeria though in Nigeria the national drug law enforcement agency have tried their best in stopping this act but to no avail because the consumers of this product says since America and Europe are consuming this commodity that there is nothing wrong in them taking it too. So I appeal to you all to make good laws that will


accommodate the right use of this drug.
Than k you all and God bless you in Jesus Name A-men.

02/11/2005.

May all the goodthing of life be yours this season.
Complements and God bless