mjota2010vol4no2pp26-30 DodgsonWest Africa · 2020-03-20 · from New York is more than USD500 more...

Travelling to and through WestAfricaThe press release, following paragraph, from NorthAmerican Airlines in February 2008 was bad newsfor me as an intended frequent traveller to Africa. Atthat time I had already flown to Nigeria twice: oncefrom Philadelphia tortuously via France, once fromNew York directly to Lagos.

JAMAICA, NY. (Feb 19, 2008) – North AmericanAirlines today announced that it will discontinuescheduled service between the United States andthe cities of Lagos, Nigeria; Accra, Ghana; andGeorgetown, Guyana. All flights in these marketswill be completed by May 20, 2008. NorthAmerican ... [was] the first US airline in decadesto fly non-stop service from the United States tosub-Saharan Africa,” said Rob Binns, ChiefCommercial and Planning Officer. “We have beenpleased that all of these markets have performedon a revenue basis as we anticipated. What nowmakes these markets untenable is the rising costof fuel. We have seen our jet fuel costs increase60% since we entered the Africa markets in2005.”

The flight via France included collecting deportedNigerians, and a passenger strike because we wereupset at how it was handled by the French gen-darmes. More than 24 hours after leavingPhiladelphia I was met by my hosts who had beenwaiting 6 hours for me without any idea of why wewere delayed. The direct flight 6 months laterincluded Nigerian food, Nigerian music, and enoughsleep, and took less than 11 hours. By July 2010, I had travelled 3 times to Nigeria, and

once to Kenya via London. I held off returning toNigeria because no reason to go was worth the trou-ble and cost of getting a visa and taking 24 hours toget there. The only direct flights from the UnitedStates to Nigeria were through Atlanta, which meansthat instead of hanging about in a European airport,I would be hanging about in a United States airport. In November 2009, right after New York EchoPublisher and I went to a press preview of theBroadway musical based on the life of Nigeriansuperstar musician and political activist, Fela, Iheard about a direct flight starting between NewYork and Lagos. I was so excited I drove from myhome outside Philadelphia through heavy post-

Page 26 Volume 4, Number 2 2010 Medical Journal of Therapeutics Africa

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MJoTA Publisher. West Africa. Travelling to and through West Africa. MJoTA 2010:4(2):26-35.

New York EchoPublisher ChiefLookman SulaimonArounfale MJ trav-elled to Nigeria onArik Airlines withMJoTA Publisher andtook all the article’spictures in New York,Sierra Leone andNigeria and on board.New York Echo is New York’s first African,Caribbean and African-American communitynewspaper, http://www. mjota-nyecho.com.When you want your message read and cut outby Africans, Caribbeans and African-Americansthroughout New York, and when you want NewYork Echo delivered by mail, contact us at NewYork Echo: Chief Lookman:[email protected]; 1-718-210-6132.

Celebrating the return of a direct flight between New York and Lagos in New York, December 2009. Aboveleft, Arik Air Managing Director, Nigerian Dr Michael Arumemi-Ikhide is wearing a blue tie, seen talkingwith his wife Susan, who is a public relations professional, in red skirt. Above right, Chief Lookman.

Thanksgiving traffic to JFK airport, to record any-thing I could find about the Arik Air flight. My infor-mation was faulty: the first flight left Lagos thatnight for New York, not the other way around.However, I ran around New York’s JFK airport pho-tographing a Nigerian journalist-turned-pastorwhom I collected in the Bronx on the way, who hadagreed to come with me after innocently instantmessaging me on Facebook. Blessings on theReverend Jerry, and on Arik Air’s direct fight!Three days later Arik Air threw an inauguration partyin a hotel next to Central Park in New York, flew inits CEO Dr Michael Arumemi-Ikhide, his wife, seniormanagers, and their London-based public relationsconsultants, and invited Black media publishers andtravel agents. And I came early.This party marked a change in how New Yorkerstravel to Nigeria, and a change in the Black newspa-per with which I am affiliated. I was Managing Editorof New York Echo in Spring 2009, and left as a resultof 2 media professionals divided by a common lan-guage and a malicious lawyer. After 5 months, dur-ing which time I volunteered with Africa Reportersnewspaper as graphic designer, photographer, con-tributing editor, and newspaper distributor, Ireturned to a partnership with Chief Lookman’s NewYork Echo newspaper and the Lookman GroupPublic Relations Company.In July 2010 my year-long plans to visit Sierra Leonewith Mrs Zainab Wai-Lansana solidified with a datethat I needed to meet her in Freetown. I had metMiss Zain in Harlem in March 2009 when New York

