By Counsellor Dennis Agori
INTRODUCTION
Each time Nigerians are provided a glimpse of hope, they are ecstatic and believe the TURNING POINT that leads to EXPRESS is around the corner. But boom, we find ourselves in worse situations.
The pictures in this post represent the solution to COVID-19. From government to NGOs, to individuals.
I had to do this write up after reading the post of one Egbo Ogaga Samuel from Eku axis of Delta State on social media and I concluded that WE MAY IN ONE WAY OR THE OTHER BE GUILTY. Who can cast the first stone? It is more of who we have been than who we want to be overnight. The threat of a virus doesn’t extinguish already established auto reactive behaviors.
SOME ROUND ABOUT SITUATIONS
For example, the government had good intentions for moving the markets from their usual locations to the primary schools. But the market traders especially women, will not follow the instructions given and I doubt if there are people to maintain the social distancing order there.
I belong to an NGO. We had good intention like others who did same to share free sanitizers, jiks and special liquid soaps as part of COVID-19 sensitization.
We started very well by maintaining social distancing but before we could realize, a lot of people like an army were all over us to get these items. They also had good intentions .
Thank God we had enough to give to that crowd before we left. But then it dawned on me that if you can regulate your behavior, what of the many others. We all need to do this together or else it is not going to work.
I believe we all saw the pictures of the 15 medical doctors from China. I didn’t see that they maintained the social distancing.
Will they be quarantined for 14 days? Oh! They are doctors, more so from China, the new Babylon . But then are health workers not subject to these laws or perhaps are we too mosaic about the laws?
The funniest of them all was the Lagos incidence where an Attorney-General granted interview with a mammoth crowd after the arrest of Funke Akindele for same offense.
Lest we forget, the security personnels that are on ground to maintain the lockdown, do they maintain social distancing? I doubt. Are they immunized against the virus?
Very soon we will have divergent views on what is true or not about this COVID-19 and what we may not accept as a people but rather find a more agreeable ways of finding a way out of this. As we speak, WHO are shrouded in some form of conflict right now on what is true or not.
THE WAY FORWARD
The same rules doesn’t apply the same way at all times in all places. There are variables. Let’s work around these.
Let’s understand that we need to educate our people before emergencies because character is not made in crisis.
If few behave well, it does us no good. We all need to follow instructions as it should be.
We have been told by medical professionals like Dr Ovie Ughwanogho, the Nigerian U.S based doctor of infectious disease, that we need good food to boost or maintain a good immune system that could fight the virus should in case it gets down to that.
So we must solve the situation of HUNGER-2020. Don’t allow things to get out of hands.
As a people, we should help the government to educate those closest to us so that it will be easier for the government.
Let’s avoid the round about, let’s move forward with this and make it our own PRODIGAL EXPERIENCE.
Counsellor Dennis Agori,
Teacher and Author.
