Coro and the words of our elders; Jesus Wept!… Where are the Pastors and Native doctors? - Ik Muo, PhD.

Coro has shown us raw pepper.  The world is in a hitherto unimaginable distress. The mischievous  CORO, with the intent of  showing that it meant serious business, started from the high and mighty:  top countries and top people in government, commerce, sports, entertainment. Otherwise, the narrative  would have been about third world countries, their big men and their weak institutions.  Whole families have been wiped out and death has become so common that even the undertakers and graveyards are overwhelmed.  NewYork, a whole New York, has become the epicenter and Coro’s practice-pitch and  has resorted to emergency morgues  because ‘what overwhelmed the  health system has also overwhelmed the death system’; Italy has resorted to cremation. But of all this, the most painful for me was when  the grave managers in Cemiterio de Vila Formosa( Vila Formosa Cemetery)  in  Brazil resorted to digging graves  up-front, in anticipation of Covided corpses!. This happened after they had buried 60 corpses in a day. Requiem mass and the entire funeral for each person took about 10 minutes with minimal ceremonies because of the ‘queue’ of dead bodies. Amos foresaw this scenario years ago when he declared   ‘the song of the temple shall be wailing on that day; many dead bodies everywhere and they shall be thrown out in silence.. and the land shall tremble and everyone shall mourn who dwells in it.(Amos.8:,3&8)  Jesus Wept! ( John 11:35).  Ik also wept!

When I am in this kind of mood, I go back to my roots and as such, our interface today will be based on the ‘words of our elders’. To ensure inclusiveness, I will write in an emerging language( remember  New Englishes?) called ‘EnglIgbo’  Our people say that it is good to be proactive, to  start preparing for the Nkwo market on Afor day (which is the day before). However, this is not the type of preparation our people envisaged when they invented this that age-long saying; nobody  prepares for  evil days, even though we all know it is a possibility. Indeed, by the instrumentality of oga-coro, ‘anya mu afugo nti mu’ ( my eyes have seen my ears); ‘chi ewelugo ehihie jie’ ( night has fallen at noon) and ‘akwu achago na odu igu’ ( the palm fruit has grown on the tip of the palm frond) indeed, ‘alu emego’( the abominable and unthinkable has happened!) This coro has become an ‘ogbunigwe’(a brutal mass-killer) and has shown that ‘onwu akpa-oke’( death  does not demarcate between the big and the small) and it is ‘olufolu be onye’ ( a visitor to all homes) and that ‘igwe nine jije na uzu’ ( ever iron will end up in the blacksmith’s). Coro, an ‘anu enwehu eze’ (a toothless animal) is biting us to death  and  worst of all, it is  ogbuo obulu n’otu( a deity that kills and takes 100%; everything) because  the bereaved cannot even have access to the corpses of coro victims. Indeed, agha-a kpu okpu (the war/enemy is wearing a helmet!)Even those who are not directly affected will also be affected because every palm fruit that enters the mortar must receive some wound. After all, we are all on lockdown with several unpalatable side effects, including hunger for those who live hand-to-mouth.

Coro has shown those who usually say ‘If it were me, if it were me’; well, if it were you, what will you do? The doctor that boasts of expertise in curing diarrhea immune is he from it?   Even our courageous doctors have fallen to this ravenous and rapacious evil. And because the person stung by bees takes cover when he sees a tsetse-fly, any person who coughs now is looked at coronally! Yet, because ‘ebulu ozu onye ozo’… (another person’s corpse looks like a log of wood to  those who are not involved), some people  who have not been affected directly  look on nonplused.  But, ‘ometu imi, ometu onu’ (whatever affects the nose will surely affect the mouth). Yes, ‘kwakam puta, kwakam esolu ya’ (unusual times demand unusual measures) and even when our efforts appear futile or do not yield much results, we must continue to plant cocoa-yam, even if the flood sweeps our efforts away. For this corona, what is happening in ‘oke’s abode is also happening in ogini’s homestead (everybody is afflicted) and for those who think they are  above the law and beyond reproach, ‘ihe onye cho k’ofu’( whatever you want, you see); if you  are in doubt, ask Funke Akindele and her husband! 

Actually, ‘ihe ka nte bakwutelu nte n’onu’( something bigger than an ant has invaded the ants hole) and now, the Christmas goat is sweating, even though  hairs ( wool) have prevented us from observing the sweat. ‘Mbelede nyili dike’ (emergencies overwhelm the  great man) but emergencies are also occasions to identify the real heroes. This coro is not the kind of race that women run, holding their breasts;  it is not the fight that mothers fight for their children  and it is not the type of dance that men dance with snuff in their palms. Unfortunately, ‘ana ekwu na oya ezuhu oke’ (while sicknesses have not been equitably distributed), those suffering from scrotal hernia are also getting afflicted with diarrhea. China is also growing hanta-virus!

