For over two decades, the world remained suspended in perpetual disillusion about a disease that has now become a subject of confusion; so much so for the varying perceptions than the brunt of the scourge.

As far as records are concerned, malaria, killer disease number 1 in Africa, poses a greater treat to the continent than HIV/AIDS. Unfortunately though, we tend to belabour more on the latter than the former.

As if we are incurably possessed! Let us take a keen look on global discourse, viz-a-viz the twin subjects, and we will discover to our dismay the great politics surrounding the whole issue, all being perpetuated for thorny economic interest. This is mere gimmicks.

We shouldn’t waste any more of our precious time debating on the origin of HIV/AIDS. What is important now is for us to make sense of the rationale behind the politics.

Statistics have it that Africa has the greatest share of HIV/AIDS prevalence in the whole world. This is not at all any surprise, because it is almost a normalcy that whenever we talk about death and diseases, Africa is always at the top of the chart.

Either a disease has been first discovered here, or, because of poverty and all what not, it is predominant on the continent. Interestingly, we are always more than willing to accept these revelations as Biblical facts.

Occasionally though , we are blessed with voices of conscience; people that serve as forces totale, genuine discomfort for these impalpable forces of psychosomatic colonisation of the African people.

Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, apparently wounded the feelings of these people when he spoke in a way that wrongly suggested his indifference to the existence of HIV/AIDS. However, the bombshell was soon to surface.

When President Yahya Jammeh made his historic revelation twelve months ago on the hitherto incurable disease, it was like raining hell on earth. The sheer response of septics was appallingly terrifying. But  it was also revealing. What was stunning was not the spree of criticism, but rather it was the myopic nature and racist tone it took in certain quarters.

The impression you got was that some people do not expect that there should ever be any cure for the disease. Presumably not until poor Africa is rid of half of its population. And for others, it was just too much to contemplate the possibility of an African discovering the cure. Gambian? No way! They simply cannot accept it.

But who cares, anyway?

In fact, President Jammeh’s revelation is not ∆limited to HIV/AIDS, yet the fuss persistently centres around only that. It appears that nobody bothers about how many diseases he cures, as long as the sacred HIV/AIDS is not one of them.

Who on earth owns the right to decide who cures what and who doesn’t, anyway?  They say the best way to answer a fool is by  ignoring them, and that, to our delight, is what the president is doing exactly. The words of former SOS Mbowe sums it all up:

“The beauty of medicine is the restoration of the sick to health.” If the pictures we are seeing are what everybody is seeing, then there is absolutely no need for argument. The case is closed!

Just a word of caution for the presidential protection outfit; never trust anybody! History has shown that our detractors can stop at nothing...!