By Our News Analyst
I apologize to readers of this column for my long absence from the scene. It is partly due to the fact that I lacked fuel that is responsible for the light. This piece is not an accumulation of what should have been written or most of the things that have passed under the bridge. Since brevity is the soul of wit I will be brief.
Regular and deep thinking readers can now come to the conclusion that the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) has woefully run out of ideas.
Casting about for innovative ideas, the only one they think they can fool the public with is a change of name that makes confusion worse confounded. They are simply not up to the task judging by the results that are coming out of that superfluous outfit on a daily basis. As if to add insult to injury they brought in a fifth wheel by the pompous name of Technical and Scientific Group which has proved to be more of a distraction than a solution. They are enjoying sinecures thanks to COVID-19.
What the public had been expecting was that Sierra Leone and other countries that had gone through the experience of Ebola would use that experience to even teach other nations that had had no epidemics before. Alas, that has not been the case. Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience but to their capacity for experience. This is precisely what the EOC lacks. After all an epidemic and pandemic have certain procedures in common only that one is global and the other is not. Where were all the lessons learnt from EBOLA? Is the medicine going to be taken when the disease is over? Is experience not the best teacher? Why are people employed and promoted on the basis of experience?
Comparisons are odorous but I am making some now and you have to bear the stench. Malawi with a population of more than 19 million has had 101 cases with 4 deaths and this is during March when the disease reached Africa. Tanzania which had the disease about two weeks before us has had 509 cases with only 21 deaths.
And the amazing thing about their maverick President is that he never closed churches or mosques. He never imposed a lockdown or lock up. He was on the air the other day stating that other countries would copy from him. Wow!
So where has all our closure of mosques by our Chrismus President (fluent in Arabic) left us? Nowhere. The people who should have prayed for the nation collectively are prevented. Prayers could have prevented some of those riots but the youths and vandals had not been hearing the word of God for weeks but only the ‘gospel’ of the foul-mouthed Adebayo. The EOC has still to find their feet. Am disgusted. Brace up yourself for another bright Ray of Light Bumbuna permitting. CU.