Echo showed up at Harlem’s Apollo Theater to wit-ness her uncle Mr Sidique Wai being honored for hiswork in community liaison with the New York CityPolice Department. In the 18 months following, I fol-lowed Miss Zain’s efforts on behalf of Sierra Leoneanwomen with interest, and published an article shewrote on Sierra Leone’s terrible burden of maternalmortality (MJoTA vol3no6pp140-1). During 2010 Ms Zain collected 99 boxes and 5 bar-rels of donations of medical supplies, clothes, librarybooks and non-perishable food, with the goal of set-ting up a library in her village of Pendembu inWestern Sierra Leone. When Miss Zain was ready togo, I went with her to document for MJoTA and NewYork Echo her efforts in aiming to reduce the rate ofmaternal mortality on behalf of the Foundation sheand her kinsman Alfred Jamiru run, AmulomaDevelopment Foundation Inc.Getting to Sierra Leone is gruelling. Miss Zain land-ed in Brussels and in Dakar before arriving inFreetown, herself and her young son Cecil Lansanaintact, but minus a suitcase. I decided to go first to Lagos, and then buy an addi-tional Arik Air ticket to get to Sierra Leone’s capitalcity, Freetown. The cost of my Arik Air ticketbetween Lagos and Freetown was USD750roundtrip. Because the cost of the New York toLagos flight was reduced 35% by Arik Air manage-ment as a courtesy to New York Echo, the cost offlying from New York to Freetown was approximate-ly the same for Miss Zain as for MJoTA Publisher. Forthe general traveller, the cost of flying to Freetown

7 Volume 4, Number 1 2010 Medical Journal of Therapeutics Africa

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Above, Delta airplane in flight over Brooklyn. Deltaflies direct to Nigeria from the United States fromAtlanta, which is approximately 900 miles south ofNew York. Left, from first page of MJoTA 2009 vol 3, no 6pp140-1, in which Mrs Zainab Wai-Lansana (MissZain) describes the deaths of both of her grand-mothers in childbirth in the 1940s, and the hazardsof childbirth in Sierra Leone today.

from New York is more than USD500 more expen-sive by Arik Air via Lagos, and the passenger willadditionally have to buy a Nigerian visa (USD112 forsingle entry).The flight to Africa for us started in New York at JFKAirport when Chief Lookman Sulaimon and I arrivedat the check-in counter in Terminal 4. The plane wasscheduled to leave at 10pm, and it did, exactly ontime. After traffic jams, buying bottles of perfumeand baby clothes for Chief Lookman’s newbornnephew, we had arrived late, just before 9pm, with4 large bags, all overweight. The Arik Air crew werepolite and sympathetic and Chief Lookman jetti-soned excess weight which friends carried home,and we shrink-wrapped the 4 bags we took with us.We were the last passengers on the plane before thecabin crew closed the doors for flight.The flight itself was pleasant and uneventful. Wesettled into vacant bulkhead seats, economy was60% filled, and for some hours Chief Lookman chat-ted with fellow passengers in the midplane economyservice area, which includes a bar table. The flightcrew were friendly and permitted us to photographthem.Arriving Lagos on time, moving through immigra-tion, baggage collection and customs was smooth.We were collected by our hosts and settled back forseveral days of travelling around Lagos collectingstories, visiting the Faculty of Pharmacy, theUniversity of Lagos, meeting with friends, relatives,prospective clients, and organizing return trips. We

