Scientists Race For The Cure

The world is on a meltdown and fear is hanging in the air. Everybody seems to be afraid of contracting the Coronavirus and sees everybody as a potential carrier of the virus. Even as an earth angel who dwells in the firmament, I am afraid of the pandemic. Who knows, the virus can fly up there to infect me and my fellow angles.

What encourages me is that scientists all over the world are on top of the issue and in no time cure would be found. In 1918, the Spanish flu captivated the world and more than fifty million souls died worldwide. More than two thousand Ghanaians died during those days.

Doomsday prophets predicted that the world was coming to an end because of sins that people in those days committed.

Scientists of the utmost fame went to their laboratories and before we could blink an eye cure was found for the deadly pandemic. The world did not come to an end.

The doomsday prophets went to sleep. In recent memory we had deadly diseases like the SARS, Mad Cow Disease, Ebola, HIV/Aids, Swine Flu, chicken flu, whooping cough etc. In all these cases we all thought the end time has come but we are still surviving. Today we are at war with an invisible enemy. So far, our scientists have no cure for this particular pandemic but surely we will have one sooner than later.

Although we will all die one day, let us not get ourselves killed through negligence.

The other day I was listening to some residence of Accra who complained bitterly about the partial lockdown and I regretted the day I was born in this country. Even in countries like Kenya, Ivory Coast and poorer countries in Africa where the disease has reared its ugly head, there has been partial lockdown and the people are happy about the decision of their governments. When thousands of people continue to die across the globe, people sit here in Ghana complaining of loss of revenue because of the lockdown. In fact when the people of Italy, Wuhan, Madrid and other areas have obeyed the lockdown for months we sit here and talk of the government being insensitive of closing our markets for one day to fumigate the places.

In football we say the best form of defense is to attack. And when the government choses to attack the Coronavirus we sit in our homes and do politics with this serious issue. There was this guy who complained bitterly about his inability to travel to China to import goods because of the travel ban. If I had his mobile number I would have advised him to travel through a stowaway in a cargo ship and go to China the epicenter of the virus. A fool is always a fool even when he is trained in the palace of the Asantehene. In the face of this pandemic what we need to do as a country is to pray unceasingly, have courage and believe and chose faith as our watchword.

Had it not been the threat of this novel pandemic I never knew Ghanaians fear death so much. If you visit any drug store all what you hear customers asking to buy are hand sanitizers and nose masks. The sad aspect of this scenario is that those who live in the villages are making a joke of the pandemic. Like the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme, there are others who are saying Nana Akufo Addo wants to save money for the December general election hence his pronouncement to vote one hundred million US Dollars to combat the spread of the virus. And there are blockheaded persons who believe in them. What is sad about this assertion is that even parliamentarians from the NDC are out there misinforming the people about the plans of the government to tackle the disease forgetting that the Coronavirus does not distinguish between NDC and NPP

TO THOSE WHO DISOBEY THE PRESIDENTIAL FIAT

At times like this, I miss Rawlings a lot. If it were to be in the revolutionary days when this pandemic hit the nation and an order was given for churches and mosques to stop gathering and a particular pastor disobeyed the order, he or she would have smelled pepper. Remember, once upon a time Rawlings did ban some churches from operating in this country and no Jupiter coughed. In other jurisdictions people are not allowed to meet in groups and only two persons can met at a time. They are obeying because they love life.

Here in Ghana, our courts are very soft. The other day a certain pastor disobeyed the presidential fiat and organized a church service. When he was arrested the court gave him bail and set up another date for him to appear. Such a pastor should have been remanded in prisons custody to serve as a deterrent to others.

The other day I heard Sheik Arimeyaw, the Secretary to the Chief Imam telling Ghanaians that some mosques are disobeying the presidential fiat. I asked myself: Could they have done same if the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia had given that order?

As for me, I have left the big town where I live to stay in my holy village where I will quarantine myself in my farm. I will only wake up at dawn to visit the public toilet and thereafter go to my farm to check my traps. If I am lucky and my trap catches a rat or grasscutter, I will quickly rush home to prepare my fufu and after consuming it, I will get inside my room and sleep on my 'sore ko adwuma' bed. No policeman can arrest me because I am a law abiding citizen. Have you washed your hands with running water and hand sanitizer today? Please do because live is too short.

From Eric Bawah