OP, as a Nigerian I understand your pain at the helplessness some are going through doing business outside the shores of this country, and with the added burden that comes with being a Nigerian.

However, if all Ghanaian businesses here were closed, we'll lose more in the short and mid term as Nigerians employed will lose jobs and loss of taxable income that flows back to the economy.

It might be preferable to rather put pressure on our Government to find a medium term way of supporting Nigerians doing businesses there. This might be through simple things like publishing business guides and maintaining close contact with business communities. While this is going on, back here at home, we re-examine the guidelines on how foreign medium and small companies operate, and if there are good lessons to be drawn from Ghana or elsewhere, we can always adopt.

But please, don't go inciting people as this sort of things end up affecting innocent livelihoods.

I'm here only wondering how to monetise the blabbering between these two for the benefit of Edo people.

If a YouTube Match up / debate between Oshiomole and Obaseki with at least a million views can happen. With Ads and video clicks, it could raise $500 (N194,000), money that can go to an orphanage. At least they'll have something to eat while listening to the claims and counter-claims leading to the election.

Y

Diced potatoes and carrots in beef curry sauce with white rice. A simple meal for a blessed day.

It cost less than 1,000 and can feed 5 people with a rich spicy taste that will remind you of New Delhi.

Eating healthy is cheaper than we think

Sun down on an AMG

Samsung J6+

Gr8amechi:

This one you are booking space shey e never too early so

You never know when the front page train departs, early seats are encouraged

The current state of NDDC is indicative of the status of other Ministries and Departments in Nigeria right now. 

It is just mind boggling that this has been allowed to almost become a generational thing. 15 Billion properly spent will touch all our lives on this forum, that's how much we've been robbed. 

I know people right now with business ideas that need less than 1 million but that can employ at least 4 Nigerians. Think of the ripple effect if such people were empowered without the crippling burden of interest from banks. 

Things really do need to change

The current state of NDDC is indicative of the status of other Ministries and Departments in Nigeria right now.

It is just mind boggling that this has been allowed to almost become a generational thing. 15 Billion properly spent will touch all our lives on this forum, that's how much we've been robbed.

I know people right now with business ideas that need less than 1 million but that can employ at least 4 Nigerians. Think of the ripple effect if such people were empowered without the crippling burden of interest from banks.

Things really do need to change

Man must survive. Nigerians are also known for being bathroom attendants in night clubs across Europe.

So far as he is earning honest money, I can't fault his hustle.

Firstly, he is not a product, he is a child, from God through flesh

Secondly, no where was the cost of the glimmer mentioned. That it is perceived to be worth millions is different from it's real worth.

News like this unnecessarily pressures people to materiality

I like how this new Nigeria is loading. To be honest, there's been a lot more calling out and revelation of bad behaviour in this Government than I've ever seen.

And Nigerians are watching more now than before.

Soon as the saggy tits of oil milk dries up, budgets gets tighter, the power balance will tilt to the tax payers, and the days of unbridled bragadanding will come to it's natural end.

I hope the guy in native with that protruding doorbell on his eye is okay. His legs looked discolored, he needs a dermatologist, not ballot papers.

NerdyRudeGyal:
I've forgotten what ram tastes like.

I'll try my best.

It taste like goat meat but with a bovine texture to the meat. The scent and the taste both congregate at the base of your nostril, interrupted only by the fatty crunch of its meat

South Sudanese have some of the most beautiful women. If you like that East African, Lupeng look, complete with a pinch of skinniness and dab of high cheek bones, South Sudan is for you.

Twitter and Instagram verifications are good examples of how we seek validation online.

That humans think a badge next to their social media handle is a status symbol or unique identifier, is like watching evolution go in reverse. Soon technology will be our masters and you'll still think you are in control.

Case in Point - look at how hard people are working to satisfy the algorithms of YouTube and TikTok just to get views and likes. People are now sexualising their families for likes, go on Tik Tok and see

Ram meat is delicious

1. The ram getting dressed (or undressed, any one)

2. Ram on coals.

Grilling takes 1 hour and 30 minutes. Depends on how long the meat was kept seasoned

Cloudy with a chance for Moi Moi

Samsung J6+

Feather Airways

Samsung J6+ (plus)

solostar1:


my first post on this thread

I'm new here too

The orange fingers of sunset

Samsung J6+ (plus)

Nike on Tyne...a hitch hiker's guide to trekking on hillside terrains

Samsung S10

I'm just stumbling on this thread A fellow photo lover, but I'm not good at using post photo effects. My photographic interests are around nature, food, food again, and anything that is an intersect between people and tech.

