Take it or leave it

“Ebola in the South, Boko Haram overrunning Bama, Gwoza and everywhere else in the Northeast”, he pressed on as if talking to himself. But I was determined to ignore him until he addressed me personally. It is bad manners to inflict your anxieties on the person you are visiting without first paying homage to him […]

“Ebola in the South, Boko Haram overrunning Bama, Gwoza and everywhere else in the Northeast”, he pressed on as if talking to himself. But I was determined to ignore him until he addressed me personally. It is bad manners to inflict your anxieties on the person you are visiting without first paying homage to him in his own house.
After a long silence he got the message. “My brother how you de o jare”?
-Fine and thanking God for sparing our lives. And you, how are you coping?
-Fine, and doing my best to dodge Ebola-
–Dodge Ebola, as far as I know you do not live in Lagos or Port Harcourt-the only places where the virus exists and thankfully being battled so as to contain it, you only go to those places when your inordinate search for money takes you there.
-Yes, but it means one has to be in constant fear of coming across someone with it. For me that is enough torture.-
–Why so? The authorities have done enough sensitisation on the precautions to be taken, including no hand shakes and so forth, that one should be able to keep safe if he observes them.—
–Still, it is too much for someone thinking of other things. The other day before I knew it a long lost friend had thrust his hand at me which I instinctively grabbed. When I realised it, I had to use the whole day scrubbing and re-scrubbing my hands. Is that not torture?
–No it isn’t. It is being self conscious and being aware and vigilant about what you need to do to avoid coming in contact with the virus. But you do not have to be paranoid about the virus, and thinking everyone you come in contact with has it to make you go washing up every time.  However, if I were you I will limit unnecessary venturing beyond the safe areas — the house, work place and a few other places–
–Meaning what?  To quarantine myself even when I do not have the disease!-           
  –Don’t get hysterical. No one said anything about quarantine. All I said was that a little self restraint on gallivanting about would be advisable, that is all.—
–So, that is how you see me? I’m now some waka -about nonentity, aimlessly going about town—
–I didn’t say that. All I said was for you to reduce socialising until such a time when the disease would be wiped out. And it is nothing to take umbrage about. It is the reason government has taken measures to still keep the schools closed when they should have long opened, until it is certain the virus has been effectively contained. I’m merely advising you on the wisdom of a little withdrawal from society.
–Well, you can turn yourself into a hermit or a recluse and go stay in the forest and commune with animals and spirits for all I care. As for me, I will stay where I am, with people, where normal human beings stay, Ebola or no Ebola. I‘ll not run away as you want to do, seeking solace in isolation and  withdrawal from society like one afflicted with some abominable disease, because I know soon this anxiety over Ebola would pass–
–Mutum, I’m tired of your tantrums. I’m not so sure anymore that you should not see your doctor about this unnecessary periodic outbursts. Anyway, I think you should go now I have better things to do than to engage in this futile repartee—
–Now who is throwing up tantrums! Which is worse, talking emotionally or practically dismissing and kicking me out of your house? What insolence and egotism. You’re worse than the insurgents.—
–You drove me to it. Anyway what have the insurgents got to do with the issue of Ebola?—
–A lot. They both kill, and they do it indiscriminately. They have taken the lives of the low and high, they both want to lord it over us without our permission…—
–Please spare me this rubbish talk because drawing a parallel between Ebola and the insurgency is poppycock engaged in by idle minds like yours. Beyond being like two assailants attacking from different ends of the Nigerian entity—Ebola attacking from the South and the other from the North-east–, I fail to see your point.—
–I bet you do but don’t want to admit it. Ok, what other issues concentrate minds as the insurgency and Ebola presently? None. In fact, the insurgency which started some 5 years ago has taken grip of everyone life as it has grown from mere hit and run affair to become a permanent pre-occupation both in official and other places. Thanks to sheer official chicanery and blunder, Nigeria is presently in danger of being dismembered as the insurgents have gained a foothold in large swathes of the North-east, including major cities, villages and settlements…—
–Enough of the lecture, you‘re merely reeling out information that is already in the public domain. Now, you will tell me Ebola too has gained a foothold and ruling over a sizeable part of Nigeria. Abi?—
–No, I’ll not tell you that because the virus is being dealt with so competently that it has not been able spread like wild fire as the insurgency has done. But it still remains a real and present danger to Nigerians—
–So what is your point?
–My point is that there exists a parallel between the insurgency and the virus—
–Which you’ve not been able to establish. The emptiness of your assertion begins with the fact that the virus is a disease brought about by people ostensibly eating bats, rodents and other animals carrying the virus. Other people who came down with the disease got it when they came in contact with those already afflicted. Yes, the disease is virulent; once you have it, and if it remains untreated, it takes only weeks before it leads to death. It is a case of humans inviting peril on themselves through their gluttony and quest to satiate their palates. But the fact remains that the virus was lying somewhere minding its own business until human beings went and woke it up, as in people killing bats, rodents and other affected animals and eating them for lunch. Thank God for His mercies however Ebola is beating a retreat with the Zmapp drug. The same cannot be said for the insurgency. So, I repeat, what is your point?—
—You’ve stated it succinctly just now only you did not realise it. What goes for Ebola applies to the insurgency too. The insurgency can be a metaphor for your Ebola, it was lying quietly somewhere until it was rudely woken up, like a long dead Frankenstein or beast until it was woken up, like your Ebola…—
–Ha! wake up the insurgents? Who did that?–
–Hear me out. Yes they were woken up, both literally and otherwise. It is already abroad that certain individuals facilitated the incubation of the insurgency. The claim is being denied though, but until it is proved otherwise now we are a little wiser about the insurgency’s genesis. Secondly, it is elementary knowledge that where there is squalor, privation and grinding poverty existing side by side with unearned affluence and opulence attained unfairly the contradictions are resolved through the sort of violence we are witnessing now. That is my point. Take or leave it.