The leadership of Nigeria loves dying minute actions, this is why it is responding late to a pandemic that it was obvious was going to affect the country since January.
Since the Coronavirus outbreak, Nigeria’s leadership did nothing other than praying it does not get here…so the president holed himself up in Aso Rock and backed down from junketting the rest of the world as he is wont to do while doing absolutely nothing. Right now, citizen are begging their president to speak to them while the man maintains stealth silence.
But here is the thing! there are about two test centres in the whole country while there have been no concerted efforts to build more. There is no test centre in the entire North while there is none in the whole of South-East despite the ease with which this disease transmits. Few states have habitable isolation centres while the federal ministry of health engage in propaganda that the country is prepared. A woman who was suspected to have the virus in Enugu died from the inhabitable condition of the state’s isolation centre and not from the virus. The first index case, an Italian had planned to run away from the mosquitoes infested place he was kept in, in Lagos. Well, Nigerian has proven not to be prepared for anything except the enjoyment of the ruling the class. Even at that, the Coronavirus does not respect class…it affects everyone so no one is safe.
While the rest of the world shut their borders due to the deadly disease, a Nigeria whose health system is in shamble kept hers open until public outcry forced Buhari to do the necessary. This is contrary to the speed with which the borders were shut against rice importation, so who are the strategists planning for this government? Where are the thinkers?. Funny still, the national task force on coronavirus is headed by a lawyer when there are hundreds of experts in virology et cetera.
At this point, we have been caught in the middle of our unpreparedness. The Buhari’s led government, notorious for being unprepared for anything has again forced Nigerians to pray and hope that something somewhere will take the virus away.
In a country where 95 per cent of the population lives in poverty, it will get even worse before it gets better.