This is a fighter jet, taken undercover

Dreal1247:
The coronavirus virus is over hyped.

Overhyped! What most don't realise is that some people are profiting heavily from the narrative of forcing everyone to stay at home. The media make it seem like the world loves you so much, so pls #stayathome is the message everyone is pushing.

Stay at home, Africans, but U.S has pumped almost $1 trillion to its MSMEs.

Stay at home, Africans, but UK has placed some of its workers on furlough. Which simply means that for a fixed period, the UK government will pay 80% of the salaries of furloughed staff, while their employers pay the remaining 20%. It is similar to paid leave but subsidised by their government

By the way, have you seen NIRSAL's guidelines to access the Covid-19 relief fund? Only the most structured companies with collateral will be able to access it

Part two

What should Africa do?

We should think African but act locally and opportunistically to survive and prosper, and exploit the global opportunities offered by the crises. Every shock or pandemic presents opportunities. Solutions need to be multidimensional, far beyond economics and western medicine. Ad-hoc response will be a wasted opportunity. Africa needs a package for creating sustainable prosperity in a world of continuous techno-economic-health disruptions. Such disruptions will become the new normal in the decades ahead, and we should better get used to that. Only societies that anticipate and plan for such disruptions will opportunistically exploit them, while others mourn and blame the shocks. The way we work, socialize, meet etc will not be the same after these crises. Welcome to the decade of rapid creative destructions!

As a first step, African countries should urgently dismantle the border closures as well as the stay at home/lockdown orders. Hopefully, some useful data were gathered, and lessons learnt that will help in crafting simple, smart, and sustainable heterodox responses. Africa cannot afford lockdowns that will prove ineffective anyway.

Opening Africa does not mean abdication of responsibility by the governments. Governments should lead in the mobilization, education, and possibly equipment of the people to take personal responsibility for their safety; mainstream the African spirit of community/collective action by mobilizing the churches, mosques and civil society organizations to lead in the public education and mobilization; and finally for the government to do its utmost best in providing public healthcare.  An enduring lesson of this pandemic is that African countries must take public healthcare seriously. There will be future health pandemics and we should better get ready today. Professionals, religious leaders, CSOs and community leaders should be mobilized to agree on simple, smart solutions consistent with our financial and social realities. Our western and local (herbal) medical experts and research institutions should all be mobilized to come up with solutions. Those with pre-existing conditions might receive special treatment. The president of Madagascar is reported to have announced that his country has found its own cure for Covid-19 and has ordered schools also to reopen. The west is still on a trial-and-error mode, and why shouldn’t we experiment as well? Africa fought and survived Ebola without lockdowns and we can do even better this time.

Our model should be learning-by-doing while mainstreaming basic common-sense tips such as: mandatory wearing of masks in public, basic hygiene, disinfection of all open markets every early morning and all places of public gatherings, practical social distancing tips, provision of hand washing facilities in public places, production and use of hand sanitizers, gloves, etc.  For example, all public transport vehicles—taxi, buses, trains, airplanes might require disinfection of the vehicle before use, and for all passengers to wear masks and with hand sanitizers. Can you imagine the thousands of jobs to be created in producing face masks, hand sanitizers, gloves, etc for 1.3 billion people? But this cannot happen under a lockdown. New opportunities! Everyone wants to live, and Africans will learn and adapt quickly. Staying at home will become a choice, not a compulsion. The slogan could be: “stay at home if you can, or smartly go to work if you must”. We can only defeat the challenge by confronting it, and not by playing the Ostrich only to still confront it the day after.

Every African society has some local herbs that, to use President Trump’s phrase, “might help”. While the UK and others are experimenting with vaccines, you never know if an Africa herb might be the cure. Necessity is the mother of invention, and only those who dare, succeed! With enough education and mobilization, the infection rate will be drastically reduced without pausing the lives of 1.3 billion people.

The real challenge is the potential economic catastrophe that many African economies face. How policymakers respond depends on how they interpret the shocks: as temporary or permanent structural shifts. But howsoever they choose to see it, one thing is certain: several more similar shocks (not necessarily in exact form) are on the way.