travelled across Lagos, past Victoria Island, to cele-brate the coronation of a king. Chief Lookman hadintroduced me to him in Atlanta, Georgia, during thecelebrations of the wedding of a princess (Africa inAmerica. Atlanta Nigerian Muslim Wedding. MJoTA2009:3(5):126-7). We were shown around a Lagoscatfish farm, which is a small hatchery for a 3-acrefarm in the country.Four days later I went back to Murtala InternationalAirport to buy a ticket on Arik Air for Sierra Leone.


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Top, economy passengers settling in for the 10 to 11 hour Arik Air flight from New York to Lagos. Aboveleft, Chief Lookman chatting with other passengers at the economy section bar. Above right, stewards.

MiMW (MJoTA Institute of Medical Writing) isacceptinghealth profes-sionals andlife scientistsas MJoTAMedicalWriters.You will work with the MJoTA Publisher to pre-pare articles for publication and to build medicalwriting portfolios for careers in academia or thepharmaceutical industry. We enroll you in theMiMW Certificate of Medical Writing programwhere you progress through 3 courses by webi-nar and topics posted on the website. The certificate can be earned by examination byMJoTA medical writers who have worked asprofessional medical writers. Fees and more information: http://www.med-icalwritinginstitute.us1-856-795-2359DrDodgson@medicalwritinginstitute.us

We stood in line at the local airport in the upstairsArik office, and after 30 minutes exchanged 82,000Naira (approximately 150 Naira per USD1) for aroundtrip ticket to Freetown. Flights from Lagos andFreetown are Wednesdays and Fridays and Sundays,leaving at 8 am and arriving at 9:30am; and fromFreetown to Lagos are the same days, leaving at5:15pm and arriving at 8:30pm. During the summer,Nigeria is on United Kingdom time (United Statestime +5h) and Sierra Leone is 1 hour behind


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Above, Chief Lookman visits a Nigerian-Americanprofessional who walked down the hospital corri-dor after 6 weeks therapy in New York. He retiredto Nigeria, and his life was saved because of theArik Air direct flight. A series of medical mishapshad him fighting for his life in Lagos; and was toldhe would not survive a day longer without a ther-apy unavailable in Lagos. That night, unable towalk and with difficulty breathing, he was put onthe direct flight to New York accompanied by atrained nurse and a son. An ambulance met him atthe airport and took him to Brooklyn’s King’sCounty Hospital.Below, Chief Lookman inspects a hatchery in aLagos fish farm, owned by the Nigerian-Americanshown above with his wife.

Top, Chief Lookman greets Mr Pedro Lawal SAN,Solicitor-General of Lagos, during the celebrationsof the coronation of His Royal Majesty ZaidElegushi as King of Ikateland. The King and Queenare shown with their faces towards the camera in.Above, Chief Lookman and Dr Dodgson celebratethe coronation.

(United States time +4h).My flight from Lagos to Freetown was on time anduneventful. The cabin crew did not want any pic-tures taken, and the passenger in front of me wasvery upset when I was taking pictures through thewindow after the captain had told us to shut downany electronic devices. I told him that my Canon E50did not transmit signals, so technically it is does notmeet the definition of an electronic device.I was met at Freetown’s Lungi Airport by Miss Zainand her cousin, a very tall soldier named MichaeloJamiru. Three weeks later Michaelo loaded all the


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Top, middle, Arik Air office in Freetown,Sierra Leone. Above, Sierra Leone from theair. Upper left, views of Freetown from harborand from IMATT. Lower left, Miss Zain and DrDodgson in Freetown.

