BY SIMON REEF MUSA
The advent of COVID-19 has thrown up new icons of hope in the protection of mankind amidst the rampaging impacts of a pandemic that has sent distresses and crashed economies of most countries, just as the world faces a gloom that casts frightening prospects and threatens an apocalypse for the human race. With the world experiencing perplexing times in containing an epidemic that has no cure, health workers have emerged heroes and heroines of a fiercest struggle against an unseen enemy intimidating the human race.
These new champions for humanity are not only in the frontlines of medical warfare with an invisible but vicious enemy, they have remained determined and resolute and now symbol of global determination to end an incurable infection that has caused the deaths of thousands and thrown other hundreds of thousands patients into the valley of death.
Unlike the enemy they seek to contain its destructive powers, these new champions for humanity are healthcare givers who sometimes are forced to work in the harshest environment devoid of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Like the true metaphor for true heroes and heroines that they are; they have become the new hope and man’s infinite capacity to walk away from the present dangers caused by the infection.
In Indonesia alone, no fewer than 18 doctors have paid the supreme price in the fight against the infection. From global statistics, no fewer than hundreds of doctors and nurses have been infected with COVID-19, and many of them suffering exhaustion. For healthcare givers, it has been an insuperable task, with some succumbing to the inevitable. Without doubt, there has been no difficult time for health workers than now. In some countries, they work under strenuous conditions that further expose them to the dangers of infection. Unlike in developed economies where they are provided with necessary equipment to protect themselves, it is a sad story of inscrutable neglect in other countries, especially in Nigeria and other African countries.
The world stood attention as the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was wheeled out of the intensive care unit (ICT) amidst cheers by those who have sacrificed their own lives so that others may live. In recognition of the sacrifices these healthcare givers are offering to take care of those infected with the virus, citizens of many countries daily take a particular time of the day to open their windows to salute the courage and resilience of these health workers through a standing ovations in their lockdown abodes. The public acceptance of their selfless service and their relentless to carry on the battle to the end is a great inspiration worthy of global recognition and honor.
This is not the case with Nigeria, where politicians have taken advantage to only stage a circus show. Unlike their counterparts in other countries that are daily enmeshed in providing resources and encouraging health workers to do the job, our leaders mount the rostrum every day to only update us on the current death toll arising from the virus. Using the Presidential Task Force (PTF) that is headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, our leaders are only interested in sending fears down our spines and telling us how the infection is cascading down to meet us in the valleys of wretched existence.
There is a complete absence of hope, with government having no exit-strategy plans in stopping the sprinting virus. The testing centres for COVID-19 are more of a mirage than reality. Getting to be tested is like having the camel pass through the eye of the needle. The media has not helped matters as they restrict themselves to COVID-19 record sheet that is often updated every day. Not a single picture of doctors and nurses battling the infection on the frontline are shown. Some of our governors have taken advantage of the infection to insist on federal support to finance the establishment of isolation and testing centres. Why should states depend on the Federal Government to fight Coronavirus when they are allocated funds? Amidst dwindling resources from oil, why should states, like Kano, call for intervention from the Federal Government for succour?
It is unfortunate that politicians have hijacked the space in portraying themselves as heroes and heroines in the battle against COVID-19. It is heart-rending that those involved in the fight and laying down their lives have been relegated and not appreciated. While doctors and nurses are being criminally underpaid, political leaders are being paid as professional kidnappers and criminals involved in oil bunkering. That is the source of our troubles.
When recently Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila asked the health minister, Dr Osagie Ehanire, if he was aware of any form of hazard allowance for health workers, he outrageously replied in the negative. Why should a health minister not be aware if there were hazard allowances paid to health workers? That response should have been enough to throw him out of the ministry. Dr Ehanire ought to have been shown the way out. That is to show how terrible our system allows ineptitude and gross dereliction of duty. The minister must have replied in the negative because he knew there was nothing to write home about when it comes to providing for the welfare of the healthcare givers in Nigeria.
When it comes to the issue of waging a successful war against COVID-19, we must be sincere to tell ourselves that the Nigerian system has neglected health workers to the point of oblivion. That is why they are spreading their wings across to other countries where their services are mostly valued and appreciated. For us to win the fight against COVID-19, we should begin to do things rightly and accord honor and respect for those in the trenches against the pandemic. Allowing self-serving politicians to throw themselves under the floodlights is akin to allowing the village thief be on the list of honourable men and and women.
A society that does not value honesty and professional competence in fighting COVID-19 is bound to have the wrong priorities. We need doctors and nurses under the floodlights, not politicians lining their pockets and claiming to spend billions of naira to buy relief materials not seen by the public. Though our politicians may be thinking of the next polls, our health workers are at ground zero battling the rampaging spread of COVID-19.
We should focus more on these global heroes and heroines than giving life to the hypocrisy of politicians that are now turning the fight against Coronavirus into politicking for future elections.