What is evident so far is that most African policymakers (typically) think of the shocks as temporary, and consequently seem to believe that they can just stimulate their way out of it and wait for the next one. African multilateral financial institutions (e.g. AfDB and Afreximbank) have announced packages to assist Africa ride over the shocks. The World Bank and the IMF have provided quick disbursing windows for us to borrow. African finance ministers have called for moratorium on debt servicing, and most have applied for the cheap loans from Washington. Several African countries have “announced” intervention funds that, at best, constitute a drop in the ocean relative to need. The buffers and institutions for dynamic adjustments are weak or absent. In most countries, subnational governments are pleading for bailouts from their cash-strapped central governments. Many of these subnational governments will soon realize that they are basically on their own, and many could become fiscally insolvent.

After most African countries empty all their piggy banks now, and borrow their full tranches at the Fund and the World Bank, secured moratorium on existing debt etc, what happens with the next disruption in a few years’ time? Or like the African musician, Oliver de Coque sang: “let us enjoy life today, and after that we can worry about tomorrow”? But that tomorrow is a few hours away. Because of these crises, many African currencies (especially the oil producers) might likely depreciate significantly. Servicing these external debts tomorrow with the exchange rate then, would require heavy lifting. But it is difficult to see how a competitive real effective exchange rate regime will not be a critical component of their comprehensive strategy for diversification and global competitiveness.

Politicians with short-term electoral cycles typically have short time horizons or suffer policy myopia. This is not just an African problem. It is a typical problem of multiparty democracies with short term electoral cycles and term limits. However, extreme cases abound in some African states especially because the civil service (that ought to ensure longer term continuity) is very weak. With eyes on the next election, opportunistic populism wins. Rather than confront the underlying structural dysfunction, the easiest escape is to pile up debts and contingent liabilities. This is the circularity that has brought Africa to the present embarrassment whereby barely some years after massive debt cancellations/reliefs from our creditors, we are again pleading for “debt relief”. But several future shocks are on the way. When and how can African countries escape this circular trap? This is a short question but with a long answer. Each country’s economic/development team should get to serious work.

For the countries that see the shocks as signalling structural shifts (which it largely is), the focus should be on exploiting the opportunities offered by the crises to press the re-set button. It requires a realistic diagnosis and admission that the existing business model has been rendered obsolete. Crafting a new business model that encompasses the whole range of institutional, technological, structural, macroeconomic, and even politico-governance arrangements takes time and demands for disruptive thinking. It would require mainstreaming creative non-debt-creating financing options and new forms of economic partnerships. But these require longer-term perspectives and a form of inter-generational planning. There lies the conflict versus the opportunity and points to what separates politicians from statesmen. Politicians think of the next election, while statesmen think of the next generation. We pray for Africa’s political statesmen (a seeming contradictory combination—be a politician and statesman at the same time). That is why I strongly support the re-opening of all of Africa urgently, and let all hands get to work to help them succeed.

© Soludo is a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)

Culled from https://www.tekedia.com/covid-19-can-africa-afford-lockdowns-by-chukwuma-charles-soludo/

Cc. Lalasticlala
Seun

9.5 minutes read, not for the mentally lazy, but worth every line

Did you know only 2% of Nigerian bank accounts have 500k and above? For how long can the remaining 98% hold out? Read!

This piece summarizes my contribution to an African debate. From Johannesburg to Lagos, Cairo to Dakar, Kinshasa to Kigali, Nairobi to Accra, etc the debate on how Africa should respond to the global coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is raging. At an African regional policy platform, I had expressed some of these (personal) views some weeks ago but have been encouraged by most members to circulate them in Africa beyond the platform.

This year 2020 begins a new decade that promises to be one of dreadful disruptions, with Africa holding the weakest end of the stick. In 2008/09, the global “great recession” was triggered by financial crisis in the US (world’s largest economy). Then, much of Africa was said to be decoupled from the crisis and muddled through without severe devastation of its economies. This year, a global health pandemic that has paused the global economy and certain to rail-road it into synchronized recession (if not depression) was triggered by the second largest economy, China. Unlike before, multilateralism and global coordination framework are at their weakest. National (local) self-defence is the rule. As before, the rich world with its generous welfare system and huge financial war chest, is taking care of itself (the US alone has US$2.2 trillion stimulus package). Africa is left to its fate.

Covid-19 caught the world totally unprepared, and with no proven and available medical response. Ad-hoc cocktails and learning-by-doing constitute the strategic package. In most western countries, the cocktail of response has included a coterie of defensive measures including: border closure; prepare isolation centres and mobilize medical personnel/facilities; implement “stay at home” orders or lockdowns except for food, medicine and essential services; campaign for basic hygiene and social distancing; arrange welfare packages for the vulnerable; and also economic stimulus packages to mitigate the effects on the macro economy.

