For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the ground, I ventured out of Nigeria for business at the University of St. Thomas in Rome, and at the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education. I was compelled to learn how to travel again. One had to learn anew after 9/11 attacks on America. Now COVID is teaching other lessons.
After the usual hassle of getting a visa, two days to my flight, I had to undergo a test to ascertain I was not infected. Arriving in Rome, I had to be in quarantine for ten days. During those ten days, I was restricted to my room. I was not to eat with my Dominican community. I had to eat alone after everyone had eaten. I was not to join the community for prayers. I had to pray in private and said the Mass in private during those ten days.
During those ten days, I could not go about my business at the University of St Thomas. Neither could I get to the Congregation for Catholic Education at the Vatican. But I did something that made me feel good. I spent my days in captivity reading and studying questions in the Summa theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas, questions in which the great saint and scholar discussed the contemplative life. The quarantine was a good time to learn more about contemplative life, about what St. Thomas described as finding delight in the desire to see the face of God. I am reminded of Boethius writing his Consolation of Philosophy while in captivity. Seeking wisdom in captivity is a wise thing to do.
At the end of ten days of quarantine, I had to undergo another test to ascertain that I did not bring COVID-19 from Nigeria. All clear! Then the Prior presented me to the community. Then I was able to mingle with my Dominican brothers and with colleagues at the University of St. Thomas, and I was able to pay two visits to the Congregation for Catholic Education.
COVID-19 did not originate from Africa. But Africa is being made to pay a price for it. A huge price for that matter. As I was completing my days of quarantine, just as one was beginning to think the pandemic was subsiding, there came media reports of discovery of the Omicron variant of the virus. It was said to have been discovered in South Africa. But it was already seen in The Netherlands before it was seen in South Africa. And who was the first to pay the price for this? South Africa and six other southern African countries. There were travel bans imposed on South Africa and six other countries in the southern African subregion. Those countries have to pay the economic price for a virus that originated thousands of kilometres from the African continent. The huge tourism industry in that part of Africa is going to be dealt a heavy blow.
Africa has, thank God, been largely spared of devastation during this pandemic. In fact, in Nigeria, banditry has given us a bigger headache than COVID-19. But it would be irresponsible to deny that Africa has had her own share of number of infections. I have known persons, close friends, who died of COVID-19. But, no matter what is said about low rate of testing for the virus, the fact remains that Africa has not been hit in the way and manner that some foretold. That confirms the truth in a saying in Pidgin English: “Cow wey no get tail na God dey drive am fly.” With poor medical service delivery for which Africa is known, it would have been impossible to handle the number of cases if Africa had been badly hit.
That does not mean Africans should go to sleep. COVID-19 would be trivialized by some. But that would be dangerous. We have been spared. We are not sure we will always be spared. But we pray that we will always be. It is not just about prayer, it is about prayer, prudence and vigilance. “Watch and pray,” our Lord counselled his disciples before he sent them on mission.
Forty-eight hours before boarding the flight back to Nigeria, I had to undergo another test. And, upon my return to Nigeria, I will have to undergo another test after forty-eight hours in quarantine. Four tests for one trip. And these tests are not free. Some people are making money out of this pandemic. Does that not stoke the fire of conspiracy theories?
By the end of the year, enough vaccines would have been manufactured to have vaccinated the whole world against COVID. Yet too many countries are facing this winter with low vaccination rates as a result of wealthier nations hoarding unused supplies. According to some statistics, only 3% of people in low-income countries are fully vaccinated, compared with more than 60% in high-income countries. This gap is not only ethically wrong; it increases the likelihood of a vaccine-resistant strain developing. Of course, Nigeria, like most African countries, is an under-vaccinated country.
It is worthy of note that the same countries that shut their borders or impose stringent travel restrictions are the same countries hoarding the vaccines. It is also to be noted that, while Africans are afraid of Chinese presence and investments in Africa, and wealthy nations of the global north are warning Africa to beware of the Chinese, it is the Chinese, not nations of the global north, that have promised One Billion vaccines for Africa. Other wealthy nations hoard vaccines and impose travel restrictions while China is promising vaccines.
But we must not continue to blame the world. We in Africa ought to and could have prepared for this emergency. But we did not. The brand of Machiavellian politics played in our different countries disables minds that would have been able to invent means that we urgently need to face situations such as this. The African is not less intelligent than others on this planet. In fact, some of the finest minds on the planet are on this continent. African scientists are not incapable of inventing and manufacturing vaccines. But because of internal and external factors and actors, our various countries have remained disabling environments. Our young Africans are eager to migrate to other climes where the environment will enable them to flourish.
Africa, particularly Nigeria, got it wrong at all fronts. We need a total reconstruction of our ethical infrastructure on the foundation of an authentic spiritual renaissance, which is not to be confused with the corrupt but extravagant religiosity of contemporary Nigeria exported to other African countries.
On my way to the laboratory for the COVID-19 test last Sunday morning, I walked past a Church into which Africans were entering. On my way back, I entered the Church to pray. It was just before Mass. The all-African choir was rehearing, singing melodious songs in an African language I could not identify. I could not wait till the end of Mass to find out which language it was. But one thing is sure. Those Africans represent a generation forced to migrate from Africa in search of greener pastures in order to blossom.
The task before us and our leaders is to build an Africa where her sons and daughters will have equal access to opportunities to actualize their potential. For, after all said and done, a developed environment is one inhabited by persons of actualized potentials. That will happen when our education produces graduates of intellectual, technical and ethical competence, men and women trained to begin to practice politics for the common good, not for the selfish interest of the ruling elite. In this season of Advent, this season of hope, this season of expectation, let us think of building such an Africa beginning in our own Nigeria.
Father (Prof.) Anthony Akinwale, OP, is the Vice-Chancellor of Dominican University, Ibadan, Nigeria
