This is my third intervention in a space of five weeks on the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, it was the topic on this page even though I gave greater prominence to what I considered President Buhari’s new management style; not that it is anything extraordinary but given what we have seen of him in the last five years in power, some of the acts he exhibited in his last broadcast to the nation, deserved commendation, if not for any reason, at least to inspire him to more progressive displays and to also teach other political leaders small issues and qualities that make up effective leadership. For the first time, I observed in that piece that our President left the path of arrogance and ‘I know it all’ disposition and followed the path of partnership and rational persuasion.
The choice before him at the time was that between the devil and the deep blue sea and it was no easy choice. As I observed in last week’s outing, an embrace with the devil would mean a journey to oblivion, but a dive into the sea would offer higher probability of survival and triumph. Help could come or he could cling to a tiny shrub, keep afloat and by uncanny maneuver manage to find himself ashore. Buhari opted for the latter option and that was good; he directed relaxation of lockdown but not without some restrictions. We all know those instructions so we need no repetition here. Since that came into being last Monday doomsday agents have gone to town telling us that all they see is calamity based on possible increase in infection rate. There is no rational statistics for arriving at that, just that they see crowd and to their shallow minds massive crowds automatically translate to infections.
This is a puerile argument. Big crowd does not necessarily translate to more infections, what could is no vision and/or poor management. That it happened in one or two nations does not equally imply that another country will share exactly the same fate. The immediate post relaxation days failed not because Buhari was wrong but because we lack foresight and or ability to anticipate scenarios, otherwise crowds at banks and gridlocks won’t be. Nigerians like to hide things otherwise it would have been clear to the government and prophets of doom in our midst that Nigerians are not surviving because they have been locked in, they are alive and healthy because most of them have undertaken various acts of self-preservation. Many, without telling anybody, have local concoctions stacked up in corners of their homes, a lot more are hooked into chloroquine, a major component of the drug said to be used for test trial. The point am making before we get into the main argument is that the President is right in ordering a relaxation on the lockdown and all those opposing that option after the President had so directed, are rebels and pure enemies of the people.
Lockdown is not the solution, not even for developed world where the standard of living is high and most citizens have rich bank statements. Lockdown is capable of destroying both the people and the economy. We have spent about two months into it and the negative effects are visible. Entrepreneurs, who donated billions of naira to federal efforts towards curbing the pandemic, are closing shop and sacking their workers even before we find a cure for the virus. Individuals too! The central government said it is broke. If they are invariably the states will follow and yet to sustain lockdown that is not the solution. Billions of naira have been taken from public till, some of them without due process and have been expended on aspects of the problem that are not directly related to the final solution. Accountability is an issue and yet all we hear from officials both at the federal and state level is lockdown, no gathering, wear your face masks, close all markets, mobile courts and yet none of these measures hit at the heart of this problem which is finding and producing a cure.
Last week, federal officials told us they don’t know how much they have received from all sources for the fight against COVID 19. Secretary to Government of the Federation and Head of the Presidential Task Force, Boss Mustapha, said even though the account belongs to the Task Force he doesn’t know how much is in it and most scandalously, who gave what. The Minister of Health followed the same line. I am tempted to say that our fight against COVID-19 has become a scam or money making machine but I won’t say so. I said last week there is no cohesion in our approach to fighting the pandemic. The federal and state governments are working at cross purposes. Even now that the President has ordered relaxation and directed a lockdown in Kano, but as you read this many states are doing their own things. Kano, where people are dying reversed the President’s directive for religious reasons. In times of great crisis creative leaders inspire but in our case our leaders instill fear. Lockdown is a temporary measure and the primary aim is to allow a gestation period to identify those already infected to determine targeted action, it is not a solution which we have made it to be.
The challenge is the cure. And the politics is that it must be home grown. The latter position gains credence from history. Pandemics are not new and they do not come from natural causes. History has enough evidence to show that it is a product of the war among nations and races for economic advantages and dominion. Old Egyptian civilization practiced the strategy when it directed her nurses to abort pregnancies of the Jewish women. The objective as it was then, ‘depopulation’, has remained the issue till now. Roman Empire did the same and Great Britain modified it into the form we see today. Founders of modern America improved on the British techniques and deployed it fatally against the native Indians who own the land. Diseases more than guns helped white adventurers to America to decimate the native population, confused them and scatter them.
The Blacks were next; the first option was to remove blacks from America and that process began with the establishment of special colonies in West Africa for freed slaves to be repatriated from America; that was how Liberia and Sierra Leone came into being. When this failed, disease became the lethal weapon. In July 1972 it was discovered that for over forty years, blacks who were supposed to be vaccinated against sexually transmitted diseases, were instead being transmitted with diseases via vaccine; that incident is called the Tuskegee case. The government apologized and even paid compensations, all this happened recently. The white world till tomorrow is interested in depopulation matters and Africa has remained the prime target. Some vaccines end up sterilizing the people, so apart from cost this is one of the reasons people fear. Disease is also about loan entanglement. International Monetary Fund (IMF) is already offering to give us loans on the condition that by next year there will be no more subsidies on petroleum products and tariff on electricity must increase astronomically. That is the issue. This is why we advocate homemade solutions. That brings back the question: What do we really want, palliatives or solution?