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It crept in gradually unto us. We thought it was a disease of a far way land. But reality soon struck because Nigeria is not in isolation. She is part of the global village. The pandemic, Covid-19 is gradually changing how we relate with each others as human beings, how we do business, how our education will henceforth function, redefinition of the place of religion in our lives. Most importantly increasing capacity of our health institutions and ensuring there are adequate facilities to cater for the need of all, irrespective of status in the society. Covid-19 is new while the body of information on the disease is just coming up, but pandemics are not new to human being.
The Holy Bible in the books of Jeremiah 9:20 foretold it, “Death has come up into our windows, it has entered our palaces, to cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares.” It was also in the Holy book that we read about the plagues that tormented the Egyptians.
But the human race has always triumphed and it will again triumph. Didn’t God create humans to have dominion over every thing on the surface of the earth?
But before then Covid-19 will wreak havoc and leave us in mourning. A random sample across the world brings home to us that the world indeed, is now a global village, there is no part that has not been touched.
As at Wednesday, the World has an active case of 1,692,701, deaths of 178,551 while 701,557 people have recovered. In all these, the US has 809,615 cases, 683,175 are active, 81, 817 have recovered, 44,623 are deceased. Canada has 38,205 total cases, 23,788 are active, 12, 586 have recovered while 1,831 are dead. The holy lands are not exempted. Saudi Arabia presently has 11, 631 cases, 9,882 are active, 1,640 have recovered while 109 are dead. Israel as at the weekend had over 13, 362 cases with 171 deaths. The Russian Federation has 52,763 cases, 48,434 are active, 3, 873 have recovered while there are about 456 deaths.
In Nigeria, we have 782 cases as at Wednesday up from 665 cases we had as at Tuesday evening, 197 have recovered, 25 deaths. The increase is as a result of 117 cases from Lagos, FCT, Kano, Borno, Katsina, Ogun, Rivers and Bauchi which upped the figure.
From the foregoing, one would tend to argue that Covid-19 caught a lot of countries unprepared. It was believed that the disease was China’s disease and would be limited to that country. Unfortunately not so, within five months, the world had felt the Covid-19 impact. Most countries who felt the disease could not berth on their shore and took precaution a bit late are suffering. Today, medical facilities are stretched thin, health workers are overworked. In Nigeria, the situation is not much different from other countries. As usual, the Nigeria’s spirit of can-do had swung in immediately the pandemic came into town into town leading to commendation from the United Nations Secretary –General, Antonio Gutteres.
Many Nigerians are still taking the safety measures of social distancing, covering of nose with face mask and washing of hands with levity. In places like Ibadan in Oyo State, the people are still going about their businesses without much concern. Though the state introduced and continues to implement its 7pm to 6am curfew, the day time is always busy. The taxi drivers are still carrying two passengers in front in spite of the regulation to the contrary.
The motorcycle riders still carry two passengers with passengers not taking the necessary precaution of wearing the face mask. The markets are beehive of activities. I have queried the necessity of a curfew while the day time is always busy. Does it mean the virus takes a rest in the night? The argument from the State is that due to the economic situation, life would be more difficult for the people if there was a total lockdown. Though the argument from the State government seems sound, it also has to be weighed against the overall effect of free movement in the day time while curfew holds in the night.
In all these, even after the end of Covid-19, which I doubt, the world, as we use to know it would never be the same again. The disease is now one of the diseases the world will continue to battle with just like HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis and other such deadly diseases. Clearly, there would be drugs and vaccine to manage Covid-19, but our world would obviously never be the same again. These are clearly manifesting now. With the lockdown, online teaching has started, there would now be minimal contact with the teacher. Though this has a positive side, the negative part is that student-lecturer/teacher’s interaction would be severely limited. For shoppers, most big time supermarkets are now willing to deliver at your doorsteps, though this is not entirely new.
However, where the impact of Covid-19 would be felt would be in the area of health care delivery. The current pandemic has clearly shown that health care facilities especially in a country like Nigeria are inadequate. This pandemic has made it clear the need to upgrade the health care system. Covid-19 is a leveler of sort as those who can afford overseas treatment could not do as most countries have closed their borders.
It is a great lesson for us as a nation. Our hospitals should no longer be consulting clinics. It is essential we upgrade facilities to care for the citizens irrespective of status. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha aptly captures the deplorable situation of the health care system.
The SGF who also doubles as the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 said he never knew that our health facilities were in shambles until this experience. Now that he is aware, one hopes that he would be in the vanguard of revamping our health facilities. Like he prayed, ” if countries in Europe and America with excellent health infrastructure could be easily overwhelmed by the impact of COVID-19, my prayer is that Nigeria’s situation does not escalate to that extent because the country lacked what is required to handle the situation”. A resounding amen from me and many other Nigerians.
