Coronavirus, Moronavirus And The Trial Of Faith Healing -By Bright Ogundare

The Covid-19 pandemic is finally dangling at our doorsteps with its brute realities, while we all hope the pandemic is controlled so as not to degenerate into an Italy-esque situation, the crisis has further exposed a virus that has always been with us; the moronavirus. This virus presenting with chronic intellectual insufficiency in our society is fuelled by a culture of scientific irresponsibility, religious fanaticism and an affinity for fake news.

For months, the coronavirus has wrecked havoc in China, Asia, Europe and U.S.A, these was supposed to be a warning for Nigeria to do the needful for the coming winter but unfortunately, we failed. The Nigerian government in its characteristic manner displayed gross irresponsibility as they failed to get the health system prepared. The penchant for frivolous spending continued unabated while medical doctors and university lecturers were on strike and hospital infrastructures dilapidating.

The average Nigerian is also guilty of complacency. In the earlier days of the pandemic, Nigerians started believing in the absurd notion that the virus could not survive in tropical regions like ours because the virus cannot survive in hot temperature. This was contrary to warnings of experts about the dangers the virus pose to Africa. The Nigerian media was also home to several conspiracy theories in spite of the numerous research works published about the origins of the virus. These conspiracy theories showed a culture of scientific irresponsibility entrenched in the Nigerian society as Nigerians rather than encourage research and debates on the pandemic as the rest of the world is doing now viewed the pandemic as a power tussle where the winner will bring the vaccine when it wishes. Several funny messages filled the Nigerian social media about the cure of the virus from onions to lime water and other absurdities. That this was believed by supposedly educated people showed an intellectual degeneracy in the fabric of our society as fake news became more popular than the facts. When the first case (an Italian) was confirmed many lived in denial claiming the government manufactured the case. This made us lose the opportunity to put pressure on the government to do the needful in preparation for the virus and a lot could have been achieved.

Religious fanaticism also aided our failure as the faithful abandoned reason for superstitions. While the virus was ravaging abroad, religious folks in Nigeria saw the virus as a punishment of for sins of homosexuality in the west and for China’s critical view of religion, when it finally got to Nigeria it was because our sins are too much. This was followed by various religious leaders declaring their congregation immune to the virus. These absurd declarations helped Nigerians to confidently take superstitious steps rather than precautionary measures.

As the government announced ban on public gatherings, most of those that defied the order did so on religious grounds despite the wealth of available information about the dangers of large public gatherings in times like this. The argument for many of them was that it is only in religious centers that healing could be found. This pandemic has obviously placed the argument on trial. How effective is faith healing? A pharmaceutical company produces a drug which is effective for 60% of patients and they are sent back to the laboratory, in contrast, a faith healer organizes a crusade with less than 1% of participants allegedly healed yet he is hailed as a superman and tithes, offerings and seeds are poured into his coffers, this is dark reality of faith healing.

A lot of Nigerians trust their religious leaders advice on health over that of a physician. This is obviously a time for faith healers to shut down sceptics forever but they’ve failed woefully. People are getting infected at religious programs and religious centers are under lock and key, the virus shows no regard for religion and everybody is in fear. While science has been working frantically to save the day, faith healers have gone into hibernation, not a single case of recovery from Covid-19 has been ascribed to faith healing. It seems the faith healers are desperately waiting for science to find a solution to Covid-19 so they can resume their faith healing.

One of the lessons we’ve learnt from Covid-19 is that there is no religious shortcut to an advanced healthcare system and a working society. When the chips are down the religious industry which has raked in billions will be on standstill waiting for science to find a solution.

Finally, it is my hope that this crisis will be over soonest and we will be sincere enough to evaluate ourselves. Coronavirus will be defeated but as a priority we must stamp out moronavirus from the fabric of our society so as not to experience a repeat of passing through this road.

Bright Ogundare is a Secular humanist, Darwinist and social commentator. He can be reached via brightogundare@gmail.com