As a cleric and politician, who had seen it to the point of being Chairman of a Nigerian notable Local Government in Agege before, how would you react to the current pandemic that has befallen the world with its effects on the mosques, churches and economies of the people and did it not catch you unaware?

As far as we are concerned, we are looking at it in two perspectives.  First of all, the life generally, I have not heard of it (coronavirus) before.  But when we look at the religious aspect of it, based on my own background, I will say that we have had something similar by virtue of belief and understanding on Islamic perspective.

Because the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “If you hear about any pandemic in any area or in any country or city, don’t go there.  If you are there already, don’t leave there.”

So, based on this aspect of it, we quite understand very well that Islam is a religion that teaches about the entire life system as per how to live our lives.  And from what we have seen, as good Muslims, we should just say alhamdulillahi (thank be to Allah) for putting us on the right path because, most of the things we are being asked to do now to guard against this pandemic has been our way of life as taught to us by Islam.

So, as to whether it caught me unaware, I will, in the view of my earlier submission, say there is nothing that is strange in it to a Muslim who understands the religion.

It is only when you look at it from the other way round, that is outside the Islamic point of view, that you might be saying you have not heard of it before except what one heard about 1913, 1918 or thereabout.  But this one that has really caught us unaware.

In life generally, that is how things can be.  Even in our existence, we came unaware.  So by the time we are going to return, we will be caught unaware.  In your living here as well, you don’t know what tomorrow has in stock for you. One can only talk of the present and not about tomorrow.

So, as far as we are concerned, we can only give thanks to Allah because it is in thanking him and asking for his forgiveness that he cherishes so much that he will consider in removing our sufferings and better our condition.

In the eyes of some people, the government appears not to have lived up to expectation in tackling the pandemic and some of them even lie in wait for what they can use to play politics. Does this sound strange to you?

I can say it sound strange to me that some people would say the government has not done enough. What else therefore do those people expect the government to do in tackling a problem that has not only hit the entire world unaware but has even also made a super power nation of yesterday to become a weak country today? It will only amount to committing sins against Allah to say the government does not do anything to stop the problem or has not lived up to expectation.

You see, sometimes, there is living to which you can play politics.  There are some key aspects of life you don’t go near: You don’t toil with national security and also you should not be found anywhere around playing politics with public health.  Those who are in government today are the people on whose shoulders Allah has placed the responsibility of State and, to the best of their ability, they have performed.  If you think they do nothing to satisfy your commendation, then, wait for your time to get there and do it.  Then we shall all see how you fare in government.  We however will continue to pray that this type of pandemic does not befall us as a people, globally, ever again.  It is sad if anybody will play politics with what is happening.

Generally, what is your assessment of the government at all levels with regard to response to the coronavirus?

My assessment is that of a man who loves his country to the heart.  We have no other country except Nigeria.  What has befallen us as a nation today is not a problem that is peculiar only to Nigeria but to the entire world.  How the leadership has fared in responding to the problem should matter to us and in the case of our own country, I am using this opportunity provided for me by The DEFENDER to thank and appreciate the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, our own President, Muhammadu Buhari.  He has done a lot and well too.

Then, I want to thank our own Lagos State Government, under the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.  He has really performed wonderfully well.  Governor Sanwo-Olu has really shown the kind of person he is.  If not because of the effort he and his entire cabinet members made, what we are witnessing today in Lagos State would have been worse than this.  But we thank God that the governor has ensured that all the necessary precautions were put in place and all the needful were done.

And he ensured that all the needs were made available, particularly in term of regular briefings because, communication is very germane.  If people are not aware or they do not know what is going on, it gives room for rumour.  But once you are able to inform adequately and so you prepare yourself, the rest will be smooth.  That really helped the masses and it is still helping them.  I can tell you therefore that the government of Lagos State has performed wonderfully well.

Our own Chairman in Agege Local Government (Egunjobi) also has done very well.  At the early stage they were moving all about to ensure that they fumigate everywhere in stopping the spread of the disease in the local council area.

