Oyinkan Medubi
Then times like this strike, then you know the worth of a country. The worth of a country is in how well its structures and its citizens withstand a coming assault. The strength of the structures and its humanity attest to the culture of its leaders. Logically, therefore, the worth of a country is also the worth of its leaders.
It is bizarre, isn’t it, that the entire social, political and economic system of an intelligent planet such as earth can be grounded by the activities of a simple enough virus because all the citizens of the planet are hiding in their houses. It’s that simple. Or is it not so simple? There have been theories, in fact, as many as there have been jokes. I can’t here repeat the jokes but please keep them coming. It shows at least that the world governments may have closed our work places and our streets, but they have not closed our minds or mouths.
We cannot go into all the theories of the origin of this silent striker. I mean, how can we explain how on earth bats and snakes have somehow met to transfer their codes into each other and then managed somehow again to transfer it to man? I am not in the sciences, but I do know though that there had to have been some evil afoot for this thing to have happened. Something made it happen.
I have heard for instance that the origin of this thing might not be dissimilar to the origin of the other plagues that have struck the world in times past. One theory connects all these plagues to the developments in technology, especially in telecommunications, the latest of which is the 5G wifi, whose centre is actually Wuhan in China! Well, I said, it’s a theory. Let someone go out and test it. The other theory thinks that our present travails can be linked to attempts by a group to impose a single economic system on the entire world for easier domination. Again, I said, it’s a theory. Let someone else go out and test it. Please report back to me, both of you.
I’m beginning to get mixed signals concerning what to do or not to do. First, they tell me to make sure I wash my hands with an antibacterial soap, then they say any soap will do. Then they tell me to wear a mask, any mask. Then, they tell me actually the face mask we know can’t do a thing for me. I have to look for a special kind of mask. From planet earth that is on lockdown? Then they say that the virus is heat resistant, then they say it is not. Then they tell me… There is no end to the things I have been told about this virus, many of them contradicting the previous ‘they says’. As of now, the only thing that I seem to believe is that I should stay at home, not touch anything, talk to no one, greet no one and if a fly should as much as cross my gate, I should treat him as an enemy and not give him entrance. That way I avoid coronavirus, I stay alive, and I also stay hungry. In time, I guess, mummification will come.
When times like this strike, then you know the worth of a country. The worth of a country is in how well its structures and its citizens withstand an assault. The strength of the structures and its humanity attest to the culture of its leaders. Logically, therefore, the worth of a country is also the worth of its leaders. Unfortunately, our hospitals are not worth anything the people cannot find solace there. Our economic system is not worth much either. Our political system is also not up to much. So, our leaders from independence are not worth much. Corona has revealed all.
First the health system. Look at our hospitals – none of them is corona-ready. There are so many diseases waiting for the unwary in our hospitals, because of lack of funding, that, to add coronavirus to them is the unkindest cut of all. We also do not have the doctors. All our doctors have been sent abroad by Dr. Ngige who said they should go and earn foreign exchange. The ones who have not gone have been asked to go into tailoring by Dr. Adewole. Both of these gentlemen were or are minsters who obviously have not got it. America probably has the highest number of doctors and the cry is that they need more. Italy has lost about twenty of its doctors to coronavirus. Honestly, Dr. Ngige had better be on his knees now that this virus should be containable in Nigeria or else we would force him to #Bringbackourdoctors. Clearly, the worth of country is in the worth of its leaders.
Look at the economic system too. Since this thing started and lockdown put in place, many countries have been asking themselves what their country can do for the people to cushion the effect of the lockdown. Nigeria is silent on that matter, yet effecting a lockdown. Majority of its citizens practice subsistence living, i.e., Maggi and salt economy. The government must step in for the people, not to talk of the self-employed, the small scale businesses, etc. Silence will not suffice.
The only thing Africa, and Nigeria, has going for it is the interconnectedness of its people, this communal living thing. Even that, coronavirus is threatening. So, at the moment, we have nothing: no economy, no good health system, no leaders, not even each other. Coronavirus has finally shown our leaders what the people knew all along: that leadership is what matters most!
The problem is that Nigerian leaders from independence have taken politics, and therefore governance, to be a game. So, the field has attracted the most unlikely, unimaginative, unqualified and unworthy players. Most of them have come into the field, done some empty running around, made some noise and played some abracadabra game and gone with the money. This will no longer do.
Politics means agreeing to take on a serious job of building the nation. Nothing has been built by the state since independence. Most of what we have today have been by private effort with some desultory gestures by the government. This needs to change. This Maggi and salt economy must change. Our leaders must know that politics may be a game, governance is a job, a serious job. They need to tackle the matter of nation building to put structures in place that can withstand assaults. According to scientists, another corona may just be round the corner.
The nation
