To panic is human, yet what is even more so is to hope. Hope is the intoxicating chemical that successfully floated many human societies into surviving this long, and with it, we will survive anything – the Coronavirus included.
True to this, social media was agog earlier today as videos surfaced online of popular Televangelist and founder of The Synagogue Church of All Nations, Temitope Balogun Joshua, telling his congregants that the Coronavirus pandemic will be over by March 27, 2020. The search for hope is high!
While the exact date of recording isn’t known, it has become obvious that majority of Nigerians look forward to the date, to enable them resume their normal lifestyle after weeks of social distancing, restriction of movement, increased hygiene, shut borders, suspension of ‘owambes’ and sporting activities, as well as crashing economies around the world.
This explains why barely 7 days after the announcement by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu that the index case (Italian) is now negative and has been discharged, the news coming out about the imminent discharge of 6 more Coronavirus patients by the Lagos State Government is fantastic. The pandemic has taken over 20000 lives globally since it broke out in January 2020, but connected to that figure is a number few remember or feel is overly important to mention.
It comes out of the 416, 686 total number of infected worldwide reported by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which means that over 390, 000 have recovered from the virus. This hopeful news means that, of the reported 31 cases in the country’s largest city, 7 have recovered and 1 in neighbouring Ogun, with no fatality.
As Lagos and the Federal government inches towards lockdown, this is fresh justification that our collective efforts to keep ourselves and one another safe in order to curb the spread of the Coronavirus, will pay off, and even ultimately be a song of total victory, if we persevere.
Indeed, when we do get through this, the outstanding take home will be the human capacity to come together in times of crisis, uplift one another and overcome together.
Until then, Hope you are flattening the curve? Try thinking beyond yourself but staying safe, for all our sake is good enough!
Temidayo Taiwo-Sidiq is a Journalist, Political Analyst and Satirist with major interest in Nigerian Politics, Governance and Sports.
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