Category: Korede Yishau

Olukorede Yishau

In the next few days, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) will release results of men and women who contracted the Coronavirus this week through community spread in Lagos and Abuja, our Federal Capital Territory.

You need to see what has been happening on our streets in the last five days to expect a surge in COVID-19 cases. The excitement to use the licence granted us to kill ourselves is unprecedented!

When the ropes with which we were tied were loosened on Monday, we invaded the roads with glee. We were like chickens suddenly let off the cage.

For six weeks, our televisions were our companions, our books our friends and our kids got more than their fair share of our attention.

Many of us got frustrated to the extent that we started singing the praises of teachers who take the kids off us for several hours each day. We missed our offices, we missed hanging out with friends, we missed the drinks and dance at the nightclubs, and we missed life!

We were joyous to be let out of the jails that our homes looked like for the six weeks we were locked in. Before 6 a.m. last Monday, the Third Mainland Bridge must have noticed something its body was no longer used to.

For six weeks, the Bridge must have wondered what was happening; it certainly must have wondered too what changed again last Monday when row and row of cars queued on it struggling to find their way to Lagos Island, Victoria Island and Lekki Peninsula.

The environment too must have wondered what was going on. For six weeks, fumes from exhaust were on break; the air smelt fresh.

Then from Monday, everywhere became choked once more. Our streets, if they have eyes, must have noticed strange creatures parading left, right and centre. Many of them look like ace Afrobeat musician Lagbaja.

Their masks are from different tailors and the ways they wear them range from the ridiculous to the incredible. Clearly, many of the mask and the ways they are worn cannot protect us against the Coronavirus, the enemy that kept us home for six weeks.

With these strange-looking masks, we have been visiting banks, offices, pubs, restaurants and what have you. It is good we are wearing masks; though many of what we wear as masks are deceitful, social distancing is one problem we have found difficult to practise.

From buses to banks to our streets and others, we crowd one another and rely on our ridiculous masks to save us from being infected. Danfo drivers ordered by governments to carry only 60 per cent of their buses’ capacity are not obeying the law.

Keke NAPEP drivers who are obeying the social distancing rule are charging more to ensure there are no losses, which mean people who were either not paid April salaries or had their salaries slashed have to pay more to get to work.

Read Also: NCDC records 195 new cases of COVID-19, total infections now 3145

Despite the closure of boundaries, an open truck with cows and 40 human-beings was intercepted on Monday trying to enter Lagos from Zamfara State.

Of course, no social distancing or any hygiene routine could have been observed by these men who appear to believe ‘babu Corona’ and are intent on exercising their rights to kill themselves.

History has a lot of lessons for us, especially on the relaxation of lockdowns during pandemics. In 1720, there was the Great Plague of Marseille, which killed 100,000 people.

The then Deputy Mayor of Marseille was afraid for the city’s economy and lifted the lockdown. Days later, people began to drop dead. So bad was it that there were no more graves to bury the dead. Streets were decorated with bodies awaiting burial.

Even the wall built to stop Marseille from infecting the rest of the country could work no magic; Marseille infected neighbouring cities and 50,000 more people died.

The popular Spanish Flu of 1918 also has lessons for us about the relaxation of lockdowns. The first lesson relates to Philadelphia.

The state wanted to hold a parade to cheer soldiers who were at the war front during World War I. Health authorities warned against it, but the leadership of the state ignored the warning and allowed the parade to hold.

Days later, hospitals were overwhelmed with no space to accommodate people who were dying of the pandemic.

Like Philadelphia, San Francisco also found itself in a big mess for lifting the restrictions. The flu rebounded some three weeks after the restrictions on hotels, theatres and others were lifted, and it led to a longer outbreak than the first one. Over 3,000 residents died in the fall of 1918 and the winter of 1919.

Relaxations of lockdowns have only worked when all the preventive measures are obeyed. I dare say only a few of us are obeying the measures. From Oshodi in Lagos to Sabongari in Kano and other crowded cities in the country, many are carrying on as if it is business as usual.

The masks we wear are not properly won; the distance we give when we choose to is not up to the recommendation, and sanitising our hands is a task we take with levity.

We must know that wearing a mask is not a substitute for hand-washing because if we touch virus-contaminated surfaces and touch our faces, we can get the infection. Those measures recommended are complementary. One cannot work without the other.

