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Opinions of Sunday, 24 May 2020

Columnist: Ademola Adeoye

Buhari, reopen every of our national life now!

When covid-19 first sneaked in—through our borders as we would sneak out of our parents’ houses when men were boys to go attend parties, we all screamed up to the firmament that all our borders should be completely closed, looking for tailor-made solutions considering our peculiarities as a people, but those in the corridors of power would not bulge, because of many selfish-reasons known to them. Today, more than seven (7) thousand Nigerians have contracted the virus and some of our people have been buried already as an effect of the same disease!

Every night, fat numbers of covid-19 cases are being reeled out by the NCDC, as “Nichodemus” would go visit the “Rabbi” when it was dark. Nigerians used to take it very seriously, but today, when big numbers are nocturnally churned out, our people would just hiss in bed and sleep off. This is what happens in a clime where governance is being used as a source of income.

You would think that by now that every street and house would be mourning in Nigeria, but till this moment, we have not had anything of that nature. Please, do not misconstrue me, I believe we do have covid-19 here, but what I do not believe are the huge covid-19 cases that the NCDC keep churning out every night.

Do you have any issue with my not believing in the number of covid-19 cases they keep churning out every night? If you do, I cannot help you, but if you have lived long enough in Nigeria like some of us, you would never believe anything they tell you from our varied corridors of power. The stock in trade of our own politicians is falsehood!

Is it possible for the huge figures of covid-19 cases we are being nightly told to be connected with money, since we are told that to test, feed and treat those infected with the virus costs thousands of naira? The bigger the figures of covid-19 cases, the merrier it is for a few folks—who are daily benefiting from the misfortune of others.

Apart from building isolation centers all over Nigeria that the cost of each one is still being shrouded in secrecy, I doubt if we have built one functional-world-class hospital since the popular virus strolled into our country. A nation that did not learn anything from the civil war that killed millions of our people cannot learn anything as an effect of a mere virus!

When the President of Guinea-Bissau came to Nigeria with the solution to coronavirus that Madagascar found that is giving them a huge result in their country, I remember watching PMB on television talking as if we have found something superior to what they have found.As far as I am concerned, we are only the giant of Africa on paper.Nigeria, a nation that depends on the West for everything! We cannot use our brains to think and come up with tailor-made-solutions to problems.

I guess our leaders also sit before the “CNN” every night, doing copy and paste of what other leaders have come up with, considering their own peculiarities, but the truth is; our peculiarities are different from theirs. When they put their own people on lockdown, we also put our own people on lockdown. When they ease the lockdown a little, we also copy and paste. But the truth is; the concept of lockdown can never work in a poor nation like Nigeria!

How can a people so poor be on lockdown without being given what to eat?If our people do not go out to work in a day, most families in Nigeria would go to bed being hungry. Before the advent of coronavirus, since the birth of Nigeria, about 85% of our people have always been living from hand to mouth. Our country does not exist for the poor, but for the ruling class. She is just a cash-cow of a few politicians!

As far as I am concerned at this moment, our people still being on lockdown does not make any sense.We need to find a way around our children returning to school.We need to reopen all our worship centers. All we need do at this time is to enforce the usage of facemasks, washing of hands with running water and usage of hand-sanitizers. Also, we need to fully and completely reopen our companies and markets. We have ignorantly killed our economy already; we cannot afford to further kill it.

On the condition that the “INEC” can still stick with the plan of Edo and Ondo’s governorship elections as scheduled before coronavirus got here, then every of our national life should also be reopened!Politicians prioritize Elections while we prioritize every of our national life.Without having elections conducted, they cannot eat. This is why true patriots cannot afford to abandon Nigeria in the hands of our politicians. Politicians here do not build, they only use!

Even if millions of Nigerians are dying on our streets on a daily basis, elections will still hold in Nigeria. When terrorists were slaughtering people almost everyday, elections were still conducted across the length and breadth of our promising country. If schools, markets, businesses and worship centers determine whether they win or lose elections, they would have reopened them long ago!

Politicians are being paid to solve problems, not to create them. They are not being paid to sit before the television like we all do at nights, doing copy and paste—what other national leaders have come up with, when our peculiarities are not the same. On behalf of every fellow right thinking Nigerian, I ask Buhari to reopen every of our national life. We cannot afford to be on lockdown indefinitely! Politicians are making money, but we are not!