Between Freedom, Coronavirus and Money Problems – By Oyinkan Medubi
Honestly, judging by everything going on all around us, it would appear that the heavens have opened their full cans of spite against humanity. The numbers of the ill, dying and dead are still climbing all over the world. It appears anything that moves can catch it, even cockroaches. The countries are still befuddled on what to do exactly to stem these tides of bad news. People are so sick of the enforced lockdowns they are ready to throw things at their presidents. So, across the world, people are protesting and declaring that they want their freedom! Funny enough, no one ever thought of protesting against the coronavirus itself.
There is no doubt that things have changed, and they are likely to go on changing even after the pandemic. For instance, many of us could formerly swear that if the weekend did not see them at one social function or the other, they would really die. So, come each weekend, they would kick their work things away and literally hit the music stands, gyrating their work-stressed bodies to deafening music. Then, come Monday and refreshed, these people would go in search of their discarded work items and sheepishly return to work.
Well, that pattern’s been broken now, thanks to koro, the much better name for coronavirus. Since koro struck, these same people have surprisingly not died from not gyrating the weekend away. Rather, they have taken one look at the streets where koro still struts around like the lord of the manor, and have heeded their governor’s voice of wisdom to retreat inside. Actually, I believe I’m speaking for many of us when I say that that voice of wisdom did not come soon enough.
Well, truth is, many have questioned whether that voice was so smart after all. They queried why the economy should have been locked down in totality at all in the first place when the people could have been taught to wear masks and do social distancing anyway, since that is where we are all still going to go, and let the economy run on. Many are saying, dear sirs and mas, that the price of this ‘slamming on the breaks’ of the country, to use the British PM’s own metaphor, might be too high to bear.
What I know is that that same voice has spoken once again. It took one look at our itching feet (for the dances), yawning mouths (for food), empty pockets (for spending money) and declared that it was time for us to go out and confront the virus. It however added that we should do this well armed. It recommended that for our sword, we should wield our sanitizer; for our shield, we should wear our mask; and for our boots, we should wield social distancing! Can a people be more prepared, eh, eh?
Today though, dear reader, like the coward I am, I am going to speak from both sides of the mouth, as usual. On the one hand, here we are, being released from the imprisonment. At last, we can get our bones, our blood and the economy running again. No more sitting at home biting our nails and watching our jobs and livelihood drain out through the pipes. So, yes, we are glad the gates have been opened for us to run outside again and play in the rain like little children.
On the other hand, there are the dangers, which are real enough. The other day, I saw a few pictures making the rounds of the social media. They showed different crowds gathered in front of different banks in some of our cities, and they were astounding, the crowds that is, not the banks. I saw people clustered together in tight spaces that left practically no space between two people standing by each other. Indeed, people seemed to be exchanging breaths and love notes. I left the market crowds to my imagination.
I do remember the guidelines pointing us in a different direction of behaviour though. I do seem to remember that the instructions included specifically wearing of mask by one and all, and the keeping of ‘social distance’. Translated, I took it to be a way of telling us indirectly that if we were wise, we would continue to stay at home. If we were foolish though, we could go out chasing money again. Most of us chose to go out chasing money. The result of that was the horror story I saw in those photographs.
Honestly, I don’t know whether to laugh at us or cry for us like Argentina did for Evita. Seriously, people, religious houses have not been opened because of lack of crowd control. Yet banks and markets were undoing what weeks of lockdown did like they anticipated religious houses would do. I mean, just look at those pictures. In my mind, I picture that crowd like people who have gone to take a test and in two or three weeks, the result would be released. I do believe indeed, that in two or three weeks, we would see the result of this mass test that the Federal
Government is conducting on us.
However, I think I understand where they are coming from. The economy has taken a very big hit. Work has stopped, yet the mouth and the stomach are two confederate, unstoppable machines – they never take no for an answer. More importantly, the human being, like other animals, is just not meant for staying still. Just see how they have moved from cave man to stone age man to industry man to technology man and only God knows what they’ll do next. No, we’re like the ants; we never stop working even if it brings in nothing.
So, all over the world, the people have now got the ants under their feet and they are screaming to be let out of their own home, like it was the greatest prison in the world. For many, it probably was because it gave them the greatest realities they did not want to know: themselves. They want their freedom. You know what? Nigerians got their freedom to roam, for now, but they are not using it wisely if we go by those photographs. In fact, I would go so far as to say they are using it abominably. People seem to have thrown good sense away.
Henrik Ibsen, the nineteenth century Norwegian writer said, ‘you never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom…’ That is because freedom comes at a great cost: vigilance. You know what vigilance is, don’t you? It’s when robbers write a love note to tell you that they intend to come to your house and you make every preparation … to run away. That is not only vigilance, it is wisdom.
Right now, the victory we seem to have won for our freedom is just that, a mirage, unless we treat it with caution. As Mark Twain, another nineteenth century, said, ‘… we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either.’
Obviously, freedom imposes its own limits. Prudence consists in respecting those limits. It is true that people need money but it is also true that they need to take precautions against this pandemic. It would be difficult for the government to police nearly two hundred million people to ensure they are wearing masks or keeping social distance; people have to police themselves.
We need to impose on ourselves the freedom of conscience in the pursuit of our daily bread. Remember, for our sword, we should wield our sanitizer …! On this one, we are on our own.
