The other side of Corona Virus Lockdown in Nigeria.

You live in a multi-bedroom home with over one hundred meters square of walled compound around you. Your front door opens into a large living room that has everything in the world to make you never want to leave home.
A massive television set equipped with satellite units that give you access to hundreds of channels of leisure and entertainment, a powerful home theatre you hardly even see...
Your kitchen is fitted with huge freezers and fridges all stocked with more than six months supply of food and drinks of various kinds. Plus you have access to mobile delivery outfits to deliver other delicacies to you within minutes.
So, why wouldn't you have the confidence, the audacity and the impudence to go and sit in a radio station and vehemently object to the lifting of the lockdown? Why would you not have the temerity to call me recalcitrant and a hard-eared decadent hooligan because I ventured out of the lockdown once or twice?
Do you know what home is to me? Do you have the slightest idea how it feels to stay locked up within those four bare walls of space smaller than a fifth of your car garage? With a single window that opens over a putrid and stagnant neighborhood drain?
How do I survive an indefinite lockdown if I do not wake up at dawn and get off that threadbare raffia mat, the only furniture in the mosquito-infested furnace of a room and rush to push my truck so I can make something to prop up my mortal remains?
If your call for another lockdown succeeds, you would have to count me out. I am not under any obligation to die of starvation and misery just so you can continue living in your selfish and wanton luxury. That virus you dread so much is nothing to me compared to the death I go through every day just to go on living. Those policemen and soldiers you unleashed would not do half the harm you have already done with your decades of segregation and misrule.
So if you want me to save your life by wearing masks and using sanitizers and washing my hands and staying 'home' and keeping to all those other so-called protocols of yours then you must in turn save mine by standing down on your abject and inhuman refusal to realize that I also have the rights to some comfort and joy. You must be prepared to hear and acknowledge my groaning and my moaning when you step on my scalp with the soles of your hard-heeled shoes. And you must recognize the fact that the stench of your own "shit", as unpleasant as it smells to you, smells far worse when you flush it down into my neighborhood.
Don't just go and sit in those media houses and throw your weight about ordering for a re-imposition of the lockdown and think it's going to be as simple as that. Not this time, not with this situation that gives me a strong stake in the matter.
And remember that I really have nothing to lose, unlike you. So do a very sober introspection and start doing what you have to do to make me see the need to want to live and let you live.
Unless you'd rather we died together.

Abba Kyari: Speaking ill of the Dead by Remi Oyeyemi.

"The evil that men do live after them." -- William Shakespeare.
I am aware that this is breaking with the conventional wisdom. I am conscious that this is a rebuke of tradition. I am not oblivious to the fact that it is against the norm. I am not unaware that this is not in tune with the mainstream. I am aware some would loath me for it. Some would deride me. Others would call me names. Those who really never liked my guts, would have this reinforced it for them. But those who have the objective ability to see things the way they are and are able to call them as exactly as they should, would see some sense in this.

The idea of not speaking ill of the dead is not a good idea, especially if the dead person did nothing deserving of praise. The idea of praising the dead, regardless if the dead, during his or her life was mean spirited, greedy, selfish, inconsiderate, odiously acquisitive, ruthless and disdainful, is totally unacceptable. It is wrong and should be done away with. We should be able to say exactly what kind of person someone was during his or her life. I have been reading in the media unbelievable eulogies about the late Chief of Staff to President Mohammadu Buhari, Mr. Abba Kyari. I have been reading some hypocritical praise - singing of this man who, to many Nigerians who celebrated his infliction a couple of weeks back, was no less a monster, because he has become the casualty of the Coronavirus 19. I have read from those who hated him saying embarrassingly 'nice' things about him. What a fraud. What a dishonesty.

It is a sad day when people cascade into casual casuistry with unbridled audacity. It is an act of deliberate undermining of the societal values to heap praises on someone whose remains ought to be used to cast away evils from the entire society. To project a mean - spirited public office holder as a saint when he is not, is a sin in itself.

