There are two revealing outcomes of this coronavirus outbreak. First is the reminder about the equality of humanity. This virus has just reminded us of the words of Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd president of the USA.
He said: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are right to life, right to liberty, and the right to the pursuit of happiness.”
Irrespective of race, sex, religion, creed and social status, this outbreak has temporarily switched off these rights and we can see how united in desperation all humans are in the quest to regain these rights.
Today, it’s proven that Humanity is one and equal before the Creator! The second outcome is the deglobalization of our shared realities. With this coronavirus outbreak, it’s obvious that there is nothing GLOBAL in the real sense of it; when the chips are down, everything turns out LOCAL.
This should send a serious message to the African leader who relies on globalization to access overseas health and education services for his family wards, leaving the governed to die away at those mortuaries we call hospitals. The virus must have taught the African leader that, without any notice, he can be shut out of that privileged access to those overseas services that were put in place by his foreign colleagues for their citizens, but to which globalization allowed him unmerited access.
The African leader has seen that some invisible, tiny organism can obscure his capacity to visit, sight and enjoy those good things of life which GLOBALIZATION has allowed him, but which his leadership-induced poverty has disallowed his citizens.
The outbreak has now forced every leader to answer his country’s name, and has impress it on them to embrace those obsolete medical facilities they so much love to ignore and left unattended to.
When I saw Atiku’s son and Abba Kyari taken to an obsolete hospital in Gwagwalada, I shook my head and pondered over the irony of the powerlessness of power and the meaninglessness of money. If not for this virus, perhaps, they would have been flown to those cosy, well-equipped hospitals in Italy and Germany. But this is no longer possible as each nation has to carry her corona cross.
But I know that this too shall pass away and it is expected that our leaders must have learnt their lessons. After this harrowing experience, though the world shall continue to go GLOBAL, but essential services, especially those of health and education, must now come LOCAL.
It should signal an era of localizing global services. It is called GLOCALIZATION. Unfortunately, in Oyo state, Gov. Seyi Makinde is already doing nothing in that way, because of Politics, he has failed to put into use the center created by Senator Abiola Ajimobi when he was the governor of the state, simply bcs the center is named after Senator Abiola Ajimobi. God bless Nigeria.