In the beginning, we thought Coronavirus was a joke when it took root in China. Even when Italy, Singapore and others started recording fatalities, we were still in denial; even Almighty America did not think much of it.

By the time our eyes became open, the Kabah was empty, the ever-busy Times Square was deserted and the beaches in Miami were roaring with no one to dash in and out of them.

The Pope has had to be avoiding the crowd and the Umrah regularly performed by Muslims is on hold and Hajj is off. The Olympics are cancelled.

The oil price has crashed to an all-time low. Countries remain on lockdown. Airlines have had to cancel thousands of flights. Recovering post-Coronavirus will be a Herculean task.

Our eyes eventually became open to the evil of the virus but another virus named hunger has blinded millions and made them automatic members of the ‘babu corona’ movement.

Prioritising hunger virus over Coronavirus seems like what T.S. Eliot described as the greatest treason in ‘Murder in the Cathedral’. “The greatest treason: to do the right thing for the wrong reason,” Eliot wrote.

My final take: We started writing our examination last Monday and, from my observations so far, we have not done well; it will be a miracle if the results show otherwise.

I wish so much that our exercise of the permission to kill ourselves in the name of the lifting of restrictions will meet with some obstacles and we will live rather than leave!

By Olukorede Yishau

It is not every king who wears a crown and kingship is not limited to those chosen by culture and tradition to sit on thrones. Some people become kings because of their positions. Like them or hate them, their invisible crowns make them command respect. To their subjects, no risk is too much to take for them, even when death comes! It is an honour unrivalled to die if need be for the king!

Enter the most popular of the Abba Kyaris Nigerians have heard of.

The coming of President Muhammadu Buhari into power in 2015 brought Abba Kyari, a former editor of ‘The Democrat’ and top banker, back into the limelight. As a top banker, Kyari dealt with men of influence, but nothing like he saw in his time as Chief of Staff.

As Chief of Staff, governors, ministers and other men of power needed him before they could see the president. Even former presidents, such as Goodluck Jonathan and Olusegun Obasanjo, had to pass through him before seeing the president, his associate and friend of 42 years — my entire lifetime. Only a few, including the president’s immediate family, could see him without Kyari being some metres away. He was usually a step behind or beside the president. He took the blows for the president and saw no need to complain about the pains. He also took bullets for him but his gun cardigan ensured he did not die of it.

On behalf of the president, Kyari visited Germany at a time it was beginning to feel COVID-19’s pang to seal a deal with Siemens. He came home via the United Kingdom and days later it turned out he sealed more than he bargained for during the March trip. He passed on eight days ago and was buried a week ago.

So big was Kyari that no one except himself could confirm he had COVID-19. Presidential spokespersons refused every attempt to get them to confirm the news and a minister pointedly threatened a reporter for rightly interpreting his statement on a presidential aide who tested positive to the virus. The minister was practically screaming that he never mentioned Kyari’s name. It was only after his death that we knew the hospital he received treatment and it was only then that the Lagos State government let us in on a secret that some private hospitals were approved to deal with the virus. We had before then been made to believe private hospitals were not equipped to handle the virus that has made us strangers in our world.

“This hospital is a Lagos State designated high care, biosecurity-compliant, COVID-19 facility, accredited by the Health Facility Management and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA) of the Lagos State Ministry of Health. As a basis for accreditation, First Cardiology Consultants established a separate specialist wing with staff dedicated to the treatment of complicated cases of COVID-19, under the supervision of the Lagos State COVID-19 emergency response team,” the state government said.

Those who received favour in Kyari’s sight are singing his praises, those who did not say he was a member of the cabal First Lady Aisha Buhari spoke about, and those who had no dealing with him are not sure of what to believe. His burial had the trappings of the Yoruba kings of yore. In the years gone by, senior Yoruba obas were not allowed to go to the journey of no return alone. Some aides who had been prepared almost all their lives had to die with him. They were called abobaku.

Kyari was not a king in the sense we know, but it looked like some people elected to be abobaku in his case. Given his pedigree, I am not surprised. A cerebral man like Kyari should have company in the hereafter and many took the risk of providing the company.

