I have a theory about why it seems difficult for a majority of Nigerians to assimilate the threat #COVID19 poses to us. We are so surrounded by deaths from infectious diseases that it seems this is just another thing on a long line of things that can kill us.

Hear me out. Thread

TB - an estimated 407,000 people are infected with Tuberculosis in Nigeria every year. Of this number 154,000 die yearly. 39,000 of these deaths are HIV related.

Malaria - a US Embassy Malaria Fact sheet published in Dec 2011 estimated that 300,000 people die yearly from malaria in Nigeria. It estimates that 100 MILLION people have malaria every year.

Malaria (cont'd) - A WHO Malaria Report for 2019 estimates that malaria related deaths in Nigeria dropped from 153,000 in 2010 to 95,000 in 2018.

Meaning 95,000 people died from malaria in Nigeria in 2018.

Cholera - Nigeria suffers an almost yearly Cholera outbreak. As at July 2018, there were 18, 205 reported cases of Cholera with 235 people dying from the disease.

I couldnt find 2019 numbers.

Lassa Fever - between 01/01/2020 & 15/03/2020 there have been 906 confirmed cases of Lassa Fever in Nigeria. By 18/03/2020 the number of fatalities stood at 161

In 2018, 171 people died from Lassa Fever. The number of fatalities in 2020 is almost at par. We are only in April

AIDS - a UNAIDS report estimates that the number of HIV/AIDS related deaths dropped from around 72,000 in 2010 to approximately 53,000 in 2018.

This means 53,000 people died from HIV/AIDS related illnesses in 2018.

Cancer - A WHO report states that there were 41,000 cancer related deaths in Nigeria in 2018 alone.

I'm tired.

Road Accidents - FRSC reports that by 19/12/2019, 4737 people were killed in road crashes across the country. I couldnt find a total number for the year.

I can go on. I could have added crime or terrorism related deaths. But this is very grim reading. The simple point is Nigerians have become so used to news of deaths in large numbers that the threat of death from a new cause doesnt really faze us any more.

Death from utterly needless causes & from treatable/preventable causes has become so normal that on a national scale people really don't understand what the #COVID19 fuss is about

So many people now see death only in terms of statistics & numbers. Unless it affects them directly

This is why Nigeria must not waste this crises. We must show that life valuable. We must show that deaths like these are not normal.

To do that we must redo our primary healthcare system & build a proper national healthcare response system - that detects potential/existential threats to our national health, isolates them & treats them as quickly as possible.

Otherwise, when the next epidemic breaks or there is another outbreak of a disease, we will continue to see it as normal.

And the people we know and love will just be another statistic in a report.