Covid-19 is finally in Nigeria. Should we shout hurray?! That’s exactly what the Nigerian federal government appears to want us to do. The rate at which it has been struggling to control the narrative baffles. This is a global pandemic; it is not a jingle-making issue for political campaign.
Apart from the celebrated moratorium it’s arrival places on presidential global junkets, government wants to use the arrival of this virus to validate its mandate. It wants its so-called prompt handling of the Italian carrier as instrument for global self-adulation. It is sad that it is not getting it.
If anything, the Lagos State government is the one to take the praise for proactively working to rein-in this problem. Why is the Buhari government that wants doctors to go into tailoring and farming suddenly crying for a WHO garland for being a good boy?
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Does a government that has failed to functionally equip one good hospital in five years in office expect to be taken seriously just because it claims to be prepared? How far have we done with Lassa fever that originated from our shores and has been with us for decades? What is the record of success with malaria that has been with us before independence? What is our success rate with cholera and polio?
A country that loses thousands of its citizens to malaria; one whose president and first family proudly advertise their reliance on foreign doctors for their own health cannot expect to be taken seriously on a lame promise of preparedness for a global pandemic.
Government wants the media to showcase its level of preparedness at the airports – to wit, the usual airport beggars now wearing gloves and face masks and using heat thermometers to gauge the body temperature of travellers! This regime wants praise for its preparedness to meet a pandemic that has no known cure.
Regime lackeys and apologists want to hang and dry its critics asking it to conscientise its citizenry. These travelers who have crisscrossed international airports want us to beat the drums for gloves and masks. That, to them is how to prevent a virus from spreading.
Clowns festooned in their cocoon of delusion want us to amplify every statement or nuance from government suggesting that facemasks and gloves are the evidence of a nation’s readiness to confront a rampaging virus. China, where this plague originated quarantined a city of 11 million people. It built multi-million dollar health facilities in incredible record time. It promptly mobilised its own doctors and health officials in its stride to contain the virus. China, an autocratic government did that as a duty and not for a garland from the WHO. Nigeria bought gloves and wants nothing else in print, on the internet or on air – what a base level of reasoning.
What has Nigeria done in the extraordinary? If it has done anything at all, it would be what governments are elected to do. Any action it has taken comes from weeks of heckling to wake up and work.
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Regime spokesmen want to write headlines for newspapers it neither owns nor control. It wants the press to focus on ‘other issues’ and ignore a virus that has basically sunk global health efforts and its economy. Simplistic desperation to redefine what media patriotism is in the face of acclaimed negligence of its sacred duties.
These travelers who walked through Heathrow, Dules and Dubai airports in record days did not fail to note that things were going on as usual. They are probably not aware that these airports have stand-by ambulances, dedicated hospitals with officials trained to handle emergencies. The media in these countries don’t rerun that as documentary, their citizens have implicit confidence in the capability of their medical facilities. How many Nigerians have died while waiting to have their blood tests done not to talk of those who die for less than a dollar medications? When nation’s talk about preparedness, Nigeria is free to do one thing – look up to the heavens for help. Stop comparing your regime with governments with established health care.
When did Covid-19 enter Nigeria to warrant this agama-lizard-like self-adulation? A week’s success for a virus that incubates for 14-28 days is like a pugilist celebrating a one-round win on technical points for a scheduled 7-round bout. Anything can happen.
Are those warning against premature celebration less patriotic than those celebrating before the bout is over? Not by any long shot. People calling for improvement are not enemies of the nation.
The media in Nigeria has fulfilled its mandate of sensitising people and mobilising the government – that is the symbiosis that should work for the common good in the long run. It is every patriot’s hope that Nigeria and indeed Africa would survive this plague. No government or people can survive on wishes and hopes alone, action is needed and yes, truth is, we are only vaunting, and we are NOT prepared.
When governments, at all levels begin to build, equip and run health facilities tailored to meet emergencies, the media would not shirk its responsibility of informing the world. For now, its too early and efforts too much of a token to warrant adulation. Government should remain vigilant, focused and do more and stop passing the buck.
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