By Segun Gbadegesin
To put it mildly, these are not the most auspicious times for humanity in general, and for Africans, especially Nigerians, in particular. As a people, Nigerians may be consoled by the fact that they are not alone. First, they share the experience of hunger, ignorance, poverty, and hardship with that wretched of the earth across the globe that Fanon wrote passionately about. Second, a deadly plague caused by an invisible virus afflicts the whole world. So, we are all in this together, and as the elders thoughtfully observe, the imminent collapse of the sky shouldn’t be the concern of just one individual.
Yet, while we share with the world a common experience of an affliction, the worst in the last century, our pre-existing conditions, as well as our reaction to the pandemic, cannot be more dissimilar. And a strong relationship appears to exist between the two, with the preexisting conditions contributing much to the negative effect of the reaction, if not causing it. We have seen this play out in various ways in the last three months.
It may yet be that our reaction to the pandemic is not atypical of others with backgrounds and preexisting conditions not too dissimilar to ours. There have been narratives of experiences that buttress this conjecture from across the African continent and the southern hemisphere in general. If we are thus stuck in the deep hole of despair, while being assaulted and pushed down further by an invisible enemy, the question is: what is our hope?
There is no need boring readers with those preexisting conditions which are too well known because they are part of our common DNA, the fabric of daily lives in this Obodo. Years ago, a Minister of the Republic publicly lashed out at those complaining of hunger because he had a metric which their condition hadn’t met at the time. For the Honourable Minister Dikko, to be truly hungry, people must be seen scavenging dustbins and dump yards for food. You thought that was callous? You are not alone.
Incidentally, not too long after, the nation satisfied Dikko’s metric as government austerity measures produced human scavengers. We have been off and on the uncharitable title of the poverty capital of the world, and it’s unclear how good we feel about it. And of course, the ignorance we display about simple matters of life and death is legendary. Our attitude to such matters sometimes suggests to others that we love death more than life. But it is a mistaken assumption. We do love life!
Enough of the preamble. Let me go straight to the motivation for my question today. Like every rational being, with a modicum of understanding about the state of Nigeria’s health care system, the potentially devastating impact of coronavirus on our people weighed heavily on me as countries started reporting incidences of the disease it causes, and its impact on their population. I was worried how the system would cope. And more importantly, I was worried how our people would react to public health guidelines. Watching the nightmarish experience of Italy, Spain, and China, with better health systems, I shuddered at what was in store for Nigeria and other African nations.
As the index case was reported, and few others followed in quick succession, I felt a sense of relief with the laser beam focus of Lagos State government as I prayed for the slowdown of the spread. Then, more cases were reported, and still the Lagos State Incident Commander and his team appeared up to the task. When the Federal Government stepped in and announced federal lockdown guidelines for Lagos, Ogun, and the FCT, I thought that we were going to beat it.
Of course, the unintended economic consequences of a lockdown of a megacity with more than 14 million people, whose livelihood is predominantly tied to the informal economy, wasn’t lost on me. How would people cope? To alleviate the suffering, governments, including federal and state, stepped in with palliatives. But we deceive ourselves if we thought that it would be sufficient to meet people’s needs, some of which predated the outbreak of the pandemic. And beside the truly needy, there are the shamelessly greedy, with insatiable appetite for the good things of life.
So, a few weeks into the lockdown, tempers flared as hunger kicked in, and hell was breaking lose. Malcontents with differing motivations cashed in. Cultists, gangsters, professional criminals, and political jobbers took over the streets, the worst nightmare of public health officials, state governments, and federal authorities. Surely, some of the concerns were genuine. Unemployed folks without savings to draw from cannot feed their families. Self-employed artisans, including construction workers, barbers, food vendors, and street hawkers became helpless and hopeless, especially not knowing how long the lockdown would last.
And there were those on the fringes of life with little to no means of livelihood before the lockdown who now took advantage of the situation, wanting a piece of the pie. Seeing themselves as having nothing to lose, they initiated protests and robberies, unleashing violence on innocent residents. They roamed the streets in large numbers without any attention to physical distancing, and thus with great potentials for mass infections.
Furthermore, some individuals who returned to the country by air or land chose to endanger their lives and the lives of fellow human beings by avoiding self-isolation or self-quarantine guidelines. Worse, individuals with positive tests have escaped from isolation centers or from their residences. They are either uncaring, afraid, or simply ignorant.
Thus, through various degrees of indiscipline, occasioned by pent-up anger and frustration that invigorated the miserable and wretched, and the uncaring and ignorant negligence of returnees who inadvertently spread it, the virus gained strength and mobility in a period of less three months. From an index case reported on February 27, 2020, the country had a total of 4,787 on May 13, 2020. What is more frightening now is the rate of weekly increase. On Wednesday May 6, it was 3145. This means that Nigeria recorded more than 50% increase in a week. With such rates of increase, Lagos State projection of 20,000 cases by August is probably a conservative estimate. What are we going to do? Who will save us?
Assume that we come to terms with the indiscipline of frustrated youths on the ground that we have truly failed them. What can we say about some gainfully employed who use their official positions to violently extort and psychologically torment innocent folks, including those same youths? In the middle of the crisis, an emotionally disturbing video went viral on social media. It was the image of a woman complaining bitterly about some security officials who extorted her while she looked for an ATM machine to withdraw funds for much-needed grocery items to feed her family. The same official who directed her to an ATM location was the one who took the entire N10000.00 she had withdrawn from her. Her offence? She violated the stay-home order. Who will save us from ourselves?
Years ago, a Save Nigeria movement emerged under the leadership of Pastor Bakare. Its focus was the political and economic decay and the corruption that birthed it. It appeared to have some promise as it rallied concerned Nigerians to the cause. Somehow, and unfortunately, it fizzled. Perhaps it could have had some impact on the nation now.
Yet, the challenge now is not only about the quality of leadership; it is also about followership deficiency. The corrupt is mentoring the corrupt. We are truly at the edge of a cliff. Everyone is engaged in a self-seeking race which will only end up in perdition for all. If nothing to date has explicitly brought this frightening outcome to the fore, this moment clearly beckons us to reason.
With a single national source of income that appears worthless outside our shores, a rampaging virus for which there is neither vaccine nor medicinal cure, and an antiquated health care system, our best hope is to discipline ourselves to avoid viral spread that could decimate the population. Who will save us from ourselves?
Leave a Reply