Dear God of Easter,
If the biblical rapture occurs this week, I shall bring you a message of how Your people are becoming more and more social animals, the good way and the bad way.
I shall say of how compassionate Your peoples have become in terms of interacting with his family and society. Kind courtesy lockdown phases I and II, families are spending quality times with families. Politicians and leaders are suddenly getting intimate with their people. They would’ve wished this came a little later in the year when their donations would have simply ushered them into the elections.
Your peoples aren’t only the usual generous voters we know, but also, they’ve shown active citizenship ( not spectatorship ). They’ve shown empathy towards the citizenry and humanity, they’ve become benevolent givers in this pandemic. They’re feeding the poor, bathing the sick, some are even showing porn to keep bored addicts going.
For this, God of Easter, I have a request on two levels this week – for myself like the many; and for our nation like the many nations.
Ghana and the globe still await miracles in the phase of our actions and inactions. The prayers to you have come in avalanche,tonnes, tongues , fire and fury. Your healthcare workers ask for more wisdom and tact. The world awaits, as we enter a critical phase of our nations, after almost a month of social distancing amid “social animalism.”
Unfortunately, whilst some are cautiously observing these social gestures towards fellow citizens; whilst some continue to meet one another at our point of needs and some respect social distancing and keep staying home, others remain careless and reckless.
As a political and communications consultant to the current National Union of Ghana Students ( NUGS), on the eve of Your biblical sacrifice for Man ( Easter), I joined the team on one of its rounds to share food to the destitute. Also to evaluate work thus far as the nation moves into the 2nd phase of the lockdown. We went through the alleys of Nima, Labadi, Dansoman and Darkoman.
God of Easter, I felt quite lost in parts of areas we visited. The reason was not because I hadn’t been there for the past three weeks, but because they went about their duties with so much impunity as if there wasn’t a plague in Jerusalem. The scenes at parts of Nima’s township was like a normal day. People trooped in and out of the market with little caution. It’s not an exaggeration to say I didn’t see anyone in facemask. The okada riders, the young men and old men lined up on benches and stools even in the midst of a growing crowd and engaged in petty chats.
(Kabu Nartey in shot sharing grocery items with a one of the needy students under the Food Bank project of NUGS)
The cars that drove around town were few but predicted something – they will certainly increase in numbers if care is not taken in the coming days. I wondered if all these cars moving were rendering special and essential services.
In some parts of La, I spot almost every night gangs of love birds and nocturnals. I fear for the community efforts against Covid-19. Obviously Your people are getting tired of preserving their lives. May be boredom is gradually setting in because we aren’t the people dying or we aren’t seeing more people die “filifili”.
Last week, I heard the sad story of how hundreds of cassava tubers were rotting in some markets. The irony is whilst our mothers there complained bitterly of how there isn’t any proper government support to buffer their losses due to the lockdown, thousands of our citizens remain hungry and impoverished in these lockdown periods. It is estimated 1.2million people in our country suffer from food insecurity. Avert your mind to the current situation of these men and women , children and women in the wake of a deadly outbreak.
God of Easter, I could only wonder why some of our local authorities haven’t thought of buying in mass quantity these perishables to feed more destitute citizens.
Some communities continue to drink muddy waters as their only source of water for livelihood as well as to do the regular handwash against the Covid19.
I’ve been consistent with my prayers to You on how I think despite the gloomy picture of the recent rate of transmission of the pandemic at our community levels, you have still been a Good God.
As a nation, we may have taken some controversial decisions in our fight against this pandemic, we may have shown some defects in leadership, our sciences and healthcare ; some of our communities may be “ready” to spread this virus should it get to them because of sheer disregard as well as poor support systems and containment plans deployed in such areas. But we trust you to continue to overlook the follies of leadership and some of us, citizens.
While at this, give us Heavenly wisdom and Earthly commonsense to rule your beloved nation.
And about my individual request: For your many “brenya sons” like me, we await the long promised beard and bushy hairs. You were your faithful to your ancient disciples when they found themselves still steadfast in the wilderness. Some of us are home to the wilderness in this lockdown, so we also await. Thankfully, I shan’t get calls from mum to ask me to go shave these “endowments” you’ll bless me.
The author (Kabu Narety) is the GJA Student Journalist of the Year
