By Ramatu Abdullahi Ambursa.
The reality of Corona Virus also know as COVID’19 is here with us. For the umpteenth time, in the history of the world, nations became conscious of mortality.Fear that usually heralds impending death spurred human race to fight the invader rather than fly in the face of danger or turn on one another.
Nations took cues from other nations and the social media guided government policies, social media became the teacher and the voice of the world. Whatever a person’s bias whether for science or religion, the line is becoming blurred.Science provided the means to fight the virus and religion gives hope and courage to the believers. Social media gave man both tools per second to keep up the fight against the virus. Updates on the battle between man and virus are being posted per second from all corners of the world. It brought tears to my eyes that I am witnessing an epic battle between life and death and life is winning. Man is winning the battle in China and hope is rekindled that victory will be achieved in the battle still raging in the rest of the world. China’s scientific and technological advancement coupled with their unique cultural background gave the nation a perfect weapon to fight and defend itself against the virus.
Nobody could accuse Nigeria of being advanced in any of the three fields mentioned above. We are governed by people groomed in the art of self-enrichment and self-service. Measures were not put in place to help ordinary Nigerians survive the onslaught of the virus. For a nation that has a weak economy, very high unemployment rate, high illiteracy rate, abysmal gender equality rate and an unbelievably ridiculous per-capita income, the fight is indeed of a David and Goliath proportion, minus the sling. As a matter of fact, to say Nigeria is unprepared in its fight against the virus is akin to saying darkness is the absence of light, it is obvious isn’t it! Nigeria is yet to win its war against corruption which everyone can see every day, upon all the measures it has in place, is it the fight against a virus it cannot see, with very little measures in place that it could win? The beauty of faith is that it makes you invincible in your eyes. Nigeria is a nation of faithfuls, so no weapon fashioned against us shall prosper! Corona virus, bring it on!
Ramatu Abdullahi Ambursa wrote in from Lagos.
