By Sunday Afolayan
When, few days ago, the World Health Organization (WHO), warned that Africa is likely to become the next epicentre of the dreaded covid-19 pandemic with a death projection of over 300,000, if concerted efforts are not put in place, many Nigerians were of the notion that the global health agency was wishing us evil and so did not mean well for the continent. I could recall, while watching the national news on TVC that evening, my wife and children repeatedly snapped their fingers across their heads, saying "we reject it in Jesus name...back to sender in Jesus name"
I laughed. Not because I didn't believe in prayer but because Nigerians, in deed Africans, are quick to spiritualize issues rather than facing the reality. We like to pray without working, believing that God can do all things. Yes, He can, but when you fail to play your role in the event, your supplications will remain in futility before Him. Africa is a place where we practice religion without holiness; where we expect magic from God, when He's not a magician.
The WHO dropped that warning because of their observed trajectory about the appalling state of our health institutions, our lackadaisical attitudes towards health protocols, insincerity and ineptitude on the part of the government (at all levels), large scale corruption, among other anomalies.
Here in Nigeria, the pandemic continues to spread in spite of NCDC's noise about the government's preparedness. The alarming rate at which the index cases of the virus suddenly rose in the last few days is too high for comfort. What concerted effort is Nigeria putting in place if over N700b can be declared burnt in a controversial inferno that gutted the Accountant General's office and no one is held accountable for such a heinous act? What concerted effort is being put in place when 110 trucks (66,000 bags) out of 150 trucks (90,000) bags) of contraband rice meant for distribution to the poor could disappear to the thin air without anyone being asked a question?
For the WHO's prognosis not to come to pass in Africa, whose major albatross is insensitive leadership, garbed in the inglorious cloak of selfish governance, the concerted efforts must never be a lip service. There must be a shift in our paradigm. Today, as the pandemic rages on, the teeming poor population continues to wallow in hunger and hopelessness with its attendant consequences. Apart from lack of data to execute even distribution of palliatives, our government officials are never sincere about the exercise that has been widely discredited and described as being largely lopsided and selective.
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Just this weekend, the news of the death and burial of the Chief of Staff to the President, late Mallam Abba Kyari, who died of covid-19 complications, hit the nation's news waves; leaving in its trail many concerns and worries. This administration, in its brazen impunity breached many of the global protocols, first by allowing Abba Kyari to personally choose and be admitted at a private hospital, whose accreditation status remains unconfirmed, when NCDC has a list of isolation centres across the country. Secondly, the remains of Kyari was flown from Lagos to Abuja without clear cut measures to prevent further spread of the disease, especially among the residents of the street where the unnamed hospital is located. Thirdly, his burial, as we saw it on television, was a total breach of the social distancing that the WHO has always orchestrated. In addition to this, scores of sympathisers thronged the Gudu Abuja cementry as against the 20 persons allowed by regulation. And no soldiers or armed policemen were seen disrupting the proceeding. Another question that may never be answered now is: how do we track the movement of those guys at the cementry to ensure no one among them constitutes further danger to an already damaged environment?
Without prejudice to the person and status of the highly revered man, who was reputed as one of the most educated northerners, one would have expected that his burial would have been executed strictly by members of the NCDC medical team who are professionally trained to handle such incidents, in view of the nature of his death, rather than leaving it into the hands of novices and unprotected Nigerians whose overriding tendencies were emotions and sheer sentiments. Now if the trending video of an "aboki" - one of the undertakers that buried Kyari, who threw away his white medical overall coat somewhere on the street of Abuja, without minding the lethal implications shortly after leaving the cementry, is anything to go by, then, Nigeria may be at the verge of serious trouble. And the government keeps saying that Nigeria is ready to combat the pandemic.
Where are the concerted efforts? This is my fear for the African subregion.
Sunday Afolayan, author of Beyond the Silent Grave and other titles, is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Nigeria
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