Commentary: Covid-19 is blessing in disguise for Africa

COVID-19 IS A ‘BLESSING’ FOR DEVELOPING NATIONS.

Good Friday; 10th April, 2020. DLA).

THE KING IS NAKED.

Sometimes a couple that have been trying to get a baby for a long time will end up at 3 months with an abortion. Is it a disaster?

Yet with the help of modern technology, the couple who might just be barely getting by on food stamps gets a pregnancy with five babies at the same time. Is it a blessing or a problem?

My wife reminded me that history repeats itself and there is nothing new under the sun. As the children of Israel were going through the desert, they had challenges and would curse God and Moses. They spent forty years in the desert because of their stiff necks and bad attitudes. In fact, snakes had to bite them at some point until they called unto God for help and protection. COVID is our snake. Africa has been in the desert for 60 years. We must pay the price to get the prize (the glory).

Nature has a canny way of teaching us and breaking our stiff necks and empty pride. When humans stick to principles or laws of nature and learn from these while applying same to solve problems, the price to pay is minimal. It is called wisdom.

When we want to learn through experience (our foolishness), nature will take us to the lab where we shall discover the working of principles under very harsh conditions. The fee is usually very high. And the interesting part is, we must attend the lectures and we must pay the price; (COVID 19 deaths in America, Spain, Italy and now Africa).

The world is paying the price for failing to respect nature and the environment. We have no regard for God while we build temples to Satan physically and in our hearts. Materialism, technology, power and wealth speak.

In Pidgin it is said, ‘Ween wind eey pass, na for that time weeh you gooh see fowl yee lass’. I confirmed that statement when our learned H.E., Prof., Dr. Minister of Scientific Research spoke to the world about COVID -19; making us a laughing stock in the global community.

For no fault of mine, I became a fool sharing in her public sins, for she spoke in the name of Cameroon. I read a warning letter from the PM to cabinet Minsters telling them his mind about gross foolishness in their communication strategies. I am sure she must have triggered it.

‘Ween wind eey pass, na for that time weeh you gooh see fowl yee lass’

And when the wind blew, the world woke up and everything changed in an instant just like a rapture. The Egyptians you see now, you shall see them no more. And then the churches (GOD) and casinos ( Devil) both agreed for the first time in human history that shutting down was a good thing.

The Italians threw away their euro notes in the streets because they noticed it was just paper and had no intrinsic value. Then the homosexuals who were having fun on the streets joined everyone at home to hide from their nakedness. I hear the presidents of states also took off.

The Pentecostal pastors who have healing miracles for every ailment went on a holiday hoping that a new day will come. Some very bold native doctors have been imagining and drumming up some brews that they believe rightly or wrongly, could help.

To add insult to injury, the Chinese started to fish out and chase Africans out of their country forgetting that Africans did not start nor engineer the Wuhan disaster.

Since man had put God to the test and would not learn from wisdom, God had to reset the clock with COVID 19 so that humanity can come back to her senses and know what is important; LIFE, HUMANITY, RESPECT OF GOD and his creation.

I heard someone say that atheists who have no regard for God because they have never seen him, were the first to take cover from COVID- 19 which no one has seen. They should just wear special lenses and go out doing business as usual. This virus is not from God. It is a product of the big bang theory. No, it was created by the Chinese. No, it was stolen from Americans and misused in China. We are all hiding from it and are terrified by it.

GOD’S WAYS ARE NOT MAN’S WAYS.

God uses things good and bad for his glory. He used the wickedness of Nebuchadnezer to punish a stubborn Israel. With COVID 19, only God knows the future. Ask President Trump who is the most powerful person on earth now if he has the answers. Even if it was made by man, it is possible that some of those scientists have lost family and loved ones or are also hiding in bunkers from their own madness. An enraged elephant in the China ware shop.

So, the bottom line is that our weaknesses, our ignorance as well as our wickedness has been brought to the public place; where our hidden sins are made public. We have been stripped of materialism, ego, empty pride, superiority complex, uncontrolled technology let loose, moral decadence, lack of restraint and sound informed judgment.

It is a curse on the world for defecating on black people the world over; for committing structured crimes in Africa for the sake of her wealth. Africa has cooked-up-wars by economic hit men. They have cunningly denied us the proper education by hiding technology away from us and blinding our leaders to reality.

So we do not have the capacity to use what God has blessed us with. Our growth is stunted in many domains. Something always seems to creep out of the blues now and again to kill and cripple Africans so that they are unable to express themselves in the image of God with their creativity and wealth.

Man has sinned and fallen from the glory of God. It is a repeat of the Tower of Babel story where man in his human wisdom and intelligence is trying to replace God with internet of things, artificial intelligence and population control. It is a mixed package of undiluted ignorance of the ways of the Lord and corrosive arrogance in its wake.

WHAT ARE THE LESSONS FOR AFRICA and THE WORLD?

The rest of the world has moved ahead in terms of useful technology over the decades. A satellite picture of the world at night shows the density of lights over the earth which is an indication of industrialization, development and human potential. An indicator of wealth and well being.

