At a time like this

Olayinka Oyegbile

The past weeks have been tough for the world. The rampaging Covid-19 has made life hellish, brutish and hopefully not short in Hobbesian way. Our lives have been thrown into a lockdown that living from day to day has become challenging. For those who live in Lagos and its environs, the state declared lockdown, which was later endorsed by the federal government has become like a pain in the ass.

Lagosians who have hitherto complained of excruciating traffic snarls are now faced with empty, yawning roads which are frightfully unfamiliar and terrorizing. A few like some of us who are categorized as “essential workers” and are thereby exempted from the ban on movement have come to discover that the traffic snarls are by themselves part of the fun of living and commuting in this mega-city called Lagos.

It is as simple as saying that Lagos without the traffic jam is like snuffing the life out of it. We have come to discover that the fun, thrills and rhythm of the city is intertwined with its heavy traffic and the ubiquitous road side traders and hawkers who can supply you with every commodity or victuals you need while on the move! You can buy any kind of meat, fish, pepper, salt and whatever you need to make a pot of soup while in traffic. In fact, a colleague once joked that you could even be supplied a mobile gas cooker with which you could cook all you’ve bought in the traffic while still stuck in it. The moral of this tale is that you could be stuck in traffic for so long that you could make a meal and eat it in traffic if not for the combustible nature of the gas cooker or stove needed to complete the task!

So how have you fared at this time of lockdown over Covid-19? If you are in Lagos or any other state where lockdown have been ordered by the government, this is the time to catch up on your reading. I know many people who reside in Lagos and have always used the traffic situation and the fact that life is tough and busy to justify their poor reading culture or to put it starkly, their non-reading life! Many have not sat down to read a novella (not to talk of a novel) in years all because they complain about heavy workload and busy schedules. However, this time has offered itself the best opportunity to catch up on their reading and key back into it. It is important to use this lockdown period to achieve something you can point to in the nearest future that you spent the time to achieve. Don’t just wake up every day and waste the day and time by not been able to do something you can point to have used this time to achieve.

Is there that classic you read the abridged version years ago as a child and you have been promising yourself to read the full book and have not found the time to do so? This is the time to kill that demon by getting down to reading that book and take it away from your Tsundoku (piles of unread books).

A time like this may never come again where you’ll have such a long period on your hand when you could have achieved a lot but you wasted the time. Have you been planning to write a story, a book or anything but have been procrastinating? This is the time to kill that devil. Sit in front of your laptop, phone or tablet and begin to fill the blank page with words. Those blank pages are begging to be filled while the world is waiting eagerly to read what you have to write. You cannot write a big story as a debut, not many writers are as Chinua Achebe whose first work has become a world classic. There is no way you can write a great work if you don’t start and as the Chinese say, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a step.” That first letter on your blank computer screen could be your first step to greatness. Or that book you have been planning to read might be your launch pad to greatness.

Don’t let this lockdown end without you doing something you can be proud of.