Coronavirus: Pres. Buhari, please don’t screw this up

(Published with permission from Dr. Njakiri Damages)

As I write this, over 100,000 people in New York City have coronavirus. And it has killed over 6,000.

Unless fortune smiles at Nigeria, big cities in Nigeria are on track to experience this kind of grim reality. Nigeria currently has fewer than 400 confirmed cases. However, it is not an indication that the worst may not happen considering that only about 5000 people have been tested so far in a country of almost 200 million.

All over the world, leaders of various countries have realized that it is not business as usual. They have stepped up their games. Some have declared the virus an invisible enemy and as such declared a war against it.

Some presidents are operating as war presidents. They are reassuring their citizens that all would be well. They are pulling all stops, reinventing themselves, stepping out of their comfort zones to make sure that their people are not only protected from the virus but also from the fears and the anxieties surrounding the situation.

They are constantly giving their people hope.

In Nigeria, the federal government led by President Muhammadu Buhari is still stuck in the first gear. His response to the Coronavirus is still the same lazy and…