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Time is fast running out. It is becoming deadlier and bloodier every second. But we won’t allow it to weigh us down. It won’t dampen our morale either.
We have only one country and they called it Nigeria for us. They insisted that is the name we must bear. We are made to call ourselves what they wanted.
Yes, this situation we are in is scary; we refuse to be scared. That is how determined we are. We are ready to carry this cross. There is always some light at the end of the tunnel. Ours cannot be different.
It is our ultimate resolve and we are in it together. We cannot risk a retreat until we secure a firm surrender. We are clear in our minds, all will be over soon. We need to encourage ourselves.
We have a strong belief that whatever has a beginning must end one day. And coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cannot be a rude exception. It is a phase and it must pass away, like others before it.
We do not care a hoot whether it is endemic or pandemic. All we are sure of is that it is a disease. It must go the way of all diseases; that is given. We are definite this our land will be healed. And totally too.
For everything, there is a time, a season and perhaps a reason. What that signifies is that nothing lasts forever. As we have day and night, so also with COVID-19. It came, saw but we will not be so careless to allow it to conquer.
The world is held down, spellbound, almost to ransom. We are unwillingly locked down. The whole planet earth has been turned into one huge cage of human beings. We have voluntarily swapped position with animals. Animals are usually forcefully caged, but we have happily surrendered ourselves to be crated.
In fact, we had to decree it and signed it into law. Defaulters and the stiff-necked among us have themselves to blame. That is how far the pandemic has made a beautiful mess of us.
In this our corner of the world, the ravaging pandemic has drained us at all fronts. It sapped us to the marrow, and still wickedly counting. It has eaten deep into our “scarce” resources; depleting our “meagre” funds. That is the official claim.
The staggering figures they are churning out daily from their vibrant lie factory are alarming. Very amusing and amazing but above all ridiculous. They are wickedly feasting and preying on our misfortunes and pray to end well.
That is not divinely possible. God in His Majesty would not allow that to happen. He would not permit them to have their way. Because they blatantly care less if our ox is gored or even fatally bruised.
They latch uncontrollably onto COVID-19. They have successfully turned it into a lucrative cash cow, making huge rip-offs out of it.
While we are groaning, they are celebrating inwardly. Another harvest has easily come their way. What a “lucky” bunch! It is time for carnival.
We have heard many weird stories in these perilous times. Absurd tales of how government is allegedly pampering a certain section of the country. And to the greatest detriment of others. It is all for no sensible justification. It can only be for dubious reasons.
COVID-19 is throwing up a lot of scams. There was this disturbing but unverified tale. Very hard to believe. It purported that the Federal Government distributed a mouth-watering N5 billion to some imagined “vulnerable” people. In the North, of course.
The feat was supposedly achieved in two days. That is where the doubt largely lies. One would wonder aloud: How physically visible is it to “hand” distribute N5 billion in just two days?
Yet it occupied some space in the ever-thriving social media. The fable was “technically” attributed to a familiar minister at ease with such fiction. The minister has largely succeeded as an entertainer famous for his moonlight stories.
As if to erase our doubts, the Federal Government earmarked a “miserable” N500 billion to fight COVID-19 in all possible fronts. The biggest COVID-19 feast is here in town at last!
Things are happening. Trust our rulers, every one of them is desperately striving hard to be a partaker. They commenced the spending in earnest and with the speed of light.
Promptly flowing from that, the action train landed in Kano State. It was led by Dr. Temitope Sinkaiye, coordinator of the National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO). What a creation!
The team identified its own 84,000 “impervious” persons in 15 local governments. The lot fell on them. They are the blessed beneficiaries of N1.6 billion Sinkaiye’s train ferried to Kano. She proudly told Deputy Governor Nasiru Gawuna: “Each beneficiary will receive N20,000.”
That done, the noisome banquet came down to Kaduna and Kogi states, simultaneously. The two states combined were not as fortunate as Kano. The Federal Government could only gather for them (grudgingly?) N1.135 billion. What a country!
With that encouragement, the scam crossed the Niger River. It festered down unfettered in Lagos State. Angry beneficiaries were bold enough to confront the distributors and their agents.
They stoutly accused them of unkind diversion of the 200,000 pieces of “food package” provided exclusively for them by the Lagos State government. That may be a story for another day.
In Abuja, the National Assembly was furious and fuming. It was all about the controversial Social Investment Programme (SIP). Senate President Ahmad Lawan and House of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila were visibly angry with the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq. She supervises SIP.
They wanted the scheme suspended forthwith; because it is a multibillion naira scam. They queried the monthly N12 billion spent on school feeding programme. The N100 million paid monthly to an unnamed (ghost?) consultant also came under scrutiny.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s office previously handled SIP, aka “Tradermoni.” It played a notoriously contentious role in the 2019 general election.
Daily Sun, quoting sources, provided a useful insight into the encounter of Lawan and Gbajabiamila with Farouq: “In her comments at the meeting, the minister said she does not understand the school feeding programme of COVID-19 and that even other programmes have so many inadequacies that her ministry is still trying to unravel.”
The way organisers and masterminds of these COVID-19 “throw-aways” are having the best of times, they should tread softly. They are set to further divide us for their greed. They want to make a perfect feast of the COVID-19 “dividends.” They are the “ruinners” among us. They need to be trashed into the dirty dustbin of our chequered history.
This wishful thinking must not stand. Let us resolutely turn it into an everlasting nightmare for them.
That would serve them right.