Thanks must also go to religious leaders in Agege Local Government, leaders of the Muslim community and Christian community.  They all ensured strict adherence to the precautionary measures in the health authority’s guidelines and government directives and that really helped the situation a lot.

What is left if for we the masses to also play our own part by complying with those guidelines and directives.  We are all aware of what to do and what not to do.  If you must go out, put on your face mask, be conscious of how you carry yourself; do not touch your eyes, nose and mouth while outside and you are not sure you are in sanitized state. Maintain social distance to avoid person-to-person transmission and wash your hand with soap or detergent and water as regular and as possible. Those are the guidelines.  Lagos State Government has issued its directives to transport operators in the state, let all of these be obeyed for us to get out of this problem on time.

China is out of it, Taiwan, beside China has cases not up to 500 and not more than nine deaths ever since same thing as North Korea.  This is because of self discipline by the people.  I am not so sure, but if I am to act by what I am told, Dubai is at this time out of the problem.  If we can shun all of the disbeliefs and nonchalance towards effort of government to curb this pandemic, who says we cannot celebrate end of coronavirus in days time?

I only seize this medium to appeal to those who are still doubting.

People who are still doubting?

Yes.  Because, we have people who are still doubting, saying that this coronavirus does not exist.  I only seize this opportunity your media company has provided to feature me at this time to let those doubting Thomases know that even though they do not believe in existence of this virus, they must obey the government.  You have to obey your government if you truly have faith in God because, God commands you to obey and follow the instructions of your government.  If you do this, don’t worry, in the end, you will end up knowing and seeing the truth that you denied.  But I pray that nobody will learn to know the truth in hard way.

The next thing is to ask what your take will be on people who prefer to come out and catch coronavirus than to stay in lockdown and be killed by hunger.  Does that not actually say something about the kind of system that we have run in this country as a government?

Generally, Nigerian system is different from all other systems.  We are a sovereign nation and cannot say we want to copy other people but we can develop a system that works for us.  We should try to look at a scenario that fits for our own environment and proffer a perfect solution based on our own way of life. But, by and large, we are here and what we have is what should still be used to face the challenge.  However, we have learned out lessons and must act as appropriate.

For those who are saying that they prefer to be allowed going about, they will say that because they can only talk based on their level of exposure.  We don’t pray that they have that experience, those who have it will never say what those people are saying, especially people in the international societies where we hear all kinds of explosive situation happening everyday; 5,000 human beings dying in one day!

But here, when you talk of lockdown to avoid people dying, people trivialize it and say “before Covid-19, are we not having people who die?”  That is the more reason, they say so because they have not seen it face-to-face. I pray they will not see it face-to-face but if they trust the government enough, they will know that those reports being published by the print, digital media and broadcast by electronic media are could not have been the handiwork of people in power to mislead the public.  No. They are real.

At the same time, there is no way in government scenario that it has happened before and so the people find it difficult to believe and so they say “how can they say we should stay at home without the government finding something for us to eat?”

What about that?

I think what has happened is that our own government has learned a lesson.  After this experience, they should now be able to plan ahead for unforeseen emergencies like we have had in this coronavirus pandemic. The emergency that they were preparing for before was fire disaster and something thereabout.  What has happened as in this coronavirus has never happened before (in recent century) and now therefore, it is going to be part of planning henceforth.

Even in the business environment, as businessman, you must plan for emergency businesses that you can switch to in a situation like this, when lockdown closes down every business except few.  It is lesson for a businessman to now know that he should not have just a single business to live upon because, if this kind of thing happens and the income blocks, what is he going to do?  A lot of people whose business is just one way direction, as it has happened, are those that have nothing to do.  And so you find out that they are the ones having the pains whereas, for some other people, it is this time that they are making their incomes in millions.

So, we must look inward into the diversification of business strategy.  You must be able to think that “If any emergency happens and I am not doing what I am doing, what can I fall back on?”  Even though, if you are not doing it now, you must have it at the back of your mind.