Donald and Melania Trump: Coro hits the jackpot - Ik Muo, PhD.

Last week, I agreed with ‘the presidency’ that Nigeria has always been divided. It evidences leadership failure that rather than assuaging public angst about our sorry state of affairs and itemising steps taken  and highlighting the ones in the making to make things better, we were told gleefully that ‘it has always been so’. But we were promised ‘next level’ just the other day. If we have to continuously ‘go yesterday’ to the previous level, then the next level becomes a mirage. Unfortunately, the ‘oga at the very top’ did not do better because he wasted the diamond opportunity provided by our 60^th anniversary. Anyway, the second option in our MCP is: Nigeria is more divided now than ever.  You know as much as I do that this is also true. We have moved from Northernisation, to Islamisation, to Fulanisation to Kastinisation and then to NIGER-isation.   However, today, we discuss developments in the Coro front, which we totally ignored last week.

The greatest front-page news in the past one week, a news item that is still trending, is that Coro has upped the ante in its celebrity status by invading and ‘dominating’ the White House. It has shown the Trumps that it meant and still means business and that it is not only the streets that should be dominated! Some uncharitable and bad-belle people have accused him of faking the Coro-positiveness so as to avoid further presidential debate appearances and to refocus all attention ( and sympathy) on himself for possible  emotional and political gains. Anyway, I wish him well, just as I wish all ‘coronised’ people well but probably, going forward, he should take serious things seriously. I am also awaiting his attitude towards face-mask and chloroquine based-treatment, because he will now be speaking from experience! 

With Trump going under, the coronisation of Sadio Mane ( Liverpool Forward) and other lesser mortals is no longer as newsy as it would have been.

In China, millions are indulging on ‘revenge tourism’ to recover the months lost to quarantine and lockdowns; in UK, cases doubled in areas of local lockdown; Spain is seriously considering an extension of its coro-induced emergency and President Erdogan of Turkey has been accused by  Turkish Medical Association of  manipulating and underreporting Coro cases. Governor Cuomo, who had argued that God had nothing to do with some of the successes achieved in the WAC( war against coro)  has ordered some New York Schools to be closed due to resurgence of Coro; in Bangladesh, some garment workers are engaged in post-coro protest  over wage related issues  while Italy just recorded 2548 new cases, the highest number since May.

In any case, WHO has estimated that about 10% of the global populace has caught the mean and audacious virus and while that is happening, more than 6000 have been infected by the rat fever in Siri Lanka. So, while we are yet to come to terms with Coro, other pandemics are warming up!

At home, we continue to do our own things in our own way. The Government has ordered all schools (secondary tertiary and special-purpose) to open with immediate effect. ASUU immediately reminded the government that it was still on strike while NASU and SSANU greeted the announcement with a warning strike.  The government’s strategy for the opening was just to order the schools to maintain all relevant protocols and there is no evidence that the schools were empowered to do so.  You remember how the Ministry of Education ordered all universities to commence online teaching-just like that. The Minister is in the habit of  speaking as if he has the divine powers to call into existence what does not yet exist( Romans,4:17)!  Anyway, ASUU has just stated emphatically that ‘The frenzy of opening universities and façade of online teaching, matriculation and graduation are not informed by realities. University administrators…know for sure that no public university as at today can meet the requirements of facilities needed to observe Covid19 protocols. Neither can they boast of infrastructure for impactful online teaching or meaningful e-learning’. (ASUU Strike Bulletin 20, 22/9/20)’

Furthermore, the cheery news has just been released that about 25000 passengers will fly into Nigeria weekly, following the recent increased passenger-slots allocated to the airlines. That is good businesses to those in the aviation eco-system, including Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria which has increased every possible charge. However, with the coro-spike,   second and third waves, and with hurried closure of schools recently reopened, across the world, we need to be cautious. More so, as 80 of the incoming passengers had tested positive after 7 days of arrival with the PTF expressing fears of a second wave in Nigeria. The NCDC boss has also declared unequivocally that we lack the capacity to produce vaccines (and I doubt we have the capacity to buy as things are now). Our people say that ‘Nkwucha abuhu ujo’ (Precaution is not an act of cowardice).    We need to shine our eyes well-well.

Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commissions has accused some hospitals, particularly in River State, of forcing asthmatic patients to accept positive coro-status while the coro-testing has become another avenue for criminal entrepreneurship  international travelers  who pay the money  without any results!  Ndubuisi Ekwulonu paid N42000 twice while Iyabo Ojo paid N51000 and both did not get any results. Of course, BusinessDay  has just reported that for Coro tests, Nigerians pay on the average, 42% higher than  our peers, including Ghana and Senegal. I am writing this from ‘home’( Igbo-Ukwu, Anambra State) where people have gone back to the ‘old normal’ in all material particular and if you check NCDC records,  the number of states filing their Coro statistics  has been fluctuating around 12. Yes; just 12 out of 38 ( FCT, 37^th ; Niger Republic, 38^th )!

On an odd and inexplicable note,  a 50-year old  Leroy Chacon has allegedly broken into a mortuary and sexually defile dead  female coro victim. This happened in Guyana, South America.   For what? This world and a good number of its inhabitants have gone CRAZY! The man, who is surely incomplete’ upstairs’ was first quarantined( and treated with tax payers money) before he was jailed for 3 years for the despicable act, for endangering himself and for endangering the community

Meanwhile, I have discovered another special-purpose face mask for smokers, for which I am the sole distributor for EMEA( Europe, Middle-East and Africa) region.

So? Coro is still very much around. We should take all necessary precautions and be truthful in our coro-based communication. We should also avoid the herd tendency  in the management of our Coro affairs. (Policy Copy and Paste)

The discourse on the divided, more divided and soon to be divided status of Nigeria continues next week. Have a Covid-Free week

- Ik Muo, PhD. Department of Business Administration, OOU, Ago-Iwoye. 08033026625