Everything about COVID-19 is a pain. Like every nuisance, or that awkward guest who plumps himself down on your sofa uninvited, this pandemic isn’t in a hurry to go away.

First, there was the outbreak as the ‘novel coronavirus,’ then a second wave and now countries around the world are grappling with a potentially deadlier third wave. What next? The fourth, fifth or even permanent residency?

Nigeria confirmed late in July that we have officially entered the third wave with a scary spike in daily infection rates after a period of steady decline. Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) figures show that on August 21 the country recorded 1,064 cases – the highest daily figure in six months. The last time there was a higher figure was on January 18, at the peak of the second wave, with 877 cases.

The new strain has so far popped up in the FCT, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Lagos and Oyo States.

In every wave, Lagos has been the epicentre. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu confirmed the upward trend Monday saying test positivity rate currently stands at 12.1% compared to 1.1% at the end of June 2021.

But whatever danger he sees in the statistics is lost on most of his compatriots. The so-called Delta variant is supposed the deadliest of the coronavirus strains so far and spreads faster. The killer is back, reinforced, ready for a rematch, but Nigerians are unimpressed.

We’ve become so hardened we’re not moved by evidence. About 506 people have died in Lagos over the course of the pandemic – a period of one and half years. Significantly, 135 of that number are those who lost their lives in the last one month. Osun just announced 13 deaths in one week.

Read Also: Insurgency: 10% of Borno residents missing, says Zulum

High profile casualties abound: from former Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye to Mohammed Fawehinmi, to former First Lady, Hadiza Shehu Shagari – just to name a few.

One reason for cynicism might be that other diseases are doing an equally impressive job of decimating the population. Take the recent cholera outbreak across the country which has claimed close to 1,000 lives in just a couple of months. For all its fearsome reputation the coronavirus death toll in 18 months is 2,260.

COVID-19 is the great unmasker of hypocrites – and we see this all the time around the world. In the UK, ministers and other high officials tasked with enforcing tough lockdown rules, have been caught breaching same to secretly visit their families or lovers.

Last weekend, despite preachments about the danger of large gatherings at this time, a huge crowd of movers and shakers shook Kano as President Muhammadu Buhari led his son Yusuf to take Zahra, daughter of the Emir of Bichi, Nasiru Ado Bayero, as wife.

Many at the event were unmasked: it wasn’t the only COVID-19 protocol they trampled underfoot on their way in and out.

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) warned Sunday that events such as the wedding where precautions were openly flouted, can fuel infections.

But this isn’t just a Nigerian thing. Such is the desire for people to return to unrestrained living that they would sooner or later run afoul of what is now considered acceptable conduct. Just like the Buhari’s, former US President Barack Obama wasn’t going to let a little virus stand in the way of a grand celebration of his landmark 60th birthday earlier this month.

Amidst an outcry over how unseemly it was to host such a mass gathering in a pandemic, he announced a scaling down – which still made room for a couple of hundreds to attend. Those who defended him argued that most of the attendees were already double-vaccinated so there’s was very little danger posed to guests.

Really? In recent times the news has been awash with reports of people who had received two jabs testing positive. Popular singer Mike Okri is one such example. So much for vaccine protection. COVID-19 is not only a pain, it’s clearly very confusing.

So if the Obama guests trusted in the efficacy of their jabs, on what did the Buhari crowd base their confidence? How many at that party had been vaccinated once when the country has only received a little over four million vaccine doses to cater for over 112 million eligible people?

This isn’t to suggest that there’s been a mad rush to take advantage of the limited quantity of vaccines available. Far from it. A combination of hesitancy and just sheer indifference has ensured that there hasn’t been a crisis arising from the limited supply of doses.

However, one state that cannot be accused of taking the third wave lightly is Edo. Governor Godwin Obaseki just unveiled a set of tough new measures that the unvaccinated won’t find amusing.

Beginning from the second week of September 2021, people who haven’t been vaccinated at least once would be denied access to banks, churches, mosques and large public gatherings.

The governor says the measures are to protect citizens and will remain until the pandemic passes away. His zeal is admirable but may just be overdone. People would be raising questions about the legality and fairness of an order that denies them access to banks and churches just because they’ve not been vaccinated. May be the Edo State government has provided sufficient vaccines doses and people didn’t take advantage. The facts don’t support that suggestion.

The trouble with the new measures is that they will suffer the fate of most Nigerian laws – death by unenthusiastic enforcement.

Even worse, they won’t amount to much because the state isn’t an island. It is surrounded by others who are less gung-ho about dishing out the bitter medicine to combat COVID-19 – meaning Obaseki’s actions alone can’t tame transmission if similar measures are not in place in surrounding states.

Then you have the remarkable penchant of Nigerians to break rules. Governor Sanwo-Olu was just moaning over 1,049 returnee travellers who absconded from Lagos’ isolation facilities. Security in the facilities must have been quite lax for them to break out in such numbers in less than three months.

If truly the purpose of isolation was to prevent spread to the larger population, such centres should have been like mini medical prisons. But I guess the governor expected people to be reasonable and do the right thing. Unfortunately, that’s an attitude that’s been as scarce as people wearing masks – even in the midst of a supposedly more deadly new wave.