Tell me, who could have known less than three months ago when we all shouted "Happy New Year" across the world that we were welcoming a year in which nothing would make sense anymore, a year in which the world as we know it will no longer exist? Happy new year?
Welcome everyone to the third world war! This is not the cold war. It is not a war between capitalism and socialism. It is not between the conservatives and the liberals or the fascists and the democrats. This is not the east against the west or the north taking on the south. This is not even the breakout of the simmering war between the few outrageously rich and the billions who are hungry and dreadfully poor.
In this war, all the massive nuclear weapons, the inter-continental ballistic missiles and the submarines loaded with killer war heads in which the world has invested zillions of dollars, pounds and euros, are useless. Your AK 47 is like toothpick in this war.
Tell me, how can Amotokun, IPOB, the Delta Avengers or even Boko Haram protect any of us against this enemy?
Today, across the world, schools, businesses, sports stadiums, bars, restaurants and everything in between are shut down. Can you imagine that the premiership is frozen and Liverpool fans who thought they had won the premiership for the first time in their history are wondering what is going on again? Come rain, come sunshine, the Olympic Games had never been postponed for one day. The games scheduled for July will not hold.. All kinds of events that have been intricately planned and eagerly awaited have gone up in smoke.
My son, Tony Jnr and his beautiful heartthrob, Andrea must be wondering what happened to the wedding they have planned and planned for months with every dollar and every cent they could save. I know how much my missus worked on the colours, gowns, shoes, flowers, cakes, shapes and all the many other things that mothers worry about at such events. April, the scheduled month, is by the corner, the wedding, my friends, is blowing in the wind!
The streets are empty and everybody is on the run because the enemy does not care who you are. When I say everybody is on the run, I mean everybody! This enemy does not distinguish between the vulcanizer on my street and the almighty Aliko Dangote. Boris Johnson, the tough talking British Prime Minister, is in hiding and so is his Health Secretary and Prince Charles, the next in line to the British throne. The big boys of Abuja are running to Lagos in search of what medical care they can get. The international airports are shut and all the expensive private jets are of no use.
This enemy does not care whether you are Christian, Muslim or Buddhist. All churches in Rome, the residence of the Pope and the headquarters of the gargantuan Catholic faith are shut down. It is not just in Rome, all churches everywhere including my native Nigeria are shut down and so are all mosques and all temples. The big and fast-talking pastors with answers to everything have also been unmasked. They have no answer to this. They too are on the run.
The enemy does not care whether you are black or white. It majestically walks the streets taking on all comers and wrecking all economies. Have you ever seen stock markets around the world nosedive as they have done the last few weeks? It is almost like the indices are also on the run trying to hide under the table.
Who knew that America could in one day sign a cheque for two trillion dollars? Two trillion dollars!!! Wow!!! To be honest, I did not know such money exists in this world. Two trillion dollars!!! Imagine what that kind of money can do to change the entire continent of Africa. You see that they were hiding all that money until the enemy forced them to cough it out. Watch. Very soon, they will cough out some more. While America is writing cheques in trillions of dollars, Nigeria wants to spend a miserly 25 million dollars to fight the enemy. When I saw it on CNN, I almost puked! Giant of Africa! Na wah!
Have we learnt anything from the coronation of this virus, an enemy none of us can see, an enemy we are running from without knowing where it is, a tiny virus that has become king of the world? What the present situation tells us is that the things we attach so much importance to do not really matter. When push comes to shove, our status, our wealth, our tribe, our work, our religion, our political party and everything else really count for little. Did I say little? They count for nothing! All the hate in this world, the loathing and the killing are terribly misplaced.
If we survive the third world was, the war of the Coronavirus, would we learn to love each other with the realization that we are all children of the same God? I wish.
See you next week.
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