Greetings!
I was at home during the COVID-19 lockdown. I had just finished NYSC and was about to move on with my life when the situation held me at home. I hated everything that happened during that time. Apart from being stuck at home, I saw a lot of nonsense being spread by the news and how people who were paying deep attentions to the news pulled up some strange and funny actions.
I remember clearly, during social distancing, we were in church. I was among the ministers, and we were made to sit in different spots and walk down to the altar to take on various assignments. When it was a particular man's turn, a Deacon who was elderly, he refused to come up to the altar to take his assignment, despite agreeing earlier. It was so embarrassing because I even walked up to him to encourage him, but he refused, putting the service on hold which got a lot of members murmuring.
After the church service that day, we found out that one of his sons living in Lagos had called him at the start of the service to warn him about the recent update he just got on the rapid increase of the spreading, that churches in Lagos had been shut down, and the news from his son instilled fear in him, which made him to refuse on mounting the altar for his duty.
This is exactly what happens when people glue themselves to the news 24/7. While it’s good to stay informed, paying full attention to bad news can have a detrimental effect.
I know great fear was instilled in many hearts during the COVID-19 era, especially in Nigeria, where the infection rate seemed to double hourly. People thought that breathing the next breath would surely lead to infection.
The Deacon I mentioned stopped taking assignments throughout that period because he felt he would contract the virus from using the same microphone we were using even though we did hand washing and sanitization. While his actions were a precaution, it seemed excessive given that no one in our community died from COVID-19.
If we had ignored those constant updates, we wouldn’t have been so fearful. I'm not saying COVID-19 wasn’t real, but our attention to those updates made us more scared than necessary.
Like me, there are certain news stories I don't pay attention to, no matter how trendy they are. I don't like my heart to be disturbed unnecessarily.
During COVID-19, I enjoyed seeing clips of what was happening but didn’t focus on the rising number of cases in Nigeria. What was I going to use that information for?
I remember a telecommunication company, MTN, giving free data bonuses to check updates on COVID-19. Did I use those free data subscriptions? Sure I did, but not to check COVID updates—I used it to chat.
Some people were on the news 24/7 checking the increase rate as if they're checking Livescore.
Thanks for reading.