Between February 28 and April 28, the number of “active cases” in Nigeria leapfrogged from 1(just 1) to 1337, just as the global figure is 3m as I write! I am not a quant and as such I wouldn’t know whether this is arithmetical, geometrical or exponential progression. As we continue to worry what next, as we move from total lockdown to gradual easing and compare Global Mandatory Vaccination with the Madagascar/Senegalese options, I want to focus on certain developments on the side-lines of the global war against this unseen and unpredictable enemy. Coro has proved, in the words of Bob Marley (1973), to be “the small axe ready to cut the big tree down”! Indeed, a small microbe which one needs a microscope to see has “cut down” the entire humanity, leaving the world desolate, prostrate and on all fours, within such a short period of time and without any notice! When I made my first commentary on Coro (COVID-19: The come has come to become! 19/3/20) I had planned to do a one-off commentary and face several other issues awaiting my attention, including the Sanusi affair. Since then, I have done 5 commentaries and it appears we are in for a long haul. I have therefore decided to suspend every other thing (unless those that can be contained with the limits of ‘other matters’ for now0. I have decided to face coro frontally in the meantime. And so, I start today with the various conspiracy theories
While the world was, and has been, busy doing everything to collectively overcome this wicked adversary, a lot of conspiracy theories have been afloat. Some of them are laughable, some of them a fanatically accepted, some have “been proved”, some have pitched brothers against brothers (there is an ongoing “war” between Prof Nwosu and Fr (Dr) Nwosu over some of these matters as I write) and some have pitched the whole world against Bill Gates. The first conspiracy theory was (is) that it was a biological weapon developed in China that was either deliberately released or that “escaped” before it matured. Another version of this theory is that China developed and released it, not as a biological weapon but to show its superiority over US in managing infections. So, China developed the bioweapon and tested it on itself! Another “reverse” version raised by China that it was manufactured and spread by the US through its soldiers who participated in the military games in the same Wuhan in October 2019. It was also averred that China was not “opendential” with the virus, did not relay the information early enough and only did so when its efforts at coverup failed. There were fears about the safety levels in this now notorious Wuhan Lab and China had rejected assistance to help it in the process to show it could manage its affairs.
Another conspiracy theory is that it was sponsored by Bill Gates so that he could make money from vaccines and that is why, the theory says, he has been pushing vociferously for Global Mandatory Vaccination. I thought that Bill has enough money to last him for 100 generations, money which he and Melinda have agreed to dash to humanity. Some people in the “casting and binding business” (yes; it is a BIG TIME Business) are also alleging that the proposed vaccine is an ingenuous way of engraving the long-expected mark of the beast (666) on the whole world. Others eventually linked this to the 5G technology; that coro was caused by 5G, that the lockdown was to enable Telco’s to install 5G technologies unnoticed and that the 5G would be used to monitor the chip which would be inserted into people through the vaccines. I thought the vaccines are still going through trials but some people argue that those who manufactured the coro also manufactured the vaccines and probably, these vaccines are already on the containers in the high seas! Some of these “vaccines” are even being sold in Kano while some Pastors are already selling anointing oils that vanquish any element of “covidity”. The 5G theory went a notch higher when Pastor Chris, a “powerful” man of God (who receives more attention and reverence than the God of men) linked it to the end time, the beast and 666. Prof Victor Chukwuma has just done what another Professor would call an “evidence-based” piece, arguing that 5G could not have caused this covidious pestilence.
There was also the theory, which eventually proved to be true, that China deliberately hid the information about its level of casualties, probably to achieve a “feel-good effect” for itself in the comity of nations. China recently and voluntarily reviewed its fatality figures by as much as 50 percent as the number increased by 1290 to 3869. The authorities admitted that they “omitted” some of the deaths which occurred at home. Already, a study by Zhaoo, Musa et al(Estimating the Unreported Number of Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Cases in China in the First Half of January 2020: A Data-Driven Modelling Analysis of the Early Outbreak, Journal of Clinical Medicine,9(2), February 2020) has statistically investigated the matter and shown that the underreporting in China likely occurred in the first half of January, 2020.
Meanwhile, as we discuss the under-reporting by Wuhan/China, questions are being raised about the integrity of figures from some states in Nigeria. The alarm is being raised by the Presidential Taskforce on Coro and as such, it is not a beer-parlour, social media affair. Nobody will accuse me of fake news or hate speech! But this appears to be linked to the overall politics of Coro going on in Nigeria as at now. But as we are busy creating and distributing conspiracy theories, and as America is busy fighting “image” war with China, Coro is waxing stronger, knocking down more victims across the globe.
Other matters: Doing the right things this season
What is “this season” now is subject to at least two interpretations. In the Christian world, we are still in the Easter Season but for the whole world, we are in the season of corona, in which we have been overtaken by “Coromentality”. Well, the two seasons are the same, in the sense that they demand the same behaviours from us: “be your brothers’ keeper”; and your brother, as in the parable of good Samaritan, means literarily, EVERYBODY. Here are some people doing the right things in this season. Mario Salerno, a New York Landlord, waived of the April Rent for his 200 tenants. He knew that most of them are out of job and are worried about losing their homes among others. He did not call a press conference; he did not announce in on CNN; he just pasted the notices on their doors: “don’t worry about your rent for April”.
He did this for the sake of humanity, to remove at least one source of worry and as he said: “don’t worry about paying me, worry about your neighbour and worry about your family”. A few weeks ago, I was touched by the gesture of Khouloud Gesumi, a Tunisain biologist turned “Fashionist”, who abandoned her fashion business to mass-produce healthy facemasks for her people. But what I was admiring in Sokoto is within our Shokoto! Benedicta Ejorh, a passionate entrepreneur and CEO of Ebibellas Fashion Academy, PH also converted her academy into a facemask production centre, most of which she donated to UniPort Teaching Hospital and other public hospitals in the neighbourhood. The other day, Allen Onyema( that same Onyema you know), was physically involved in the distribution of food items at Ajegunle and Amukoko ( you can be sure he doesn’t live there) while one of my neighbours just placed a notice on his “dorrmouth” and invited the whole street to come for food and drinks. In my home town, The Igbo-Ukwu Coronavirus Relief Fund Group has been institutionalised and plans to go beyond this season to establish a verifiable social register for sustainable “Conditional Cash Transfer” assistance to our disadvantaged brethren. (This will surely be different from the one used by Ministry of Humanitarian, etc. Affairs) Let the good deeds continue and let them go beyond this Easter.
