By Godwin Etakibuebu
Coronavirus or COVID-19 arrived Nigeria beautifully dressed on February 27, 2020, courtesy of one unnamed Italian male. It came with all its perfections, the same way it visited other countries before arriving here, and the same manner it has gone to all other earthly villages after our dear country.
The good news was that it met Nigeria perfectly well – as perfectly prepared as it was expected of the only Africa Giant. Nigeria; the “ebulliently adorable none-sleeping” Africa Elephant, was typically in its element of state of “readiness” when this beautiful Coronavirus arrived. Trust the Nigerian Nation State, never short of readiness on any given subject, it became an interesting discovering of an efficiently prepared Bride [COVID-19 is the bride] meeting with most adequately prepared Groom – Nigeria is the groom.
How do l know this – the bride and groom expansionist interrogation of the discussion? Pardon my little but necessary diversion in identifying Coronavirus in its true sexual personality. On April 1, 2020, in the remote town of Raipur; the capital of the State of Chhattisgarh, in India, a 27 years old lady; Preeti Verma – wife of Vinay Verma, gave birth to twins – a boy and a girl, in Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar Memorial Hospital.
On the day of the naming ceremony, the couple settled down to a very unique but unexpected epoch history making names. The baby girl was named Corona while her brother was named Covid. Let us wait a moment for the young mother’s explanation why the choice of these names.
“With vehicular movement stopped” [it was the era of Coronavirus lockdown in the whole of India], “we both made it to the hospital somehow late at night after a lot of suffering.
Since the deliveries happened after such difficulties, we wanted the names to be memorable and unique,” she was quoted as saying. The young father; Vinay Verma added this beautiful prose. “Besides, these names are beautiful in their own, with Corona being Latin for crown; also, we want the fear associated with these names to end and the public to focus on sanitation and hygiene.”
It is for this scene that l came to the opinion that Coronavirus might, after all, be one “cute and beautifully, attractive lady” of substance. We shouldn’t dwell too much on either it is female or male but it will be sufficiently enough to look at how Covid-19 met Nigeria and its state of preparedness for any exigency. Paradoxically, we were in deep mess; the mess we have been so used to that the other side of life – better life in all interpretation and expectation, had long been lost to us. Let us look at few of many beautiful things Coronavirus brought to us.
Quickly, the Word Health Organisation announced the first line of remedy, which was regular washing of hands for not less than 20 seconds. How did Nigeria receive this instruction, which is a most needed solution in pushing the virus away from us?
Nigeria had been a country without water supply from governments, albeit the three tiers of government – Federal, State and Local Government. This has been on for many years in spite of the Federal Government running a full-fledged Ministry of Water Resources. This octopus Ministry of Water Resource, receives huge budget allocation of billions of Naira annually, and not once we ever saw money being returned back to the Nigerian Treasury at the end of a financial year for lack of use.
What this implies is that the Federal Government ought to be providing water to all its citizenry, rightful and regularly. Ditto the State Governments. But isn’t this a great fallacy? Nigerians know that for them to enjoy what other citizens of the world enjoy under governments; like water, light, transport, security etc, they [Nigerians] have to provide all these, and more for themselves.
So, when the instruction that we must be washing our hands regularly came; Nigeria – through the glory of inglorious governments over the years, was met in deep sleep. That leaves only one alternative with the people – if washing of hands is one of the ways to remain alive, then the Nigerian people should prepare for death, except those that have been able to provide water for themselves.
The state of the Nigerian Health Care had gone comatose over the years, spanning over 30 years. Those of us who are adults remember General Sani Abacha, while heralding the coup-de-tat that brought Major General Muhammadu Buhari in as Head of State in 1984, one of the things the interloper announced was that “Nigerian Hospitals are no more clinics for health practices, but mere mortuaries”.
This was Sani Abacha announcement in 1984, and 36 years later, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, unfortunately under Muhammadu Buhari [now as a democratically elected President]; Boss Mustapha, admitted a few weeks ago, in his capacity as the Chairman, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, that he did not know that the Nigerian Health Sector was almost dead.
“I can tell you for sure, I never knew that our entire healthcare infrastructure was in the state in which it is. Until I was appointed to do this work,” he said. Let us listen to the details of his narration as such will help us to see the ugliest cubicle of Nigerian dirtiness that the beautiful Coronavirus met when it arrived on February 27, 2020.
“I think after COVID-19, Nigeria will not be the same again because there are some basic infrastructures that we have neglected for a very long time and I believe that, this will help us in putting those infrastructures in place. So that in case we have another disaster, we will be able to work as a team and as a nation to ensure that in whatever we need to do, there are processes, there are allocations and there are enumerations that have been conducted about the kind of people that should benefit from certain categories of palliatives,” he said.
Mr Mustapha also made another startling revelation when he said “developed countries like the United States of America (USA) were able to distribute palliatives because they have the infrastructure in place”, he said, adding that “in America, people are entitled to certain palliatives because they have an infrastructure, they have a system that helps them in determining what you can benefit from”.
He revealed that because of infrastructures’ existence, American people were able to have palliatives. The implication of this revelation is that the Nigerian people – the citizens, could not receive palliatives because infrastructures that made such assignment possible are non-existence in Nigeria. It became obvious, ipso facto that all the hullabaloos made by the governments in distribution of palliatives, mostly at the federal level, was nothing but ghostly noises of deceit, because according to Mr Mustapha, “the infrastructures of doing such charitable work are non-existence in Nigeria”.
Yet, all top government functionaries, led by Lai Mohammed; Minister of Information and Culture, did not waste time telling Nigerians about “the billions of Naira already distributed as palliative” to the citizens. What a lie! What a wicked way of stealing the people’s money!
Nigerians were told of incoming lockdown, which was the rightful thing to do because other countries around the world did so. It meant that those who could afford it should stock their homes with food items, and in most cases, the food items are to be stored in freezers. Some countries around the world, including Ghana – our neighbour, gave electricity free of charge to their citizens for a period. Nigeria did not give – though the electricity providers in Nigeria promised some months’ free electricity; which turned out to be a wizardry fallacy, because it is one commodity [electricity] that it did not have.
Yet, this is one struggle every government have spent Billions and Trillions of Naira upon, starting from President Olusegun Obasanjo; whom we were told spent 16 Billion American Dollars, through Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to Goodluck Ebere Jonathan, and up to Muhammadu Buhari; whom his first minister for Power [Babatunde Raji Fashola] boasted to the whole world in 2015, that any government that could not fix light problem in Nigeria within 6 months is not worth a government. All of them invested in darkness without giving us light.
As for this reason, Nigerians obey their government, went to the market to buy, and stock their homes in anticipation of lockdown, only for their invested money to be knockdown into a terrible pit of waste.
Having mentioned only four items out of those numerous things that set the Nigerian Statehood in a tripod [representing the three major tribes that control the destiny of almost three hundred other tribes] of distinction, the most distinguished Lady; Coronavirus, came in her gloriously beautified attire, and met us fully prepared.
Or didn’t she meet Nigeria in a state of full preparedness?
Godwin Etakibuebu; a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.
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