With lot of challenges witnessed in the outgone 2020, many welcomed 2021 with open hands in anticipation of a new beginning.
Many of the challenges experienced in 2020 would have been better tackled if not for greed and dishonesty.
According to Ayi Kwei Armah in his book, the Beautiful Ones are not yet born reveals the adverse effect of corruption in a nation painting various vivid pictures to the reader while depicting his hatred for immorality and corruption by the way he described characters in his book with the comparison of the smell of koomson’s mouth to the smell of rotten menstrual blood. How much can we explain the great lies of Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Honourable Minister of Information in Nigeria than that?
Armah also reveals in his book the height by which Citizens have no true understanding of the evil done by the politicians and they cheer them regardless of the damage the government is doing which was revealed during #ENDSARS protest, sharing of palliatives and the innocent killing on October 20th at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos Nigeria.
The approached deployed for solving problems in Nigeria failed woefully in 2020. I am sure that no one would ever pray for such year again in the history of the Nigeria. If I may want to narrow it down, it was a year Nigeria tertiary education lost a full year to strike due to pressure group greed and government insensitivity. Don’t forget that when two elephants fight- Federal Government,(FG) and Academic Staff Union of Universities,(ASUU), the grass suffers and the grass here are the innocent Nigerian Students.
People who gained admission into 100 levels in 2020 are unfortunately still in the same 100level in 2021 which applies to the other categories of students as well.
In the health sector, the situation is not also different looking at the inefficiency of the government which was seen at play as politicians who travel abroad for medical treatments could not travel due to Global COVID-19 in which they were forced to make use of the Nigerian owned hospitals which they fail to develop. This singular action has led to the deaths of prominent Nigerians even in the presidency, what a year!
Still in the same year, many Nigerians became unemployed in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic. Many companies had to be running virtually and only needs half of the workforce to carry on. Others seeking jobs were unlucky as companies were finding it hard to cope with existing staff talkess of taking new ones.
However, as I write, I am aware of so many organization owing salaries, areas and some who asked their workers to go and stay at home till situation improves.
For Churches and Mosques, it was really a touching time as government closed religious houses for months before it was re-opened not quite long with different unpalatable conditions.
While many other sectors continues groaning, the government opened markets which practically is important because the people need to eat but the market were without strict operational rules which everyone does what he or she likes.
Should in case a Corona virus carrier visits a market unintentionally, it would very easy to spread the ailments easily without contact tracing later on.
During Christmas and New Year festivities, the various beaches across the country played host to lots of uncontrollable crowds and the government couldn’t do much to stop people from further spreading or avoiding getting infected.
The main entry points of Corona virus patients are people coming into the country through the airport and the local border, yet, interventions in those areas are low as airport workers also sell fake COVID-19 results to people for their own selfish benefits.
I make bold to say that the business of fighting corona virus is not Governments business but people in the private sector.
I am very sure if the government employs the services of a group of doctors with some civil societies group in the area of health would fight the process better than the presidential task force tackling the situation with no success stories.
The government should compulsory all supermarkets, pharmacy and even local market to provide nose mask for their customers at no cost to encourage the use of nose mask everywhere as well as other ways of ensuring cleanliness.
Other strategies the government can employ are to be strict with the aviation sector to ensure that the right things are done while the fear of the virus should be conquered with high exposure of Nigerian media to international reports.
If Nigerian government tightened all loose ends and allows people to go about their normal day to day activites,I am sure before the middle of year 2021,Corona virus would be a thing of the past or possibly a virus we need to live with like other diseases.
In this New Year, it is my belief that the government would put up new approaches to solve old problems.
Written by Tosin Adesile