donated supplies onto a military truck Miss Zainhired to drive to the provinces.Lungi Airport is Sierra Leone’s main airport, andFreetown is the main city. However, they are notclose, getting from Lungi to Freetown and to wherewe stayed, up in the hills near the new AmericanEmbassy. First we had a 20-minute taxi ride, then a30-minute ferry ride to Freetown, then a 30-minutetaxi ride past Choithram Memorial Hospital justbefore IMATT, the International Military forces bar-

racks, and the Roman Catholic Seminary. However,before we headed for the hills we stopped byBrussels Airline to check if they had Miss Zain’s suit-case. They did.Ten days into our stay, I needed to change my flighttickets back to Lagos, and back to New York for 2


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Sierra Leone’s Green Party celebrates the reopening of itsheadquarters in Freetown 18 months after its destruction bythugs, above, with the United Nations representative (lightskin). One week later, Dr Alfred Fawundu was laid out in theheadquarters for the first official funeral rite. Pictures from the3 days of rites in Freetown and Bo below.

When yWhen you givou give te to Amulomao AmulomaDeDevvelopmenelopment Ft Foundaoundation, ytion, yououwwork tork toowwarards crds creeaating wting weealthalthand heand health thralth through agriculturough agriculture. e. ADF drADF dreeams thaams that Pt Pendembu andendembu andsurrsurrounding disounding districttricts wis wi ll noll nolonger burlonger bury daughy daughtterers ands andininffanantts des deaad in chid in chi ld-birth whenld-birth wheneefficienfficient agriculturt agricultural tal techniqueechniquessarare lee learnearned and emplod and employyeed. d. ConConttact ADF eact ADF exxecutivecutivees born ofs born ofthe soithe soi l of Pl of Pendembu: Miss Zainendembu: Miss Zain(Zainab Wai-Lansana): (Zainab Wai-Lansana): zzainabainabwwai@[email protected]: Alfrom: AlfreeddJamiru:Jamiru:maamaadajaamu@[email protected]

reasons. First, the ship carrying the donated sup-plies still had not arrived and Miss Zain and her soncould not stay longer than their planned 3 weeks.Secondly, Dr Alfred Sallia Fawundu died. He was aprominent Sierra Leonean statesman, 2012 presi-dential candidate and Miss Zain’s uncle. Changing the ticket back to Freetown was easy, theArik Air office in Freetown, on the same street at theAmnesty International office, is well-staffed withpolite, uniformed men and women. I walked in, theyasked me what I wanted, they said it will costUSD50, and it was done. I asked them if they couldchange my ticket back to New York. They told meno, I could not do anything until I arrived in Lagosand handed over cash. I called Chief Lookman, whoby now had returned to New York, who was told the

same thing. I know that all airplane tickets can be changed for asmall or large sum of money, and so I started look-ing for telephone numbers to call until someoneagreed to change my ticket. Miss Zain called MsJeneba, a Sierra Leonean accountant in Brooklynand a great friend of Amuloma DevelopmentFoundation Inc, who linked me to the New York ArikSales Manager, who changed my ticket for USD290.After I talked with him, I decided that a Sundayreturn from Lagos made more sense than theTuesday we had agreed on, but I was not surewhether I was able to move it to Monday. After that,I accessed the internet to see that money had beentaken from my credit card, so I knew I had a ticketfrom Lagos to New York, but I was not sure on


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Bottom right, the Paramount Chief in charge of Pendembu and surrounding Chiefdom presides over thedistribution of gifts from Amuloma at his family com-pound. Sister Dorothy greets Dr Dodgson; middle,measures Sao Vandy’s blood pressure;chats with theParamount Chief; chats with Mary Flora. Computersshown were donated by Helping Hand Foundationthrough United African Congress.

