Let me begin by stating the obvious. I AM NO EXPERT on this topic. With the proliferation of fake, misleading and ignorant takes on the Coronavirus, I want to be clear that this is very personal and subjective commentary. My perspective is that of a Lagos dwelling Nigerian.

For the best place to learn about COVID-19 and how to take care of yourself during these times, visit the NCDC website

Prelude

First of all, and with great embarrassment, I have to confess that I was one of those that viewed the unfolding pandemic with the belief that e no go affect black man. Afterall Isaac Newton once said. “Poison no dey kill African man”. That should tell you how smart I am.

Back to my random thoughts…

Nomenclature

The Chinese have a massive responsibility for the shitshow this virus has become. The crime is that it originated from Wuhan, but the irresponsible handling made it a global disaster. Had it been from anywhere in Africa, that nation would have been sealed up a long time ago. Therefore, this massive cockup has to be permanently immortalised as a Chinese fuckup. I think calling it the Chinese Coronavirus is fair enough. Taking the naming pattern of Lassa Fever, Ebola and friends. 

And the NERVE that the Chinese have in abusing Africans in China over this virus! Kai!

Who be WHO?

Those guys have been the most irresponsible body ever I can think of. At the onset of the outbreak, the only other body that would have sounded the alarm went stamping whatever they were instructed to by China. Their role in this spread has to actually be reviewed. I think this should in a way put a nail in of pseudo multilateral global agencies which are merely post-war vehicles for influence by their funders.   

When Actually Did Rona Come to Town?

In late February or early March, I was having a call with an old homie and he brought up a salient point: if the virus had been in Wuhan since December, it would not take 2 months for it to proliferate the world. Therefore, it was highly possible that is started infecting people much earlier and more people than otherwise thought would have had it. 

We speculated on some sudden deaths that we know of. Most of them were relatively sudden and had a respiratory angle to it, including one that happened in his office that week.

It also did not escape my mind that in a 3-week period between January and February this year, I transited 8 airports a total of 11 times!! [2XLOS (Lagos), JFK & EWR (New York), 2XIAH and HOU(Houston), LAS(Vegas), 2X SJC (San Jose), LAX (Los Angeles) and ATL (Atlanta)].

While in Vegas, it was Chinese New Year, and I mingled the hell out of that place, twerking away with my fellow Chinese humans. And I definitely gave my typical firm grip handshake to the dozens of hands that were stretched before me during that period.

My point is, if I was trying to get Rona to take a hold of me, I could not have tried harder. I have since come to rethink my few days of fever et al. while in the Bay Area.

There are those that believe since a virus mutates, the ones that come earlier on were not as dangerous as their descendants. 

Beware of Experts

This definitely is a controversial position to take, but hear me out. 

My personal rule is simple, if there is a political or commercial angle to anything, beware of experts. Even when not intentional, they can really be flawed. 

Beware = ask questions and ruminate carefully on what you hear. Be aware. Simples

So here are a few random points these “experts” have confused and not convinced on the following

• At the beginning of this pandemic, we were told not to wear masks, and it was all about our hands only. Now, ankara masks are what will save us.
• In the first couple of weeks, it was “ventilators or we all die!”. Now we are told that ventilators are the death knell.
• Sunlight is now the best disinfectant but before we saw it as a hoax postulated by mad people only.
• Smokers are now liable to die (be hospitalised) less from smoking to being a sure route to Corona ICU
• Lockdowns were supposed to save lives. Apparently, it may now not be so clear cut.

Anyway, the point is, no one really knows anything everything. No, it doesn’t mean you should drink bleach or inject yourself with whatever Trump hallucinates about!!! But still…nothing is certain yet and if people are weaving something logical together, maybe we should not be too quick to shush them.

Mass Hysteria and the Fucking Media

Someone pointed out that the policy and the approach to fighting this coronavirus has been driven mostly by Twitter and Media hysteria. Unfortunately, it is what it is. But make no mistake, neither FOX nor CNN are on the side of the truth. It is all about ratings for them all. No nuance it is black or white. The earlier politicisation of the spread in the US and globally definitely affected the response time.

Make NO mistake, the Coronavirus is a bloody serious thing. What makes it very serious is that we do not understand it. But the drip by drip chronicling is making a much greater impact than it would otherwise have had. But tragedy and disaster is the milk and butter of today’s 24/7 News, so expect them to milk it for all it’s worth.

Let me use Malaria as a reference (NOT equal or equivalent). 

As at today, over 200k people have died from the virus 85 of which are in Nigeria

Last year Malaria killed over 100k Nigerians. That’s right, one country, >100k deaths. If every malaria diagnosis and death was chronicled and updated daily like the Coronavirus, I no sure say anyone go still dey Nigeria today.