Many African countries have largely copied the above template, to varying degrees. Piece-meal extensions of “stay at home” or lockdown orders as in many western countries have also been copied in Africa. But the question is: can Africa really afford lockdowns, and can they be effective? Put differently, given the social and economic circumstances of Africa and the impending ‘economic pandemic’, can Africa successfully and sustainably defeat Covid-19 by copying the conventional trial-and-error template of the western nations? In confusion and desperation, the world seemed to be throwing any and everything at the pandemic. Recall President Trump’s assertion that hydroxychloroquine “might help”? The evidence so far (from limited sample) is that it probably actually worsens the disease. The trial and error have left huge human toll and economic ruins, and there is still no solution.

Let us be clear: no one can blame African policymakers for the initial panicky copy and paste response some weeks ago. No public officer wanted to be blamed for doing nothing or not doing what others were doing. After these initial pilot schemes, it is now time to ask the deep question: Is this the right approach for Africa?

All lives matter and African governments must do everything to protect or save every life from the pandemic. The challenge is how. Africa faces two unsavoury options: the conventional template, including lockdowns versus heterodox (creative local) approaches without lockdowns. Both have risks and potential benefits. Sadly, people will still get the disease and die under both approaches. People will differ on the choice, depending on what is on their decision matrix: data, resources, subjective preferences, and interests, etc. I focus on which option (on a net basis) is achievable in the short to medium term, consistent with our social and economic realities.

Our thesis is that lockdowns in Africa suffer time-inconsistency problem without a credible exit strategy; is unaffordable and could potentially worsen the twin pandemic—health and economic—in Africa. We call for Africa to press the reset button now, mainstream its collective, simple, smart learning-by-doing solutions that could, in the end, be the African solutions for export to the world. Covid-19 won’t be the end of techno-economic disruptions or health pandemics even in this decade: this is an opportunity to think without the box—to engender greater self-confidence in our capacity to think through our problems, with authentic sustainable solutions.

[b]Let me illustrate why I believe that a strategy that includes lockdowns/border closure is the worse of the two options given our social and economic realities. (Recall that China isolated Wuhan, and kept Shanghai, Beijing, and other major economic engines open, and today, China supplies the world with medical equipment, face masks, etc and raking-in hundreds of billions of dollars). [/b]The idea of a lockdown (and border closure) implies that you will continue to do so (with extensions) until such a time that you are satisfied that the spread of Covid-19 has been arrested or on the decline (with the possibility of imposing another round of lockdown if new infections surge). That is the catch: lockdown for as long as required to stem the spread. The length of time required for such lockdowns to ensure “effectiveness” in arresting the spread would make it near impossible in much of Africa. If the strategy is to lockdown until infections stop/significantly decline or so, then we would have a suicidal indefinite waiting game.

First, monitoring the spread requires effective testing, and Africa cannot afford effective testing of its 1.3 billion people. New York State, with a population of 20 million and a budget of $175 billion, is pleading with the US Federal Government to assist with testing kits and facilities. Check out the number of testing centres and facilities in each African country relative to their populations. A joke in the social media narrated that the health minister of Burundi was asked to explain the miracle in his country whereby the number of infections was reported as zero. His response was: “it is simple: we don’t have any testing kits”. Besides, there is stigma associated with the infection, and on the average Africans only go to the hospital as the last resort. There are also asymptomatic cases, and only the critically ill ones will report. So, there will always be massive under-testing, and gross under reporting.

Furthermore, social distancing in most parts of Africa will remain impractical. From the shanties in South Africa’s townships to the crowded Ajengule or Mararaba in Abuja/Nasarawa, or Cairo or Kinshasa to the villages and poor neighbourhoods in much of Africa, social clustering, not distancing, is the affordable, survivalist culture. Communal living is not just about culture, it is a matter of economic survival. Hence, the statistics on infections will be coming in fits and stats: shall we be locking down and unlocking with each episode of surge as there may probably be several such episodes (unless and until a cure is found)? Even with over four weeks of “stay at home” or lockdowns in some African countries, the reported daily infections continue to rise. Some may argue the counterfactual that without the initial lockdowns, the number of infections could have been multiples. It is a reasonable conjecture or anecdote, albeit without any proof. The question is the end game for a poor society such as Africa? New infections have re-emerged in Wuhan, and both Singapore and South Korea are going back to the drawing board. Since we cannot sustain lockdowns indefinitely or even until the spread stops/declines, it means that we would sooner or later remove the restrictions. What happens then? There would still be infections, which can still spread anyway. Why not then adopt sustainable solutions early enough without weeks of avoidable waste and hardship? Let us think this through!

