Citizens have been locked indoors for weeks hiding from an uncertain death outside only to be faced what feels more and more like a certain death inside as the streets tether towards anarchy as a product of stay-at-home frustration. In reality, the country has been operating on a delicate and confusing balance of haves, have-nots and a complicit middle class ad infinitum, all doing their own part to perpetuate the National Dysfunctional Systsem (NDS).
The have-nots are the ones most negatively affected by(and often most accepting of) the dysfunction that holds the country together, the stifling opportunity vacuum which is most likely the only inheritance which they will leave for their kids, etc. They are also the ones most affected by the economic impact of the stay-at-home order due to the colo-now, I mean corona, outbreak. They are more confused than concerned about Covid-19 as hunger, disease, herdsmen, accidents on bad roads, joblessness, hopelessness etc have been killing them for years and nobody said a word about it, talkless of issue a state of emergency.
They are the most likely to actually vote. The other confusion is in how passionate they are about voting and how predisposed they are to vote for the “haves” (who are the biggest beneficiaries of the NDS) to remain in leadership ignoring the fact that the “haves” are the disproportionate beneficiaries of the National Dysfunctional System. It appears at times that they are satisfied with the foxes guarding the hen house, or maybe because of the low rates of education and high rates of poverty, they are content with appreaing to not know any better. Hunger has already defeated the Colo virus in their world. They are tired of staying at home.
The “haves” are the same people that you know. You read about them in the papers in the mornings. You support some of the ones who are demographically similar to you, and you detest some other ones for reasons that don’t follow any respectable pattern of logic. They are the few business leaders, the religious leaders and the politicians who make up the top percentile of the socio-economic land scape. They’ve studied and perfected the art of promise-and-fail believing that, in this our system, there’s no recourse for any of their actions. They peddle varying doses of hope and fear, groundbreakings and project commissionings, lies and half truths to keep the have-nots hypnotized enough to forget who the true master is in a democratic setting and who the public servant is actually supposed to be serving.
They are quick to blame the other group of “haves” as soon as they are confronted with any questions about their own performance or lack there of. They preach about one Nigeria as if it were a wonder-drug for all physical and economic ailments, but they consistently fly half way across the world to treat all of their own ailments with abandon. They are the ones most likely to be index cases of corona virus in their respective communities and really, they are the ones who have the most to lose if either the pandemic gets out of control or if the masses get out of control during the lock down. Due to their wealth and position, they are insulated from the true hardships of being a Nigerian. They are urging you to stay at home for their own (or your own) good .
Then there’s the complicit middle class. They are the poster-children for the phrase “hearers of the word but not doers of the word” as they are generally well educated, seasoned, fairly well traveled and are a bit more financially ok than the have-nots due to thier social proximity and working relationships with the “haves”. They are the ones on Twitter and social media who speak oh-so eloquently about the problems of Nigeria – though most of them do not even have a voters card nor are they affiliated by membership to any political party. They feel that they are lucky (not priveleged) to have their nice lil jobs, their nice lil cars, their nice lil apartments and houses, their nice lil respect in the family and church/mosque as they rarely shy away when donations are needed. They are critics and pundits but actually, they just use words to make themselves feel better about their lack of action and complicity in perpetuating the system of national dysfunction (NDS). They retaliate to their colonial masters (the people who originally brought the Colo-virus to Nigeria ) by birthing their own children outside of the country and ultimately they themselves emigrate to the US, the UK, UAE, Canada, China, Malaysia etc to live in perpetuity as second class citizens as proof that they are no longer satisfied with the promise that they are the leaders of an ever evasive tommorow in their home country. Some however, still stayed home in Nigeria. At the back of their minds, they are ever hopeful that they too, somehow, someway, by some stroke of luck, or by being cautious to not shake any tables long enough…that they too will someday become one of the haves sitting atop the NDS. They are on the front lines of the stay at home should things continue degenerate .
As at the time of this writing, there had been 323 confirmed cases of corona and 10 deaths in Nigeria – population 200 million. Mathematically speaking it means that 0.000001615% of the population has tested positive and 0.00000005% of the population has died due to the “outbreak” of the pandemic.
The Ministry of budget and National Planning states that as of April 6th
- The Federal Government has approved the establishment of a N500 billion COVID-19 Crisis Intervention Fund.
- The Federal Government has provided N102.5 billion in resources to be available for direct interventions in the healthcare sector
- The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (‘NCDC’) has access to a Regional Disease Surveillance Systems (‘REDISSE’) facility from the World Bank in the sum of US$90 million
- Mr. President has approved that the sum of US$150 million be withdrawn from the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (‘NSIA’) Stabilization Fund to support the June 2020 FAAC disbursement
- Among other interventions
Altogether nearing about N1 trillion or about one-eighth of the entire national budget for the year 2020 and about one-third of the funded portion of the national budget (ie. The part that won’t come from debt or deficit)
Not to be left out , prominent Nigerian business people including Aliko Dangote, Femi Otedola, Tony Elumelu, Folorunsho Alakija, Abdul Salam Rabiu, Jim Ovia, Oba Otudeko, Segun Agbaje and Herbert Wigwe among others have donated a minimum of one billion naira each, to combat the spread of a virus that has infected 323 people in a population of 200 million…further doing their own part in perpetuating the NDS, while the average Nigerian scratches their head trying to figure out where the next meal will come from as they struggle to justify the importance of staying at home to their starving and frustrated household.
Seems we’ve all been infected by the Colo-virus!!!
Happy Quarantine