I take serious objection to the rain of praise that has been raining down on the corpse of the late Abba Kyari. Though, this is a matter of choice to which we are all entitled depending on the way we see it. In my own view, Kyari is not deserving of any praise whatsoever. It is alright for President Buhari to cry himself hoarse. Kyari was his Chief of Staff and his relative. It is okay for his goons in Aso Rock, his partners in crime to weep without end. It is okay for those who are beneficiaries of his corrupt practices, his impunities to gnash their teeth to numb. It is their loss. His immediate and extended family members reserve the inalienable rights to mourn him infinitely and indefinitely.

I also believe that it is alright for the rest of us who are victims of the first family and their collaborators in Aso Rock, to acknowledge the loss of a soul, not because of any other reason other than the fact that we are all human beings. And this is where it ought to end. No more, no less.
For those who are Buhari's sycophants and who still hope to benefit from the misery he is visiting on Nigeria, it might be acceptable to them to shed their crocodile tears even if they really did not like the man when he was alive. They are welcome to do so.

Here is a man, who never got a single vote, whether rigged or not, from the Nigerian people, but who hijacked the executive powers of the Presidency. He held Nigeria and Nigerians to ransom since 2015. He rode roughshod over the people of this country. He appropriated all the appurtenances of power for his personal idiosyncrasies.

Abba Kyari never cared. He never gave a damn. Yes, he did not give a damn how many Nigerians died. He did not care how many Nigerians went hungry. He did not care how much injustice was perpetrated. He did not give a damn how many innocent Nigerians were murdered. He did not give a damn how many Nigerians were chased off their ancestral lands. He did not care how many of our daughters were raped. He did not give a damn how many were maimed by his tribesmen.
He was a perniciously greedy soul. He was remorseless in his ways. The 500 million naira bribe he took from the MTN was emblematic of his innate rapacity. It was emblematic of his bloated edacity. He appointed himself to the Board of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). It was the first time in the History of Nigeria for an incumbent Chief of Staff. It was against the norm of decency and restraint. It was impunity at its worst.

Kyari relentlessly harassed the Vice President, licentiously anchoring Professor Osinbajo's deliberate disempowerment.  He unabashedly intimidated the Ministers and prevented them from meaningful collaboration with the man who appointed them, or whom he helped appointed. With a mien akin to that of a dove, he was a heinous hawk, a vicious vulture that is egregious and atrocious in its debauchery and cupidity.

He was mindless and mean. He was cruel and cold. He was crude and callous. His greed was congenital. His insouciance encrypted his guiled mendacity. He was hung up on power hunkering. He had disdain for the rules. Like his principal, Buhari, he believed and acted above the law. His arrogance was horrifying. His condescension, sardonically sickening in the way and manner he exercised unmerited power.

Yes, the idea of not speaking ill of the dead is a VERY WRONG one, especially if that dead person never did anything to deserve it. If this practice was to continue, it means every criminal in our midst should look forward to being praised after he/she was dead regardless of the crimes committed. This would also mean a genuine disincentive for those who strive to do positive things and improve their communities.

It is very important to ensure that dead people's memories be imbued with their acts of omissions and commissions when they were alive. It is an act of injustice to arrogate false achievements, fake qualities to monstrous figures more notorious for their kleptomania as they gallivant through the inner rooms of power.

Hopefully, when I die, people would have the unburnished courage to say exactly what they feel about me and not deodorize my omissions and imperfections. Hopefully, those who would feel the need to mourn me would not see the need to be hypocritical and dishonest in their elegies. In all this, what became clearer is the vanity of vanity itself. It brought to the fore the cliché popularized by the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State in the early 1980s, "...vanity upon vanity, all is vanity." It underscores the ephemeralness of not just power, but of all things that are human, except our deeds. This probably informed William Shakespeare's ageless rumination captured in the   phrase, " The evil that men do live after them."

