Jide Osuntokun
It is now generally known that old people are the most vulnerable group to this terrible viral pandemic.
We are daily told by the global media that anybody over 65 should isolate themselves and stay away even from their grandchildren who are said to be innocent carriers of the virus which however does nothing to them because of their strong immune system while affecting their grannies whose immune systems are compromised because of old age.
It is even being said that the hoped-for vaccines may prove to be too strong for the weakened immune system of the old people which means old people are in serious trouble if they will not benefit from the vaccines.
It was General Charles de Gaulle of France who in 1968, in retirement in his village, of Colombey-les Deux-Eglises, said old age was a plague which will eventually affect everyone.
Africans generally revere old age which is equated with wisdom. Both Christianity and Islam advice young people not to dispense with the advice of the old.
A wisecrack sent to my WhatsApp platform a statement that said the European Union has decreed that no one over 70 years shall participate in the government of any of its members.
This is of course fake news! He added that if this were to apply to Africa there would be no government since our presidents in Africa are mostly over 70.
In fact, most are in their 80s and 90s which made Mo. Ibrahim the Sudanese billionaire whose foundation awards $5 million prize to any voluntarily retiring African leader who has made serious impact on his country to deprecate the stay-put tendencies found among African rulers.
He jokingly said some African rulers in their 90s are still contesting elections and leading their countries. He asked where such elderly presidents are leading their countries to? To the grave? He asked.
I wrote in this column an article with caption of “This is not a time to hate” in reaction to what I saw on the internet when the late chief of staff to our president, Abba Kyari, was diagnosed as being infected by the Covid-19.
Some of his critics openly wished him the worst, which has now happened. Some even added that the old people in Nigeria have caused so much damage to the country that they will not be missed if they all died of the viral attack.
It is true that some of us old people may have wreaked havoc on the country by error of omission or commission but we are not all guilty and I believe some old Nigerians, if called, can still offer useful advice to those in government because of their accumulated wisdom garnered over the years and because of our education and life experience.
Wishing us dead is not the solution to the problem of Nigeria. I hope their wish will not come true because I am involved as an old man. I have always believed that many of our politicians have been around for too long. I mean there is a time to be born and a time to die.
Our leaders should harken to the demand of young people to be allowed to govern. It is better to do this than allow themselves to be pushed off their peacock thrones by youthful revolutionaries.
The USA with all its power has witnessed young people in their forties, people like John Fitzgerald Kennedy, William Jefferson Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama become presidents and provided excellent leadership in their country.
The decline of the USA under the 73-year old President Donald Trump may be due to his old age and the North Korean dictator Kim Jon Un may be right by calling him a “dotard “, that’s a confused old man! Unfortunately, the United States is doomed to endure for the next four years after January 2021, the presidency of either old man Trump or even older Joe Biden his Democratic Party opponent.
This is however not the best of times for elderly people. This is why when someone comes to me pleading that I take him or her to see a governor or minister for favours, I always refuse not out of arrogance, but because of possible humiliation by their assistants who would be discussing among themselves about the mission of the old man waiting in the lobby!
I turned 78 during my lockdown in April at the best place in Nigeria where one can be isolated at this time, the Redemption Camp of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).
I came to the camp on Wednesday, March 17 with the hope of returning to Ibadan around Friday, March 20, and to travel to Dublin on the 25th of the same month. Man proposes but God disposes. I have been marooned here since that time, almost two months ago.
I am grateful to God and to the RCCG and my late wife, Pastor Abiodun Osuntokun of blessed and unforgettable memory who without knowing it, left me in the safe hands of this church 17 years ago by building a prayer house in this religious camp.
When people call me to find out how I was doing or if I was still alive, they are always sorry for me when I tell them about my location and being alone in my house with no wife or somebody to cook for me. However, the wife of our General Overseer, Pastor (Mrs ) Folu Adeboye sometimes extends her well-known generosity by sending me food.
Of course, I always responded to my well-wishers making enquiry about my well-being, that I am doing well, taking long walks and eating twice daily by choice and that God is in control of my life and that there is no reason to be sorry for me. Life in isolation is of course intolerable.
Honestly speaking, I have gotten used to loneliness since my wife left me 17 years ago and because of the love we shared, the question of remarrying has never come to my mind, though it has been suggested many times by many good people.
This year of Covid-19 was perhaps very difficult because I celebrated my birthday on April 26 alone and I could not travel to Ibadan on May 3 to lay a wreath, as I normally do, at the grave of my wife because of the lockdown.
But I was touched by the kindness of my children and grandchildren, my extended family members and my former students who called on the anniversary of my wife’s demise and of course on my birthday, both days being uncomfortably close for me.
But I particularly want to say the reward of us teachers is not, and needs not be in heaven as we were made to believe before. Three of my former students made me happy in their own different ways. Biola Olusola, a Lagos lawyer, always takes me for luncheon at the Sheraton in Ikeja.
He also allows me to invite close friends, all expenses paid by him. On occasions when he couldn’t take me for lunch, he would send to my account some money for my celebration.
How nice of someone I taught almost four decades ago. I was born in Biola’s home town where my parents were “osomaalo” that’s traders. He has remained close to me forever. He did not forget to call me this time and to send some money for my birthday celebrations even from his own lockdown.
Tokesi, one of my young former students and a mother of two little ones credited my phone with two thousand naira. Opeyemi, an unemployed former student sent five hundred naira to my phone. I was really touched by this young ladies’ generosity.
I received calls from my former students scattered all over the world in Nigeria, the United States and Canada. By the end of the day, I was exhausted answering their phone calls.
I have been privileged to be supported generously by two of my former students before on different occasions, namely Pastor Tunde Bakare on two occasions, during my raising of funds for my Anglican diocese harvest in Ijero and marriage of my son some years ago.
Deji Adeyemi also once surprised me by his generosity. So, with these testimonies, who says the teachers’ reward is in heaven! Yes perhaps, they are there, but we can also get some rewards in the here and the now.
On the Coronavirus and old people, all I need to add is that we shall overcome. We are closely watched these days when we sneeze or cough in case we are manifesting signs of Covid-19. When I coughed recently, the way I was being asked if I was alright made me blurt out and ask if coughing was abnormal for old people.
I mean it comes with the territory. Sneezing too! This is why I will advice all old people who plan to travel abroad to stay put here.
A friend of mine who traveled to New York during the time of Ebola and merely sneezed on the second day of his arrival in New York found himself locked down and isolated for 14 days with no chance of his calling his son to tell him his whereabouts.
These days I am always self-conscious if I cough or sneeze and rather than do this in the public I always swallow the sneeze or cough. This is what coronavirus has done to us, old folks!
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