Itis easy to say good riddance to bad rubbish to a bad year any, day,anytime. A year that is gone is gone by the

first day of January of the following year. But only a suicidal person would saygood riddance to bad rubbish to a raging pandemic thatknows no borders or time and bestrode 2020like a colossus or a ragingbull, in terms of the lives it took away globally. 2020is gone but the pandemic is still raging globally.

Some one once said –‘time,youold gypsy man; will you not stay, put up your caravan,just forone day‘ Surely that can be said of both time and 2020 but the year is gone, but time, like a gypsy keeps marching on. Thistime however, both, time and the gypsy areembedded in the pandemic that has refused to go and is escalatingwhen it is expected to subside. It is even more angry andmurderous on the discovery of a vaccine to tackle it while those fighting it quarrelover who should get the vaccine panacea, first and last.

Today I pay a most reluctant homage to apandemic that I wrongly thoughtwould not last long when it broke by promising not to call it by its name until it has disappeared as speedily and miraculously as it rearedits ugly head in far away China. I wroteon this column then that I would not call the pandemic by its name in the spirit of denying terrorists the publicity they crave for in killing innocent people, by not mentioning their names thereafter. I later however started ending this column with the rider – From the fury of this pandemic Good Lord Deliver Nigeria. Well, now in 2021 I still continuemy attitudeon both scores, butinaddition, I beg this raging pandemicto leave humanity alonequickly in 2021, and let us continue our lives without the shadow of death hanging over everything, as it did somercilessly in 2020. Amen.

Today’s title speaks for itself. The only mysteryis thewonder of whatcan be good inabadpandemic year like 2020. But God is merciful and I will show that later. Butthe strange events that characterized the year speak volumes on how bad it was. I willillustrate some events with my personalexperiences. I will also see how the pandemic intruded into many political and socio economc systems in a way not foreseen till the pandemic shaped and reshaped eventswith such malleability that simply beggarsdescription.

Let me startwith the good side and that is about Nigeria and the third world or the so called developing nations. Even Bill Gates had the cheeky impudence to wonder why the pandemic has not killed more people in Africa and the developing nations as projected.Tome that is his funeral and it shows that he and the World Health Organisation–WHO-which made the projection are not God and cannot seeproperly even though they have good specialist, scientific eyes and minds. Thegood thing, unknown to these specialistsand agents of doom, is that Nigerians have been accustomed to the symptoms of respiratorydiseasesforlong and this gave them immense cover and confidence and that explains the low deaths and the preponderant reluctance to wear masks. That is very apparent in most Nigerian capitals, the SW as I said lastweek and in Lagos andmany parts of the North where people crowd together in veryunhygienic circumstances and have not contracted the dreaded disease so far. Thatto me is the good side of 2020 for Nigeria far above anything else and I hope that continues and prevails till 2021 because it is not science thathas saved us but the Grace of the Almighty God. So if you say loudly that Godwas a Nigerian in 2020 because of the low deaths against all the odds, I readilyagree, and pray fervently that Godcontinues to be a Nigerian in 2021 and beyond till the ugly pandemic disappears.

Surely a look at events in the US andthe UKshowclearlythat God is not a sleeping God. Thetwonations think they own the world in terms of democracy, politics and science.But the pandemic has no respectfor all these. The two powerful leaders in the twonations almostdied from the pandemic. Here in Nigeria our president who was sick before the pandemicis hale and hearty and does not always wear mask. Howevertwo events in the UK and US show that the pandemic affected the political systems and their regional diplomacy and trade quite unexpectedly.

Inthe US the incumbent President Donald Trumplostpower to the pandemic and not the Democrats. Heis crying foul but the Democratsare waiting for the next president, theirown Joe Biden to be sworn in by January 20, 2021. An aggrieved Republican lamented that Democrats played up the Pandemic not necessarily to protect Americans but to win the election throughmail–inballoting. Butthe resultshave been certified and Democrats are telling the Republicans to be sportsmen and acceptthe results and let the train of power which derailedthe Trumppresidency moveon, pandemic or no pandemic .

Inthe UK the EUand UK struck a lastminuteBrexit deal galvanized by the fear of the pandemic which escalated in Europe as both sided diddled over a trade deal. Toshow that all is not well on the deal or that many people are upset with the idea of Brexitwhich is nowa reality , eventhe PM’sfather is urgently seeking French nationality to protest. More than anything the pandemic made the post Brexit deal a possibility as the deadline of December 31 approached and the death rates soared in both the EU and the UK andhealth facilities weretaxedto theirlimits on both sides involved in getting a deal done. As the Labour leader said in moving his party to support, any dealis betterthan no deal. Butboth sidesface a pandemic that will not go away eventhough a vaccine has been discovered and the nations are rich enough to protect their people unlikeNigeria and others whohave only God as their protector from the raging pandemic.

On the bad and ugly side again, the Chinese experience is worth looking at especially as the pandemic started from there. The Chinese will be glad that President Trump is leaving as that will give them relief on three fronts. Hecannot call the pandemic a Chinese virus from political obscurity.Trumps tradetariffs warsare likely to cometo an abrupt end with his presidency. Thirdly given Joe Buden’s son, Hunter’s entanglement with Chinese businessmen, the new president will be verycarefulon how to react to China in both Trade and diplomacy. The Hunter Biden corruption scandal so often dismissed as black mail by his dad, was one of the best ignored andprotected stories of the US2020presidentialelections. CNN andothers of the anti Trumpmedia ignored a story which would have influenced the presidential elections massively against Biden and instead magnified the coverage of the pandemic and its mishandling by Trump. This paid handsomely for Joe Biden’s election and he will be sworn in as America’s 46th president this January 2021. Onceagain From the fury of this pandemic Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.(The Nation)