We should not praise villains when they are dead. It is a great disincentive to those who labored to be above board and did the right thing. You don't have to agree   with me. You don't have to like me. Please, don't like me, just respect the truth.

“The world tells us to seek success, power and money; God tells us  to seek humility, service and love.”  -  Pope Francis.

The First round of $1,200 Coronavirus Stimulus Checks are in American Bank Accounts.

• The first round of coronavirus stimulus checks started hitting people's bank accounts Friday afternoon.
• Mobile banking startup Current has already seen about 10,000 accounts credited by the IRS, the company told The Wall Street Journal.
• Americans who qualify for automatic stimulus payments will receive them this week, the IRS said Friday.
• People who don't have direct-deposit info on file with the IRS will receive a check by mail, sent out any time between early April through early September.

 

By Susan Walsh/AP.

Nigerians in the Diasporas that have Died of COVID-19.

May their gentle souls rest in perfect peace. And may God, in his infinite mercies, console the loved ones they left behind.

The Political & Economic Implications of the COVID-19 on Developing Countries.

"...while developing countries, including Nigeria, have recorded relatively lesser cases so far, there is a tendency that they could be hit hard by the disease.

On the economic impact of the disease, Zakaria said owing to the drop in the demand for oil globally, the implications for countries like Nigeria could be “political turmoil, refugees, revolutions, crackdowns, maybe terrorism. All of these might happen on a scale we haven’t seen for decades...”.

Enjoy your COVID-19 Lockdown by Adeyemi Adefulu, MFR.

So many people who have called me are busy worrying over this stay at home period and getting stressed up. I guess some are,effortlessly, developing hypertension. This is I dare say is very sad.

Have you heard the biblical directives-“In every situation, give thanks” and “rest still and know that I am the Lord”?

If you have and you are still worrying it means you have not internalised the eternal message therein. Let me assure you that in the end everything passes away. Even COVIC-19 will pass away. For those who worry, this may be the beginning of their passage. But, my dear friend, you must make sure you don’t pass away.

The first thing to do is to stop agonizing over this period. Let me share my little experience with you.

I was 37 when the military struck in 1983. I had been in government for 4 years and 3 months. To this day, I am grateful to God for the opportunity to have served and wish I had done more. I gave the very best of my life in service. It was always what I wanted to do.

But I received an unjust, crude and inhuman recompense from the military government. Col. Oladipo Diya who was Military Governor in Ogun State thought I was so close to Onabanjo that there was no getting Onabanjo without getting Adefulu his political son. The whole purpose of his governance was bile. No wonder he is no more than a footnote of history.

I was subjected to the most scurrilous of interrogations and mental and physical torture. But they soon learnt that it was a waste of time. They had a wrong candidate. Onabanjo has run the most accountable of administrations which to this day remains a reference point. I had been prudent in my affairs before and during government. My affairs were so scrupulously document that I dazed their several panels with documents and accountability.

At a stage a Col Adeleke (I think that’s his name from Ondo town) after the final interrogation of the SIP- State Investigation Panel said to everyone, “now this is off the record- I want to learn from this young man. How were you able to keep records like this? If anyone asked me to account for how I spent my salary over the past 6 months, I can’t do it. Yet you have given us compelling records several years old which preceded this job. Did you expect that this day will come? You were obviously doing well in your profession, why did you accept a job like this?”

I will not go into my answer to the panel in this short discourse. Suffice it to say that I was in detention for 18 mths with no offense and no charges- not one accusation. I woke up from day to day with no idea of when my nightmare will end. I just stared at the outside from the distance daily and life went on without me. If I had died nothing would have stopped.

From across the road i looked at the gate of the Governors Lodge which swung open any time I was spotted in my hey days, from across the road every day for 16 months. I no longer mattered. The truth of life is that no man really matters. With or without you, life goes on.

Now back to my story, how about that? As I said, I was well under 40 with a young family. Getting heart attack from my experience or ending in Aro Psychiatric Hospital would have been very easy to accomplish.

