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Looking at this well-worn phrase in reverse, it is apt to start the review of 2020, the annus horribilis of modern time, with the most ugly of the century: the coronavirus pandemic and its continuing ravaging impact. It has just been discovered that a strain of the virus has mutated into a more deadly disease than known hitherto. Much of the world, including, (perhaps especially Africa), is in the second wave of the pandemic. Africans, with their usual nonchalant attitude to an issue of life and death, have almost given up on adopting the most basic precautions of wearing the face and nose masks in public and in small gatherings. I have found myself in many instances where I was the only one with a nose mask; the odd one out. This cannot simply be explained away as a matter of illiteracy or sheer ignorance. Many supposedly well-educated individuals have long given up on wearing the nose or face mask too. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control reports on daily outbreaks of COVID-19 across the nation, yet, the general population does not think it is a real problem anymore. So, why is it that the populace appears not to take the disease as seriously as they should? It is probably the daily reality of life in much of Africa bordering on finding crumbs of bread to put on the dinner table. Everything else, including the coronavirus, can go hang.
The US Congress passed a “stimulus package” (almost $1 trillion) last week aimed at helping the citizens as they struggle through the most debilitating effects of the disease; loss of income, lay-offs (or furloughs as they are called), foreclosures, bankruptcies, etc. Millions stand to receive direct cheques of up to $600 in the post once the bill gets Presidential Assent. Many European governments have made similar commitments to their citizens. But, talk of relief packages in Africa? Well, that would be really nice indeed, but it is very much a pipe dream, as many of you know. There is literally no package for the masses to talk about. Instead, the self-serving political elite in this country are already consumed by the 2023 presidential election, and its permutations. Citizens in Africa are basically on their own. So, why should anyone prioritise public health when they are not sure of being able to deliver for their family at the end of the month? Death on this continent is not something ultimately caused by the coronavirus or any other transmissible diseases. Death is in the ‘hands of God’. It is the psychology of the poor; an escapism of sorts. That is why, despite many high-profile deaths from COVID-19 in Nigeria and across Africa, all the sonorous warnings about the disease still fall on deaf ears. For whatever this column is worth, it is useful to emphasise to the reader not to relent on taking those preventative measures. After all, only the living can eke out a living.
The bad for the year, has to be the #EndSARS protests against police brutality and human rights abuses. That is without question. It has long been assumed, in some quarters, that the Nigerian public is a docile lot. That they have an excruciatingly high tolerance for bad governance. That, there will never an “Arab Spring” in a deeply ‘conservative’ Nigeria. The northern African nations were once thought to be the hotbed of religious conservatism, vehemently opposed to change. The rulers, however, got their comeuppance with a spontaneous uprising and demand for regime change that swept through the regions in the early 2010s. In Nigeria, the police have long been thought to be extremely lawless and rather brutish in their approach to law and order. As if that was not bad enough, the formation of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in 1992 was an icing on the cake for a police force that had become so confident in its ability to inflict gratuitous violence on innocent citizens with impunity. Members of the defunct and rudderless SARS roamed the streets, mounting fiendish attacks on people of all ages, but especially the ones whose looks alone portrayed criminality; the typical urban youth with certain modern gadgets on his person. Recruitment into the squad became so hotly contested amongst the police that many paid huge bribes in order to be enlisted, it is alleged. Once in, you were literally given a blank cheque to extort and dispossess citizens of their belongings without recourse to law. It was the gateway to new wealth for the lucky officers. Armed to the teeth, the squad not only set themselves above the law, they were also law onto themselves. So, for the teeming youths of Nigeria to take on the onerous task of delegitimising the criminal gang in uniform was no mean feat. It was an extraordinary moment in the history of civil protests in Nigeria. Judging by its momentum, intensity and immediate outcome, it was the likes of which had never been witnessed before. It gave a tinge of hope for the future of Nigeria. Just a little glimmer of hope, I must say.
Against the above heart-rending backgrounds, what can possibly be ‘the good’ from 2020? First, the #EndSARS protest was a spontaneous reaction to systemic oppression and impunity, but it was also an awakening which is bound to outlast the youths who gathered on the streets in large numbers across the country. They have set a new limit to state-sanctioned oppression in this country. Never again will the youths be passive observers in their own wonton degradation and dehumanisation. Never again will they maintain a felonious silence in the face of tyranny. Second, is the realisation brought to us by the coronavirus pandemic that, the primary duty of government is the protection of life and property. The pandemic has laid bare the inability of government to protect the livelihood of citizens when it mattered the most. If provision of social services did not mean much to government before, it sure does now, or ought to, at the very least.
The people have now witnessed in broad daylight, how fundamentally remote their government is to their lives and how, hopefully, it matters who they, themselves, put into political office. If a more accountable and responsive governance comes out of the experience of the pandemic, then, the citizens would have been emboldened to face future political challenges with equanimity.
Last but not least, is the highlight on information technology and remote assembly. Be it in the church arena, the market square, annual as well as random festivals, open-air parties, communal living, even mourning for the dead, mass gathering characterises the African landscape and worldview. Technology has opened up a new possibility, and a new vista through “zoom” teleconference and the like, as a clear alternative to what is a significant element of African life. Henceforth, we will no longer have to assemble on a spot to give meaning to our existence; we will only need to be connected. Its early days, of course, but the train has left the station on that one. And, with that sobering thought, I say a happy and prosperous New Year to you all.
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