Nigeria Can Win 50 Percent of COVID-19 War Through Personal Hygiene, Says Nwokike

Nnamdi Nwokika, an economist, seasoned marketer and former director at the Nigerian Communications Commission was among the brains behind the manufacture of an alcohol-based disinfectant, Kilox that was recently unveiled by the Minister of state for Health, Dr. Olorunmibe Mamora in Abuja. In this interview with Onyebuchi Ezigbo, he said the initiative was part of the efforts to eradicate COVID-19 virus by promoting the hygiene consciousness of Nigerians

Why Kilox?

Kilox is a disinfectant that kills 99 per cent of germs and germs in this case for us is fungus, bacteria and parasitise. Our brand Kilox was unveiled last month by the Minister of State for Health.

Kilox is our own contribution to the hygiene consciousness of our country, of our people and that has become further necessitated by the fact that the pandemic. A pandemic which in the best circumstances could be controlled with good personal hygiene and some experts have said we are able to have an effective, safe and good hygiene that 50 per cent of germs would be taken care of and I agree with them and what is that hygiene that we are talking about?

Simple things that we have always done but never really made it a way of life. Wash your hands with soap, disinfect your hands with alcohol based wipes like Kilox, social distancing, wearing a face mask and all the things that can keep you away from the virus.

There may be other means or ways that people can get it so when you do things at that point I believe you will be less in contact with the devastation a virus like COVID can give to you because you would have been immune, you would have had some immunity than someone who has left himself just there with some bacteria and hidden virus in the body which can now be activated and made more dangerous to the human health.

We are honestly very happy that we are making this contribution to raising the hygiene consciousness so that our people can be safer, our people can be alive and our people can enjoy what’s best for them rather than being ravished by a pandemic that we believe by the grace of God can be terminated through some means.

I was talking about good personal hygiene; if you have been keeping good personal hygiene, you know our bodies have natural immunities from some flu, some cough but when you begin to inhale certain bacteria and make yourself available that when people sneeze you take in, your body will fight it, your body has doses natural immunities that can help you fight it.

Tomorrow you expose yourself again, you get infected once again and your body will fight it until when the external things that come into us overwhelms the natural immunity that is when we fall ill but when you are keeping personal hygiene by keeping away from people who are sneezing and droplets by using our wipes because after this interview we are going to wipe this office and

I am sure you would have noticed I was going back and forth in the office, I wiped here and I would wipe it for the next person that would come. So you can rest assured that the environment where we are is fully disinfected. Because if it is not touching our tables with your hands, you touching our door knobs and everything, you can carry a virus and without knowing rub it on yourself or rub your nose or eyes and you will get it.

As you get any bacteria or any external thing into your body, it is struggling and fighting with your natural immune system and over time if they continue coming to you, they will overwhelm your immune system and make you sick. So what I meant is that by using our wipes you keep your immunity steady without having to take anything incase you get anything that overwhelms your immunity you are better as a person than someone whose immunity is at the lowest level.

Are you impressed by the way Nigerians have responded to the public health advisory on non pharmaceutical protocols?

Am I impressed? Yes! Because we came from a zero level. I am impressed that the awareness is there. Am I satisfied that what we have done is good enough? No! When you claim that everything is well you are exposing your people to further minor viruses because people will drop their guards. I thank the effort of government all over the world even in America in the last regime they had the same issues because they felt that the former president wasn’t encouraging people enough because he wasn’t wearing mask in most public places and everybody is doing their bit to make sure the awareness is there on the pandemic and that we should do everything within our human effort to show that we keep the virus away.

While the scientists will continue to get the vaccine and eventually the cure that will exterminate the virus. Am I happy? Yes I am happy that the awareness has been created but am I satisfied; no because no one can be satisfied with all the efforts that has been made because it is a continuous thing and if you feel satisfied then you are leaving yourself vulnerable.

Do you think that having natural immunity can make someone to avoid taking the COVID-19 vaccine or to feel that it is no longer necessary to receive vaccine jab after all?

No, because the vaccine is also trying to boost your immunity from any kind of infection. All vaccines have the tendency of having known the current virus like chicken pox and all the things that have happened, they developed a vaccine that is more powerful and more potent than that current disease but the vaccine we have right now hasn’t been proven because no one can say the vaccine eliminates completely the corona virus because the corona virus has all kinds of mutation because you make a vaccine that takes care of this kind of virus and next we are hearing of another mutation so this vaccine may not be 100 per cent effective.

What should I say? Of course people should take the vaccine, this scientific or empirical label vaccine. We also have all kinds of remedies that people have tried if you like call it traditional or local, people take a lot of vitamin C, orange juice, ginger, garlic etc. and they feel it has some protection against a flu and it has worked for them in the past but what I am saying it isn’t something you can make a categorical statement because this human body is so different and that is why when they make a vaccine they have tested it on different kinds of human beings and they now come out to say this vaccine works for everybody. When you talk about the natural or traditional ones, what works for A may not necessarily work for B but as long as when B takes it he doesnt have side effects then it is available for everybody to be taken.

What do you think is the problem with our country’s inability to come up indigenous remedy to deal with the COVID-19 virus?

I have followed the attempts for a vaccine to be made locally and I have read also where government had looked at it and tried to assist. The pharmacists and the government may know the problem but I don’t know what the issues are and it would be very uncharitable of me to comment because I don’t have all the facts but vaccine is something that takes some time to work on and I know we have intelligent minds and highly qualified people who are interested in going into vaccine manufacture or discovery in our country and I am sure they are doing their bit they would be able to say what their challenges are and my guess would be that funding,, resources and the issue of scrutiny of what they have done may also be the problem but I can’t conclude.

Has your product received any form of endorsement from the approving agency, NAFDAC?

Our product went through regulatory scrutiny from NAFDAC and NAFDAC for quite some time until they approved the product and our product is a straight forward product that requires you have a disinfected life and when you have them at the right proportion then you wouldn’t have any problem with getting approval. We were lucky and NAFDAC approved our product and we didn’t have much challenge in getting our product approved by NAFDAC.

Do you have the capacity to meet the demands of Nigerians?

Yes we do. Let me also clear something, our manufacturing plant isn’t here but in terms of the name, it is trademarked and all the ingredients we are using to make this product is approved by NAFDAC and we are manufacturing outside the country and NAFDAC has approved everything and they have inspected our facility but it is not produced locally but as soon as we get critical mass in terms of volume, it is a very straight forward product that can be made, it doesn’t need or require high tech in terms of machinery or factory space to manufacture our product. At the right time of course we can produce here.