By Ifedimma Onwugbufor
Desperate situations such as complete and partial lockdown experienced in most African countries recently, account for breach of trust and loss of confidence experienced in many work, love/marriage, spiritual and business relationships today. It is a period that calls for enduring tact, sobriety, deliberate planning, and conscious meditation. In the face of dearth in cash, foodstuffs, and hope, the pandemic has left no one with any option but to remain optimistic, aseptic, and innovative. Unfortunately, while many have waded through this period nobly, many others have been cowered by either the infection, its fear, or the hardship associated with the lockdown.
Many employers are unable to pay salaries, or hand over palliatives to employees, while many others have also, disengaged employees especially businesses which are not indigenous but depend on external patronage to thrive. Suppliers of goods and services are unable to deliver as agreed upon either as a result of lockdown of borders, or their inability to ship the products before the outbreak/lockdown ensued. Even when the needful is done, clients are unable to remit payment due to the chain effect of global closedown and other debilitating factors. Emotions are bound to be high.
Marriages and other emotional relationships are not spared from the frustrations arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. The complete lockdown at the time, forbade the movement of goods and people from one place to another. Grounding adults who find themselves locked up inside an apartment, or room as the case may be, became challenging for many married couples and their children. The ‘see finish’ syndrome in some cases, set in, whereby couples began to pry into the individuality of their partners, while also, evaluating some of their benign or deliberate actions and inactions. Naturally, these led to conflicts, malice and in extreme cases, violence.
Couples became suspicious of their partners’ phone calls, and messages; while also, wary of their impression about having to spend more time with each other. For the married men caught up with their families at the onset of the lockdown, the loss of their freedom to associate, move and exhale logically, brought about repressive attitudes which not only challenged the patience of their spouses, but also, impeded the filial satisfaction which their kids should derive from the presence of both parents at the same time – a luxury which not too many Nigerian children were privileged to enjoy before the pandemic.
As much as the breakout of the pandemic was global, most African countries were ill-prepared by the time the viral infection invaded the continent. The signs were obvious but perhaps, faith in God, optimism, belief in the tough African genetic variation, and many other petty factors, account for the unpreparedness of many Africans, especially, Nigerians at the time a complete lockdown of the nation became inevitable. The hardship which gripped and still grips the nation, makes it impossible for Nigerians to stock food that will last their immediate and extended families for as long as the lockdown would last.
Much as the expectations of the Nigerian citizens of their leadership was dashed by what may be termed by the citizenry as insensitive and inconsiderate, established organizations and businesses which are sustained by the Nigerian population did little or nothing to alleviate the hard-fact hardship associated with the pandemic on Nigerians. These organization were more interested in offering assistance to the government than to the citizenry whose direct patronage has enriched them directly or indirectly.
Religious organizations, being the most outstanding organized groups to challenge the logicality behind complete lockdown and social distancing, initially stayed unperturbed by the lack which the lockdown imposed on the citizens. Not until the religious was attacked by social media enthusiasts, it stood defiant and defensive of its criticism of government’s decision to impose the lockdown. In response to the plights of citizens regarding handing over of palliatives, the religious only concentrated mainly on its individual members, than other humans on the street, in the orphanages, hospitals, etc.
Unarguably, the government is insincere with the blueprint of her intentions towards ameliorating the effect of the pandemic and by extension, the lockdown on the citizens. Most Nigerians never personally met anyone who received any money from the government; while thousands of Nigerians gathered in designated places to share very few bags of staple foods, etc that were too meagre to serve as a cushioning effort. Even with the shutdown of schools, it is reported that school children are still being fed by the government. How realistic this is, will remain one of the mysteries that will never be explored, if the prison walls must be circumvented by any right-thinking journalist. It is against the backdrop of this insincerity that many citizens are unable to rationalize the infection of only the ‘rich’ by the highly-contagious virus, and the fate of the common man who has no money to stock up food, and even if he did, has no electricity power supply to preserve such storage.
It is ridiculous to understand that Nigeria’s plethora of challenges are owned by all the geopolitical zones, but when considerations regarding distribution of panaceas are raised, specific geopolitical zones are considered more vulnerable and deserving, thereby, leaving the others, as orphan zones who struggle to thrive in spite of the peril that accrue.
Conclusively, there will never be any potent elixir to the Nigerian malady. The government is a system; an institution which is driven by individuals who, in many cases, are fraudulent, avaricious, and unresponsive; irrespective of what the human in the apex of authority stands for. Unfortunately, there is no upright system which will bring fraudulent practices to book, and the myth of ‘fighting corruption’ will remain a Nigerian dream relived only during the periods of electoral processes. More preposterous is the fact, that the Nigerian electorate will continually be inebriated in the bottomless pit of falsehoods wielded around expired clichés like ‘One Nigeria’, ‘Fight Against Corruption’, ‘Democracy For All’, ‘In God we Trust’, etc.
Nigerian marriages will hardly yield, for many, the desired assurance, comfort, and consideration, as long as, there are no punitive or compensational measures against cantankerous or placid partners. Married partners are yet to decipher between where their rights within marital relationships end and where the individuality of their partners begin. Within marital relationships, the cliché, ‘Que sera, sera’ does not apply. An unemployed married partner stays entitled to his or her state, irrespective of what the other partner will have to go through to provide for the family. At the tip of this ‘provider’ rod, is the expectation that ensures the provider is never wrong, and the lukewarm partner will always play victim, even at the expense of the integrity of the union.
If another pandemic breaks out next month, the Nigerian government, the Nigerian religious, Nigerian families and businesses would not have learnt anything from the Covid-19 pandemic. This, right here, is the poignant reality.
