FIJ
Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States of America, died on Sunday aged 100. His death has attracted a flurry of condolences and tributes across the world.
Notable Nigerian leaders have described Carter as a foreign leader whose efforts were beneficial to Nigeria.
On Monday, President Bola Tinubu praised Carter for combating diseases in developing countries and “mediating conflicts”.
“President Carter showed us all how to remain relevant and impactful after leaving the esteemed position of President of the United States,” Tinubu said in a statement signed by Bayo Onanuga, his special adviser on information and strategy.
“He tackled the challenges the developing world faced, from combating diseases to mediating conflicts and promoting democratic values. He exemplified grace, dignity, and a profound respect for humanity.”
Labour Party 2023 presidential candidate Peter Obi highlighted Carter’s contribution to the fight against the Guinea worm in Africa.
Writing on X, Obi said, “President Carter’s relentless fight against diseases such as Guinea worm and river blindness through The Carter Center will forever remain etched in the annals of global health advocacy. His work reached into some of the most marginalized and vulnerable communities in Africa, demonstrating that leadership transcends borders when driven by compassion.”
The conflict mediation Tinubu referred to in Carter’s legacies is famously known as the Camp David Accords of 1978, agreements Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed to address the conflict in the Middle East and Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory the West Bank.
Israel agreed to withdraw from Egypt’s Sinai region and the latter later recognised the statehood of the former. The Palestinians were not involved in the formulation of those agreements, something that earned Carter some criticism. However, the Camp David Accords negotiation was deemed a success as a step towards resolving Israeli-Palestinian hostilities. Carter was praised for his role as a firm mediator.
FIJ however revisits Carter’s role in securing a softer deal for pharmaceutical giant Pfizer whose vaccine experiments killed and deformed hundreds of children in Kano State.
According to experts, this singular experience is largely responsible for vaccine hesitancy in the northern region of Nigeria.
GOWON, CARTER BROKER REDUCED FINE
In 1996, Kano was the epicentre of a meningitis outbreak that rocked Nigeria and Pfizer offered to come to Nigeria to vaccinate victims with Trovan, an antibiotic medicine.
The military government headed by Sani Abacha granted the firm permission, enabling it to administer the medicine to patients. This led to the death of 11 people, mostly children.
Unknown to the Nigerian authorities, the drug was still at a clinical trial stage and yet to secure the approval of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
As an ethical standard in vaccine experimentation using humans as specimens, consent is to be obtained either from the test subject or their families. The company sidestepped this practice in Nigeria, leaving the specimens unaware of the consequences of presenting themselves for the Trovan trial.
After years of inaction, the federal government led by then president Umar Yar’Adua initiated both criminal and civil actions against Pfizer in 2007, claiming $2 billion in compensation, according to NEXT, a now-defunct Nigerian newspaper founded by Pulitzer award-winning journalist Dele Olojede.
In its bid to escape the full weight of the court’s ruling, the company engaged in high-level lobbying tactics. On the Nigerian side, the firm co-opted Nigeria’s former military head of state Yakubu Gowon, then Emir of Kano Ado Bayero, who was represented by a top traditional ruler, and other influential public figures.
On the American side, the big pharma company got George Bush, then US president, to task Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and diplomat Thomas Pickering to engage the Nigerian authorities for a settlement.
Within months of influence-peddling by the lobbyists, the financial claim of the Nigerian government was drastically reduced to a meagre $75 million.
While Carter appeared to have played a behind-the-scene role, AFP, France24 and other Western newspapers reported that the deal was largely brokered by him and Gowon.
“The US pharmaceuticals giant has been locked in months of negotiations with Kano State. The talks were brokered by former US president Jimmy Carter and Nigeria’s former military leader Yakubu Gowon,” France24 reported.
In its words, NEXT wrote that “The significance of the influence exerted by Mr Gowon, the representative of the Emir of Kano, and the other influential Nigerians employed by Pfizer as lobbyists, is better appreciated when one considers the fact that the Kano State claim, which was initially $2 billion dollars, was drastically reduced to $150 million, and finally to $75 million.”
It was also reported that Gowon told a committee meeting that the life of a child born in Kano was inferior to that of an American child. This statement was in response to the government’s insistence that the firm must pay the same fine it could have paid if the deadly trial had been done in the US.
Gowon’s irresponsible statement got committee members angry, compelling him to quickly apologise and plead for the statement not to go public.
Decades after the incident, the survivors of that illegal trial continue to feel sub-human and battle body and DNA deformities that could take generations to overcome.
News Central, a broadcasting station based in Lagos State, recently produced a documentary which spotlighted the challenges those survivors have had to endure in the last 28 years.
THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN FIJ
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