which day. For the next 3 days I was involved in the funeralrites of Dr Alfred Fawundu. Dr Fawundu worked formany years with the United Nations, and was theuncle of Miss Zain, of our host, telecommunicationsexecutive Mrs Hawa Turay-Bah and of agriculturalistMr Abdullai Wai. Dr Fawundu’s funeral involved a United Nations hel-icopter and his body lying in state in Freetown at 2locations, and 200 miles away in Bo at 3 locations,with a civic and public funeral the third day, culmi-nating in burial in a concrete grave after the sayingof the Sierra Leonean Pledge of Allegiance and theplaying of Taps by boys from his school, the BoSchool.After the burial Miss Zain, her son and I travelledback to Freetown to organize their departure for theUnited States, which was delayed 4 days by the air-port Brussels Airline personnel not having her nameon the flight list, even after she had confirmed herflight 3 days before at the Brussels Airline office. Iheard the customer representative tell her “Have apleasant flight Madame”, and saw them shakehands. When the flight left without her, she was sentback to Freetown without knowing when or if shewould be flying out on a subsequent flight. We spec-ulated than someone in the airline had been offeredmoney for 2 seats, and so sold that person MissZain’s seats. Four days later, Brussels Airline honoredMiss Zain’s ticket.The next day, Miss Zain still did not know when sheand Cecil would be returning back to New York, butI left anyway for the provinces on a rented militarytruck with 6 relatives and 4 soldiers and the donat-ed supplies.


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Far left, Meeting of agriculturalengineers in Freetown, all gradu-ates of Fourah Bay College. Theyhave formed a company aimed atincreasing agricultural production.Above, Abdullai Wai won a compe-tition by linking growing and man-ufacturing poultry feed and flour.Bottom, My hosts in Freetown, MrsHawa Turay-Bah and her sons.

The Sisters of the Order of the Holy Child inSierra Leone in Pendembu and Freetown arecaring for children whose families cannot.

A little money goes a long way in Sierra Leone;if you are interested in helping these children,being guests of the nuns, and being given fre-quent reports about their progress by the nunsand the children themselves, please considersending them 50 dollars a month. That isenough for an excellent education of one child.The Lookman Group, MJoTA and AmulomaDevelopment Foundation can put together atravel package for you in Freetown and in theeastern provinces to visit these [email protected].

Twenty-four hours later we left 62 miles of pot-holedred clay road and drove into the Paramount Chief’scompound in Pendembu, a remote town in the east-ern provinces where gasoline was USD5 a gallon andelectricity was generated an hour or 2 every otherday from gasoline-fueled generators. My phone did not work in Pendembu, and I had nointernet. But I could have, if I had been using thephone service of Sierra Leone’s leading carrier, andif I had been using their internet stick. Next time, Iwill do both. Even in the remotest part of SierraLeone, where drinking and cooking water is alldrawn from UNICEF-built wells and all electricitycomes from gasoline generators, the mobile phonenetwork is working and internet can be accessed. Isaw mobile phones being charged, for a fee, at themobile phone shop in Pendembu.In Pendembu I had 3 tasks. The first task was topresent the donated supplies to the Paramount Chief(in Nigeria, his equivalent is a king; in the UnitedStates the closest equivalent is a mayor elected fromand by a handful of families), and put in place aneffective strategy for distributing clothes to theneedy, medical supplies to health professionals -mainly sterile gloves, hospital shoes, swabs andbandages donated by King’s County Hospital.Amuloma Development Foundation also donated 3blood pressure machines.My second task was to work with the community toput together a plan to set up a library with 1,000donated books and 2 new desk-top computers(donated to the United African Congress by GordonH Tapper, a former United Nations diplomat fromJamaica from Give Them a Hand Foundation). Thebooks were stored while a library was being built.My third task was to find information about the pos-