COVID-19, as we all know, is active even in a dead body, though not like Ebola. Elsewhere bodies are buried without fanfare. That was why Minister of Information Lai Mohammed told us no dead patient of COVID-19 would be released to his family for burial. Kyari was buried by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) but more than family members were in attendance. For Kyari’s sake, why should anyone bother about social distancing? Why should protective gears matter? Why shouldn’t a man touch his body with bare hand? Why should it matter that the grave was not as deep as we saw in other parts of the world? Why should it matter that faithful pray for him shoulder to shoulder before he was lowered into the grave?

I have seen some people complain that the lockdown rules were broken by flying his COVID-19 infected body from Abuja to Lagos. There was also the complaint that he was treated privately at First Cardiology in Ikoyi when others were in isolation centres. Some people are also crying that almost 500 people gathered for the burial. This, they claimed, broke the Federal Government rule that not more than 20 people can gather at a point in time. I also saw a complaint about burying him in a shallow grave in the centre of town. Some even clamoured that everyone at the burial must self-isolate for 14 days after the burial.

I have a simple answer for all these. George Orwell answered it all in ‘Animal Farm’ when he opined that “all animals are equal but some are more equal than the others”. These men who broke all rules to give Kyari their last respects in person were only appreciating his pedigree, his class, his clout and the fact that he should not be treated as a commoner. The great man need not ask; they knew their right.

Unknown to us, some of them, especially the ones who did not attempt to protect themselves, and even the ones who, despite wearing protective clothing, still inappropriately touched their faces, might have elected to be abobaku. Kyari was their king and should get his due by being accompanied on his final journey. We have no right to begrudge them. It is a great honour. When I see a worthy king, I shall gladly accept to be buried alive with him! The only problem is that I doubt the existence of such a king!

Let me drop this before I sign off: The world witnessed the deadly plague so far in 1918. In September of that year, there was to be a parade in Philadelphia. Scientists advised against it because influenza had started killing military men in barracks across the United States but the political authorities did not think there was enough reason not to allow the parade to go on. Newspaper editors refused to print the warning. The parade went on. The paraders, according to John M. Barry in his amazing book ‘The Great Influenza’, stretched at least two miles. “Several hundred thousand people jammed the parade route, crushing against each other to get a better look, the ranks behind shouting encouragement over shoulders and past faces to the brave young men,” he wrote. Two days after the parade, the civilian population started falling victims of the plague because people did not take warning and because the political leadership did not take the lead. It took deaths, deaths and more deaths before those who refused to take heed started singing ‘had I known’.

May we not learn the hard way. Adieu, Abba Kyari. You have played your part and alighted at your bus stop. We all will eventually, but we should not out of sheer stupidity.

Quote – The world witnessed the deadly plague so far in 1918. In September of that year, there was to be a parade in Philadelphia. Scientists advised against it because influenza had started killing military men. Two days after the parade, the civilian population started falling victims of the plague… It took deaths, deaths and more deaths before those who refused to take heed started singing ‘had I known’

By Olukorede Yishau

I do not intend to scare you but by the time President Muhammadu Buhari speaks to us again to either end the lockdown or extend it, many of us will receive sad news: salaries will not be paid. It will not be because our employers are wicked; it is just that companies are closed and money is not made. Companies that have been operating have not done so at full blast and whatever revenue has been earned is bound to be infinitesimal and incapable of footing bills.

You may wonder why companies will not go into their reserves to cushion the effect of the financial dire strait caused by the pandemic and my response is – many companies in Nigeria are like the Federal Government, with severely depleted reserves, or no reserves at all! They are run based on what I see as ‘run-as-you-go’. If they do not earn money in a particular month, surviving the next month will be like a blind man trying to fix thread into a needle.

Our foreign exchange reserves fell to $34.58 billion on April 7. The reserves had $38.53 billion on January 2. No less than $3.95 billion has been taken away from it in the last three months. Oil price has tumbled to an all-time low and, being a mono-economy, we have no choice than to keep dipping our hands into the reserves. Soon, there may be nothing there again as it is the situation for many businesses in the country. Every government since we returned to democracy in 1999 has been mouthing diversifying the economy, but this has always ended up as mere campaign sloganeering. No concrete effort is discernible along this line.

The terrible shape of our Almighty black gold is captured in the words of Dr Sun Xiansheng, the Secretary-General of International Energy Forum: “The global spread of the Coronavirus is creating a demand shock that is impacting the already fragile world energy market balances. Markets are continuing to assess the yet unknown risks of COVID-19 to the global economy as the disease continues to suppress economic activity.

