IF WE DO THE RIGHT THINGS, WE WILL SAVE LIVES
Like me, did you notice that despite the stay at home directive in Abuja, Lagos and Ogun State, the numbers of cases for Covid#19 continues to rise; NCDC April 5, reported “232 cases, 33 recoveries and 5 deaths”. However, scary this may seem, I believe that the decisions taken by the Government of Nigeria for everyone to isolate themselves, stay at home, self-distance and Practice Hygiene to curb the spread of the deadly virus was a great right step.
But despite these directives by the government, the questions we need answers to are:
1. WILL NIGERIANS OBEY THE DIRECTIVES?
2. WILL NIGERIANS BE ABLE TO FOLLOW THE DIRECTIVES?
Personally, I do not think that Nigerians are keeping to the directives even though the directives were given to save lives. In Lokogoma, where I reside presently, the isolation period is treated like it is a day of an election; I look outside my walls and find the in the evenings, the Petrol Stations and all kind of markets, not just the essential ones opening for people go to buy things they need and in so doing, mix up when we cannot tell if there are infected people around the area or not.
Well, most Nigerians for no fault of theirs will not be able to stay home completely because 80% of the country’s population is poor (Many think the Percentage of the poor masses are higher than I estimated). These poor Nigerians survive from the income they Make daily and many of these poor are families whose entire assets may not last longer than one (1) week. Thus, the question at this juncture is, when the food supplies and other household needs stock out, what would we expect them to do? Starve perhaps and watch their children starve or shun the menace the virus portends and take the chance to see it their lives will continue to thrive one way or another?
Even for those who claim to be in the middle class if there is any sect like that, is staying home easy? No! Most of us obey the directive because it is currently about the only chance to survive. Despite the month of stock of supply, we have in place, the state of the country’s current infrastructures does not make the process easy. Consider one of many; ELECTRICITY, I am sure you won’t be surprised if I tell you that sometimes eight (8) hours, we experience no power supply during the stay at home period. Many of us stocked our houses with food supplies that require refrigerators and can only maintain such when we turn on generators to avoid recooking more than we expect to. TV’s and work at home are luxuries I just choose not to mention since our current situation forces our brains to think more about our most important necessities; food, clothing, shelter and hygiene
Well, we are certain that this will pass because this virus is a global problem that does not discriminate between the rich and the poor, the rulers and the ruled, religions, ethnic groups and whatever kinds of differences we created in our world.
However, it is worth mentioning that the virus has exposed the fragile nature of our country to the point that we know that if isolation was the one way to solve our problem, Nigeria would be wiped out because we lack the most basic assets required to manage this kind of crisis.
THE PERTINENT QUESTION TO ME IS WHEN THE CRISIS IS OVER, WHAT DO WE DO?
First. we must rebuild our country or begin the process of doing so. Our leaders must think about leaving legacies we will be able to emulate. Legacies of making the country better than it was handed to them by our great past leaders which should translate into
· Better Education
· Improved Health Care
· A Meritorious System for Work
· Improved Infrastructure
· Dependable Security
· Fairness for All Men
· Everything Good We Can Think of In Terms of Development
At the moment, if it is possible, could donated funds be channelled towards providing relief materials through logistics companies to those who really need them while the Federal and State Governments take care of providing testing kits and management of affected patients.
May God save us; May the World be healed and May it be a Better Place for all of us.
HAVE A LOVELY WEEK AND KEEP IN MIND IF WE DO THE RIGHT THING, WE WILL SAVE LIVES
Chuka Chiezie
#Stayhome #Staysafe #Commitment #logistics #covid19 #GodSavetheWorld
