By Abdul-Rahman Idris Bolaji
A lot of people we’re busy complaining last week that President Buhari hasn’t come out to address us, which is very correct the president of the country ought to address us to give us reassurance, they said also that when he came out he eventually said covik-1 9, which honestly its quite embarrassing.
But I ask my self is that really the biggest problem we’re having right now. What is his minister of health doing about it, what is his agency on disease outbreak doing about it and I realized those guys aren’t sleeping at all, even though they still can do much better, but it will be hypocritical of us when we criticize them regularly but fail to encourage and recognize those little moments they do well, he was compared to president trump who addresses the nation regularly but I ask again what really is president trump doing, let’s look at the result, now America has the highest prevalence in the world right now.
We are praising the NCDC for doing well (not all of us though) but abusing the government but are we forgetting that the NCDC is an agency of this government many of us claim doesn’t exist, this govt that many of us claimed has failed it’s really true and correct that we are still very far from progress but we’ve gotta admit that we ain’t doing as bad as expected of us.
Kudos to the governors that stepped up their game, corporate bodies and individuals that stepped up with relief materials to support the govt coz really it’s not easy, many people talking trash have never held post like class captain let alone any political office so they really don’t understand how it is uneasy for the head that wears the crown.
Ghana that is not as populated as Nigeria and didn’t have as many cases when it started now have about double the number of cases we base same goes for Cameroon. This is the same Ghana many are praising for quarantining everyone entering the country immediately while abusing Nigeria’s style.
There are lots of issues with this government, I strongly believe the executive arm (president, governors and LG chairmen) can do far better but let’s not forget that when we blame them let’s also blame those people in the legislative arm (senators, house of rep, state and LG representatives) that we also voted into power who are meant to actually represent the people but we aren’t holding them responsible so instead they are more concerned about the exotic cars and their allowances, we voted this people to represent us and we have no way of holding them responsible but we forget that if they are doing their jobs well we won’t have any issues with the runnings of the countries affair because they either remove the executive for the incompetence of leave them for doing well.
Many are complaining that other countries are giving money and grants to their citizens to stay at home, firstly these countries economy can’t be compared with ours, Africa, in general, is still struggling our continent has the lowest GDP, how many African countries do you see doing what they are giving money to their citizens, honestly I admit that it’s true the govt needs to give us a lot of materials to help us stay at home because truthfully If we can achieve staying at home strictly for two weeks without new cases coming in from outside the country, we will win the fight in two weeks, But our major source of revenue is in big trouble as the price for crude oil has gone down by 1/3 it’s former price, still, the FG through the CBN is planning to inject 1 trillion naira into the economy to help cushion effects of the economic downtrend, in addition to this the removed 20naira from the fuel pump price, could they have done better I strongly believe so, but are they sitting idly by unconcerned about what going on? Hell No, If you ask me I’ll say we’re not doing bad for a failed state like many of you are saying we are.
Let me ask you this, right now do you feel safer going to Europe, USA etc than remaining in Nigeria, I know some may still choose going out but the fact that you considered it let alone choose it lets you know that this country hasn’t really failed like many are falsely claiming. The Govt is not perfect they are light years away from it, you know what with all these constant bickerings, complaining and criticizing without creative ideas to the table will not help either, some of you will say how do you get your ideas to the govt but I’ll ask how you get your criticism to trend and get to them? Besides, there are platforms emerging now asking for our ideas because they too are humans like us and are liable to make mistakes. Let’s work with them to make our nation greater because we literally have no place to go now.
The top countries in the world are having a higher prevalence not because their govt is bad or corrupt but because their people are failing to be responsible, look at Italy, look at the USA with the spring break parties, It’s really up to us.
Lastly, if you’re not adhering to the rules to curb this disease, you cough out in the public anyhow, you’re violating social distancing for no legitimate reason, not washing your hands properly, you’re not making the right moves to get the right information, you don’t verify the veracity of any information that gets to you before posting and eventually misleading and causing more fear and panic for others etc, you are the biggest problem we have in Our country right now. Now is the time to put aside our differences and see how we can work with the Govt, if they don’t listen to us, as usual, we need to make them listen rather than just pointing out mistakes they make at every point. El mayarah, we’re stronger together like they say in CW’s Supergirl. I pray that Almighty God perfects his healing on us all across all borders, I pray he removes this affliction and revive our economy. During and after this crisis, I pray he makes our love for each other grow stronger as well as our will to genuinely be our brother’s keeper across every border.
Abdul-Rahman Idris Bolaji (SMDASE)
08104193971; [email protected]
Concerned citizen
Health worker
Public health Scientists