SAN FRANCISCO, January 06, (THEWILL) – Early this week, quintessential stand-up comic, Ali Baba, had a message for Nigerians. It was not his usual fare, not something funny, not what his compatriots or the rest of the world know him for. And he was not joking, either.
As Atunyota Akpobome let on via his Instagram page, he’d just been discharged from Yaba Covid-19 isolation centre in Lagos where he was on admission for some time, spending Christmas and New Year not with family and friends but in a hospital ward.
Given a choice, the comedian would have wished, above everything, to celebrate the yuletide and New Year in the comfort of his home with a bubbly family or friends and not in the depressing ambience of a treatment centre with death lurking all around. He survived. But not many of those infected did. That was why Ali Baba sounded the alarm bell, especially for those who do not believe that Covid-19 is real or that the recent variant is more lethal than the first.
“The second wave of Covid-19 is deadlier than the one before,” Ali Baba wrote. “People are dying – pastors, doctors, professors, billionaires, poor men, less privileged people are dying every day. Those numbers you see are not fake.”
Those numbers are not fake! How true! From WHO to the CDC, the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 and concerned medics, more Nigerians are coming down with the virus. Many have died as a result.
The current cases of infection stands at 92, 705 in the country with 76, 396 recoveries. 1, 319 people have died so far. The scarier scenario is that 57 people died from the disease in one week, the highest number recorded so far.
Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 and Secretary to the federal Government, Boss Mustapha, disclosed only yesterday that “Week 53 recorded 57 deaths which is the highest for any single week since we started. There is also a rising rate of infections among health workers and this calls for the escalation of surveillance.”
Also, 731 corps members who reported for national service across the country recently tested positive, sort of corroborating WHO’s claim that one out of five people tested in Nigeria are positive, spiking from 4.2 percent weeks ago to 21.3 percent now. What is the possible cause of this sudden increase in Nigeria?
Boss Mustapha provided a plausible answer. “The effect of activities carried out during the Christmas festivities,” the SFG said.
Again, how true! Despite warnings that Nigerians should avoid mass outdoor gatherings during the crossover, Nigerians trooped to church on Christmas and New Year eve with their families in tow, nearly all of them without any protective gear like face masks. One such gathering took place at Queens Park Event Centre, Oniru in Lagos where revelers gathered to celebrate the yuletide. The Lagos State Government has since sealed and revoked the license of the popular party zone.
Can anyone imagine the likely consequence of thousands of worshippers shouting into one another’s face in the name of celebrating Christmas and lucky enough to make it to the New Year? Of course, many did not, as Ali Baba also said.
“I have spoken with people who attended parties and died two days later,” he continued in his Instagram post, warning that “don’t let anyone deceive you. Anyone who tells you Covid-19 is a scam don’t trust that person…Don’t let anyone tell you it’s a scam. I just came out of isolation. Several people died while I was there.”
In a New York Times publication on December 27 by Sheri Fink under the headline “As Virus Resurges in Africa, Doctors Fear the Worst is Yet to Come,” the paper noted that though the virus killed far fewer people in Africa compared to Europe and America, “a tide of new cases on the continent is raising alarms.”
Even the DG of CDC himself, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, has expressed his fears about the rising cases of infections in the country. “The risk perception has gone from something very scary at the beginning to now something people are not worried about anymore.” Ihekweazu said.
Even as the virus is raging across the world, many Nigerians insist there is nothing of such. As recently as yesterday, this reporter had a half-hour conversation with Clement, a 51-year-old father of two, who swore that it is just an ordinary fever. On New Year eve, for instance, he and his family made it to church for the crossover service.
Did he know of the ban on such mass gathering by the state government? Yes, he replied. But what excuse was he going to give his wife and children for missing out the crossover service? Sounding like a man who would have been crucified if he had done otherwise, Clement emphasized that “there was no way I and my family would not have gone for the crossover service. I am a senior member of the church and it is unthinkable that I would not have gone with my family.”
So did many Nigerians feel, and so trooped to church en masse despite the health challenges the country faced. Call it Pentecostal obstinacy or downright stupidity, some Nigerians are still notoriously dismissive of afflictions like Covid-19 – people like Clement.
Indeed, when Afro Beat star, Fela Anikulapo Kuti died from complications arising from AIDS on August 2, 1997, some Nigerians waved it off. It didn’t matter to them that Professor Olikoye Ransome Kuti, elder sib and onetime Minister of Health, held a World Press Conference the same day to tell world what his younger died of.
Today in the country, it is quite a common sight to see Nigerians not observing the preventive measures against spreading Covid-19. The consequences have been frightening, and there seems to be no end in sight, as the recent spike in Covid-19 cases have shown.
More than anyone else, Ali Baba knows as a survivor and the ravage the pandemic is causing. Of his battle with the disease, the comedian has said: “Some of my close friends knew and they were very supportive. Covid-19 is real. Observe all the protocols. People are dying. And it’s not a joke. In fact, anyone who says Covid-19 is a scam is a compound idiot and a fool.”
About the Author
Michael Jimoh is a Nigerian journalist with many years experience in print media. He is currently a Special Correspondent with THEWILL.
