Oga-Coro was officially recognized on 31/12/19 when the WHO China Country Office was informed and the virus was isolated on 7/1/20. However there are reports that one 55 year old in Hubei Province was the first person to contract the mean virus on 17/11/19. There have been reports, even of recent that China disclosed far less than it knew about the origin of the disease, its statistics in China and even how they miraculously overcame it to become the only country that recorded almost 5 percent growth this year, while others are in the -20 percent region. China has also just ‘discovered’ that Coro is not an indigene; that it migrated from Australia, among others but that is not my concern today and may not even be tomorrow. Now, if you check the median from 17th November and 31st December, you have 9th December. And so, Coro has just celebrated its first birthday anniversary.
It is one of the wonders of 2020, and indeed, of this generation, that a strange being, which is just one year old has gotten to the level where we are blackmailed and coerced to honour it with the Oga appellation. In the world of area-boys, now known as hoodlums, in motor-parks and prisons, the most ruthless becomes the Oga. If you doubt, go and ask Olu-Omo. Coro has indeed become the most ruthless and monstrous being that ever existed in this generation and that is why it has forced us to hold it in fear (not respect), which is why we humour it with the appellation, Oga, so that it will show some mercy. An invisible, unknown and vicious being has within one year become the most popular word in the internet, even more popular than Trump and the most notorious being on earth. Within its 12 months ‘on the throne’, it has rattled great men, humbled great nations, invaded and desecrated sacred and hallowed places, humbled the proud, created a new and hitherto unimaginable order, equalized all humanity, forced Nigerian big men to stay in Nigeria for more than 6 months at a stretch, rendered their private jets idle and forced them to visit Nigerian hospitals and take in Nigeria air. It has killed kings and princes, showed celebrities a taste of ordinary life…all within 12 months!
In Nigeria, however, we are more concerned with quelling treasonable demonstrations by EndSARSers and the best we have done about the vaccine is to plead for equitable distribution. In this dog-eats-dog world?
It is so powerful that as a toddler and without firing a shot, it imposed the global 3Ls: lockdown, lock-up and lock-in and in obeisance, markets, schools, international travel and commerce, and sporting activities were crudely stopped. Our people who were experts in foreign conferences and meetings were forced to stay home or try the zoom option. We all became online experts: worshipping, learning, meetings and sale became mandatorily online affairs. Hospital and mortuary facilities were overwhelmed in the US of all places and grave diggers were forced to proactively dig graves up front across the globe. It forced us to do what we have refused to do despite years of schooling in personal hygiene and social etiquettes. It has shown its influence by pushing other health concerns like HIV, tuberculosis and cancer into oblivion and whereas there has been no vaccine for cancer, malaria, HIV and Ebola over these years, its own vaccine has berthed after just one year and there are several of them! It is noteworthy that the last vaccine approved took 4 years to be developed! It also brought some people closer to the Creator as prayer for an end to Coro became the major prayer point in 2020. It has also come with a basket of new terms like droplets, flattening the curve, coronised covidious, verbal autopsy and plandemic!
Read also: Oga-Coro; Another ‘abami-eda’! & Other matters: The demystification of America
I have been having sleepless nights, cracking my medulla-oblongata, wondering where this came from and the source of its mysterious powers. And then, on Monday,7/12/20, (around 2.pm), I got it: ‘See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down… they shall fight against you but they shall not prevail against you’. (Jeremiah, 1;10 & 19). It was the marching order to Jeremiah and I believe that the devil, who was expelled from heaven with all his powers still intact, created Coro and handed the instruction over it. It deliberately ignored the second part of that Verse 9 which instructed it ‘to build and to plant’. I believe that we shall eventually get to the build and plant stage but now we are on the ‘root out, pull down and destroy’ phase!
On its first anniversary, rather than listening to our ‘calm-down’ and offering us some gifts, it has offered us a weird gift of inexplicable recrudesces so that while some countries are in the second phase, others are on the third. It has even refused our gift, the vaccines, which have created more controversies. Most of us cannot afford it while others have solid strategic responses to vaccine management. Britain, apart from being the first country to approve a vaccine, has appointed a Minister of Vaccines; Japan and Algeria are offering free vaccines to their citizens and Russia and Britain have started jabbing. Margret Keenan, 91, has become the first to receive vaccine in UK and first to receive Pfizer Vaccine in the whole world, thereby making history in the twilight of her life. In Nigeria, however, we are more concerned with quelling treasonable demonstrations by EndSARSers and the best we have done about the vaccine is to plead for equitable distribution. In this dog-eats-dog world?
