A highly anticipated year that was ushered in with so much
hype and set goals on national, continental and global levels. A year that many
wanted to use as a clean slate wherein we all looked forward to major
breakthroughs in the areas of science, healthcare, robotics, artificial
intelligence and space travel. Indeed, the vision 2020 was bright and glaring
or so it seemed. Little did we know that we were in for a plot twist and were about
to go from valentine to quarantine real quick.
It was sometime in the middle of January we began hearing of
a new disease that was spreading rapidly across China, the city of Wuhan to be
precise. It was said to have been discovered in 2019 but wasn’t a major concern
at the time. At this point, we were informed of its deadly nature and the unavailability
of a cure but alas we remained calm and sent China our prayers, little did we
know that it was about to go HAM and not only take on the whole world but entirely
shut it down. Then in February, we began hearing about the extent of damage
COVID-19 (which was its new medical nomenclature) was doing even beyond China
because at the point, it had migrated to other parts of Asia, Europe and
America(African and blacks still thought we were immune to it, lol) At this
point nations of the world and the world started raising eyebrows and taking
preventive measures while the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it an
epidemic began disinfecting gathering centers and hotspots considered to be of
high risk but that was too little too late because for some weird reason, it
was reported that Wuhan locals had emigrated out of their town in large numbers
to various parts of the world so apparently the worst was yet to come and so
did it.
By the beginning of March, it was clear that the world was
faced with a major issue. A sort of which hasn’t been experience in a century
as the World Health Organization upgraded the corona virus from being an
epidemic to a global pandemic. This was due to the fact that there was a global
distribution and fast rise in the number of cases and death tolls, with nations
like Italy and Spain rising at the most alarming rates. At this point, after
hearing of famous cases like Tom Hanks, British prime minister Boris Johnson,
Idris Elba and NBA top player Kevin Durant, it was beginning to dawn on blacks
that the disease wasn’t for the white folk alone. Although China was still the
epicenter, Italy was surely beginning to take over while USA was only still
climbing in numbers. Germany on the other hand was a bit on top of the
situation with a marginalized ratio of cases to death toll. By mid-march,
countries had begun to gradually shut down economic and general activities
while some had gone into a full time lockdown which others certainly followed
suit. Economy, stock exchange and petroleum price were all on a free fall and
there was nothing anyone could do because lived needed to be saved first. By
the last week of March, the United States had experienced a major surge in the
number of cases and deaths with New York being the worst hit. Africa’s index
case was a German national but in a matter of days due to immigration and
emigration, the cases began to increase and multiply.
Nigeria on the other hand had Her index case being an
Italian who was discovered in Ogun state and taken to an isolation center in
Yaba, Lagos where he received great care and recovered after a few weeks.
Nigerians however, who were initially in doubt and greeted the guidelines with
disbelief were now with the rest of the world on lockdown. The president and
commander in chief of the armed forces, Muhammadu Buhari announced a 14 day
lockdown in Lagos, Abuja and Ogun states which was to take effect on the 30th
of March, 2020. When that elapsed he extended it by another 14 days and finally
by a week which was to end on Sunday the 3rd of may thus giving
businesses and corporate organizations the freedom to resume activities and
close by 3pm in preparation for the 8pm curfew. I wouldn’t end this narration
without paying some attention and remising on the lockdown period itself, it
was indeed an experience! Bitter sweet I’d say because although we all got to
rest, bond with family and neighbors, take online courses, brush of our home
making and cooking skills etc. With nothing left to do, literally everyone was online
and with no where to go, tweets were flooding in, there were various social
media challenges, people were going live on Instagram for twerk or celebrity
music contests, interviews, random banters, even online shows and parties
hosted by various celebrity DJs. Not forgetting the part of getting dressed on
Sundays and sitting with the family in the living room to watch pastor Adeboye
give his live sermon on dove TV. For that period, everyone felt so united and
as one cus we were all going through the very same situation. A group of
pallbearers from Ghana went viral as their videos were being attached to
various risks and situations relating to
the pandemic. For those of us in Lagos, we had a lot to be grateful for in
terms of how our governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu handled the entire situation. From
swiftly setting up multiple isolation centers, to deploying helicopters to
hover around surulere to curtail the activities of the ‘one million boys’ to
promptly disseminating updates and progress reports on the whole issue.
Ofcourse there were defaulters who were stubborn enough to deliberately flout
the lockdown rules and still go out for casual strolls, workouts or even
organize parties but were duly punished by soldiers or prosecuted.
Regardless of it all, the plague is still not passed and its
even scarier because the lockdown has been relaxed in many states all around the
world. Although things aren’t fully back to normal and we are being advised to
remain indoors or practice social distancing and sanitize frequently whenever
we go out, the numbers are still on the rise with over 5500 confirmed Nigerian
cases and about 200 deaths(excluding the countless recent deaths in Kano,
Gombe, Jigawa and Bauch) and over over 4.6 million worldwide cases and 300,000
deaths as at last night. Moving forward, the least or rather the best we can do
for ourselves is to take responsibility and stay safe and clean. The various
different bodies working on a vaccine have all said nothing would be ready in
the shortest space of time but anything form November which isn’t even certain.
Let’s also take time to read and research before running along with any
conspiracy theory especially that ridiculous one of 5G being the cause of
corona virus. The fact that under adequate care and supervision, there’s a high
recovery rate from COVID-19 is definitely something to be grateful about and
contrary to the perception of senior citizens not standing a chance, there has
been recovery stories from people in their 70s, 80s, 90s and even the 107 year
old lady who had initially beaten the influenza/Spanish flu in 1918. Finally,
to those who have lost jobs, businesses or even loved ones. Sending out lots of
love and good vibes and would want to assure you that this stumbling block will
morph into a stepping stone for you, yes you would smile again and you would be
alright. Let’s look beyond what we see because the is a much needed paradigm
shift and the world is about to be launched into a whole different course for
the good of us all.
Marvin Plim
