Muyiwa Adetiba
‘To travel or not to travel.’ That was the question to which I needed a divine answer last weekend. This would have been an easier question to answer had the travel involved only me. But involved were people from different parts of the world that I rarely see; we were looking forward to spending time together.
Involved was a friend who had delayed the sale of his house for me so four of us could later rendezvous there and have a rollicking time—now the looming recession could affect its sale and that makes me feel responsible and sad.
Involved was the event itself which had taken months to plan and which could be greatly jeopardised if not cancelled, by people pulling out at the last minute. Involved were the things I planned to do in Mexico and the US, the epicentre—forgive the use of the word—of my trip. But the Coronavirus scourge which looked so distant a few short weeks ago had become menacing, paling everything else into insignificance.
I slept with this dilemma on Friday night and woke up with it on Saturday morning still unresolved. My head thought of the hassles of cancellations and refund. My heart thought of the pleasant opportunities that would pass by. Opportunities that would be dwindling by the day given my age. My mind resolved that there had to be a way out. Then a friend and neighbour who happened to be a physician with international connections called. Apparently, he had appeared on the Segun Odegbami’s sports show on TV, and had been sensitized to the coming National Sports Festival in Edo State. He had felt queasy about the pending event. His unease became reinforced when he got some information on Covid19 from one of the international health organisations he belonged to. He called to enlist my help with the pressin pushing for postponement. I agreed to call around.
My last call was to Demola Osinubi, the Managing Director of Punch Newspapers and the last man standing from my days at the Punch. Unknown to Demola, his comments during our chat, about avoiding crowds and unnecessary trips, helped me to decide. Subsequent rapid developments around the world regarding travels made my decision inevitable and superfluous. This was part of my personal Covid19 experience.
Later that weekend, a friend who resides in the UK, but had travelled to Israel sent a message that he barely made it back to base. In fact, his BA flight was the second to the last flight out of Israel. He escaped being quarantined, but all the Israelis on the plane were put on compulsory 14-day isolation. That was part of his personal Covid19 experience. His experience would continue to change as the situation in the UK changes. My daughter flew to town from the US for a brief visit around the time the infected Italian also flew to town.
Had her reason for coming been just two weeks later, she either would not have been able to come or would have difficulty getting back. As it is, she barely made it back to base and is presently homebound as her city is on lockdown. This would probably be the beginning of her personal covid19 experience. Almost everybody in the world today would have a personal Covid19 experience—from the simple to the profound, the hilarious to the tragic, the poor to the rich.
Peasants to presidents, Covid19 has become a leveller respecting neither princes nor paupers. Even the most powerful President in the world has had his scare. Speaking of personal experiences, we must spare a thought for those who lost loved ones or were tragic victims themselves. Their families will never forget the winter of 2020.
Our personal experiences might differ. But the realisation that we are not as in control of our lives as we think we are is common to all. Our well laid plans for this year have been thrown out of the window by a sudden and powerful force.
The ripple effect of covid19 will reach everywhere; rural and urban, social and economic. For too long, the rich and powerful nations have treated the world as if they own it. Yet, this virus has shown how impotent these nations are even when they think they are virile. We have watched how the most powerful country confessed it had no answer to the spread of coronavirus. Or worse, that no one has.
It is instructive that US and China, the two most powerful countries in the world and Europe, the most economically powerful continent, are the worst hit. Is God trying to tell the world something? We know His ways are not our ways but we have taken His ways for granted for too long. We may have believed that the world would end, if it would, through the nuclear bomb, or earthquakes or tsunami. He might be telling us that there are many ways to skin a cat and that this virus, or its variant, might be one of them.
Some spiritualists opine that it may just be God’s warning to the proud and the pompous not to think they are full when in actual fact they are empty. A warning to show how puny and insignificant we are in the scheme of things. Bill Gates warned that the world could be decimated, not by the bomb, but by a virus. He was prophetic. Imagine if this virus had been as deadly as it was contagious.
Covid19 is so novel that new information is coming out even as we speak. We still don’t know why it is mild, almost non-existent in some people and not so mild in others; why it appears like a common cold in some and like a flu in others; why it manifests within five days in some and over 14 in others. We don’t know what respect or preference if any, it has for race, colour or weather.
Covid19 has brought the Western world to its knees in every way possible. Its busy cities have become ghost towns. But Nigerians are behaving as if we belong to another world. We are still partying and congregating as if we are somehow immune to the scourge. Yet, should the virus make a significant entry here, only God can help us.
We don’t even have sufficient water to wash our hands with not to talk of adequate healthcare facilities. As for our leaders, the preoccupation remains 2023 and the pursuit of power either at the chairmanship level or the presidency. But the Lord is looking at them in derision. They seem not to learn, even when Covid19 is screaming and reinforcing the message to the world, that tomorrow is not a given for anybody.
