From Survival To Revival

Covid-19 the dreadful city in our cities

Like Theodore Roosevelt rightly quote "courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength". The outburst of the dreadful city in our planet really exposed the strength of our weakness.

I was 20 when I heard every tongue chanting her name "Covid-19", as she was shortly called but she was fully known as corona virus. She is an infection disease that causes illness in the respiratory system in humans. She was first discovered in December 2019 in a city called Wuhan in China where she was quietly breeding and planning tactics on how to invade our world. And so sudden like death she started her journey, spreading faster than the speed of light. However in March 2020, (W.H.O) world health organization declared her presence as a pandemic. Some of the commonest symptom of covid-19 includes; fever, cough, cold, pain in the bone and breathing difficulty. Thus, some emphasis on the best ways to prevent the spread of the virus was highlighted to include; regular hand wash with soap or hand sanitizer, avoidance of face to face interaction, wearing of face mask and social distancing.

The outbreak of this dreadful disease created a pandemic that had a massive global impact in the lives of millions of people in the world. On the 23rd March 2020 was just like a nightmare, I was surfing through the internet's and my eyes nearly pop out when I came across the new news that has been making waves in every country. Oh! She's already in India and the government have announced nationwide lockdown for 21 days that would limit the movement of the entire population of Indians of about 1.3 billion people as a preventative measure to tackle covid-19. This new news only send a cold sensation swinging in my blood. The drastic change didn't only affect the lives of the citizens but also created a big hole in the economic and educational strata of the country. She didn't stop there, daily she kept trooping and spreading her roots across the nooks and crannies of the world, that led to numerous lockdown, closure of boarders, and trade restrictions. 

Furthermore as the day goes by, millions of enterprises faced an existential threat because nearly half of the world global workforce are at risk of losing their livelihood. Nigeria is not an exception of her wrath, the venom of the virus also riddled through her mind. Ranging from high unprecedented challenge to public health, food shortages, high taste of extreme poverty, educational redundancy etc. Still in Nigeria, economy workers became very vulnerable, majority of them lack social protection and access to quality health care. Without the means to earn an income during the lockdown, many people were unable to feed themselves and their families, for most, less food and less nutrition or no income equals no food. Confinement measures were put in place that prevent farmers from accessing the markets and excluding from buying or selling their products. As breadwinners lose jobs, fall ill and die, the food security and nutritions of millions of women and children were exposed to threat in those low income and under development countries. 

In a short time she has achieved her purpose and aims. Placing the world in a global confusion. She took away wives and raised widowers, husbands and increased widows, parents and mocked the orphans. Our peace was even stolen and our heart was swollen with pains and anguish. The world is no longer safe for us to stay or live in, i would say to myself countless number of times. When a man is drained and confused, the best place to be is to run into the holy places to pray, but churches and mosques and other worship center were closed. I watched and did everything i used to do with fun outside, inside my comfort zone. The biggest outing that broke the carmel's back was preventing hugs, handshake and kisses to loved ones. This was the first stranger I have ever experienced in my life time.

I have seen the numerous damages caused by the invasion of the dreadful city in our cities. Millions of lives were captured and eaten by the heartless aliens without showing any sense of humor. Scientist are sleeplessly hunting for ways to appease her wrath. Better still, I and many are still here to tell her full story to the moon. What couldn't eradicate us all will only make us stronger. I prayed daily from my closet for a change and I saw that we pushed harder together until we survived. 

When I thought about the ancient enemy called racism, and other disparity, I was shivering with fear thinking about how deadly it would be if we didn't work together as one, in unity, to disarm and dethrone the stranger in our land, but divinely I saw that our hands was open to support the falling back of another. It was so amazing seeing how there were different form of supports from philanthropist, organization and establishment in order save many lives from leaving. These include cash transfer by government, shelter and food relief initiatives and materials, donation of stadium to be used as isolation camp, vaccine allocations across the globe, accurate exposure of the virus tricks and techniques in apprehending souls through different social media handles, platforms and internet's, adhering to the accredited prevention measures etc. 

Covid-19 only came to test and tear us apart but our bond was too tight and together we tamed her. We made her taste defeat by two virtue;

Firstly Care: The place of care is a room of help. Care is a very essential aspect of value that we inculcated in our life as individual because it allows us to give someone else a helping hand when they are in need. When we set aside our own selfishness, we allow ourselves to see more opportunities to help others in the society.

Secondly Love: The place of Love guarantee a place for all. The world entirely was created by love. Love is a very powerful weapon that can penetrate the heart of any individual. It makes you do good to your friends, families and even strangers. 

Gradually things are falling back in pleasant places, we are getting back better and stronger. Atlas! I laughed at her weakness because she succeed in breaking the bridge between the rich and the poor by her invasion. Attention was paid maximal to all human as swift response was made available in terms of any emergency just to ensure the stability of the world. She brought war, we found peace, she brought confusion, we found transmission, she brought separation, we found connection, she brought affliction, we found medication, with the potential loss of our already achieved development gain, we found another medium and means of survival. We recognized better opportunity of building back better than yesterday.