But I learnt from very early in life that the challenge to a good life is to always look at the good or positive side of any situation. At a stage I said to myself “with all the tension from the terrible injustice being meted to me, somehow this was still an opportunity that must not be wasted.”

That meant I must use every moment well. From that moment, I ended up going to bed exhausted every night. At a stage I started reading the Bible determined to read it from cover to cover complete with commentaries here and there. I learnt to speak French taught by a prisoner from Togo, studied case files for prisoners on the death row and wrote legal opinions for their lawyers.

I wrote to some Attorney General colleagues of mine seeking reprieve for well reformed prisoners and I got quite a few of them pardoned. Mrs. Airat Balogun the then AG of Lagos State was particularly helpful.

One of my prisoner friends was a man called Baiyewu who was a childhood friend of Ayinla Omowura. When Ayinla became a famous musician Baiyewu was his Manager. They were both from a similar rough background, fought with knives and and bottles. On one occasion they had one of their scuffles. Ayinla has sacked Baiyewu and wanted to collect the motorcycle he had bought for Baiyewu.

He rode in his Mercedes Benz in search of a motorcycle. They met and a fight ensued. Baiyewu hit Ayinla with a bottle in the head and Ayinla died instantly. By the time I became a guest in Abeokuta Prison, Baiyewu had given his life to Christ and became an incredible influence in the prison. Every prisoner felt the influence of Baiyewu. He called them to prayer very early in the morning and late at night.

This condemned prisoner became a good friend of mine. If any man was ever totally and completely changed by the in living of the Holy Spirit, Baiyewu was a truly changed man. He saw Christ before he saw death because he told me, in confidence, a week before his execution, that his end was near.

Three days later Col. Diya came on a visit to the prison and signed that all the “fat” prisoners on death row be killed. Baiyewu was hung with 13 other prisoners in Abeokuta Prison wearing his best prison gear leading the others in singing to the gallows. We wept bitterly. But that’s the story for another day.

Needless to say that in the terrible condition of Abeokuta Prisoner I was very very busy. Today, those who are in the comfort of their homes for the COVIC-19 lockdown are complaining so much! This is futile.

My conclusion and counsel to everyone is that the challenge for you today is “what can I do at this time, how can I profitably utilize the time in my hands.” You may want to re arrange your wardrobes or kitchen, get rid of the many things you have around which you don’t need or do some reading, learn some gardening or baking etc.

You may even want to think about your future or rebuild the broken walls of your life. This can turn out to be a wonderful time you will never forget. It will not come again. The secret is to use it well and profitably. Enjoy your COVID-19 Lockdown.

African Elites who Seek Treatment Abroad are now Grounded.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic could narrow one gaping inequality in Africa, where some heads of state and other elite jet off to Europe or Asia for health care unavailable in their nations. As countries including their own impose dramatic travel restrictions, they might have to take their chances at home.

For years, leaders from Benin to Zimbabwe have received medical care abroad while their own poorly funded health systems limp from crisis to crisis. Several presidents, including ones from Nigeria, Malawi and Zambia, have died overseas.

The practice is so notorious that a South African health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, a few years ago scolded, “We are the only continent that has its leaders seeking medical services outside the continent, outside our territory. We must be ashamed.”

Now a wave of global travel restrictions threatens to block that option for a cadre of aging African leaders. More than 30 of Africa's 57 international airports have closed or severely limited flights, the U.S. State Department says. At times, flight trackers have shown the continent's skies nearly empty.

Perhaps “COVID-19 is an opportunity for our leaders to reexamine their priorities,” said Livingstone Sewanyana of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, which has long urged African countries to increase health care spending.

But that plea has not led to action, even as the continent wrestles with major crises including deadly outbreaks of Ebola and the scourges of malaria and HIV.

Spending on health care in Africa is roughly 5% of gross domestic product, about half the global average. That's despite a pledge by African Union members in 2001 to spend much more. Money is sometimes diverted to security or simply pilfered, and shortages are common.