“Low oil prices combined with the inelastic nature of refined product supply and demand is usually a boon to refining margins. However, COVID-19 also impacts downstream profitability caused by erosion in demand. The combination of sustained shocks to supply and demand will cause product inventories to rise to new highs.”

The country this week joined other Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) counterparts to cut 9.7 million barrels of supply to raise price and save countries like Nigeria, which depends on oil cash, from starving.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva said the cut in production would enable the rebalancing of the oil markets and the expected rebound of prices by $15 per barrel in the short term. Good as the expected effect of this decision sounds, its fruit will not be immediate and, even if it is, I do not see it translating into helping stop our tears.

There are fears that the country will soon slip into recession. The last time we went into recession, shortly after Buhari took over the reins of power in 2015, we saw hell. Many companies could not pay salaries for months, and when they eventually started meeting their obligations to their members of staff, it was because investors recapitalised. Recession at a time like this is like jumping from frying pan to fire. But it does not look like we can avert it.

From what I can see, it is not only transporters and others who earn daily money that are crying or will cry, salary earners will soon cry when at the end of the month, it is either they get half-pay or they are not paid at all. An employer told me during the week that his employees would be paid half salaries. Only the manager, he said, would get fully paid because she had carved a fresh niche for the business without being prompted.

Amid the Coronavirus madness, street gangs – whose sources of income have been cut off – terrorised residents of various parts of Lagos mainland during the week. They wanted money. They wanted food. The people had to take their destinies into their own hands by keeping vigil against them. I fear what will happen when, at the end of the month, workers do not receive bank alerts notifying them of payment of salaries. Bitterness will spread like wild fire and I pray blood do not flow.

In the First World, many employers have informed their employees that they will receive half of their pay for working from home. But there is a difference: governments have come in to make up the losses. In the United States, for example, every tax payer is getting paid some stimulus package. This covers non-citizens; once you are a legal resident and you pay tax, you get paid some dollars to ease the pain of the loss. If you have children, your kids also get about half of what you are paid. Landlords have also been mandated not to harass their tenants over no-payment or late payment of rents. These may not cover all your losses, but you are not left to bear the losses alone.

Nigeria seems handicapped to offer us real reliefs, except the tokenism that is embarrassingly being shared to those described as the vulnerable. But, in the end, it appears we are all vulnerable, especially salary earners who will in the next two weeks begin to receive the shock of their lives when the bank alerts refuse to come or they come with half or quarter of their pay.

In the next few days, we will further appreciate the fact that our world has changed and continues to change; we will realise that we do not know this world again; and with our cash flow dwindling, we will get to look at things from sombre perspectives.

My final take: We have always needed one another; we will need one another more in the days to come. Whatever many have stored will dry up and there will be little or no cash to restock. With our kind of banking system – with a ‘sick’ credit system – there will be no money to get basic needs. A credit card would have made a difference like it is doing for folks in the developed world.

Olukorede Yishau

At a time like this, we begin to appreciate things we took for granted before the Coronavirus pandemic turned our world upside down, gave animals free reign on some roads in America, and made monkeys and others assume ownership of swimming pools abandoned by their owners.

Reading books was one of such things for me. In the last two years, I have read an average of 50 books annually: from novels to collections of short stories, biographies and autobiographies. But since the pandemic descended on our world, this past time has not come easy.

Now I struggle to read. The smooth ‘The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives’, which I read quickly some years back, took longer than necessary for me this time. I have seen myself reading more poetry to communicate to my soul and assure myself that this one too shall pass.

Fridays and Saturdays were my movie days and you were most likely to catch me at the Genesis Cinema in Maryland or the Silverbird Cinema at the Alausa City Mall. Since the lockdown, I am either on my bed or on the dining table.

Reading no longer comes easy. The world is on holiday and dragging my mind with it. The freedom to go out when I want is no longer there and that has made me appreciate freedom more.

One thing I have found myself doing more while the world is on holiday is to spend time from one social media to the other, and I have discovered that politicians will always be politicians.

This game of theirs knows no season. One area in which they have continued to play this game is in the distribution of so-called palliatives.

