Coronavirus as Nigeria’s reset button

Lekan Sote

lekansote@yahoo.com 08050220816, 08170000411 (SMS only)

Interestingly, this outbreak of coronavirus has brought home to those who do not quite know that the rest of the world, including Nigeria, is subject to the whims of the metropolitan powers. Recall that when Ebola gripped Africa in a vice lock, the Western world neither shut down, nor raised an alarm.

But when news of coronavirus outbreak broke in China, then spread to Europe and North America, the international media called it a pandemic, and revved up a hysteria that echoed throughout the world. Now, you know that when the West sneezes, the world catches cold.

The Minister for Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, recently displayed a streak of epiphany with the suggestion that Nigerians should take the coronavirus outbreak as an opportunity to hit the re-set button, “reboot,” as the ICT nerds would say, and put Nigeria back to work again.

Fashola suggests: “These are tough times, but they are also good times. This (coronavirus) crisis, we shouldn’t waste it. It’s bad enough to have a crisis, but it’s unforgiveable to waste one. So, for me, this crisis may produce Nigeria’s finest hour if we put (Nigeria’s best human) capital (and resources) to use.”

He admonishes: “We must not panic (at this time). And we must know what it is we are up against, and constructively engage it… If (Nigeria’s) human capital constructively engages this tough time, we will defeat it.”

He suggested that relevant Nigerian manufacturers should combine the beryl that grows wild in Plateau State, with the domestic capacity to distil “ogogoro,” local hard liquor, to manufacture hand sanitisers, currently imported from China.

But why wasn’t Information and Culture Minister, Lai Muhammed, in a position to announce that some Nigerians have started to manufacture face masks, personal protective equipment, test kits, ventilators, and sanitisers, some of which, he so gleefully announced, were donated by the do-gooder, Jack Ma Foundation of China?

Fashola, a cabinet-ranking member of the current government, could push his suggestions into the decision-making process of the Federal Executive Council, where strategic macroeconomic decisions are made; he doesn’t cut the image of a man who always plays to the gallery.

He should remind his colleagues that necessity is the mother of invention. Many regret that Nigeria did not take advantage of the inventive genius that the Igbo displayed during the unnecessary Nigerian Civil War of the late 1960s.

One hopes that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) is not just being politically correct with his directive that the Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, Nìyí Adebayo, should “work with the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria, to ensure that all production of essential items, such as food, medical and pharmaceutical products, continue unhindered.”

A panel of guests, banker Kunle Gbénró; mass communication scholar, Richard Emmanuel; and financial journalist, Kingsley Ighomwenghian, on a recent UNILAG RADIO programme, concluded that Nigerians, in pharmacy, pharmacology, the sciences and technology, should take advantage of these times to come up with new ways of solving Nigeria’s myriad problems.

They hope that a Nigerian would find a cure for coronavirus, even as they point towards the old time herbal potions they argue had proved efficacious before the white folk put doubts in the way medicare was delivered in pre-colonial Africa.

The Central Bank of Nigeria got it right with palliatives, which are really incentives, that should enable medium and small scale businesses to take advantage of this situation, and turn the economic fortunes of Nigeria around.

In showing unusual brilliance, Godwin Emefiele’s CBN announced a one-year moratorium on new CBN-funded intervention loans, rescheduling of amortisation, and reduction of interest rates from nine, to five, per cent, for older loans from March 1, 2020.

In addition, the CBN approved new intervention loans for pharmaceutical manufacturing and healthcare delivery companies, restructuring of tenor and loan terms for oil and gas, agriculture, and manufacturing companies affected by the coronavirus outbreak. The CBN is also poised to introduce further responses as the needs arise.

With policymakers thinking like Fashola, and the CBN finally finding its mojo, it might just be happy days for Nigeria at the end of the coronavirus tunnel. But beyond pointers, words of encouragements, and introducing the right policies, one wonders if the government will provide the infrastructure to enable Nigerians to take advantage of the opportunity that nature is offering them.

Some of the protagonists of the idea of Nigeria taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the coronavirus outbreak refer to the quantum progress made by Communist China after adopting an isolationist policy between 1949, when Chairman Mao Zedong took the reins of power, and 1976, when he died, and a more prosperous and confident China joined the rest of the world.

It should be no surprise that even America entered the 20th Century, which it is dominated with ruthlessness, with an isolationist policy, which was canvassed by its first President, George Washington.

After American rejection led to the collapse of the League of Nations, which was ironically promoted by American President Woodrow Wilson, America later returned to the centre stage of world politics.

America led in the formation of the League’s successor, the United Nations and its agencies, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and International Finance Corporation. For the records, American Senator, Henry Cabot Lodge, whose aversion to committing America outside of the Western Hemisphere, forcibly insisted that America must only care for American interests.

Isolationism implies a country whose policy is against war, foreign aid, preferred trade agreements, and military alliances, but engaging only in free trade with any willing nation. The idea is to avoid foreign entanglements and responsibilities.

The likely to be shortlived Nigerian lockdown may launch Nigeria’s economic renaissance. Just observe the rate at which Bauchi State, whose governor, Bala Mohammed, tested positive to coronavirus, Borno State, with a brilliant governor, and Lagos State, whose governor must beat the records of his past three predecessors, set up emergency medical facilities to address coronavirus spread.

If these governments and the entrepreneurial genius of Nigeria combine to address Nigeria’s issues, Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed, and his Kaduna State counterpart, Nasir el-Rufai, and President Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, who have all tested positive to coronavirus, will have nothing to fear.

More importantly, they will have no reasons to expect to be flown abroad for treatment. And, like the poor, downtrodden, masses they always claim to serve, they should have no qualms in being treated in Nigeria, even if it’s in the overly expensive private hospitals. That Kyari is reportedly in Lagos shows that the elite must of necessity trust the local medical system.

Bolder, and more cynical Nigerians scoff at Buhari, and suggest that he must not fall sick during this period if he doesn’t want to be treated in Nigeria. His “egungun,” or masquerader, must be careful not to enter the express road, as the Yoruba saying goes.

As you can see, with the coronavirus socio-economic leveller, “àparò kan kò ga ju ‘kan ló.” That is the Yoruba way of saying that no animal is more equal than the other. It’s also a call to Nigerians to seize the moment, and make their country prosperous again.

Enough of the false starts that perennially dog Nigeria. To borrow a phrase from the usually eccentric American President, Donald Trump, “We can’t lose the advantage we already have.”

Twitter @lekansote