Iboro Otu, businessman and Akwa Ibom State governorship candidate of the Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) in the 2019 national elections predicts that Nigerians who will survive the COVID-19 pandemic will be forced to evaluate their situation and ask for good and effective leadership
I remember when I was a child, there was this popular story of this cunning tortoise who was a leader of his pack and who changed his name to “All of Us”. He did that so when things are allocated to everyone, he would claim it saying it was allocated to ‘All of Us’. This guy made a killing off his people’s back and his people were seeing it happen live or “Coro-coro” as we call it. “All of Us” thought he was smart. All of us thought he was smarter by the day.
Anyways, I’ve been quite quiet for a while. Every now and then a friend or two would check up to know updates. The truth is, I didn’t go silent at all. I’ve been working in the background with my lawyers both local and international, with concerned citizens, raising the needed funds and support for my case at the International Criminal Court. I’m sure I will sound like a broken record stating why I am headed there so let’s leave that for another post. However, something has forced me out to re-evaluate my strategy on good governance and to witness how the hands of God most times works in mysterious ways.
Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria and indeed Africa has been ravaged by bad governance. We have selfish leaders imposed on us and they in turn impose their selfish wishes on us, pilfering the public purse, offering abysmal service in all sectors while they and their families fly overseas at the drop of the hat for great education, amazing healthcare and all what not.
Then Corona came upon ‘All of Us’
There is mass hysteria about the pandemic situation but as a concerned African and Nigerian and indeed Akwa Ibomite, honestly, I don’t know how best to approach this Corona thing without upsetting some people. The best I can say to the common man like me is, stay home if and when you can, stock up if you have the means – I don’t have the means, and consume little. Pray. Pray hard! The bulk of this corona weight will be on “All of Us’. Isn’t it beginning to look like God in his infinite wisdom is finally stepping in with a weird reset strategy?
Now that the West have locked up their airspace, no London to travel to, we all will be using the ghostly general hospital and clinics – at least from the top three high profile cases I have heard so far, the abandoned clinics will be put to use. Of course, they will be casualties, life has always been like that. By the end of this, Nigerians who will survive this scourge will be forced to evaluate their situation and ask for better – I hope. I believe the devastating effects of what is coming will make the rest of us who will live through it to understand what some of us have been clamouring for – good and effective leadership.
Some will say, but the West is suffering it too even with their great leadership. Yes, it’s true, but compared to who? Look at their level of intervention, socio-economically and otherwise, can we surmount that?
With the amount of resources endowed on this country by God, we could arrest this situation like a lot of other countries have. We would’ve even been exporting doctors like Cuba is doing to Italy. We would have shored up our economy to protect jobs, we would’ve had enough bed spaces and doctors scattered across the country and states. What wouldn’t we have done with all the resources and wealth in Akwa Ibom State, in particular and Nigeria, in general?
But greed no go gree. Wickedness no go gree. Sycophancy no go gree. Belle politics no go gree.
Thank God for God. Everything and the whole world is on lock down. No one is going anywhere. We are all in this country together.
We live here. We die here. “All of us”.