From Ogun State, a video emerged on social media. In it, a woman whose face was hidden was carrying a bowl containing beans. The beans looked dirty. She claimed it was given to her by agents of Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun to cushion the effect of the Coronavirus pandemic.

In the video, which crept out of Ijebu Ode and went viral, she rained curses on the governor and the Chairman of Ijebu Ode Local Government Transition Committee for giving her and her family food that could give them ‘COVID-25’.

I never for once believed a sane government would give such food item to anybody, so I was not surprised that the following day, she released another video, this time showing her face, in which she claimed she was ‘merely playing’. This was after security agents nabbed her over the viral video.

From the second video, it was clear the lady and many others in her area share a different political ideology from the governor. One of the leaders of the area clearly said they did not vote for the governor during the last election, and to starve off punishment for the lady, he promised they would now join the governor’s party.

Chief of Staff Abba Kyari, who died exactly a week ago, according to some people, passed on three weeks ago. Their evidence: A report by a self-styled Best Investigative Journalist in Africa about a death at the Presidential Villa. There is also a ridiculous claim that the body that was buried last Saturday was not Kyari’s but someone else. I do not understand the reason for such a claim.

There is another case in Osun. A man used his Facebook account to announce that the government imported Coronavirus into the state. The culprit, Saheed Akinloye, was nabbed, tried and a Magistrates’ Court has dumped him in detention where people who play games or politics with issues of life and death should be.

Read Also: Abba Kyari was loyal, diligent – NIM

My final take: Dirty politics deserves a holiday and this pandemic season is the right time for it to have that well-deserved break. The world needs all the calm it can get at a time when there are some two million, five hundred thousand cases of COVID-19, and some 200,000 people dead.

Social distancing in ‘Dustbin Estates’

The first time I heard or read about ‘Dustbin Estate’ was in 2013 when my colleague and friend of over two decades, Seun Akioye, wrote a fantastic report on this place situated in Ajeromi-Ifelodun Local Government Area of Lagos.

The so-called estate, I suspect, is a spillover from the globally-renowned slum called Ajegunle. It came to be in 1985. At that time, monkeys and baboons could be seen swinging around. The swampy land was filled with refuse.

“The ground is soft as you thread upon it. As far as the eyes could see, nylon bags litter the landscape, many shooting out from the ground like plants. The houses are built of planks in a rectangular form and close to one another, which may spell disaster in case of a fire outbreak.

In front of each house are two enclosures built close to the canal- about 50 meters from the rooms- which serves as the bathroom and toilet,” Akioye wrote in the report, which won every single award it was entered for that year.

For this piece, I am using Dustbin Estate figuratively to refer to the uncountable slums in Lagos and elsewhere in Nigeria. By slums, I mean anywhere where, when nature calls, the residents simply stand in front of their homes or by the side houses and answer the call in a nylon bag or on paper, which means they lack toilets. Open defecation is the in-thing. In such ‘estates’, life is ‘nasty, brutish and short’.

Places such as Makoko and Aro, a slum settlement around Jakande area of Lekki, come to my mind in this time of Coronavirus. I also have in mind the areas occupied by the Almajiri in the North. In the states with this population, despite closing down places of worship, market places and motor parks, activities that may likely lead to the spread of the infection are still going on.

For me, they are all ‘Dustbin Estates’. One thing all these places have in common is a lack of space. A family –father and mother and at least five kids – lives in a small room made of wood. Their neighbours are no different. Their streets are always tiny and ever-jammed.

Social distancing is impossible here. Even if people want to obey, there is just no space for that. Here all we can rely on is luck. By their nature, these areas constitute stumbling blocks to the war against the pandemic.

If one infected person finds his or her way into any of these ‘estates’, all hell will let loose and the sort of disaster witnessed in Philadelphia during the 1918 pandemic would be difficult to prevent. A parade to boost the morale of American soldiers in the war with Germany gave room to community spread of influenza and Philadelphia took years to heal.

By Olukorede Yishau

I once argued that the media “have come a long way from Henry Townsend’s Iwe Iroyin, but there is absolutely no doubt that we should be doing far better than we are doing given the advantages of technology and development. We need to emulate the best practices in the advanced world and treat journalists like kings and not dregs. Only then will the media take its pride of place in the heart of the people and only then will the society be truly served”.

