Covid-19: Nigeria vs The rest of the World by Kayode Onasanya

Flashback December 2019, in the region of Wuhan, China, a new corona virus began to appear in human beings. It was named Covid-19.

It was seen as an epidemic that was sweeping China, but the virus soon spread worldwide in months.

The WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic in March 2020.

Today, there have been an estimated 1.54m confirmed cases in the US with well over 90,000 deaths, Russia ranks next in confirmed cases with about 300,000 cases and about 2800 deaths. The UK has about 246,000 confirmed cases and about 34,000 deaths.

In Africa, South Africa ranks first with about 16000 confirmed cases and about 280 deaths, Egypt follows with about 12000 confirmed cases and about 600 deaths. Nigeria ranks 5th in Africa with about 6000 confirmed cases and about 190 deaths to date.

There is however an uproar in Nigeria that the pandemic is fake, the figures unreal and some even go as far as calling the whole thing a scam.

Suffice to state that Covid-19 is real the world over and Nigeria is not an exception.

However, our problem in Nigeria is that our leaders have deceived the people so much and for so long that all confidence has been lost.

The pandemic situation in Nigeria seems to have been turned into a money making venture. There has been bickering here and there about the handling of cases so much so that some government officials have made claims that financial inducements have been offered to them to report cases that don’t exist. Is this true?

If it is we certainly should be worried about the path Nigeria is heading.

There have also been several reports about billions of Nigeria spent on palliative measures that were hardly seen talk less of received by the populace.

Several government officials have become fashionistas with different shapes and sizes of designer facemasks as if just to use as a means of hiding their smiles to the bank.

The wrong signals from the lockdown arrangements have also not helped matters. With states locking and unlocking at will. Allowing and disallowing religious gatherings like a yoyo. The loss of confidence is thoroughly deserved. There has been a clear absence of leadership on all levels.

The question now is why are we not getting it right here in Nigeria?

Simply put, globally, Covid-19 is real, but our government is to blame for any doubts in the minds of the populace. Because as usual their agenda seems to be laced with greed and opportunism.

Stay Safe.