Tony Marinho
Exercise, don’t justt exercise Legs are made to walk and run
Mouths to eat and talk- for work and fun
If you don’t use your legs
They become just weak pegs
Unable to take your weight
Which you WILL hate
You will not be able to get out of bed
On standing they will be lead, feel dead
If you don’t sing, whistle, chit-chat, smile
You could lose your speech in a while
If you don’t listen to others and look around
You will appreciate and respect only your sound
There is no body exercise
Except your brain and fingers
When you texterise, Twittercise,
Whatsappercise, Computergamercise
Sittingworkercise, Sittingplayercise
Sitndrinkercise
Knees and legs become weak
And your walking future becomes bleak
By the time you are 60, or latest 70
You cannot stand up, without a hand up
Or a push up from the table or chair
Take more interest in your body care
You can walkercise, joggercise
You can runnercise, gymercise
All are funnercise, smilercise
But do not sitercise, or just criticize.
As you get older
Exercise, exercise, exercise longer
Bathroomrunningonthespotercise
Legskneesercise, Stairsclimbercise,
Armsercise, Gardenrunnercise
Dancercise, exercise a lot
Can help get to the needy muscle spot
Everyday do Som exercise
The lockdown has serious consequences for family health and exercise regimes. This poem can be cut out, kept and read aloud playfully regularly by the family for planning and action during and even after the COVID-19 pandemic has gone. It will go!
And women please bring out your simple plastic surfaced ‘easy-to-wipe-clean with spirit’ handbags. Hide difficult-to-clean designer bags for any ‘Post COVID-19 Handbag Celebration!
The COVID-19 records deaths are approaching 170,000, infections 2,500,000 and around 700 cases and approaching 25 deaths officially in Nigeria. Costs are unquantifiable but in $10trillions+. We are on the brink of civil unrest as robberies and attacks are on the rise. Only massive government palliative support will save the day and night.
In my clinic, I see many young students from home because Covid-19 lockdown has closed their universities if not the ASUU strike. From their phones I surmise that they have access to WhatsApp and search engines like google. I am sometimes inspired by our conversations but mostly disappointed.
There are economics, social and political science, communication students, history, medical and other students who I challenge will say ‘I get out of bed at 8.30am’ and ‘ I’m bored most days’ and they have ‘zero’ and I mean ‘zero’ knowledge and pathologically little interest in the ‘Great Economic Covid-19 Melt Down’ and consuming all during their own time.
They have no eye or head or plan to collect data, record, document, interrogate and interpret the economic impact and cost of the pandemic called Covid-19 estimated in the $10s of trillions and its associated trauma-causing events.
These events include the effects of the oil price crash to $12, the 30% devaluation of the naira, the worldwide 10-50% unemployment balloon, the medical and health impacts, the impacts on economies of the closed businesses and devastation to the vulnerable unemployed and daily paid left for weeks without a daily meal for themselves and their families or any or a grossly inadequate financial safety net.
Add the impact on their own home, family, friends, local businesses, neighbourhood, community, country, continent and planet. Every student is sitting on enough material for the best essay on return university.
‘What did you do in the 2019-2020 Covid-19 War?’. ‘What is the impact of COVID-19 on Nigeria’. Every single child worldwide will be challenged similarly. Then many of the answers will upset and shock teachers.
The terror, hunger, loss of parents and friends and relations, hospital stay, uncertainty, loss of focus, mental challenges of isolation and helplessness all weigh down everyone involved and the effect of job losses will produce a plethora of different experiences.
Some are involved in or witnessing violence due to hunger and deprivation. Of course, there is already and there will be more art, music, poetry, prose, plays and films many of which are already in the writing – all created out of the ‘cancer’ of COVID-19.
Get your youth to search for Free University Courses from many top university’s and brilliant cutting-edge lecturers. Any undergraduate in Nigeria who has not heard of or explored or enrolled in some ‘MOOC’ or ‘Mass Open Online Courses’ should be informed of opportunities being missed. COVID must not kill our youth brain.
Nigerians, know Idriss Deby and thank him, if Nigeria will not. As Chadian president, he lost 98 soldiers to Boko Haram, an organisation founded in Nigeria. Within three weeks, he led thousands of troops in counter-attacks and routed the Boko Haram plaguing his country.
Nigeria was not involved. Probably for fear of a leak by informers observing the military movements or in the ranks of our gallant armed forces who frequently are engaged in fierce battle. We pay tribute to them. The death toll to Boko Haram and Fulani and other herdsmen’ attacks rivals total deaths to COVID worldwide so far. Who cares?
Certainly, the still displaced in poorly managed IDP camps, 2+MILLION and scattered around Nigeria 3+million, are about double those infected by Covid worldwide at present. That is the extent of our delusion in Nigeria. We react to crisis and ignore our daily responsibility to the citizenry. Common market fire-fighting is nuclear physics in Nigeria. We must step-up against Boko Haram.
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