The main reason for the argument: The media in Nigeria have for years been struggling with not a few on some form of ventilator as if afflicted by COVID-19. For the majority, salaries are either not paid or terribly delayed. There are times journalists go for months without pay. As you read this, hunger virus has plagued many a colleague.

Only a few publishers constantly pay what can truly be described as a take-home package. I can count them on my fingertips. They are that small. The majority do not pay well and sadly, they struggle to pay these peanuts.

Go to the banks, the oil and gas sector and telecoms, you will see several players who will describe themselves as former journalists. Ask them why they quit and the answer is not going to have any link outside of poor welfare. These guys were good reporters and writers, some of those who made the industry tick but had to jump ship to be able to give their families decent living.

Now the situation in the industry, which has not seen any major investment in the last few years, is about to go gaga. No thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic which has made us strangers in this world we wrongly assumed we knew like the back of our palm.

Governments the world over are on the drawing boards planning for the post-COVID-19 era. Stimulus packages are being unveiled for sectors of the economies. In Nigeria, our apex bank has also announced stimulus packages for sectors of the economy. The Federal Government has also made pronouncements on keeping the economy afloat. In all of these, the media is missing and that is why I fear a post-pandemic era for this industry which fought for and got us our Independence from the British colonial masters.

Coronavirus has plummeted sales and advertising that had dropped earlier. The lockdown has worsened things and getting up on its own without external help is a task I doubt our comatose industry is capable of. Newspapers have had no choice but to cut pagination to 32. Print-runs have also been reduced because circulation and marketing have been affected by the restrictions caused by the pandemic. We need help.

As the effects of the pandemic bite harder, media houses will see their balance sheets in red. This will make it difficult to foot the bills which before now were Herculean tasks. Significantly, getting to bring in newsprints and other consumables for their production has been hampered by the pandemic— Even when they are about to raise money. So, do not be surprised if some are forced to stop their print version until further notice. I believe this fear, and the fact that sales have dwindled because of circulation challenges, have gingered a number of media houses to advertise their e-paper versions.

Elsewhere in the United States, a campaign is on for the media to get help so that local community sources of news do not dry up. A group of Democratic senators said: “Local news is in a state of crisis that has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

In a letter signed by 18 Democratic senators, including Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.), as well as Independent Sen. Angus King (Maine), they catalogued the woes of local media even before the outbreak of the pandemic.

Newsroom employment, they said, has significantly decreased. The COVID-19 outbreak, they added, has led to a rapid scaling back of advertising spending, which has already led dozens of newspapers to announce pay cuts and furloughs. “The current public health crisis has made the already vital role of local news even more critical,” the senators wrote.

The senators sought a new stimulus package to include a provision that is “tailored to benefit aid recipients who make a long-term commitment to high-quality local news”. News Media Alliance CEO David Chavern said: “We certainly appreciate the Senators’ full-throated support for local journalism. Quality local journalism is what we are all depending on right now.”

The leadership of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), which should work with the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and others to get a stimulus package for the media, is bogged down by inanities. It recently issued a statement against the introduction of 5G and endorsing the fallacy that there is a link between the new technology and Coronavirus. It forgot the rule of the profession that when in doubt, find out or leave out. It instead chose to take the unscientific route charted by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome.

“The Federal Government should as a matter of urgent concern investigate the allegation, that what is happening today is associated with the launch of the 5G communication network as Nigerians are becoming more agitated,” argued a union I sadly belong to.

It also unashamedly urged the government not to allow Chinese doctors into the country so as to stop “a situation where Nigerians will be used as a Guinea pig for any experiment”. For effect, the leadership of what should be a great union added: “It is pertinent to plead with the Federal Government to stop this Medical Team from coming to Nigeria because of the Italian example where there was an inexplicable spike in COVID-19 related deaths when the Chinese doctors arrived in the country.” Absolute fallacy!

My final take: It is not only members of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) that need stimulus at a time like this. The media, which remain a major tool in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, need financial ventilators to be able to breathe well at this time and when the pandemic is over.

Olukorede Yishau

Some decades back Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats fame and some other bands organised the Live Aid Concert at Wembley Stadium in London using the song ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ to raise money for the poor in Africa. The choice of the song was borne out of the fact that with their level of poverty, Christmas would easily pass without them feeling its essence.

I remember that concert— which forms a scene in a short story I once wrote— when I see the nonchalant way politicians and ordinary citizens are disrespecting the social distancing rule.

Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun was the first I saw making a show of inaugurating an Isolation Centre. It was transmitted live on television, with little or no respect for social distancing. His speech was interrupted with claps at intervals by men too close for comfort.

Days later, his Imo State counterpart, Hope Uzodinma, joined the league of men who have turned a solemn moment to a political rally. The Imo State government held an elaborate ceremony to inaugurate its COVID-19 isolation centre and, in the process, endangered cabinet members and the public who ordinarily should be staying safe at home.

Why does a government consider an isolation centre worthy of inauguration? My initial reaction was: “Se won fi inauguration se epe fun awon ara ibi yi ni?” (Are these folks cursed to always inaugurate projects?). I see no need for the inauguration of the centres.

All I expect is for them to be completed and put to use without any fanfare. But in a country where politicians inaugurate the upgrading of a latrine toilet to a water closet system, you can understand this craze for the inauguration of projects.

Those paying lip service to social distancing may be deceived by the fact that Africa appears to be lucky as the pandemic has not pounded it like the rest of the world. The Western world, which we in Africa had looked up to for a quick solution, is on its knees.

Its medics are overwhelmed and not a few of them have fallen victims and died of the virus. Millions are down globally and some 68,000 people are dead. As a result, fear now occupies the hearts of all. The social-economic system of the world is at its lowest ebb.

We need to accept the fact that the world has shut down. Times Square in New York, the Kaaba in Mecca and other places that used to be full are empty. We must behave as if we realise that across the world people are dying daily.

We now live in a strange world; we are all wandering in it and hoping it will lead us to the shores of possibilities and not to the seas of hopelessness. We should thus not carry on as though it is business as usual. It is not! We have all become foreigners in our homes.

Nollywood star Funke Akindele and her husband, whose birthday bash got them into trouble, must have learnt their lesson after their conviction for violating the social distancing order.

This is a time to treat one another as a pariah. Her husband deserves to be celebrated, but there is a time for everything: A time to embrace and a time not to embrace.

This certainly is not a time to embrace! We must play our part to ensure we defeat this virus and prevent it from destroying our future. Holding any sort of gathering with the crowd will not help us achieve this.

Many have now taken to walking long distances in the absence of buses to carry them. For the bulk of this week, the streets of Osodi, Ikorodu, Mushin and some other places brim with human activities; it is almost as though there is no lockdown. When I see many people’s nonchalance to the stay-at-home order, I always ask: Do they know there is Coronavirus?

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The other day some faithful gathered at a mosque in Agege, Lagos, and packed themselves like sardine fish in a tin. When government officials queried them for flouting the order on social distancing, they went irate.

But, unlike their colleagues in the North, they were magnanimous with the officials: They did not burn their vehicles or burn any property; they only beat them as though they were common thieves! Even reporters who went with the enforcement team were not spared.

Another nonsense that has been going on since Coronavirus set us back concerns the distribution of palliatives. State and the federal governments have been distributing foodstuff and cash to the people.

Some private foundations are also doing the same. But, one thing I have noticed in many of the distribution venues is that people have disregarded social distancing. I have seen videos of instances where people even fight.

There was an instance where a big man was distributing foodstuff in his Parkview Estate mansion; you need to see the crowd and, of course, social distancing was jettisoned. If one infected person gets in their midst, we will be in hot soup.

Palliatives are being distributed overseas but in a very orderly manner. Residents of cities in the United States and Europe get foodstuff delivered to their doorsteps. They do not even get to meet the person who has come to do the delivery, and there is no fear that the items will be stolen.

The items are dropped at the doors and the residents are informed by knocks on the doors. Cash palliatives are paid into accounts, unlike ours where the Federal Government has been going around with millions in cash for distribution to the people.

Our conducts must reflect that Coronavirus is on the prowl and we must avoid the distractions about any link between the virus and 5G network, or the laughable attempt to link the whole pandemic to the 666 debate.

This is a time for us to stand firm against the wiles of the virus, which has made a mess of our world.

My final take: Our situation calls for serious reflection: the way things are now it is like we are continuing in sin and expecting multiplication of grace! Governors, politicians, and movie-cum-music stars are public figures, looked up to by the people for direction. Whatever they do at a time like this will rightly or wrongly guide the people.