The world is on its knees and one country is responsible for the catastrophe that has befallen the human race today, China. President Donald Trump of the United States might be disliked by many because of his divisive rhetoric, lies, lack of scruples, and one-sided policy in the Middle East. His sins might be legion at home in the US and on the international scene, but one issue he is absolutely right about is China as the genesis of the Covid-19. China is the reason the world is suffering today. Whether engineered or it evolves naturally, Coronavirus is a disease that originated in China and it should be made to carry the burden financially.
I kept asking myself what if this destructive disease had come from Africa, let say my country Nigeria. By now, all the embassies will have closed shops not only in Nigeria but on the entire continent. We would have been ostracized and the continent turned into a lepers’ colony. Trade and relations with Africa would have been grounded to zero. At the peak of the Ebola virus a few years ago, travellers from Africa were subjected to various dehumanizing protocols at airports in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and everywhere else. We were made to wait for a longer time at the airport all in an utter pretense to prevent us from contamination or spreading the disease in their countries. Africa did not lie or try to hide the existence of the disease at the time to the rest of the world. This cannot be said of China.
China from the outset did everything to cover up the outbreak of the pandemic. It was able to pull the wool over the eyes of the world in cahoots with the World Health Organization. WHO totally forgot its primary role as the global agency for health and wellness, rather, acting like a tourist on sightseeing in China. Instead of raising alarm, both China and WHO were spinning diplomatic mumbo jumbo, telling the world there is nothing to worry about. It was too late before they made an about-face to truly reveal the devastating picture of the situation. Now, it is doom and gloom for the whole world because of China’s insincerity and opacity. The question on the nature of the Coronavirus later named Covid-19 as cataclysmic is still up in the air.
In recent times, many of the global epidemics have emerged from China. The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS of 2003 killed closed to 800 people in the country. This was preceded by the deadly bird flu of 1997. And before these are the Hong Kong flu of 1968 and the Asian flu 1957. Epidemiologists must research the connection between China and flu-like diseases including Coronavirus provided it is willing to open up to scrutiny.
As of today, 15.6m people have contracted the disease with 636,000 deaths. The good news is that 8.92m people have recovered. There is a wide agreement among economists that the global COVID-19 novel Coronavirus pandemic will do incalculable damage to the world economy. The travel industry alone is projected to make a loss of $810 billion due to Covid-19 this year. While the summation of the impact on the world economy is still being calculated, already there is clear evidence things are heading in a bad direction. According to the World Bank biannual Africa’s Pulse report, as a result of the pandemic, economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa will decline from 2.4% in 2019 to between -2.1% and -5.1% in 2020, depending on the success of measures taken to mitigate the pandemic’s effects. This means that the region will experience its first recession in 25 years.
The rich and developed countries have the reserves, wherewithal and tenacity to steer their economies back from red, the same cannot be said of African countries and other poor countries that are already at the short end of an unfavourable global economic system, slavish bilateral agreement with rich countries most especially, China and under the throes of kleptomaniac and thieving leaders. The number of people that will die from hunger, joblessness and hopelessness in countries such as Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Benin Republic, Sudan, Somalia, Haiti, Bangladesh, and many more solely from the after-effects of Covid-19 will decuple in many folds those that will be killed directly by the disease. China must be compelled to step on the plate to mitigate or alleviate these impacts.
China must with immediate effect release Africa and other poor countries from its debt trap by writing it off. $3.7 billion of Nigeria’s total $29.6 billion foreign debt is owned by China, Zimbabwe owes $8.1 billion, Angola $27 billion, Sudan $6.4 billion, and Zambia $7.4 billion to mention a few. China should set aside $2 trillion in addition to debt forgiveness for all African and poor countries as an atonement for inflicting the world with Covid-19. Anything short of this will be unacceptable. It’s time for China to pay, not play.
