Towards the end of December 2019, the global killer and master of all diseases, coronavirus, abruptly stormed the world and launched its missiles of mass destruction that attacked continents, countries, towns, villages and our homes, inflicting immense damages on all aspects of human life while the irreparable losses it caused are still very much with us.
It came with a terrible message of untimely deaths, panicking, global pandemonium, psychological instability and socio-economic dislocations of magnifying dimensions. While we were caught unawares of its sudden explosion like the volcanic eruption, little did we know that it promised to be a sworn enemy poised to conquer humanity and force the world to prostrate before it.
The memorandum of destruction it designed and signed was too awful and horrific to all and sundry that it sparked uncontrollable fears as we became conscious of its tremendous dangers, running helter skelter to hide in a safe palace. Indeed, Covid-19 was a classical metaphor for deep sorrows, despairs and a general feeling of melancholy ever witnessed in the history of mankind.
It was first identified in Wuhan, China and transmitted through high frequency rate, making contact with dreaded animals, forcing and driving inroads into every continent including Antarctica. At that time, researches suggested that an intermediate animal, possibly the Pangolin (an endangered mammal) was responsible for the transfer to human beings while there were no treatments for the disease albeit laboratories were working round the clock on various types of treatments, including vaccines.
Indeed, the corona artillery of human holocaust led to the creation of an unprecedented global fraternity which had just a temporary base. A homogeneous world was briefly established in practical terms to fight a common foe. There were suspensions of lingering wars and conflicts all over the world, creating more friends than enemies, promoting more tranquility than upheavals.
Its gruesome killings were so frightening that, for instance, it claimed 849 lives in Spain in just 24 hours. It was not just a messenger of death, but a death in itself. With Corona on the offensive side, death was easy, living was difficult as we remained locked up and our freedom of association was banished to our bewilderment.
It was to its own dreadful achievement that the world’s nuclear power and weapons were no match to its emerging power of mass devastation. No amount of allied forces could sight and eliminate it so that we would heave a sigh of relief. The best that could be done was to control and limit its pervasive and global rampage at the expense of economic prosperity and social development.
The whole world was a prisoner under coronavirus, frightening us to stay indoors and boycotting one another as our social being was massively dislocated and redefined. Coronavirus was now the authentic super power even though it lacked nuclear weapons. Ironically, the self-acclaimed powerful were powerless, for coronavirus taught us a good lesson that for every powerful, there was something more powerful.
While wielding its omnipotence character of ruins, it fixed the world economy at a very high risk of a total collapse. Both public and private economies, big and small, suffered immense defeats that still manifest in our memories and reminiscences. It made millions poorer, robbed them of their means of livelihood and ensured that hunger and starvation were a living phenomenon in many homes and people could only think of survival without the means of survival in terms of fully fledged economic activities.
Coronavirus’ intimidating craziness reached its optimum level of rampages owing to its ability to enforce social distortions and dilapidation. It boosted social isolation as well as mistrust among ourselves, culminating in the gradual diminishing of social values and beliefs.
The lockdown anomaly was something that would be hated to be remembered for our traumatic experiences. Life was so valuable that we would not afford to lose it to an unseen terror. Death was so irritating that we could shun worshipping in mosques and churches. Coronavirus was then the terror of all terrorists even though its size was very insignificant.
Politically, coronavirus exposed the inadequacies of the governments of the third world countries in connection with providing the needed development. For instance, it was laid bare how our health sector was a laughing stock to deploy the essential things needed to offer treatment to the victims. It also exposed the gravity of corruption as recorded in some states of Nigeria how palliative items were diverted by certain reactionary elements. It also narrated our inferiority on relevant technology.
Influenced by these global anxieties plus horrors, the mass media incessantly bombarded us with maximum reportage about this killer disease, sending to us warning signals to be extremely cautious. The media were our best friends of those trying moments, educating and informing us of the widespread and senseless attacks of the novel disease. For instance, the face mask ‘revolution’ came into being as a result of the media’s endless ‘commodification’ of the practice of wearing face mask for protection.
With this laconic recapitulation, have we forgotten the fundamental lessons of this global tragedy three years after the outbreak of the pandemic?
Abdullahi writes from Katsina, Katsina state.
