Vincent Akanmode
THE above headline is bound to provoke curiousity, considering the damage that coronavirus has done to humanity since it first raised its ugly head in Wuhan, a highly developed community in China, in December last year. Since then, the virus has spread around the world like a wild fire, forcing a shutdown in virtually every country and compelling people to stay indoors for fear that they could become victims.
Both the rate of infection and the death toll have been on the upward swing with countries like the US, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, UK and China among the worst hit. At press time, well over 2 million people have been infected worldwide.
For instance, the number of cases in the US was close to 700,000 at press time. Spain and Italy were close to the 200,000 mark while France and Germany were cruising towards the 150,000. Altogether, the number of deaths from the novel virus had reached about 150,000 worldwide. In Africa, South Africa is leading with more than 2,500 cases. Algeria and Morocco have close to 2,300 cases each. Of course, Nigeria has had its fair share of the rampaging virus with more than 400 cases and 12 of the close to 150,000 deaths already recorded worldwide.
Given the ugly picture, it would sound preposterous to insinuate beauty into the deadly COVID-19 in spite of its gorgeous physical appearance. As the nation battles like the rest of the world to contain the virus, we cannot lose sight of the silver linings behind its ominous cloud. It is a situation borne out by the saying that there is nothing in life without its own usefulness, no matter how bad it may look. Even a bad clock is correct two times in a day.
For instance, on account of the coronavirus pandemic, the age-long plea to our leaders to develop the health sector and upgrade the status of our hospitals from mere consulting clinics may now begin to sink into their skulls. The practice over the years has been that the people saddled with developing our healthcare structures only end up enriching themselves by diverting the funds meant for that purpose into their pockets. They believe that by so doing, they will be so comfortable financially that they can jet out to the US, the UK or Germany to treat even a headache.
Indeed, a lot of people believe that the hesitation of the powers that be to shut the nation’s international borders after the index case of COVID-19 in the country was informed by this selfish agenda. A lot of them already had scheduled foreign trips which could translate to huge personal losses if they were cancelled. Others felt that their best option in the face of the outbreak of the deadly virus was to seek medical attention abroad because our local health system would have no way of coping with a pandemic that had stretched the facilities and personnel of the so called advanced countries to their limits. The reality, however, dawned on them when the countries they had planned to run to for salvation literally turned into graveyards.
It was gratifying to hear the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic, Mr. Boss Mustapha, admitting at the National Assembly on Thursday last week that his task as the leader of the PTF had made him to be fully aware of the state of the nation’s healthcare system, noting that the facilities in our so called hospitals, including the ones designated as specialists, are deficient.
Clarifying his view at the PTF’s media briefing in Abuja the following day, following alleged misrepresentation of his views by a section of the news media, he said: “Yesterday, I mentioned at the National Assembly that I became fully aware of the state of our medical system during the execution of this task force assignment. It has become clear that this has been taken out of context. I must clarify that I am aware and has indeed been a champion for the reform and transformation of the healthcare system. However, this PTF assignment has afforded me the opportunity to dig deeper, interrogate and x-ray the system better.”
He added: “Most of the things you see around as specialists, hospitals or clinics, you just see the buildings, you don’t know what is inside. But being in this committee has given the opportunity of walking into these facilities, looking at what they have in relation to what they ought to have. My conclusion on that is that they don’t have what they ought to have.”
With the foregoing admission by the SGF, well-meaning Nigerians would hope that the outbreak of coronavirus would act as a catalyst for the desired improvement in our healthcare facilities just like the outbreak of Ebola virus a few years ago spurred the Lagos State Government into building some medical infrastructure, which came handy in the battle to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Yet there is another sense in which the coronavirus has been a massive blessing to the human race. Reports quoting weather experts indicate that with the stay-at-home order impelled by the pandemic around the world, there has been a massive improvement in the condition of the ozone layer. For ages, scientists have warned about the collective threat to our lives from human activities consistently depleted the ozone layer, the region of the earth’s surface that protects us all from the ultraviolet radiation of the sun.
With most countries of the world asking their citizens to remain indoors and most factories shutting down operations, the ozone layer has suffered less destruction. Deadly emissions from vehicles, machines and other sources, which for ages have been the biggest destroyers of the ozone, have now reduced to the tolerable level.
On the light side, there has been massive improvement in the vocabularies of most of our countrymen since the advent of COVID-19. Such words and phrases as ‘lockdown’, ‘social distancing’, ‘sanitizer’, ‘ventilator’ and ‘quarantine’, which my elderly Yoruba neighbour pronounces as parantine (she pronounces the ‘p’ the way it is pronounced in the Yoruba word ‘pako’) are no longer strange even to the starkest of illiterate Nigerians.
Leave a Reply