Yes, the come has come to become, ‘Awusa abago awka’ ( the federal forces have entered Awka) but as the hen told the children, the flood will eventually ebb; it is just a matter of time! We are now aware that what is crawling and creeping all over the place is not millipede; it is a vicious snake.  At the end of it all, we shall learn our lessons. Our people say that the person who knows only one route does not actually know his way.  The guinea fowl also told the kids  that  while enjoying the yam, they should also taste the roots so that when the farmer harvests  his yam, they would depend on the roots.  I hope that those who depended on foreign hospitals, foreign holidays, foreign training and foreign shopping have learnt their lessons.  They would not have suffered this level of culture shock if they had built local institutions and patronised local contents. And yet, ‘ana adihu mma bu ulu ndi nze’(  titled men benefit from societal problems). People are exploiting the situation and benefitting from the peoples’ misery. That was why the palliatives  cannot go round because some local champions have cornered the commonwealth.

 Umunnem, COVID-19 has only one multidimensional medicine: wash your hands, stay safe, stay at home, be clothed appropriately, design home made options when you can and just dig in  because as our people say, whatever has a beginning MUST have an end. It shall come to pass.

Other matters: where are our pastors and native doctors?

When things get so complex, as in this ‘ coronious pestilence’  we seek solutions from all sources, even the sources to which  we really never attached much weight. We start remembering those who had made promises or boasted about their capabilities. After all, a drowning man holds tightly to the nearest straw.  So, leaving what I think about these people aside, I want to openly ask: Where are our pastors and native doctors? Yes, where are they? The fact that I am placing pastors and native doctors on the same dock shows how bad things are in the  ‘casting and binding’ arena. So, now that the come has come to become, where are they? Where are those who regularly raise the dead, make the lame work, make the blind see,  and attempted to walk on water  all these years? In case you don’t know them, just go through the social media and you will know them and be astounded by the audacious claims they have been making over the years and up to  26/2/20 when we were visited by that mean, unseen and unknown scourge. Now, CORO is in town,  creating a season of wailing, weeping, mourning and gnashing of teeth. Indeed, the day of adversity is here! So, where are they; the pastors and native doctors who could do and undo?

The other day, Prophet David Kingleo Elijah, General Overseer of Mount of Possibility Church, Ojo, Lagos, vowed to go to China to destroy the deadly Coronavirus. Prancing on the stage( not pulpit), he boisterously declared that “I am going to China to go and deal with Coronavirus.

 I am going to prophetically destroy Corona Virus’. Now that CORO is rampaging his ‘doormouth’, and when he has been saved the flight, visa and other requirements of going to China, what is holding him? Why has he gone underground? Recently, one character  called Odumeje, alusi nae je uka (a pagan-00idol that also goes to church!) and the lion himself invaded our social space with his own brand of pastoring.

And before long he was  challenging and being challenged by native doctors as to who could raise people from the dead and the possibility of destroying pagan shrines virtually  via ‘holy ghost fire’. Why don’t  they sheath their sword, combine forces and face Oga-Coro? I would have invited the GO of Hand of Healing Ministry who sent coro out of Edo State. But they  ‘ don fall im hand’ because as I write, Coro is ravaging the state, with 11 already  afflicted! That shows the efficacy of his intervention!  

Where are those who held weekly magic sessions involving people from all over the globe, whom were cured of all imaginable and inconceivably ailments by verbal orders and other stunts? This is not ‘them say’ because they forced  these stunts on us through satellite TVs! Yes, where are they?

Meanwhile, in other lands  the pastors are ‘powering’ on. Pastor Augustine Yiga of Revival Church Kawaala in Kampala,  has been arrested by the police for saying that there was nothing like  CORO and that it was an ordinary flu. He has been charged for undermining government efforts in fighting the pandemic and misleading the public. Televangelist Jim Bakker has also been sued by the State of Missouri ( US) for selling a false and fake  anointing oil against CORO.  And Keneth Copeland, a ‘compassionate’ shepherd, had directed his sheep to keep on tithing, since their source is God, not their businesses and their jobs.

 I hope all these will not emerge from hiding  to start disturbing our collective peace, after  Coro has been  sent parking with ignominy. Sure; coro must go!

- Ik Muo, PhD. Department of Business Administration, OOU, Ago-Iwoye