Tunji Adegboyega
PERMIT me to start by saying that this headline is not my idea. I got it from a WhatsApp post. Nigeria has known no sleep since the Italian index case jolted it to the reality of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on February 27, 2020. Before then, Nigerians had thought the disease was only for people eating live rats and lizards, or people who engage in immorality far beyond the ‘little sins’ that we commit in the country. What we all conveniently forgot was the fact that the world is now a global village where whatever happens in a place, for good or for ill, should necessarily be of concern to people, even in seemingly far-flung places.
How we conveniently forgot this principle is baffling though, when a few decades before the advent of the international network (Internet), national events in some countries, including African countries, were more or less precursors to what to expect in contiguous countries. For instance, a coup in Nigeria was warning that the same could follow in our neighbouring countries. That, however, is not where I am going today.
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by a strain of coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) not previously identified in humans. It was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WH) on December 31, 2019. That it was first noted in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 would seem the only fact that is generally accepted about the virus or the pandemic. The other thing close to that is the number of confirmed cases which stood at 1,601,108 infected, 354,972 recoveries and 95,718 deaths as at April 10. Most other things that we know about it are subjects of all manner of conspiracy theories. Some of these are woven around science and technology, some around the politics of the international political system, and even some around religion. While people are generally being warned to be wary of swallowing the information they receive on the pandemic, especially in these days of the ubiquitous and highly intrusive social media (a point that I somewhat share because at a time, I too became confused as to what to believe or what not to believe about the pandemic, given the sheer avalanche of information that all kinds of ‘experts’ push as the truth, indeed the gospel truth, on the internet about the virus).
I am however somewhat comfortable with the school of thought urging caution on what we come across on the subject than outright rejection of all of the theories and potential cure for the disease. This point becomes pertinent because at some point, some of the theories seem to be making sense. Take for instance the theory that coronavirus is a fallout of the 5G network. But that would appear settled with the revelation that there is absolutely no correlation, not to talk of causation, between coronavirus and 5G since radio waves are only said to be capable of spreading computer virus, not human virus. We cannot blame our people, especially when people in a developed country like the United Kingdom have had cause to pull down 5G masts as a result of the widespread misconception.
Coming back home, if there is any country that must learn any lesson from the pandemic caused by this tiny virus that is shaking the entire world, Nigeria is it. Unfortunately, we are in a country where our political elite do not learn any lesson. For them, it is more of hype than action; more of motions in the legislative houses without movement. They are usually tall in words but short in action. Indeed, COVID -19 has once again exposed the underbelly of our shambolic healthcare system. It has exposed the impunity that reigns supreme, especially in high places, among other things. We should just thank God for God. I have always said that Nigeria is one of the countries where the Almighty has remained faithful to His promise not to test human beings beyond our capacity. If we had been hit by a third of the COVID-19 cases they have in Italy, the United States, Spain, etc., only God knows how many Nigerians would have been singing their Nunc Dimittis by now.
If ours had been a country where leaders learn, our prisons would have been better than they are. After all we had Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who literally moved to the presidential palace from prison. He had first hand experience of what the prisons were like before 1999 when he became president. He should have sworn never to leave them worse than they were when he was an inmate. Reason being that he should have been humbled that a man like him that many of us had thought was an ‘institution’ could ever be a prisoner, political or whatever.
Look at our incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari too. This was a man some people, particularly his political detractors, had written off as a result of his frequent travels abroad for medical treatment when he came to power in 2015. In a clime where leaders learn, such a man ought to be keen on leaving an impressive mark on healthcare and our hospitals. President Buhari would be celebrating (or marking) his fifth year in power on May 29. Since he is entitled to only a two-term tenure of four years each, he would leave the scene in 2023. It is doubtful if such is on his priority list. This is particularly sad given that the same Buhari had cause to condemn our hospitals as ‘mere consulting clinics’ in 1983 when soldiers sacked the corrupt and inept Shagari administration. It is doubtful if the hospitals that the president would be handing over to his successor would not be worse than consulting clinics. Even lesser mortals have had cause to establish foundations for ailments that claimed the lives of their loved ones or stretched them beyond limits. How much more people who have the power to make things happen. Well, maybe we should not castigate President Buhari yet; perhaps he has other priorities. We will find out in the next three years.
By the way, what has happened to all the scheduled and unscheduled medical trips of our public officials since the outbreak of COVID-19? Does it mean that none of them would ordinarily not have travelled for medical checkup these past weeks? This is doubtful, given their propensity for medical tourism. The funny part of it is that even when poverty-stricken Nigerians with their fecund sense of imagination offered to sponsor such medical trips for the rich from the little that they are able to make from the crumbs falling off the tables of the public officials, none of them has come forward to benefit from such facility! It is that bad; so bad that the foreign countries that these officials could never imagine living without suddenly became like pariah nations to them. For once, they suddenly realised that there is no place like home.
This should be enough lesson to jolt them to begin to do something for their country. But that is in a clime where people learn any lesson.
But if they still have not learnt any lesson to make them turn a new, then the fault would not be in them but in us (the followers). When people bribe their way to political offices, the result is what we are seeing. I have heard people say they took as low as N1,000 at polling booths to vote for certain candidates and they were satisfied because, at least they have got something and that it is better because that was the only time they would ever see the politicians. That once the candidates get to office, they become elusive.
This kind of mindset will continue to shortchange the country. It is a thing like this that would make supposedly elected lawmakers to share cars worth millions of naira among themselves only to say they are donating pittance (which is what their pay slip income is) to alleviate the people’s suffering as a result of COVID-19. And this at a time when the country’s revenue has taken a plunge; such extravagance would have been seen as obscene where the lawmakers were truly the people’s representatives.;
But this kind of nonsense will not stop until Nigerians begin to insist on good governance. I have said it before, and I am restating that politicians would always concede to Nigerians’ request for new minimum wage than the request for good governance. We saw that during the agitation for new minimum wage last year. Even some of the states that we thought were too poor to pay eventually agreed to pay. The public office holders would have been forced to be accountable, considerate, transparent if Labour’s agitations are always geared toward good governance. I do not know how many countries hike wages in the name of salary review the way we do simply because we have not learnt to do it periodically as we should.
Ours is perhaps the only country where public officials would run down public schools, public hospitals, etc. and prefer to go abroad to enjoy such facilities at the taxpayers’ expense, leaving the taxpayer to his own device.
Concerning religion and COVID-19, I laugh when some of the pastors started lamenting that the lockdown is a device by the anti-Christ to take charge of global affairs. I laugh not necessarily because they are wrong, but because I am sure many of them are worried more not because of the souls they cannot harvest for God or the loss of the ones already in the fold, but essentially because of the negative impact of the lockdown on their bottom line. The truth of the matter is that many churches have adopted ‘cash and carry’ approach to their operations. They have therefore shut out many genuine sheep who should be in but lack the financial muscle to attract recognition that such financial muscle commands, while throwing their doors open to moneybags who have neither the passion nor the time for God, just because of the hefty sums they drop at church services or functions. (To be concluded next week).
QUOTE: By the way, what has happened to all the scheduled and unscheduled medical trips of our public officials since the outbreak of COVID-19? …The funny part of it is that even when poverty-stricken Nigerians with their fecund sense of imagination offered to sponsor such medical trips for the rich from the little that they are able to make from the crumbs falling off the tables of the public officials, none of them has come forward to benefit from such facility!
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