COVID-19: OF LOCKDOWN AND HUNGER, ARMED ROBBERIES AND VIGILANTES (PART 1)

A Brief History of COVID -19 and Its Entry into Nigeria

I first heard about the COVID-19 pandemic in January, 2020 and it was through series of astonishing description by the media both print and social media. COVID-19 stands for the Corona Virus Disease 2019 a respiratory disease causes by a newly discovered Coronavirus which began spreading and killing people in the Chinese town of Wuhan in December, 2019. The deaths that followed this epidemic raised eyebrows and still struck many folks in Africa as a white man’s myth. Its origin and cause puzzled scientists worldwide and with its death toll rising by the hours, it was

only a matter of time before it was officially declared a global pandemic by the WHO.

The Coronavirus

In the months that followed, the Media was filled with devastating news of the spread of this pandemic from Wuhan, China to other parts of Asia, Europe and eventually Africa where Nigeria recorded its first case as an Italian man was diagnosed with the virus after entering the country and interacting with the citizens. The spread was more rapid internationally because of the annual Chinese lunar New Year which saw many Chinese nationals return to their native China to spend time with their families and went back to their various countries of habitation all over the world.

Italy and Spain were the worst-hit European countries by COVID-19 with the cases increasing in the thousands and deaths occurring in their hundreds as days rolled into weeks in February. Italy, Especially its elite-dominated Northern part, was hit hard as their medical and health infrastructure collapsed within weeks due to the monstrously increasing COVID-19 cases. The patients were dying by the minutes and one corpse after another were brought out from wards and emergency rooms (ER) into morgues and many deaths were recorded. The doctors, nurses and other medical staff were overwhelmed and worn out as the weeks progressed, their faces were bruised and reddened due to the fact that they always wore protective nose masks because the pandemic is transmitted through the respiratory organs. More doctors, nurses and hospital staff were testing positive for COVID 19 and they were more psychologically tormented by being the ones to witness the dying moments of these patients before being patients themselves.

In the weeks that followed, Italy was put on a total lockdown, as all economic, social and even sporting activities such as football and preparations for the Tokyo, 2020 Olympic Games were suspended indefinitely. Everybody was asked to stay at home to curb the spread of this deadly pandemic. COVID-19 has caused unbearable psychological trauma in Italy - a country that houses the Vatican, the home of the Pope and the citadel of Catholism and Christianity – so much that the dying patients die without the presence or comfort of their loved ones who are placed in self-isolation to avoid the spread of the disease and to ensure the early detection of the disease in them. The bodies of the dead are cremated after a hush mass funeral where a priest prays for their bodies in coffins from a distance to avoid contracting the virus. Stigmatized and isolated even in death.

Nigeria recorded its first COVID-19 case when an Italian man who didn’t show symptoms at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos and whose identity has been kept as top secret. He came into Nigeria on business for a construction company and made contact with the airport officials, his taxi drivers and staff of the company which is located in Ogun state. He was placed in quarantine after checking himself into a hospital and having himself tested for Corona Virus. He tested positive and was taken to the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH), Yaba, Lagos, which at the time was under-equipped but with the Governor’s intervention, it became a thing of the past within a week.

I believe this was the point that the Lagos state government, the Federal government of Nigeria and the Ministry of Health got it wrong. If all international flights were banned at this point, COVID-19 in Nigeria would have been long gone. Instead, the government delayed and focused on the index case which was the main source of attention of the local media as all newspapers, T.V. and radio stations kept updating the public about “the Italian Man”.

In the weeks that followed, the influx of Nigerians and foreigners into the country through the International airports especially in Lagos and Abuja caused an increase in the incidence of COVID-19 as all arrivals were asked to self-isolate for 14 days and check themselves for symptoms of COVID-19 which ranges from dry cough, breathing difficulties, sneezing, high body temperature etc. The index case has since multiplied to over 300 cases in over a months and it spread further into other states like Ogun, Anambra, Bauchi, Osun, Kaduna and so on. Dignitaries, governors and prominent Nigerians such as Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state, Seyi Makinde of Oyo state, Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari; and the son of Atiku Abubakar, a presidential aspirant at the last presidential elections. It was rumored that President Buhari’s reluctance and hesitation to shut all international borders was due to the fact that one of the daughters travelled to UK and he waited and stalled his decision until she returned home. This valuable waste of time is largely to blame for the spread as most undetected cases at the airports (asymptomatic carriers) got into the country and spread the disease to their family and friends.