I am startled to continually hear over national broadcasters a statement that alleges students to have killed their parents by infecting them with COVID 19 they acquired from schools. This is a result of the trending reports about COVID 19 infections and mortality rate.
When the first lockdown was declared in March 2020, all learning institutions were closed like other businesses. The lifting of that ban was followed by phased reopening of schools before another was pronounced when the pandemic was in its second wave.
The schools and other learning institutions were ordered to close amidst learning and we saw streets, taxi and bus parks congested and students stranded. The fare was more than triple compared to ordinary charges.The President and the Prime Minister were petitioned to help ease the lockdown on transport industry to manage the big numbers of students going home. Their response was affirmative.
Surprisingly, some students had spent more than two days in bus and taxi parks risking their lives to COVID 19 infection from which they were running away. The result was mass infection followed by deaths beyond what had been realized in the previous lockdown.
What now perplexes me are trending reports on national broadcasters and social media that students who came from schools infected and killed their parents. It is not morally right to go on reminding the families that the cause of death of their loved ones was infection from their own children. Those children had a right to go home and parents had their responsibility to embrace their own to show love and a sense of belonging.Apart from hospitals in which they were not admitted, where else would those children go?
I guess many of the children from schools didn’t have any idea of having been infected or not but knew a home as the safest place to go much as they have been rendered orphans.
The conscience of the orphans is being poisoned and can easily lead to break in relationship. Our minds can be defiled by what we hear, see and surround us hence leading us to certain decisions that will affect the way we relate with others. The heart is deceitful above all things….(Jer. 17:10) so we need to guard it above all things (Proverbs 4:23). Imagine family members pointing fingers at one another for the responsibility of killing their parents or another loved one! The question of who of them killed our parents can begin in individual mind then put progressively in action to interrogate openly.
The government may have the data per region, district or even village based on which students from which school infected which parent but should be at their discretion to speak. Otherwise, the schools that concealed the information about COVID 19 infection and the districts where they are found are at large.
The Ministry of ICT and National Guidance should therefore take the responsibility to vet and guide the nation on what to say and hear from the government on national broadcasters much as we have a right to information.Apostle Paul guided the Corinthian church over things that defile their lives in relation to their rights that they may have a right to everything but not everything is beneficial and not everything is constructive (I Corinthian 10:23 NIV).
mumbej@yahoo.com
The author is a theologian and Educator.
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