Next, African states cannot pay for lockdowns. Many countries depend on budget support from bilateral and multilateral donors, and with acute balance of payments problems. They do not even have leg rooms to simply print money. Most are now begging for debt relief and applying for urgent loans from the IMF and the World Bank. In Africa, both the governments and the people are begging for “palliatives”. The most that African states and their private charities can do is “photo charity”— with much fanfare, drop a few currency notes or grains here and there for some thousands when millions are in desperate need, just to be seen to have “done something”. At a fundamental level, most African states do not have credible demographic data to identify and target the most vulnerable. In the western societies from where we copied the lockdown/border closure, their citizens are literally paid to stay at home (by silently dropping monies into their accounts plus other incentives). Check out the trillions of dollars, Euros, and pounds in support to the vulnerable and stimulus packages. Despite these, check out the restiveness/protests in several of these countries and the unrelenting pressure to eliminate the restrictions (even in countries where thousands are dying each day due to Covid-19). Given that no government in Africa can seriously pay for lockdowns, over one billion Africans are left to survive if they can or perish if they must.

Without government support, no more than 5% of Africa’s 1.3 billion people can possibly survive any prolonged lockdown on their own finances. Most of the others have no assets or savings to live on for any prolonged period, and there is no social insurance (welfare system). Without the pandemic, the African economic space is already in dire straits, with unacceptable unemployment rate (especially youth unemployment) as well as endemic poverty. In 2007, I evaluated the structure of deposits in Nigerian banks and found that only 8% of the bank accounts had balances of N300,000 (over $2,500 then) and above, and these accounted for 95% of the total deposits. The remaining 92% of bank accounts had 5% of total deposits. I understand that a recent study showed that only 2% of bank accounts had N500,000 (about $1,300) and above. Also imagine the dependency burden on this 2%. The dearth of infrastructure (basic electricity is deficient) makes compulsion to stay at home hellish for most people. We have lockdowns in Africa but without pausing several pressures for private expenditures on the people: monthly house rents; banks’ interest payments for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), electricity charges, etc.

With some 80% of Africa’s population living from hand to mouth on daily toil and hassle, complete lockdown would never be total, almost impossible in our social settings. In most cases, the orders simply create opportunities for extortion for the security agencies: those who pay, move about! Attempts to force everyone into a lockdown for extended period may indeed be enforcing a hunger/stress-induced mass genocide. More people could, consequently, be dying out of hunger and other diseases than the actual Covid-19. In normal times, thousands die every day in Africa due to other illnesses and communicable diseases—cholera, malaria, lassa fever, lower respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, tuberculosis, heart diseases, stroke, HIV/AIDS, yellow fever, zika virus, measles, hepatitis, typhoid, small pox, Ebola, Rift valley fever, monkey pox, chikungunya virus, pregnancy and child-birth related deaths, renal failure; pneumonia, etc.

Lockdowns worsen these as many of the victims of these now have little or no cash to attend to themselves. Soon the pharmacy shops will run out of imported drugs. Even local pharmaceutical manufacturing firms need imported inputs but cannot efficiently source them under lockdowns/border closure (even more so with restrictions in China and India). Soon local, adulterated ones may fill the gap. A summary point is that the millions of persons in the street, who are struggling between life and death each day with numerous other challenges do not, and will never, understand why so much additional hardship is being foisted upon them because of the novel coronavirus. For most of them (wrongly though), it is an elite problem since for them, the “hunger/other disease virus is more dangerous than corona virus”. The hungry and desperate millions may be forced to take desperate actions to survive, and little surprise that crime has spiked in several African countries with lockdowns.

What many do not seem to appreciate is that African economies are facing their worst economic condition in decades. Commodity prices have fallen dramatically, and for oil producers, the situation is precarious. IMF predicts that aggregate Africa will fall into a recession this year (the first in over two decades) but possibly rebound next year. For oil producers, it all depends on what happens to oil prices in the coming months and how they creatively craft a plan to transition to the world with little or no oil. If appropriate measures are not taken quickly, some oil producers may slide into depression. But border closures/lockdowns that dramatically affect the labour market and supply side (as well as demand side) of the economy will only worsen the situation, especially with little or no room for effective fiscal/monetary stimulus. Government revenues will be severely affected.