Unlike with malaria, with Corona, it doesn’t discriminate on your economic status and outside of China, the infections (at least initially) skewed towards the upper strata of society. I amaware that Malaria needs a vector to be transmitted and is not nearly as infectious as Corona but you get the point.

In summary, we should try to reduce the influence of the Corona pandemic on our mental health by reducing our exposure to the incessant chronicling of deaths and infections by journalists empowered by institutions who have every incentive to rile up the world and keep us from staying any bit calm.

Nigeria’s Response

Only the cliché “ever living in denial” Arsenal fan would have any expectation of Buhari’s government when it comes to crisis management. Once the Corona alarm bells were put into action for us, we just did like others and shut down everywhere not taking cognizance of the fact that different countries have different situations. 

So, while Canada was depositing money to all residents, our government was distributing now expired rice they once called poison (maybe as e don expire, the poison no dey work again) or in some cases Eba.

In countries run by humans, the shutdown was to slow down the pace of infection and to quickly build capacity (testing, tracing therapy) and then easy people back into “the new normal”

As at today, while “Little Ghana” has tested 110k people, Nigeria has barely gone beyond 10k folks. So, the economic shutdown has not brought us anything. At best, it delays the inevitable.

We have no idea of knowing how bad things are because one vital stat has not been broken down in the NCDC report which is the number of tests done per day per state. So, hearing zero tested negative in Kano today and 90 the next day means absolutely nothing.

Shutdown and Insha Allah is not a strategy.

The Uselessness of Money Itself

Once we got into panic mode of this pandemic, it was a beauty to see the uselessness of money in itself. When poor billionaires like Dangote and other extractionist contemporaries were called upon to rescue the country, all that these “great industrialists” could offer was money. Unfortunately, the gross limitation of money was laid bare. In itself, it is entirely useless if it cannot provide you with what you need. We (thought we) needed ventilators and co but the world had more demand than available. And it showed these industrialists could not create anything. 

The Private Sector

Not everything has been shite. Persons in the private sector have rallied together to see how we can innovate ourselves out of this one. Special commendation to the folks at CcHub and Ventures Platform had competitions to aggregate and motivate, some tech fellows tried to crowdfund a stimulus package with We Are Together. It has been lovely to see. 

So, it will not be like I totally dismiss everything done by the rent-seeking billionaires, I have to mention the eventual commendation of the *holds nose* Dangote Led initiative of providing loads of facilities and helping some of the states get a hold of this.

Lagos and maybe Kaduna are two states that have had the closest resemblance of getting their act together, especially Lagos.

Despite all these, there is a limit the private sector can do. As Ory Okolloh said, Africa cannot innovate itself out of bad governance. There is a limit to what can be done when we don’t know how many we are and where we live. 

The Future After Corona

Less than a few days into the first batch of locking down, people that had no idea how long they would stay in, began pontificating (not speculating) on zoom panels about what the future would look like after this pandemic.

Fantabulous!

The fact is, no one knows exactly what will happen. Of course, there are broad themes like how Working from Home will become a thing, travel will change etc. But specifics? Na.

I like how someone put it, “Corona will accelerate the future”. However, we still don’t know what the future holds. So as long as you declare you are speculating before you jump on the next zoom panel, I’m good!

Moving forward

As this is a novel virus and no one living today has had to deal with such uncertainty, I thought it would make more sense to have multiple approaches to tackling the virus and its impact. For instance, Sweden has taken a different approach from its Scandinavia neighbours. They have allowed most things to go on as usual by preaching common-sense. This approach has resulted in much greater death rates than their neighbours but not at the cost of everything else.

Although the Brazilian president has taken out special time to be irresponsible, Brazil doesn’t seem to be doing much worse than many countries that have been very serious about this.

We will only really know when this is all over.

Other chronic illnesses need attention. Those with diabetes, malaria, cancer etc need access to health care. No be only Rona dey roam streets. The obsessive attention we are giving Rona at the expense of those others may end up biting us on the ass.

For a place like Nigeria, I think we should just roll the dice and get going to as close to normal we can responsibly manage. We are so infrastructurally backward that even a shut down for 6 months would not build the tracking, tracing and therapeutic capacity we need to contain the uncertainty.

What can you do in the meantime?

• Masks
• Physical distancing
• Washing of hands
• Avoid hospitals
• Dey your house
• Prevent your vulnerable from being exposed 

What can the government do?

• Ramp up testing especially antibody tests (make we know who don bam)
• Ramp up isolation centre capacity
• Minimize and restrict single gatherings of over 50 people.

On Monday the 4th of May, the doors will be open and we go in and hope our chi’s (personal God/Guardian Angel in Igbo) get level. My thinking is, like with most parts of the world, most people infected would have little or no symptoms. Some will need hospitalization and I hope there would be capacity for those to be taken care of. The reality is from Monday, na Russian Roulette we dey so

May the 4th Be with you as we all say to ourselves “Chi’m a man da” – my God will not fail.