That pictures show Africa as a dark continent with a few lights over South Africa, Egypt, Tunisia- Algeria front. There are a couple of flickers on the East Coast and West Coast. That is the story of Africa. That is the problem.

The beauty of the whole story today is that everyone has shut down so that we can take stock and start again somewhere, on a new road map, provided we think and ask the tough questions. We must face the mirror and dance to the music.

A new set of problems face us needing different thought patterns, objectives and strategies to arrived at different goals and results. The vision for the world must change and the patterns for solving problems and doing business have to change for common good.

Immigration to Europe, America and Asia.

Why are African youths running away from Africa to these other Eldorados? An honest answer to this question will show us where the root problems are and what African countries should be doing for themselves while expecting help from the rest of the world. Help, they must get otherwise problems shall continue to multiply themselves in the current dispensation of gross inequalities, poverty, suffering and disease. If we look at the elements of MGDs or Sustainable Development Goals, we can clearly see the deficiencies that are hurting us.

How do we fight the root causes of violence, corruption, terrorism, poverty, bad governance, disease and death? We all know the answers but lack the courage and the political will to do what is true, right, just and good because of greed, ignorance and irresponsibility. We do not function in the image of God. We are overwhelmed by the creation and spoilt by the good life.

There is a general fear round the world that if COVID 19 were to hit Africa with the same force and intensity with which it is terrifying Europe and America, we shall be wiped out. In America, the numbers of deaths and those contaminated are up more so amongst the blacks in a very disproportionate pattern that reflects the health care and social issues in these communities stressed by poverty, disease, poor education and poor housing.

Translate that picture unto the continent of Africa and things become very evident.

It is logical because on every score we are found wanting. These include poor health care systems, poor habitation, poor nutrition, poor education, abject poverty and poor planning of habitats making social distancing a pain in the ass. Lock down becomes a boomerang tool.

What are the root problems and solutions that Africans must address as they ask for help from the developed world?

PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS THAT AFRICANS MUST ADDRESS

EDUCTAION: ( professional education, Skills transfer).
Improved education based on STEM (science, technology engineering and Mathematics) is the cardinal axis of our change. For China to move forward, they had to convert 70 percent of their universities into polytechniques. They brought technology to their country from the west.( copy, steal, buy, deceive, reverse engineering, etc).

That is what makes them the second most powerful and richest nation on the globe today. We have to lay special emphasis on industrial agriculture with food transformation. We must stop importing rice, fish and meat from out of the continent.

Health Education emphasizing on the preventive medicine approach, hygiene and sanitation. The technology of curative medicine should be improved. Pharmaceutical industries should produce high quality cheap drugs to meet our purse.

Technological villages should be put in place with cottage industries where youths are trained in traditional industrial production along with the high tech of nowadays.

Entrepreneurship, leadership, management and wealth creation along with financial education should be taught and practiced.

We should use our children from our own schools to build our roads, cities, damns, rail ways and airports. Stop using foreigners to fill potholes in your roads, clearing cities of waste while you spend the time drinking and looking for women or conniving to ‘murder’ a brother.

INDUSTRIALIZATION AND WEALTH CREATION
Industrial production should step up. Produce what we consume to improve on the trade balance by decreasing dependence on imports of non essential goods. This will create jobs for yours as well. This will stop our youths from migration and unwanted early deaths.

Selling tons of raw materials for decades will never solve our problems. We must add value to our products via transformation technologies.

GOOD GOVERNANCE
This should become a reality and not empty slogans. Governments must be accountable to the people and everything should be transparent. When we start to respect merit while aiming for excellence in what we do, the dark clouds will move away and Africa shall be born again.

CONCLUSION

Thanks to COVID-19 for creating the challenges. We have been standing on clay feet and built our existence on sandy soil in a continuous chase after a hot air balloon. We therefore, must put in place a new way of doing business in Africa by Africans and for Africans (D I Y = Do IT Yourself).

Africa must first wake up (awareness). She must realize that she needs to change. The problems, just like the COVID, must be big enough to warrant us to think it is important to change.

We now are asking ourselves if the problems we are facing can be solved. If the answers are yes, then we must study the options we have. We must address ourselves to the major problems counted on our finger tips which will resolve eighty percent of our issues (Parota’s Rule). We must be proactive and decisive in our actions. Today is not for day dreamers.

We must be ready to pay the price. We have to give up our comfort zones and recreate ourselves. The price for refusing to act now is that China and others will take over Africa and we shall become their slaves.

I hope you saw what they were doing to blacks in their country this early April. They have tried a few pranks here and there in Africa and that could be come the reality of our daily lives when you and I are complaisant; we become slaves in own land. (When you cannot control the economy and the production along with the money and wealth, you are a slave even if you are the president).

The rest of the world can help us if we get our act together and define who we are starting from today. If Africa continues to sleep and keeps on blaming others for her misfortunes, then the coma shall last another fifty years as we wait for another disaster to show up. By that time, the Chinese would have taken over our countries whether we like it our not. Nature hates vacuums.

Dr. Nick Ngwanyam, MD
St Louis Univ. Institute Bamenda & Douala – CAMEROON.. Tel 237 677764674.