Thousands of MSMEs will die under the weight of formal and informal loans, bills (rents, electricity, wages, interest, etc) that continue to accumulate under lockdowns as well as low demand for their goods and services. Some countries are busy “announcing” fantastic figures of helpline for the MSMEs (and much of it will end at the announcements) but without a clear path to address the legacy burden on the firms— the persisting bills! Most of the owners of the MSMEs will probably consume their business capital during the lockdowns, with no clear helpline afterwards. The US Senate just passed a bill for $484 billion “More Small-Business Stimulus”, including a $320 billion “Paycheck Protection Program” to enable small businesses pay their staff salaries for two months. This follows the exhaustion of earlier $350 billion for small businesses under the $2.2 trillion stimulus package. The above is just an example of what western countries from whom we copied the lockdown strategy are doing for their MSMEs—which Africa cannot afford.

Millions of poor farmers will be hard hit. Their perishable products that need the informal public transport to reach the cities will be wasted; while millions that need transport to their farms cannot do so. Agriculture in Africa is rain-fed and seasonal. Lockdowns during the planting season could threaten food security in months ahead. Inflation will shoot up in many African countries, and with critical food shortages later. Manufacturing firms need imported inputs, machinery, and spare parts. Countries under lockdowns are consuming their old stocks. Even after lifting the lockdowns/border closure, it may take months for normalcy to return in some countries.

Each day that any of the major African economies stays under lockdown costs Africa billions of dollars in lost income but with debatable benefits. Given its financial and structural weaknesses, Africa does not have the luxury of using the same “conventional tools” of the western countries in the face of the twin pandemic. At the minimum, Africa needs its full population (its most important asset) working at full throttle to have any chance of defeating the impending economic catastrophe.

Good one Kcee

Beautiful family. It's good seeing celebrities who respect the privacy of their homes

It's disturbing sometime seeing how some people drag out their fathers, kids for cheap likes

The other day on instagram, we watched as a grown a$$ woman made her old dad wear a Covid mask made out of her bra

That is how well we have evolved with technology

Let's have some good news for once

While the donations of multimillionaires is trending on social media, Gyang William and Nura Jibrin quietly walked into Jos University Teaching Hospital, JUTH and requested to fixed all their broken down ventilators at NO COST as part of their contribution to fight Covid-19.

The cost of one ventilator ranges between $30,000 to $50,000 (Between N12 million to N18 million) before you add tax, custom duty, freight, etc. That will make us appreciate their contribution.

Dr Daniel Meshak reported that they have so far fixed two that were considered scrap bringing the total number of ventilators in JUTH to 6. In many cases, persons infected by coronavirus require ventilator to survive and its a critical tool in the fight against this disease.

The two of them are proudly JOStified.

Their contribution is a proof that regardless of our tribes, religion or creed, we can join hands and collectively fight Covid-19.
Together we can truly defeat this Covid-19.

Thank you so very much William Gyang and Nura Jibrin and may our good God bless you.

Please tag a hero that has contributed one way or the other towards the fight against Covid-19 in Nigeria. Let their heroism not go unnoticed

#JOStified_Heroes

#include

Culled from Femi on LinkedIn

Jakumo:
In Nigeria as of today, March 22nd 2020, the odds of dying from malaria, typhoid, AIDS, kidney failure or Sgt. Dongoyaro's "accidentally" fired shot, remain significantly GREATER than the odds of contracting and then succumbing to the Corona virus, all the current media hysteria notwithstanding.

That said, and supposing for the sake of argument that the current high seasonal heat effectively prevents mass transmission of the Cocona Virus in the planet's tropical belt that encompasses West Africa, Central South America and several Caribbean island nations, one cannot help but dwell on the question of whether or not the onset of the cooler tropical rainy season months running between early April to late July 2020, will influence the virulence, prevalence and mortality rate of the contagion in the tropical areas that are as yet unscathed, one way or the other.

Since the mathematical equation that correlates observed spread and infection severity of the Corona virus as a function of ambient temperature, can only be derived from statistical data that accrues over the coming critical months ahead in 2020, it is for now simply impossible to predict whether or not West Africa and Central America have dodged the bullet, or are simply running blind on borrowed time as a slow fuse burns, set to ignite a mutative resurgence of the Corona pandemic in Africa, as the seasons change from warm to cooler by April 2020.

