Olatunji Ololade
When politicians think they are writing history, says Rafael Behr, they are often just doodling in its margins. I agree. I would also argue in Behr-speak, that someday, President Muhammadu Buhari would look back and wish he had done more, and faster, to avert the spread of the coronavirus aka COVID-19.
Buhari would wish that he had hastened the country into lockdown sooner, but by humane palliatives; planned better the logistics of testing and supplying protective equipment. And, yes, how much he wishes those things will depend on how harshly he is judged by his specific actions or inaction. The same applies to Nigeria’s lawmakers and 36 state governors.
As the infection rates escalate, Nigerians must understand that it is not their fault that COVID-19 spreads like wildfire. It is the government’s fault. By hook or crook, via negligence and deliberate malfeasance, the government facilitated the invasion of the country by COVID-19.
By refusing to shut the airports and land borders, the government imported the gothic virus from its hotspots in the so-called first world of castles and abbeys, invasive technology and modern medicine, into the sublime theatre of Nigeria’s desolate nature.
But COVID-19’s invasion of Nigerian space is just another cul-de-sac. The presidential cabinet, National Assembly, and 36 state governors, despite their habitual dunderheadedness in matters of development, education and health matters, brilliantly converts the country into a rotting sepulchre by their reaction to the pandemic.
State governors, except Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, enforce the lockdown like some punitive measure. Despite his shortcomings in several areas, Abiodun adopts a humane measure, allowing the citizenry brief windows to stock up provisions before effecting the lockdown.
Yet some government agents, partners and law enforcers maniacally enforce the lockdown like a punishment. In a viral video, three police officers could be seen attacking a defenceless woman violently with sticks and canes. There in lies the failure of government resource staff orientation, public communication and the intervention efforts.
Of course, you may come by a few diligent, pleasant and amiable officers, whose demeanour exemplifies sterling humaneness, candour and courtesy to the citizenry they were appointed to serve.
Then we have the publicity junkies and accidental celebrities among commissioners, cabinet ministers and state governors, whose demeanour lacks the finesse, maturity, humility and compassion required of public officers, especially in a time of crisis.
Yes, Governor Babajide Sanwoolu and his team have been making commendable efforts in enlightening Lagosians about the pandemic while instituting ameliorative strategies.
Subsequent weeks would herald an upsurge in infection rates; the figures will escalate and incite fears among the citizenry. The citizenry need not worry. There is no need for panic. Rather than instill fear into the citizenry, the government must make them understand that testing positive to COVID-19 hardly translates to a death sentence.
Lagos has done a lot in this respect, although there is greater room for improvement on palliative and intervention efforts by Governor Sanwoolu and his team.
But as the virus ravages America, Asia and Europe, doomsday predictors have begun playing to the script, perfecting their roles as scaremongers and muscles to shady philanthropists, big pharmaceuticals and medical research organisations. They warn African countries to brace themselves for grave consequences, projecting more than a billion cases and 300, 000 deaths on the continent due to COVID-19.
The projections released on April 17 portend doom for Africa even as the staggering estimates resound a call to action. Medical experts and researchers, however, urge Africa to apply lessons from its recent history of battling epidemics such as Ebola and HIV, as well as lessons from countries that are currently hotspots of the pandemic.
Experts on The Conversation Africa team, for instance, recommend the dissemination of accurate information, a co-ordinated and equitable response from medical and civic communities, and governments ramping up of testing capacity.
To this end, the Nigerian government has betrayed flashes of initiative at curtailing the spread of the virus even as its social mobilisation and communication campaign is fraught with unpardonable errors and inefficiencies.
I would add that African leaders, and the Nigerian government, in particular, look inwards for possible cure and potent palliative to the virus. Recently, the Madagascan President, Andry Rajoelina, officially launched a local herbal remedy he claims can prevent and cure the novel coronavirus.
Rajoelina gave the official launch to a herbal tea claimed to prevent and cure coronavirus, according to an AFP report.
“Tests have been carried out, two people have now been cured by this treatment,” Rajoelina told ministers, diplomats and journalists at the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research (IMRA), which developed the beverage.
“This herbal tea gives results in seven days,” he said, downing a dose, and stressing thus: “I will be the first to drink this today, in front of you, to show you that this product cures and does not kill.”
The drink, called COVID-Organics, is derived from artemisia a plant with proven efficacy in malaria treatment and other indigenous herbs, according to the IMRA.
The principal ingredient in the drink is derived from Artemisia annua or sweet wormwood. Dried leaves from the plant are considered to have medicinal properties in Madagascar. But there is no evidence, claims the western media, to show that it actually works against COVID-19, a respiratory disease that has claimed more than 165,000 lives and infected almost 2.5 million people across the world.
Despite reservations by health experts, about the safety and effectiveness of the herbal beverage, Rajoelina’s government brushed aside any such reservations and said the concoction would be offered to schoolchildren, as it was his duty was to “protect the Malagasy people”.
“Covid-Organics will be used as prophylaxis, that is for prevention, but clinical observations have shown a trend towards its effectiveness in curative treatment,” said Dr. Charles Andrianjara, IMRA’s director-general.
Corroborating him, President Rajoelina said the product will be made available for free to the poor, ignoring reservations by mainstream scientists that the drug has not been assessed internationally, nor has any data from trials been published in peer-reviewed studies.
Rajoelina makes his claims in the wake of news reports that Nigeria’s Prof. Maurice Iwu had found a cure to COVID-19. It was hardly astonishing, however, that few days after the news went viral, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonanya Onu, dismissed the reports, stressing that the United States is conducting tests on a ‘chemical compound’ isolated by Iwu, as a possible cure for coronavirus. He dismissed reports suggesting that Iwu had found a cure for the disease, adding that his initial finding was that the compound could cure SARS.
It’s a very great shame that Nigeria still has to grovel before a foreign nation and seek the latter’s validation for what could possibly be her leverage to greatness. At this juncture, it is pertinent to ask: To what end are the millions of naira committed to health funding and research? How valuable is the role and establishment of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR)? How proactive is the institute in networking with sister institutes on the African continent, to conduct ground-breaking studies and find a cure to Africa’s most pressing health challenges?
How truly patriotic and compassionate is the Nigerian government as it moves to curtail the ravage and spread of COVID-19 in the country?
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