By Dada Ahmed
It was another black Sunday, July 5 for Nigeria and the world at large as Covid-19 took a fatality swipe at the country, claiming three of its prominent citizens and tears rolled down many cheeks like tsunami,uncontrollably in many homes.
The deceased are: Prof.Godwin Achinge, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Benue State University, Makurdi and Vice-chairman, Benue State Action Committee on COVID-19.
Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state confirmed Achinge’s death hours before his death.
The day the also saw the nation losing J. Shalanga and Chief Jide Odekunle(53),the immediate past general manager of the Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Agency (LASIMRA) due to coronavirus complications.
Odekunle,who died at the Onikan isolation centre in Lagos state was until his death the Bobagunwa of Egbaland.
Shalanga was the state supervisor of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in Zamfara, supervising the spread and control of the virus in the state, ironically.
The state Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Yahaya Kanoma, disclosed Shalanga’s demise, saying that the deceased fell sick and was rushed to Yariman Bakura Specialist hospital Gusau for treatment where he gave up the ghost.
Nigeria, the most populous black nation in the world continues to record harvest of death as Coronavirus hits over 11.4 million cases globally as at June 5,2020.
Out of the figure, Nigeria had 11,844, 3,696 discharged and 333 dead, according to the statistics released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
Kogi state had earlier lost one of its illustrous sons and the Chief Judge, Justice Nasiru Ajanah to the virus who died at the Gwagwalada Isolation centre.
The disease which started like a child’s play in Wuhan in China and first reported on December 31,2019; covering over 200 nations of the world, was first reported in Nigeria on February 27,2020.
Though the virus has registered its presence in virtually all the states of the federation, kogi state and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) lucked horn in controversy over the presence or absence of the disease in the state.
While the centre insists that there are cases of Coronavirus in state, the state government says the state has no such case in its jurisdiction.
Most Nigerians would unarguably agree that though the country has witnessed the presence of virus on its soil in the past, COVVID-19 is with a difference in terms of magnitude and the pernicious effects on its social economic development.
With various forms of luckdown taking place in the states, social and economic activities on the lowest ebb and educational institutions closed and no end in sight for the disease, the future of the looks gloomy,so to say.
However, since man, the greatest of God’s creation is not a slave to his environment and with the conscious to find lasting solution to this pandermic disease of monumental proportion in all facets of human existence, there is hope for light at the end of dark tunnel in this trying moment for all and sundry.
But one of the surest means of getting over this terrible disease is religious adherence to the World Health Organisation (WHO) prescribed protocols to put pay its wild spread.
These include, regular washing of hands with soap in a running water, coupled with sanitizer,using of face masks,most especially in public places and maintaining social distancing, among others.
More so, the emergence of COVID-19 has taught governments all over the world the imperative of adequate facilities with well qualified and motivated workforce to ensure effective and efficient health services for the governed.
This, stakeholders in health sector in any organised system of government, should not treat with levity if the world must recover from the pangs of Coronavirus, laughing last and best too, sooner than later.
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