The death of Sam Nda-Isaiah, publisher of Leadership newspapers, provokes this question: did Covid-19 make everyone relax only to strike back?
By his combative nature, only Covid-19 could strike at Nda-Isaiah without him being able to put up an impressive resistance. This must, indeed, be a terrible virus.
Before the news of Nda-Isaiah’s demise filtered in, that of General Olubunmi Irefin had been reported. And, as of today, many public officials have reportedly gone into self-isolation.
A Reuters pix by Dado Ruvic showing one of the variants of the vaccines
It was thought that Providence or the sunshine in Africa had excused the continent from the travails of Covid-19. Initial deaths in Kano had suggested Nigeria with her huge population was, for instance, in trouble. Covid-19 would result in deaths in thousands due to lack of health facilities and poor living conditions.
Apart from when several persons died in Kano around April 2020, these fears did not materialise. Beyond the death of a few high profile persons, especially Malam Abba Kyari who was Chief of Staff to the president at the time, the deaths were not even in thousands.
But just before putting behind the original bad year called 2020, Covid-19 seems to have sneaked back. What is to be done?
It is no longer as strange and completely unknown as in March when it broke out. A number of things are now known about it. But if it could quickly kill a strong individual such as Sam Nda-Isaiah who can draw on ample resources and medical facilities, then that is something to worry about, given especially that majority are hardly observing the protocol about it.
The world has vaccines from which to choose as it is but when it gets to Africa is still something to be worked on.
Another challenge of mass mobilisation and repositioning in health provisioning is here again!
2020 has simply not been an easy year for almost everyone. With Covid-19, scaling through the remaining 18 days is not to be taken for granted.
