The storm over the Covid-19 status of Nigerian born British, Mrs Susan Okpeh is awaiting the last words which is now a multi-party process involving the National Centre for Disease Control, the Nigerian authorities and their British counterpart. It is still not known what the British are thinking of but it is instructive they were in the Benue State capital yesterday on a fact finding mission.
Also Susan Okpeh but not the one in this controversy
Still another Susan Okpeh bit not the one in controversy
Under normal circumstances, any Western government is likely to press for the repatriation of a citizen trapped in any condition against which the citizen has alleged infractions on rights. But these are not normal times across the world, with the British equally hit by the Coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, Mrs Okpeh is very conscious of her British citizenship and appealed directly to that in the face-off. Should the British want to operationalise her citizenship code in this circumstance, then that would bring in the Nigerian government which would consider the argument. Otherwise, the matter has since shifted from Makurdi, the Benue State capital to Abuja. The movement solves the key snag behind the story which seems to be the obvious distrust for the procedures and tests or attention in the facility she was kept.
Should her protests lead to another round of test and the result is different, that can change much of the story. If her status is confirmed to be positive, she lies completely within the technical, professional and other powers of the NCDC.
The face of a conflict mediation process in the Benue State D-Gov, Engr Abounu
Another face of the intervening variables, Senator Abba Moro
The assumption in some quarters coordinating Benue and Abuja is that all the parties might actually be working for a win – win outcome so that no one loses face when there is no winner or loser. The main argument being pushed for this line is that the Covid-19 mood within which all actors were working is such that even a minor matter could flare up. While the Benue State Government was eager to block spread of the virus by someone who had just arrived in the country, Mrs Okpeh on her part must have been alarmed by the loneliness of her new abode. And with her telephone facility intact, all the conditions were set for implosion. So, mediators are arguing it should be a ‘Justice Ooboyi”s case. Justice Ooboyi is the mythical judge in Idoma mythology in whose court nobody is ever a loser or a winner. He gives peace, not justice. How far this myth would apply in this case remains to be seen.
Intervention‘s sources hints that there might be no alternative to ‘Justice Ooboyi’ because, for one, so much collateral damage have been recorded. Not only has everyone at the Grace Cottage Hospital at High Level in Makurdi where Mrs Okpeh was initially treated been sent to self-isolation, two other ladies bearing Susan Okpeh have been dragged into the fray. Above all, the burial which brought Mrs Okpeh to Nigeria at this time has been put off indefinitely.
It has been a drama in which the last words could be as interesting as the first words, particularly if all parties put it behind so as to move on.
