Covid-19: Nigeria As A Case For Trump’s Shithole Countries -By Rees Chikwendu

COVID-19: NIGERIA AS A CASE FOR TRUMP’S SHITHOLE COUNTRIES

I have been working from home for the past week. I took home office before the company I work for officially declared home office for all, and the country also went into shutdown. Usually, I am the type of person that stocks foods at home, even when I eat out most of the time, so, for now, I have no lack in that aspect. I haven’t stepped outside in the last week, although it feels like a prison. Within my living space, I can cook, eat, exercise, read books, listen to good music, dance, watch Netflix, etc.

What is my point? You see, I can work from home and still get paid in this coronavirus troubled time. But let’s assume I don’t have a job, living in the Netherlands, I can apply for a social benefit from the comfort of my home without stepping out. I have fast internet and stable electricity at home, so carrying out the responsibilities of my job from the comfort of my home has little or no anxiety attached to it, and for that, I get paid. In this scenario, I can effectively self-isolate.

Another scenario of responsible governance is the Czech Republic’s approach to the situation. Today, the country’s Minister of Finance confirmed that the state will support employers whose employees could not go to work now with roughly 60 percent of their salaries. Mortgages and credit payments are to be suspended for 3 months. In Poland, it is 40-50 percent of the salaries that the government would pay those who couldn’t go to work due to the coronavirus. In these examples, it is possible to achieve reasonable results with self-isolation or state quarantine.

But can someone even achieve up to 20 percent self-isolation in a shithole country (in the words of Donald Trump)? That would be a laborious task. I know Trump’s categorization of some countries as shithole sounds racist, but the truth is, that wasn’t racism but culturism. Racism is old-fashioned, and there is no scientific backing to substantiate that a white DNA is superior to a black DNA, vice versa. Only utterly dumb people still think that way. Trump is too smart to think in terms of the superiority of white DNA. No intelligent person in this 21st Century would think that way. However, by shithole, Trump was, in essence, telling you that your culture needs to be upgraded or updated. His discrimination is about the ways of doing things in those countries, not the superiority of DNA. Provided with the right environment and condition of fairness, a black person can excel equally as a white person, and vice versa. So the arguments for racism hold no water. Demonize president Trump as you wish, but let’s honestly look at the facts coming out of Africa in this COVID-19 episode.

Consider Nigeria, for example, which is the greatest shithole country in Africa. How many people have access to the internet and stable electricity to enable them to work from home? The internet in Nigeria cannot properly enable WhatsApp calls not to talk of enabling computers and other heavy devices. Can people without these basic facilities work from the comfort of their homes? How many people can afford quality internet services at their homes? You know the answer.

Secondly, Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world, with over 93 million people living below the estimated minimum level of income needed to secure the necessities of life. Women and children struggle to eke out a living in that country, and many of them scavenge on refuse to survive. How on earth would you get these people to self-isolate when their livelihood comes from burrowing in the dirtiest places where you can easily contract diseases? You know the answer to this too. Self-isolation or staying away from crowds is not what you would tell a hungry poor man. If a country’s political, social, and economic culture or collective way of doing things continues to sink its people into poverty, it should not be offended when someone calls it a shithole. If there is no superiority of DNA, superiority exists in ways of doing things. I do not doubt this.

Thirdly, Nigeria has no leadership at all. Otherwise, in the situation of war, as we have today with the coronavirus menace, that is when true leaders show the mettle of leadership. Instead, the Nigerian president has quarantined himself long before the coronavirus started, because he is afraid of his people finding out that he is a fraud. As I write this, he still hasn’t addressed citizens of his country to allay fears in this troubled time. Is that not the type of political and economic culture that fits into Trump’s shithole categorization? That is a lazy and backward approach to leadership in times of war.

Some people do not understand that this COVID-19 episode will afterward reshape the economic policies of the world, and how you mishandle the situation now will affect the economic and political future of your country. Countries with smart leadership would take advantage of opportunities in this COVID-19 episode to reposition themselves to achieve better economic policies. How can an unconcerned and unintelligent leader help his country to come out of the after-effects? That would be impossible.

Also, consider this case. A Nigerian woman who returned from the UK was wrongly diagnosed with coronavirus and was quarantined at an isolation center – a decrepit hut without any medical equipment, where she died 4 days later without food. I wept after reading the painful post of the deceased daughter. How can human life be treated without dignity, I question myself. That single case is another argument for Trump’s culturism. Indeed Nigeria is a shithole, likewise, other countries that treat their people like animals in a zoo. I do not doubt this.

The way most African countries are mishandling the coronavirus war still poses serious threats to countries that will come out of it first. The virus could still be re-introduced from those countries since our world has become a global village. The world has become members belonging to one body, just like the organs of the body. When the nose is affected, the eyes cry too. For this reason, we have to show concern about how other countries are fighting this war. Global concerted efforts should not be lacking at this time. Nigeria can learn from countries like China, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Poland, etc., whose leaders are responsibly leading in this time of war.

Written by Rees Chikwendu