Hedging one's bets, therefore, might take the form of stockpiling non-perishable food items in bulk at home, just in case markets and stores are ordered shut on short notice, along with reducing as much as possible all non-essential contact with people, while certainly also stockpiling more ammunition for all legal gun owners, as a deterrent to looters that unfailingly materialize wherever anarchy looms. With a few preparatory measures implemented even at this late hour, one can be greatly increase the odds of being among the proverbial "last men and women standing" when the smoke clears, as it were, and in a manner of speaking.

Preparing for the end

Yenefer:
Tell them I'm fighting this since February, So many chicken littles out here......Calm down. The vast (VAST) majority get over this.....many barely have symptoms. Yes it should be taken seriously. But the hysteria is worse than the disease. Stop the enfodemic

Thank you so much!

People are out there paralyzing themselves with unnecessary fear

Happy Mothers day to the beautiful mothers on Nairaland! Our children deserved to be raised in truth which is why I wrote this


Firstly, I want to clearly state that Covid-19 is real and Government advice on the situation should be adhered

That said

Can we Nigerians please stop sensationalising Covid-19 news as it is causing more harm than good?

The other day we read here how people in some states were overdosing on Choloroquine, that is what sensationalising news causes - fear mongering and mass panic. Also, some 70 year old lady in Enugu died of neglect at a dysfunctional isolation centre and this was because she was falsely diagnosed with Covid-19. She didn't deserve to leave this earth like that, haba

 
You and I were not there when advanced nations were eating fruit that has been so genetically modified, that it has less than 5% nutritional content of the natural version of itself. You were not there when they were eating beef from cow that has never eaten grass. You didn't think this unnatural eating could lead to weakened immune systems, but we are here crying louder than the bereaved and have also joined in their "national emergency measures", in a country of 200 million where a death from Covid-19 is yet to be reported


In reality, with zero deaths recorded your chances to contract anything related to Covid-19 is 1-in-200 million, I'll write it again in words in case you missed it - one-in-two hundred million, those are your chances. So for those odds, you are ready to shut yourself down when you don't have the holding out capacity the big boys have, you can't give out $1,000 per Nigerian like the US is thinking, but you can work yourself into a mass panic that is causing people to die from fear than of the virus itself, how does that help us?


Listen, don't join to push a narrative that was not written for you. This Covid-19 narrative is for advanced nations that have peaked in powers and even in their human capital, if not why are your siblings migrating to Canada to replenish their ageing population? Some of these countries have reached the peak of their growth curve and nature intends to flatten that curve. Over centuries of prosperity, they have accumulated enough resources to see them through this "Mediademic" sorry pandemic  , we haven't even gone through our industrial age, yet I'm reading some Nigerians calling for us to stay at home. At home for what? if Nigeria fully partakes in same measures with US, Italy and co., how long will it take us to recover financially? At least 3 years, and in that time your landlord will not pause your rent and neither will they pause the loan you are repaying. 


Let's be honest, this shows the extent social media can influence behaviour, and also people's gullibility. Especially when they add to your fear by advertising the virus with celebrities, mixed with pics of politicians elbow shaking


Let me tell what the media is not telling you, organisations, especially organisations with global operations are using this narrative to shed their staff strength and they'll do this mostly through migration of their physical resources online. This increased tilt to automation and technology will lead to more redundancies and lay-offs in the coming 3  - 6 months, just watch. If your workplace is going on lock down, ask your HR what will happen to all the fixed term staff in 3 months if lock down continues. Digitisation is one of the narratives as you will increasingly start seeing more acceptance of remote / home working and over reliance on digital work platforms.


Can you see the dangers of this narrative we are also pushing? For a virus that can never claim up to 9 lives here in Nigeria, is it really worth the fear you are propagating? Tuberculosis and HIV are killing Nigerians in the thousands yet you didn't stop your economy to eradicate it, but you can fear monger to a flu with no recorded deaths in a country where we eat Okpa for breakfast. The kids lying sick with TB in hospitals around Nigeria, I wonder how proud they are of your new social consciousness   especially as this attention is going to bring them support


Mothers are now not hugging kids because social media tells them so. But they were hugging these kids when we had Ebola and Lassa fever.


