By Amb Ibrahim Akaje
I can't help to keep a low profile at a critical time like this, it is not what I have been known for.
Social distancing and lockdown has been compelled by the government, that explains why I haven't been on the street. Equally compelling is the spirit of solidarity, sense of empathy and a call for sober reflection.
Silver or gold I have none to dish out to relieve our compulsory stay-at-home, but the words that I speak we should take heed.
It is a momentous time in global history, a perilous one at that. One we would not experience again in our lifetime. History said the last time similar thing occurred was 1918. More than a century ago. So as commonly put, this too shall pass.
I hate to be a prophet of doom yet I choose not to be among the prosperity preachers. I hate to choose wishful thinking over impending reality. I would not want to join the pretence that all is well or all will be well all by itself when we have another pandemic by the corner "hunger virus". I wouldn't join in the pretence to fold arms until it is upon us and so we would give out relief materials again, hold hands and chant 'Kumbaya' when we can be more prepared, when we can fix the systemic damages on ground, when we should find the resolve to build a system that would work for us by ourselves. The system in Cuba is insulated from this crisis, the system in Japan made them resistant to it. Do we keep building our lives around Messianic fantasies or we would build a system that works?
Now is the time or a sober reflection.
To reflect on how nations did not see through what the likes of Bill Gate had been predicting since half a decade ago. Reflect on how we got stuck in medical tourism at the expense of our health system. Reflect on how this is an accumulation of deficits in our Educational system 'formal and informal'. The products of Japan Educational system did not fall to the ravaging Covid-19 because they do not need reminders on hygiene, on civil compliance, on balanced religious thoughts, or rhetorics on leading by example. So much for what an excellent Education can offer the society.
Speaking of health care system, we need not tarry on how it is almost moribund. We had constant killers in diseases that have almost become history in saner climes. Before Corona virus got all the attention, Malaria was doing numbers coupled with it's twin; Typhoid fever. Hepatitis B still got me bereaved a few days back (Adieu Bar. Alawaye, till we meet to part no more).
So when this is all over we would have a window of time to put our acts together before the next unavoidable pandemic that might not be viral agent but our collective lackadaisical attitude to challenges. Youths especially would need to take our future into our hands. Our schooling is grounded, the global economy is getting grounded, our collective future is on the grind. It's an existential threat we have on our hands.
A stitch in time saves nine. This is not the time for bickering over some superficial divisions, this is solidarity time, this is not the time for sanctimonious fanaticism, can we ask our hard bent spiritual leaders, who knows why Ilorin municipality recorded the highest number of deaths in the then northern province during the pandemic of 1918. This is the time to get practical, to get rational, let's take precaution, let's follow experts' instructions, let's stay alive together. One for all, All for One.
#AkajeMyRep cares for ALL.
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