The world is currently faced with a deadly pandemic known as Coronavirus or Covid-19. It is about the worst global health crisis of our generation. Politically, socially and economically, we are all exposed to the tragic consequences of the plague. Social, economic and political lives of nations and communities have changed for good. From Lagos to Rome, New York to Paris, the mortal plague discriminates not over age, gender, race, religion or pigmentation. Mankind is left to grope in medical darkness calling on science to deliver us from a ‘Chinese virus’ whose origin is still shrouded in mystery.
What started last December in Wuhan, China, soon exploded, transforming itself into a worldwide epidemic taking souls away with relative ease. As China was counting the number of victims (contaminated and dead), governments around the world treated the health menace with levity. Today, we are all paying the huge price for our collective negligence.
While the highly-contagious epidemic has been relatively controlled and ‘defeated’ in China, the United States boasts of the highest number of the afflicted in the world today and Italy the highest number of deaths. In the event of failure of humanity to defeat the deadly rapidly-spread virus, the wide-spread fears is that we risk losing up to a million of our kind to the ravaging plague sooner than later.
Today, a great number of peoples around the world have had their freedoms of movement and association and even expression curtailed by draconian measures put in place by powers-that-be to control the spread of Coronavirus. From wholesale closure of schools and business concerns to confinement and social distancing communities are retreating homewards in deference to Covid-19 realities. We are increasingly confronted daily with authoritarianism. Abnormal extra-constitutional powers are being taken by governments to fight the scourge. From Philippines to Nigeria, Hungary to Israel men in power are exploiting Covid-19 as opportunity of a lifetime to amass power.
President Donald Trump is now changing his strange position over what he had described as virus imported from China. While he was busy tweeting, in his usual hubristic manner, minimising the economic impact of the scourge on the American economy, the virus entered America in a demonstration of its capacity to travel far and wide and break boundaries and fortresses.
British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is still in a specialist hospital in London battling to save his life from the Corona attack. In Africa, we have lost the great Cameroonian musician, Manu Dibango, and the Senegalese football encyclopaedia, Pape Diouf, to the virus! Many senior citizens have died from Covid-19, making it look as if the old and elderly are the most vulnerable to the scourge.
Back home in Nigeria, drastic measures had been imposed by the sleepy Buhari regime to contain the pandemic in a densely-populated nation like ours. The President was forced to rise from slumber to take action towards combatting Covid-19. Penultimate Sunday, the President had reluctantly addressed Nigerians, imposing total lockdown on Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states. Soon after the delivery of the national address, controversy had trailed the measure announced as regards its legality.
Prominent constitutional lawyers (including Femi Falana and Inibehe Effiong) and elder statesmen like Prof Wole Soyinka (Kongi) had risen in condemnation in defense of democracy. They reasoned that while the lockdown could be welcomed given the Corona challenge, the presidential measure did not follow due process thereby lacking in legalism.
President Buhari had announced his decision without recourse to the National Assembly on recess. This contravened constitutional provisions. And for this singular reason, the Nobel Laureate called out the President, insisting on a legal cover for the measure. For Kongi, President Buhari ought to have sought the express approval of the National Assembly before proclaiming his edict that affected millions of Nigerians.
The President did promulgate a decree post-criticism to that effect days later. But Kongi’s position seemed to have angered the presidency and it fired a salvo towards Soyinka’s direction, antagonising the old literary warrior. The presidency, through the Senior Special Assistant to Buhari on Media, Garba Shehu, issued a vitriolic statement or rebuttal. Laced with insolence, Shehu ‘Garbage’ took Soyinka to the cleaners, mockingly asking Nigerians to believe science and scientists rather than a playwright or a fiction writer.
Shehu questioned Soyinka’s profession and intervention, lampooning the literary giant and challenging him to write a play on Covid-19 post-crisis. Kongi reacted with a measured responsibility to the presidential tirade, dismissing the messenger as an errand boy, a paid propagandist desperate to confuse issues and mislead Nigerians or divert their attention to the trying times we are all facing.
Between Kongi and ‘Garbage’ in this horrendous Corona pandemic season, we have learnt to live without freedom — of association, movement and even expression! Garba Shehu was reportedly among those contaminated as a result of his recent physical contact with the all-powerful Chief of Staff to President Buhari, Abba Kyari, who was diagnosed with the virus upon his return from a careless trip to Germany and Egypt.
CoS Kyari says he has not been manifesting any signs of the pandemic even though he tested positive to same. Nonetheless, he is currently in ‘hiding’ somewhere in Lagos (or Cuba as social media rumours insist) treating himself. Some VIPs have been struck with the virus and most caught the ‘bug’ by meeting or having physical contact with ‘President’ Kyari.
Majority of Nigerians would probably wish that Corona takes away the souls of the Aso Villa cabal mismanaging a giant of a continent. If an opinion poll were to be conducted today, it would be clear from the result that majority of our people would not shed any tears in the event of Kyari or Shehu succumbing to Covid-19. For ‘Garbage’ especially, people could rejoice on the streets, happy that the garbage he spews more often than not would now be a thing of the past.
However, for us, we can only wish Shehu ‘Garbage’ long life so that he could see how he would live post-Buhari from 2023. He could take solace by citing Doyin Okupe and co, who now live in infamy after playing ignoble roles as ‘attack dogs’ and ‘lions’ during the ill-fated Goodluck Jonathan presidency.
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