Nigeria: Beyond the Grim Spectre of Covid-19 Contagion
As citizens of the world face the tragic realities of the coronavirus infection with mounting mortality, apprehension and morbid forecasts of economic doom, projected to lead to the collapse of industrial conglomerates, multinational supply chains and the attendant mass layoffs, there is, at the moment, little or no attention on the strategic actions required to rebalance and recalibrate the social, economic and political core of society for the future.
That Covid-19 breached the defence mounted against it and entered into Nigerian territory was not at all mystifying; not only because of its insidious nature but more because of the inherently fragile, feeble, largely expired or out-dated technology at our ports which depend largely on the untrained and corrupt psychology of operatives rather than on updated technology and rigid and impenetrable bureaucracy.
Covid-19, which has defied and subdued more institutionally potent and technologically fortified borders in its mission to humiliate humankind symbolised by the confusion of the global powers all of whom it has demystified, seem to be showing some mercy and respect for perhaps the African vulnerable largely for their innocence in the unfathomable poverty of their land.
While the developed world is unlikely to experience fundamental convulsions beyond tightening and greasing of nuts here and there in the powers and dynamics of its solid institutions and big business, most of the underdeveloped countries may still be whirling in socio-economic seizures orchestrated also, most likely by big business. But now that the chickens have come home to roost, could post-Covid-19 still inflict on citizens greater harm or succour through altruistic leadership?
For Nigeria, the answer to this question looks very uncertain. The symptoms of policy confusion, poor management and execution of the required development projects in post-contagion Nigeria are already manifesting in the insincerity and inefficiency of those directly and remotely operating the national strategy against Covid-19.
