Buhari, the best defense against coronavirus isn’t lockdown! by Ademola Adeoye

Historically, in March, 1520, a single smallpox carrier landed in Mexico like a whirlwind and at the time I am x-raying, Central America had no trains, buses or even donkeys, yet in a few months, it killed one third of their population!

I am talking about smallpox, not coronavirus! As noisy as coronavirus is, it is yet to kill a third of any country’s population. In 1520, humorously, I am sure some of them would think that the end had come like many folks are thinking today.


In the days of yore, it was as hard as diamond to get information of what was happening like we are having today. Today, in a split-second, information travels from one end of the world to another. When “eyes were on kneecap,” plagues killed millions of people in the midst of the earth because earth-dwellers did not know what to do. Today, in a few weeks after coronavirus became pandemic, we were told what to do and how to avoid the bastard and dreaded disease.


Also, when epidemics broke out in those days, folks would think that it was some strange-gods getting angry with them. Shockingly, many centuries after, folks are still stuck in the same warped-mould of thinking! There was one plague that broke out in a country and folks in government did not know what to do, so they gathered people together to pray to gods and dead saints, so the plague could stop, but unfortunately, as they gathered; the plague amongst them increased and killed many more people!


In 1918, a particular virulent strain of flu managed to spread within a few months to the far-flung corners of the world. It infected half a billion people, more than a quarter of human race! But in the 21st century, epidemics (including coronavirus) kill a far smaller proportion of human beings than in any previous time since the Stone Age. Do you know why? This is because, the best defense humans have against pathogens is not isolation, but information!


In 1967, smallpox still infected 15million people and killed 2million of them! But in the following decade, a global campaign of smallpox vaccination was so successful that in 1979, the WHO declared that the world had beaten and defeated smallpox. Jubilantly, in 2019, not a single person was killed by it! So when you hear of smallpox today, nothing sends cold water down your spine again, but smallpox when it first hit the planet earth sent millions to the land of the silent ones. As noisy as Coronavirus is today, it is not as mad as smallpox when it first hit the planet earth.


What of Black Death? It was also an epidemic of bubonic plague and without globalization, it also traveled to the ends of the earth in a few months, killing so many people in the midst of the earth. And even countries that put their people on lockdown sill partook of it! Those who think globalization is what is responding for Coronavirus that is spreading to the ends of the earth are bereft of history. With or without globalization, epidemics will spread to the end of the earth!


Learning from history, when smallpox first came, people thought human beings would not be able to live a communal life again just as many are postulating today. But the truth is; as the world overcame smallpox and Black Death, the present world will overcome covid-19! A day comes when coronavirus will become like smallpox.


Is the workplace going to change temporarily? Yes, but communal life will return when the solution to covid-19 becomes common as dust. What then quickly changes each time there is an epidemic leading to an economic recession?


People will stop spending money on human wants (things they can do without), so if what you do falls within this category, your company or business may suffer greatly for it.


To avoid this, you may need to start thinking on human needs and find a creative-way to meet one or two of them. This will help you a great deal financially.


Also, do I believe in prayers? Yes, I do! But any nation that only relies on prayers without building world-class hospitals is deliberately committing suicide. On the condition that our political-leaders do not care a hoot about diseases and sicknesses wiping us off, we all need to accept responsibility for our own survival, by rising as one to enforce them to build world-class hospitals, at least five (5) of them in every State in our dear country. We do have the resources to make this happen, but our political leaders do not care two hoots, because they and their family members do not use our hospitals.


Lastly, now that every country that our politicians are fond of traveling to—for medical checks—are all on lockdown, not Buhari can fly out of Nigeria for medical checks. This is why we need to wake up and think for a change. Now, both the rich and poor are using the same hospitals that the rich used to run away from. Many people are dying from other ailments apart from covid-19, because they cannot travel outside of Nigeria to treat themselves. This is why we must build a nation that works, because covid-19 is not going to be the last disease that will hit the planet-earth!