India the second most populous country in the world,has kept her 1. 3 billion people indoor-a feat in the history of humanity. In Old Delhi, millions of homeless people, have besieged a government facility asking to be sheltered and cared for.
In Benin City, mobile policemen have been shown on video, smashing beer parlors to keep people at home. In New York, the cross road of humanity, with 40% jump in infection rate within 24hours, hospitals are besieged, the National Guard has been mobilized to keep humanity at bay.
Spain and Italy, two European countries that have hitherto paraded the toga of being “developed” countries are crying to the international community for help.
Their under bellies have been exposed and so is our common humanity. Italian tourists in Ethiopia have refused to return home just as African migrants a few years back,refused to return home. Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, his Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Secretary for Health, top the list of powerful personages who have bowed before the present reality which is that there is POWER above all powers and human beings are created equal.
Boris Johnson, apparently still wallowing in his Brexit fuelled election victory, only a few days ago threatened to close U K borders to fellow Europeans. Having tested positive to the virus, he has no place to run to but self isolate.Some high heeled Nigerians who feel more comfortable in London than Lagos, were caught shamelessly unaware, as they gathered in a conclave in London to celebrate the Nigerian High Commissioner to UK on his 80th birthday with the typically Nigerian virus, Owambe.
By the time they were done, after several bottles of champagne ( at whose expense? I don’t know)two lay dead. Coronavirus,aka Covid -19 is upon us. Nobody saw her coming. Not our celebrated seers. Not the scientists. If at all scientists expected such a plague,they would ordinarily, expect it to appear first in Africa and kept in Africa. At least Africa is home to HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Malaria, Tuberculosis, Sars,Lassa fever, polio, cholera etc. Covid -19 is ruthless. She doesn’t see tribe, skin colour, religion,social status, class, etc. It has kept Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ayatollahs,the Pope,Hollywood royalties, Aso Rock titans and our all-powerful governors and their families scampering for cover.
By the last count, two of our governors have tested positive while scores claim to be self Isolating. The Tokyo Olympics and other global sporting events have been canceled. Nigerians who celebrate the English premier ship league can keep quiet for once. Else where, Cruise ships have been abandoned or denied access to ports.“We can’t afford to increase the figures” Donald J.Trump, a former New Yorker and President of the “most powerful country on earth “has told the beleaguered revellers off the coast of California in his typical unempathetic attitude.”Enjoy your cruise”he might have added. Whether the US president likes it or not, the figures are going up. Doubling in the U S and across the globe everyweek.
The origin of Covid -19 would remain a subject of debate for months or years to come even when it is obvious that it was first detected and identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan.Trump in his bid to taint China did not fail to exploit the pandemic which he re-christened the Chinese virus. He would do anything to rubbish China. That it is not the African virus, should not be a comfort to anybody because the world, the global village, has turned upside down. Figures of death, infection, global spread and fear of the known and the unknown have startled and gripped humanity by the jugular. Trump, with his eyes on approval ratings,Stock Market performance and re-election would definitely not like to hear that over three million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits. A historic record. Good luck to them. The unemployed over there have some place to go to. Some one to cry to. Who are we to cry to? Who would listen to us? Trump would not want to hear that China has taken the battle to Covid -19, determined to crush it, not just in China but across the globe.
While the United States has surpassed the Chinese infection figures and still groping and whinny,looking for a way out,China is walking the work and showing results. By producing 100 million surgical masks a day and shipping them and other medical supplies to beseiged European countries and countries in Africa China can no longer be ignored. Cuba has stepped forward too. First in a show of human solidarity, Cuba received a British Cruise ship with several infected passengers to dock at a Cuban port. The passengers were taken to the airport and flown back to Britain. Cuba has supplied her revolutionary doctors to Italy, Spain and various Latin America countries.
Typically, Trump is not happy. He is telling whoever cares to listen, to reject Cuban help. We know in Africa that a beggar has no choice. Coronavirus is here to shape the world. China is being baptized as the global power that it is. America is confused and dazed, paying a severe price for electing a myopic, selfish and racist leader. Glory to the Cuban revolutionary doctors and the Chinese. The so-called first world countries have been tested and they’ve all , without exception, displayed absolute lack of capacity to deal with the welfare of their people during emergency. China has shown the way. Cuba is following.
Here in Nigeria, Governor Babajide Sanwo- Olu of Lagos State has distinguished himself. He has reassured us that there is a future for Nigeria. The best in Nigeria should step forward to save humanity.The Covid -19 world is on ALL of us. It is still early in the day. But one thing is clear, a new world will emerge. We should deal with it. May God intervene.
Abdul Oroh is a former House of Representatives member, served as Commissioner for Information, and later, Agriculture in Edo State. A former Executive director of Civil Liberties Organization(CLO), lawyer and journalist, Oroh is a member of The New Diplomat’s Advisory Board.