There are even doubts as to whether we have the capacity to manage the vaccine logistics, given the storage specifications. Even then, Haryana’s Health Minister, Anil Vij has just tested positive barely two weeks after being administered a trial vaccine shot of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin! Bharat Biotech however informed that the efficacy of its vaccine could be determined only fourteen days after a second dose. Pfizer vaccine also has that 12-day, 2nd dose specification. Scientists, over to you! And New York Times has just written that ‘the lack of transparency, compounded by dubious business practices, has rattled public confidence in Chinese-made vaccines, even though they have been proved safe’ and I learnt that in UK, many citizens are waiting for the PM to take a jab before they can join the queue. But as at today, face-masking, sanitizers/hand washing and social distancing constitute the most effective vaccine. You can take that to the bank.
Anyway, after berthing in China, Oga-Coro opened its first ‘branch office’ in Thailand on 20/1/20, came into Nigeria, the first in Sub Saharan Africa on 28/2/20 and was declared a pandemic and global health emergency on 11/3/20. As at today, the world has had 68 million active cases and 1.55 million deaths, with US having 15 million active cases and 284000 deaths and Nigeria, 69645 active cases and 1181 deaths (as at 7/12/20). And it is still powering on because it is not yet satisfied with its current scores
As Coro celebrates its BD, here is a rundown of some developments. The WHO has expressed worry that people are behaving as if it is over just because of the availability of vaccines. He warned us that it is NOT yet over! He also advised that vaccination should NOT be compulsory, even though countries and institutions have vowed to lock-out non-vaccinated citizens. On the other hand, INTERPOL has issued a global alert, telling us to beware of fake vaccines as organised crime rings target these vaccines physically and online. However, while other countries are doing everything to obtain, distribute and promote vaccine usage, with Obama, Clinton and Bush promising to be vaccinated ‘opendentially’ Brazil’s Bolsonaro, probably an admirer of Trump has boldly declared: ‘I’m not going to take it’! This is despite the fact that he is an alumni of quarantine facilities and that Brazil is seriously under pressure . The figures all over the world are alarming with newer and tighter restrictions being imposed but in Nigeria, it is neither here nor there. Nine states Borno, Gombe, Ebonyi, Abia, Enugu, Adamawa, Kebbi, Zamfara and Kogi states did not report new cases between November 8 and December 6 while nationally, we have had 5 days of 300+ figures from 3rd to 6th December( 343, 324, 310, 318, and 390), figures we never had throughout September and November. The figures for last week ( 1607) was 31.4 percent higher than the previous week’s. And I ask again is it that the states did not have cases or that they did not test and or report the cases? On 3/12/20, the figures were from only 13 states while on 7/12/20 when we had 390, the highest since August 23rd, only 20 states+ FCT had figures. Where are the other 17 states?
While the second wave is of global concern, some Nigerians went a-worshipping at Redeemed Christian Church of God church in Turkey, where they were rounded up by the security forces for breaking social distancing rules, some fined and others scheduled for deportation. However, a group of 300 youths defied the Coro scare and organized a 5-day ‘Swingers Convention’ themed ‘Naughty in N’Awlins’ in New Orleans. It was a week of sexual orgy and after that, came the results: 41 of them were coronised! Trumps personal lawyer, Giuliani has been coronised while his controversial pandemic adviser, Dr Atlas a neuroradiologist with no expertise in infectious diseases or epidemiology, has resigned after he has caused much confusion and when the pandemic was at its height. A coronised Singaporean woman, Celine Ng-Chan has given birth to a baby without COVID-19 but with the virus antibodies, giving a new insight in the mother-child transmission process.
At least eight inmates were killed and 50 others injured in a violent riot at Mahara prison in Sri Lanka. The riots started after prisoners demanded accelerated testing, separation of the ‘saints from the sinners’ and outright release amid spread of Coro in the prison. More than 1,000 inmates in five prisons have tested positive for coronavirus, and at least two of them have died. No fewer than 50 prison guards also tested positive. And our precarious situation in Africa has just been amplified when a young (28) Kenyan doctor, Stephen Mogusu died of Coro while being owed 5 months’ salary and without health insurance. It was so bad that his family had to engage in online fund-raising to see him through, but to no effect
Meanwhile, I have just come across the statistics on average deaths per day due to various ailments. It is 438 for Diarrhea, 433 for pneumonia, 430 for tuberculosis, 263 for malaria and just 4 for Coro. Incidentally, malaria has no vaccine. What does this imply? That while we are conducting this WAC (war against coro,) we should not ignore the management of other more debilitating ailments.
To conclude this special Coro birthday edition, here is a report I just received from an anonymous source; ‘My uncle attended a wedding party in Lagos on October 31. Thereafter, he became very sick and he went for coronavirus test and tested positive. He later found out that 140 out of 185 attendees at the wedding event also tested positive. He is aware that the bride’s father and a younger sister to the bride (who came in from the USA and who had other underlying conditions) have died. A few other attendees have also died. Luckily, he is 100 percent recovered now and he has vowed never to attend any more public engagement in the near future. He also told me of another wedding in Ibadan that took place in early November (of course he did not attend). He said the father of the bride has also died since. Those who have ears, let them hear!