Ethiopia had just three hospital beds per 10,000 people in 2015, according to World Health Organization data, compared to two dozen or more in the U.S. and Europe. Central African Republic has just three ventilators in the entire country. In Zimbabwe, doctors have reported doing bare-handed surgeries for lack of gloves.

Health experts warn that many countries will be overwhelmed if the coronavirus spreads, and it is already uncomfortably close. Several ministers in Burkina Faso have been infected, as has a top aide to Nigeria’s president. An aide to Congo's leader died.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness and lead to death.

“If you test positive in a country, you should seek care in that country,” the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. John Nkengasong, told reporters Thursday. "It’s not a death sentence."

In Nigeria, some worried their president might be among the victims. Long skittish about President Muhammadu Buhari's absences from public view, including weeks in London for treatment for unspecified health problems, they took to Twitter to ask why he hadn’t addressed the nation as virus cases rose.

Buhari's office dismissed speculation about his whereabouts as unfounded rumor. When he did emerge Sunday night, he announced that all private jet flights were suspended. The international airports were already closed.

While the travel restrictions have grounded the merely wealthy, political analyst Alex Rusero said a determined African leader probably could still find a way to go abroad for care.

“They are scared of death so much they will do everything within their disposal, even if it's a private jet to a private hospital in a foreign land,” said Rusero, who is based in Zimbabwe, whose late President Robert Mugabe often sought treatment in Asia.

Perhaps nowhere is the situation bleaker than in Zimbabwe, where the health system has collapsed. Even before the pandemic, patients’ families were often asked to provide essentials like gloves and clean water. Doctors last year reported using bread bags to collect patients' urine.

Zimbabwe’s vice president, Constantino Chiwenga, departed last month for unrelated medical treatment in China, as the outbreak eased in that country. Zimbabwe closed its borders days later after its first virus death.

Chiwenga has since returned — to lead the country's coronavirus task force.

But some in a new generation of African leaders have been eager to show sensitivity to virus-prevention measures.

The president of Botswana, Mokgweetsi Masisi, initially defied his country’s restrictions on travel by government employees to visit neighboring Namibia for its leader’s inauguration. But he entered self-quarantine and now reminds others to stay home, calling it "literally a matter of life and death.”

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced he had tested negative, just ahead of a three-week lockdown in Africa's most developed country. Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina has as well.

Other leaders, including Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, have tweeted images of themselves working via video conference as countries encourage people to keep their distance.

While African leaders are more tied to home than ever, their access to medical care is still far better than most of their citizens'.

In Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, medical student Franck Bienvenu Zida was self-isolating and worried after having contact with someone who tested positive.

The 26-year-old feared infecting people where he lives, but his efforts to get tested were going nowhere. In three days of calling an emergency number to request a test, he could not get through.

Associated Press writers Sam Mednick in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda, contributed to this report.

For Those who Refuse to Heed the Warnings about COVID-19.

COVID-19 as a Blessing in Disguise for Nigeria.

Excerpts from an article written by his Eminence, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie.

...But COVID-19 is also revelatory, a blessing in disguise, because it has exposed Nigeria as a country where quality of leadership is of low grade...
We are spending billions buying brand new cars for our political office holders, paying them sundry allowances, when we have no good hospital to handle the current emergency. Government impoverishes Nigerians, and, the same government has now decided to spray raw cash on the people it impoverishes. On prime-time television, we witnessed the spectacle of bales of naira notes, and a minister of the Federal Republic was doing the distribution...
In the same vein, we have heard how billions of naira are being donated to government without government telling Nigerians how the donation will be spent.
COVID-19 has also revealed to us that there are false prophets living among us. In a country where once you grab a Bible and a microphone you become a pastor or prophet or apostle, where you can become founder of a church without any serious theological formation, we have seen how some of our religious leaders have resorted to dishing out false prophecies. We have been treated to the cruelty of conspiracy theories woven by attention-seeking pseudo-apostles to nurture fear in the minds of people. We have seen how those who did not foresee any pandemic when, at the beginning of the year 2020, they claimed to be “prophesying” for Nigeria, now lay claims to have received a message.
Rather than join the government in providing palliative measures, we have also seen how some pastors have been asking their members to pay tithes even when those members are unable to venture out to earn their daily bread. Some who ventured out were brutalized by policemen and soldiers who are not held accountable for violating the rights of citizens they are paid to protect. Can’t we reason? Let us think!...

