Dayo Sobowale
THERE is a proverb that says the ‘a hungry dog does not play with a well fed dog’.
You may scoff that such saying is meant for a dog’s life and not for humans .But I say not so, and I intend to show why with this pandemic threatening the way of life of our global community.
Lockdowns, social distancing , face masks have become essential tools for human survival all over the world and I start today by thanking the Nigerian President for putting in place guide lines for opening the economies of the two states of Ogun and Lagos states which have been in effective lockdowns for five weeks by Monday May 4, when they will now open shop as it were. That was a great relief but a good challenge to all of us to abide by the rules of hygiene so clearly spelt out for our safety and survival during this pandemic. It is in the spirit of living up to the guidelines and implementing them to the letter as both law abiding and survival loving Nigerian citizens, that I look at today’s topic with the dog hunger proverb.
Some issues I came across this week agitated my mind in picking this topic. The first was the ease with which European nations moved to lockdowns even as some of their citizens complained that they did not move fast enough to contain the pandemic, which by the way, I will not call by its name again , till it has passed .The second was an opinion article in CNN that noted that America may not know the answer to the pandemic but it knew the answer to cure hunger, all along. The third was the news that Germany is helping Nigeria with debt relief during this trying period, and has provided funds to alleviate our suffering during the pandemic. The fourth is the amazing way that EU nations are altering their way of life and culture now and in the future to suit solutions on ground for the virus, with perhaps, the exception of Sweden. I will now elaborate in depth on these issues.
It is my view that it was easy for Europe to move to lockdown as a pandemic containment strategy because it has always been ‘a well fed dog‘ given the preponderance of the welfare state in the style of governance of nations in the European Union and community. To keep this welfarist style afloat the EU controls spending such that member nations budget deficit must be within a certain percentage of the individual nation GDP. I am not underestimating the European safety concern over the spiraling deaths of the pandemic, but a lockdown option with prospect of food on the table in the interval, no matter how long, is not a difficult option under such circumstances. In African nations the option is difficult because food insecurity and poverty were already intractable and killing foes on the food table that lockdowns can only escalate to the point death from hunger.
In addition, given the poor working conditions and sufferings of workers in EU factories from the Industrial Revolution and the progress made by trade unions on workers welfare it has always been a mark of human development there, to shorten working hours and increase leisure time in European communities. So, being off duty in lockdowns would not be a phenomenon in a highly IT driven environment where working at home has become a familiar way of life. Again you cannot compare this with the situations in member nations of the AU and ECOWAS where the drudgery of daily work and exertions, 24/7 is the guaranty of life and sustenance. That is the guarantee to fill the empty pot to feed the family and the source wherewithal to pay monthly rent which does not stop getting due for payment during lockdowns.
That brings us to the article in CNN with the title – ‘ We may not have a cure for COVID-19 but we do for hunger ‘ by Billy Shore. The ‘We ‘ refers to the US. It is a bold viewpoint that showed vividly that in terms of strategies, perspectives and reactions to the pandemic ‘one man’s food is another man’s poison ‘. It illustrates vividly our proverb that a hungry dog does not play with a well fed dog. Hear him – ‘ Unlike the tragic shortage of N95 masks and ventilators, there is no shortage of food in America. Nor is there a shortage of food assistance programmes. The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Food Program –SNAP – school lunch and school breakfast, WIC and summer meals, all exist and are available for low income families that need them.’ He went on in parts – ‘For the past 10 years our No Kid Hungry Campaign has knocked down many barriers that existed between a hungry child and a healthy meal. We made enormous progress in adding more than 3m eligible kids to school breakfast as just ONE example ‘He then concluded –‘Though massive in scale feeding children during the pandemic is a solvable problem as well. ‘How I wish a Nigerian was saying that about my Nigeria. It however shows that in terms of survival strategy on this pandemic, a hungry dog does not adopt the same strategy of lockdown with a well fed dog.‘
Let us now look at Germany’s generosity to Nigeria on debt relief during the pandemic and financial assistance to keep us afloat during our pandemic travails. I commend the magnanimity of our German friends as it shows that a friend in need is a friend indeed. I feel good towards Germany as I was on a fact finding trip to W Germany before the unification of Germany with some Nigerian journalists some time ago. Indeed Germany under Chancellor Angela Merkel has been kind to the developing world . Germany’s present African policy is tied with containment of the migration problem from West Africa to EU and Germany, of which Nigeria is a major factor. Merkel is leading the challenge in the EU that if the sources of migration to EU like ECOWAS States, including Nigeria are made economically buoyant there would be no need for WEST Africans, and Nigerians especially, risking their lives on the Mediterranean Sea and telling lies that they are being persecuted as gays in Nigeria, to get political asylum in Germany. So in this case it is a case of a well fed dog keeping the hungry dog at bay by giving it something to eat and minimizing its hunger. It is really good diplomacy and one that we should be grateful for even though we know that German firms like their Chinese counterparts are doing good business in Nigeria, pandemic or not.
We now look at why EU nations especially UK are making future plans as if the pandemic solutions like lockdowns and social distancing and masks will be their future way of life. That to me is cowardly and self defeatist and is a poor reflection on their history, good and bad. Europeans and China and the US have faced worse plagues and pandemics than this and have survived and prospered. Even China from where the Manchurian Plague of 1910 took off and the solution of face masks was introduced is looking at life as usual after this pandemic which started from one of its cities, Wuhan. I feel Britons especially should be of sterner stuff and not allow the pandemic to change their way of life as they have not allowed terrorists to in recent times, after many bomb killing and bloody knives’ wounds and deaths. They should borrow a leaf from Sweden which has followed a policy of containment of living with the pandemic and seeing it through to its end without changing its nation’s culture and way of life.
European nations especially those involved in Colonialism should reflect on how the people they conquered in Africa, Asia and Latin America felt when the Europeans came, slaughtered and conquered them and changed their culture and way of life permanently forever.
The French even tried to turn Africans into black French men to no avail. Former colonialist nations really think back on this and wonder how whole societies and kingdoms were lost to colonialism and the European way of life forced on these far flung communities by force of superior arms and technology. If perchance these EU nations change their way of life because of this pandemic, then they would have started to have an inkling of the havoc and permanent change that they wrought around the world in the name of colonization and civilisation, many ages ago. It was a bitter and bloody pill to swallow for the victim societies and nations then. I wonder what the taste will be, perchances, to the seemingly willing victims this time around.
So far I have ended my column with –‘ Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria’. Henceforth, as long as this pandemic lasts, I will end with the rider – ‘ From the fury of this pandemic, Good Lord deliver Nigeria ‘Amen.
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