sibility of generating income from agricultural enter-prises: I was shown a 40-acre swamp where rice isgrown, the maximum has been 4 acres.I was welcomed in Pendembu, and I left with a liverooster, a gift from the parents of a young girl of 6of genius intellect whom I promised to find funds forso she can have the best possible education. She iswell cared for by Roman Catholic nun Sister Dorothy,a Nigerian nurse from Anumbra who is one of thefew health trained health professionals working inthe district. The rooster ended in the pot of police ata checkpoint, see above pictures.All this excitement and no contact with the outsideworld left me late planning what I would do after Ileft Freetown by Arik Air for Lagos. The optionswere, my first choice, fly to Lagos on a Sunday nightand then, back to New York 2 days later. And mysecond choice, which was fly to Lagos on Sundaynight and then immediately fly to New York on a sec-ond Arik flight. I heard in Sierra Leone that this is achoice that is being made in Freetown with citizenswith West African passports who do not have to paythe hefty visa fees I had to: USD112 to Nigeria andUSD140 to Sierra Leone. Three days before I was due to leave Sierra Leone Idiscovered that I was indeed going to be spending 2days in Lagos. I called Chief Lookman, whosearrangements collapsed when my expected host hadto be in Abuja for a financial conference, where herphone did not work. A call to New York resulted inMiss Zain calling around and getting a phone num-ber from Ghanaian mechanical engineer SaddickAbubakar. Miss Zain told me arrangements weremade, and I should call this number in Nigeria. It turned out the number was to an AssistantInspector General of Police, Mrs Ivy Orokwa, a gra-


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The police checkpoint 229km fromFreetown where the bus returning fromPendembu broke down. Left, the policeoffice who gave up his bed for DrDodgson, below left, the military detec-tive Terwally, right, the checkpoint atdawn, below right, the replacementbus. Miss Zain’s brother Joseph Wright,in black jacket, is talking on the phone.We gave the officers our live rooster.

cious lady, who told me she would get “one of hercommissioners” to take me in because she hadheard I refused to stay in hotels. The commissionerturned out to be PC Mr Marvel Akpoyanibo Esq, atriple-degreed lawyer in charge of the security of allof Lagos State. Because of the police connection, my feet did nottouch the ground in Nigeria. As I was wanderingtowards customs, a tall man asked me if I was DrSusanna, and told me everything was being takencare of. I spent 2 days being driven in a car with anarmed escort, and eating chocolate in the home ofthe Commissioner and his family. His middle son, achemical engineer, came from Scotland a few hoursafter I arrived, and carried with him a lot of choco-late candy. I also attended a police press conference, when thePolice Commissioner announced his men had caughta dozen or so armed robbers. The PoliceCommissioner is proud of the record of his watch:with a reduction in violent crimes and car thefts.Reported kidnappings in Lagos State are down tozero: the Police Commissioner wants everyone to

know that Lagos State is safe and all law-abiding vis-itors are most welcome.My flight from Lagos to New York was my fourth onArik, my fourth flight that was smooth and unevent-ful and left on time. I returned to New York earlier than the publishedtime, and was home in Brooklyn by 5:30am on aWednesday morning, refreshed from enough sleep,and ready to start work.By MJoTA PublisherMJoTA Publisher, Professor Susanna JDodgson BSc(Hons), PhD earned her doctor-ate in Physiology from the University of NewSouth Wales, Australia, and spent 35 yearsworking in academia and the pharmaceuticalindustry in New Jersey.


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George Gandor in Freetown. After matriculatingfrom Bo School, he worked for 2 years in a SierraLeonean non-profit company with the goal ofempowering citizens by creating wealth andhealth. He is now studying international relationsin Fourah Bay College. He helped prepare DrDodgson for her trip to Pendembu.

The Lookman GroupFull-service public relations firm, inthe Caton-Flatbush Mall inBrooklyn.

www.lookmangroup.com.1-718-395-0235.

[email protected]

We increase your customers throughresearch-driven marketing.Publishers of New York Echo.

Lagos State Police Commissioner MarvelAkpoyanibo Esq presides over a press conferenceIkeja High Command and announces capture ofarmed robbers.

mjota2010vol4no2pp26-30 DodgsonWest Africa · 2020-03-20 · from New York is more than USD500 more...

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