As we celebrate today, the mothers from whom we journeyed to this existence through, I'll like you to reflect on this, that - the Covid-19 mediademic, I mean pandemic, will only end when it is no longer headline news. It's just a matter of time before another Coza, Evans, Abba Kyari news etc. starts dominating social discussions. By then, the shift would have already happened and you would never know the role you played in influencing your new world.


But for now, I'll join the millions of other ignorant Nigerians who will be going out today, shaking hands, hugging and working productively so those gripped with fear at home, can have what to eat when they are typing up their socially conscious advice on social distancing and leg shaking

Happy Mothers day to the beautiful mothers on Nairaland! Our children deserved to be raised in truth which is why I wrote this


Firstly, I want to clearly state that Covid-19 is real and Government advice on the situation should be adhered

That said

Can we Nigerians please stop sensationalising Covid-19 news as it is causing more harm than good?

The other day we read here how people in some states were overdosing on Choloroquine, that is what sensationalising news causes - fear mongering and mass panic. Also, some 70 year old lady in Enugu died of neglect at a dysfunctional isolation centre and this was because she was falsely diagnosed with Covid-19. She didn't deserve to leave this earth like that, haba

 
You and I were not there when advanced nations were eating fruit that has been so genetically modified, that it has less than 5% nutritional content of the natural version of itself. You were not there when they were eating beef from cow that has never eaten grass. You didn't think this unnatural eating could lead to weakened immune systems, but we are here crying louder than the bereaved and have also joined in their "national emergency measures", in a country of 200 million where a death from Covid-19 is yet to be reported


In reality, with zero deaths recorded your chances to contract anything related to Covid-19 is 1-in-200 million, I'll write it again in words in case you missed it - one-in-two hundred million, those are your chances. So for those odds, you are ready to shut yourself down when you don't have the holding out capacity the big boys have, you can't give out $1,000 per Nigerian like the US is thinking, but you can work yourself into a mass panic that is causing people to die from fear than of the virus itself, how does that help us?


Listen, don't join to push a narrative that was not written for you. This Covid-19 narrative is for advanced nations that have peaked in powers and even in their human capital, if not why are your siblings migrating to Canada to replenish their ageing population? Some of these countries have reached the peak of their growth curve and nature intends to flatten that curve. Over centuries of prosperity, they have accumulated enough resources to see them through this "Mediademic" sorry pandemic  , we haven't even gone through our industrial age, yet I'm reading some Nigerians calling for us to stay at home. At home for what? if Nigeria fully partakes in same measures with US, Italy and co., how long will it take us to recover financially? At least 3 years, and in that time your landlord will not pause your rent and neither will they pause the loan you are repaying. 


Let's be honest, this shows the extent social media can influence behaviour, and also people's gullibility. Especially when they add to your fear by advertising the virus with celebrities, mixed with pics of politicians elbow shaking


Let me tell what the media is not telling you, organisations, especially organisations with global operations are using this narrative to shed their staff strength and they'll do this mostly through migration of their physical resources online. This increased tilt to automation and technology will lead to more redundancies and lay-offs in the coming 3  - 6 months, just watch. If your workplace is going on lock down, ask your HR what will happen to all the fixed term staff in 3 months if lock down continues. Digitisation is one of the narratives as you will increasingly start seeing more acceptance of remote / home working and over reliance on digital work platforms.


Can you see the dangers of this narrative we are also pushing? For a virus that can never claim up to 9 lives here in Nigeria, is it really worth the fear you are propagating? Tuberculosis and HIV are killing Nigerians in the thousands yet you didn't stop your economy to eradicate it, but you can fear monger to a flu with no recorded deaths in a country where we eat Okpa for breakfast. The kids lying sick with TB in hospitals around Nigeria, I wonder how proud they are of your new social consciousness   especially as this attention is going to bring them support


Mothers are now not hugging kids because social media tells them so. But they were hugging these kids when we had Ebola and Lassa fever.


As we celebrate today, the mothers from whom we journeyed to this existence through, I'll like you to reflect on this, that - the Covid-19 mediademic, I mean pandemic, will only end when it is no longer headline news. It's just a matter of time before another Coza, Evans, Abba Kyari news etc. starts dominating social discussions. By then, the shift would have already happened and you would never know the role you played in influencing your new world.


But for now, I'll join the millions of other ignorant Nigerians who will be going out today, shaking hands, hugging and working productively so those gripped with fear at home, can have what to eat when they are typing up their socially conscious advice on social distancing and leg shaking