By Aaron Ukodie
There are a number of issues plaguing the Nigerian state that the senate should be worried about and seek solutions to. The false claims that 5G is the cause of the covid virus or has health threats is certainly not one of them. But as you and I know the Nigerian senate holds the world record for sidetracking from main national and developmental issues and veer into the peripherals.
There are so many reasons why the senate current interest in probing claims that 5G causes health hazards and is tied to 5G is nonsensical. The first reason is that the person who sponsored the bill and her colleagues should have known by now that there are no 5G networks in Nigeria yet. They have been told so in many ways.
The minister of communication and digital economy, Dr Isa Pantami told Nigerians so. The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Communication (NCC) Professor Umar Danbatta has amplified the same information in several press statements. Several local and international industry and health organisations such as Nigeria’s ALTON and ATCON have said so. The World Health Organisation recently issued a statement to say Covid-19 is not tied to 5G. The global mobile association GSMA has lent its voice to disclaim the claims.
Secondly, what other information are they going to get outside the ones that are already in the public space, that have been given by various relevant agencies and experts that the senate is likely to invite to give testify. Or are they going to take statements from non-experts such as Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, one of those peddling the rumours in Nigeria?
Thirdly, this would not be the first time the senate would be looking into persisting claims that telecom infrastructures, such as microwaves and masts, pose health hazards. What did they find out in those investigations that could be different from the outcome of this their current engagement? Don’t these senators carry out studies or have experts who advise them? Could it be, as some are claiming, that their motive is to intimidate and create a platform for seeking pecuniary gains from industry operators?
The Nigerian senate is devoting a whole four committees to this hoax. They are led by the Communications Committee headed by Senator Oluremi Tinubu.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, Senator Uche Ekwenife who raised the motion which is setting the senate on a wild goose chase and the waste of tax payers’ money claims the senate wants to determine the technological impact of 5G network on Nigerian citizens.
She also claims that there is “uncertainty on whether or not the 5G network has been launched in Nigeria will continue to fuel speculations and rumour concerning the deployment of the 5G network and its effects on citizens of Nigeria”.
Ekwunife, who may not be reading newspapers, local or foreign thinks there could be “a strong radiating mobile communications antenna approximately every 100 meters, producing a radiation tsunami and taking up to a 1,000 fold increase in the transmission power”.
She also said “several countries including Switzerland, one of the world leaders in the rollout of the 5G mobile technology, has placed an indefinite moratorium on the use of 5G network because of its health hazards.”
I have taken time to search to see how other nations are reacting to rumours that Covid-19 was caused by 5G networks, and have found out that the Nigerian reaction is peculiar.
Curiously, if Ekwunife reads newspapers, from where she is taking her motion from, she would have known that news that Switzerland has halted 5G rollout over health concerns which made their rounds on February 12, 2020 were disclaimed the next day by that country’s officials. This is what news reports carried on February 13, 2020.
“Environmental officials in Switzerland told Mobile World Live (MWL) reports of a blanket ban on future 5G infrastructure deployments in the country due to health concerns were not accurate, with local authorities instead tasked with ruling on the siting of the kit.
“Responding to a report by Financial Times (FT), a representative of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) admitted it had recently written to the nation’s 26 regional authorities, known as cantons, regarding the placement of 5G equipment. However, the representative said an FT assertion the communication called on cantons to put planning permission for next-generation equipment on ice was “misleading”.
“The Federal Office for the Environment’s (FOEN) letter to the cantons does not contain any recommendation to stop the permitting of 5G base stations” the representative told MWL, adding: “Rather, it sets out how the cantons can proceed with the permitting of 5G and adaptive antennas until FOEN’s enforcement aid on adaptive antennas is available.”
Many of those sharing the post are pushing a conspiracy theory falsely claiming that 5G – which is used in mobile phone networks and relies on signals carried by radio waves – is somehow responsible for coronavirus.
These theories appear to have first emerged via Facebook posts in late January, around the same time the first cases were recorded in the US.
A recording spread around the world at the end of March, purportedly featuring a former Vodafone executive claiming to let the public in on a secret that the coronavirus pandemic is cover for a global plot to install 5G mobile phone masts, track the world’s population through vaccines, and then destroy human society as we know it.
In reality, the Guardian can reveal, the voice on the tape making the baseless claims is an evangelical pastor from Luton who recently tried to convince Zimbabweans to use cryptocurrency in their economy.
Jonathon James, who regularly preached at churches in Bedfordshire, is the previously unidentified individual who reached millions of people with his detailed but nonsense claims that Covid-19 is a fake disease covering for the impact of 5G.
“It has nothing to do with biological warfare but is our bodies reacting to radiofrequency radiation,” he told listeners to the 38-minute recording, claiming the real cause of global deaths was new mobile technology causing cell poisoning. “They are using coronavirus to try to hide the fact that people are dying from the 5G frequency.”
Although James was not the first individual to attempt to connect the pandemic and 5G, the popularity of his recording grew at the end of last month, just as people believing the conspiracy theory began to burn down phone equipment and harass telecoms engineers.
In the recording he suggests that Bill Gates is involved in a plot to produce coronavirus vaccinations that will contain computer chips to track individuals, a move he claims will ultimately herald the destruction of society.
Nigerian pastors, such as Chris Oyakhilome keyed into the falsehood being propagated by his colleagues, Luton and James to spread the fire in Nigeria.
Their claims appear to fall broadly in to two camps:
One claims 5G can suppress the immune system, thus making people more susceptible to catching the virus.
The other suggests the virus can somehow be transmitted through the use of 5G technology.
Both these notions are “complete rubbish,” says Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading.
“The idea that 5G lowers your immune system doesn’t stand up to scrutiny,” Dr Clarke says.
“Your immune system can be dipped by all sorts of thing – by being tired one day, or not having a good diet. Those fluctuations aren’t huge but can make you more susceptible to catching viruses.”
While very strong radio waves can cause heating, 5G is nowhere near strong enough to heat people up enough to have any meaningful effect.
“Radio waves can disrupt your physiology as they heat you up, meaning your immune system can’t function. But [the energy levels from] 5G radio waves are tiny and they are nowhere near strong enough to affect the immune system. There have been lots of studies on this.”
The radio waves involved in 5G and other mobile phone technology sit on the low frequency end of the electromagnetic spectrum. Less powerful than visible light, they are not strong enough to damage cells – unlike radiation at the higher frequency end of the spectrum which includes the sun’s rays and medical x-rays.
It would also be impossible for 5G to transmit the virus, Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol, adds.
“The present epidemic is caused by a virus that is passed from one infected person to another. We know this is true. We even have the virus growing in our lab, obtained from a person with the illness. Viruses and electromagnetic waves that make mobile phones and internet connections work are different things. As different as chalk and cheese,” he says.
But would the Nigerian senate hear and let off the probe and focus on more nagging national issues and allow the Nigerian ICT industry that is raking in trillions of naira be?