How the Mighty are Falling in Nigeria.

In late 1983, one of the most powerful politicians in Nigeria was tipped off about a military coup. The man packed up his family and ran to France. Shortly after the advent of General Buhari's regime, many Nigerians were shocked to learn of the sudden death of the man due to a "mere" malaria. Unknown to them however, the French doctors had no clues as to how to treat the man's "mysterious" tropical disease. The lesson from that incident is simple: A time will always come when even the most powerful individuals can be brought to their knees and humbled in a most unexpected situation.
With COVID19, such a time has come in a very poetic manner for the few privileged Nigerians who are now stuck in a country they have mismanaged, looted and deprived of functioning hospitals, regular supply of electricity, good roads and other basic infrastructures.
Now, like the poor masses, the powerfully rich Nigerians have also begun to cry. Private jets, exotic cars, huge mansions and lots of cash have since been rendered useless in the face of a "mere" Corona virus.

What to do if the Corona Virus Strikes.

Good Advice from a Nurse:

So what I have seen a lot of, are recommendations for how to try to avoid getting coronavirus in the first place -- good hand washing, personal hygiene and social distancing.

But what I have NOT seen a lot of, is advice for what happens if you actually get it, which many of us will. So as your friendly neighborhood Nurse let me make some suggestions.

You basically just want to prepare as though you know you’re going to get a nasty respiratory bug, like bronchitis or pneumonia. You just have the foresight to know it’s coming!

Things you should actually buy ahead of time (not sure what the obsession with toilet paper is?): Kleenex, Paracetamol Ibuprofen (Advil), whatever your generic mucus thinning cough medicine of choice is (check the label and make sure you're not doubling up on Paracetamol) Honey and lemon can work just as well! Vick vaporub for your chest is also a great suggestion.

If you don’t have a humidifier, that would be a good thing to buy and run in your room when you go to bed overnight. (You can also just turn the shower on hot and sit in the bathroom breathing in the steam). If you have a history of asthma and you have a prescription inhaler, make sure the one you have isn’t expired and refill it/get a new one if it is.

This is also a good time to meal prep: make a big batch of your favorite soup to freeze and have on hand. Stock up on whatever your favorite clear fluids are to drink - though tap water is fine you may appreciate some variety.

For symptom management, use the meds mentioned. For a fever over 101, alternate Paracetamol and Ibuprofen so you’re taking a dose of one then the other every 3 hours.

Hydrate (drink!) hydrate hydrate! Rest lots. You should not be leaving your house! Even if you are feeling better may will still be infectious for fourteen days and older people and those with existing health conditions should be avoided! Ask friends and family to leave supplies outside to avoid contact.

You DO NOT NEED TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL unless you are having trouble breathing or your fever is very high (over 103.5) and unmanaged with meds. 90% of healthy adult cases thus far have been managed at home with basic rest/hydration/over-the-counter meds. If you are worried or in distress or feel your symptoms are getting worse, ring 111 and they will advise if you need to go to hospital. The hospital beds will be used for people who actively need oxygen/breathing treatments/IV fluids.

If you have a pre-existing lung condition (COPD, emphysema, lung cancer) or are on immunosuppressants, now is a great time to talk to your Doctor or specialist about what they would like you to do if you get sick.

One major relief to you parents is that kids do VERY well with coronavirus— they usually bounce back in a few days (but they will still be infectious), NO ONE under 18 has died, and almost no kids have required hospitalization (unless they have a lung disease like CF). Just use pediatric dosing. Be calm and prepare rationally and everything will be fine.