Lockdown blues, politics, and paranoia
By Dayo Sobowale
I love a statement in Political Science that illustrates restraint on observance of human rights with the caution that ‘your freedom ends where my nose begins.’ However, Social distancing, a potent survival strategy against this raging pandemic, has however, made even that quite inadequate, as you must move immensely far from my nose or you may end up in court for flouting lockdown and social distance rules , which are now the prevailing rule of law globally to contain the pandemic. Obviously since Man is a political and social animal and politics is ubiquitous, human existence under clearly anti – social and political rules such as social distancing and lockdowns nowadays, has put humanity and human values at large under stress not only socially and politically but culturally too. I intend today to acknowledge and identify such stress and pressure on political systems globally as well as on the citizens of the nations of the world who have been literally food for fodder for a brutal and most unexpected pandemic, that has changed our mode of life and existence at what I would call the speed of light.
Actually, I wonder how our legal luminaries and highly respected Senior Advocates will adapt to lockdown laws and social distancing in defending those accused of violating such laws in high and low places in recent times. Without preempting the bar on its agility and ever readiness to address the courts on any issue, I can imagine how really remarkable legal practitioners would look with their normally distinguishing black wigs and gowns probably adorned with a black mask of the type sported by US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden quite recently. Certainly that would be a spectacle to behold but unfortunately with a smaller audience in court due to social distance laws and rules. But really this is a digression on procedure, albeit on lockdown laws.
Let me now go to the issue at hand which is the topic of today. I start on the premise that the law is made for man and not man for the law in examining the issues I will raise. I go on to show how people in various settings have reacted to violation of lockdown rules in different climes and nations. It is my contention that such or some reactions have been due to the dire effects of the lockdown on people in various locations and depending on their type of politics or political culture. Those who have not violated the lockdown laws feel those who have, should be taken to the guillotine as in the 1789 French Revolution, which to me is high handed, as not all such violations were deliberate and willingly done. In addition, political bias have come into play in dealing with such lockdown violations. It is also my opinion that the lockdown has taken its toll on the psyche of people generally in most systems such that it has given them a feeling of paranoia or mistrust of any excuse given for any violation. As such, they want the hammer to fall on any violation, regardless of the context or explanation. In addition, cultural backgrounds, values and environment have played a robust part in the way these violations have been treated and regulated across the world especially this week. I will explain with examples from Britain, Nigeria, the US, the Netherlands and Kenya.
The matter of the UK PM Political Adviser Dominic Cummins shows vividly all aspects of the violations of the lockdown in this pandemic. Some have asked that he be sacked for travelling during the pandemic to treat himself, his wife and child during the pandemic. According to his attackers, he should resign for giving a bad example on lockdown violation. He has refused and his boss, the PM Boris Johnson, has backed him that his action was legal and reasonable as a father and family man. Clearly, there was a violation, but lives, including his own were at stake and the lockdown rules provided for such exigencies. Was that not enough for some forbearance? Then politics came in and the opposition Labour leader condemned double standards and claimed Cummins was above the law. Was he? Should he have waited, holed up in the lockdown till he perished with his family in the pandemic? What morbid joy or elation would that have given anyone including his political opponents in seeing the end of him in that way and manner? Those who feel saddened or persecuted by the lockdown should not allow their minds to be locked down against the humanity of a desperate man trying to save his life and that of his family , in a do or die situation. Politics too should not estrange empathy to political opponents when they are down and out like Cummins was on his desperate travels and travails to save his wife, himself and child. Fortunately for him he can defend himself now, because in reality dead men don’t talk.
It is a pity this is happening in the same Britain we all appreciate for its NHS policy of treating people at the point of need, unlike other health systems like ours that demand payment first. But another example will show how human values in Britain have changed with the lockdowns. There was a story on the NHS which is well celebrated in the same UK for its excellent performance in the pandemic. A chef and his children made a huge and delicious lunch for the NHS staff but a local government official thereafter wrote the chef for violating the Industrial Relations law on using children as employees in serving the food. Of course his boss in the same local government apologized to the chef and withdrew the heartless letter, one which nothing but the rigours and stress of an over locked and quarantined mind, could have ignited in the first instance .
Let me now sweep through the other issues as the UK examples have largely served my purpose . First, with the US where you have a most unlikely person in President Donald Trump leading the way for US governors to break the lockdown and more importantly for the churches to open . His opponents in the Democratic Party are using science to condemn him but that is politics .Trump wants a full house for the November presidential elections but his opponents see any obstacles in that regard including especially the pandemic as a hindrance against his ambition for them to exploit . So US politics in this Trump era and under the lockdown or no lockdown issue, is one of spite , paranoia and frustration depending on which side of the political divide you are in. Quite interesting I dare say.
In Nigeria, Denmark and Kenya, we look at how some leaders reacted to lockdowns in terms of violation and otherwise. In Ekiti a father locked his son out and asked him to go to quarantine after returning from a cross border journey. The state governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, a security guru, commended the father and gave him a state job as a reward. Honestly if I was the son I will never forgive the father because a father’s duty is to provide sanctuary to his family under all circumstances, including the pandemic. I trust the Ekitis to debate the issue further. As for the governor he is father of all especially in this pandemic, as well as the state lockdown enforcer. In Kenya, the President’s son went partying in violation of the lockdown, and the father, President Uhuru Kenyatta said he scolded him and the matter ended there without any punishment legally for lockdown violation. Clearly one man’s food is another man’s poison. In the Netherlands , the PM Mark Rutte did not visit the mother for six weeks during the lockdown till the mother who was over 90 passed away this week although not from the pandemic . What a beautiful lockdown enforcer this Dutch PM was! I however would not be in his shoes and would have sought special permission to see her in full public view to pay my last respects to a mother as expected in most cultures globally.This is because as man or woman, human beings are not robots and have feelings and emotions. More importantly, the law is made for man and not otherwise. Please take your pick. Once again, ‘From the fury of this raging pandemic, Good Lord Deliver Nigeria’ Amen.
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