Covid-19: A Made-In-China Bio-weapon?By Levinus Nwabughiogu

And so, they hoodwinked and bamboozled the whole wide world. In a flash, they exported a dummy of bat and snake eating to the streets. But from somewhere within, the air was rife with the speculations of an engineered microbe that escaped from a lab, perhaps in the course of creating a high profile scientific monster to outdo the Americans and the West.

On December 30, 2019, a Chinese Doctor, Li Wenliang had a close shave with a human respiratory system attacking virus. After reading the lab test result of a patient, he got alarmed and attempted to alert the world of an impending doom of a gargantuan proportion through WeChat. But the authorities arrested and warned him against making bogus claims on the internet. He was later silenced. And before anyone could say jack, Wenliang got caught up in the web of the virus, seemingly the bio-weapon. He fought it but it was rather too late. That was how the life of a 33 year old ophthalmologist with Wuhan Central Hospital ended abruptly.

Gauging the virulent effects of the virus, first to them and then, the world, including the indolent Africa, they gathered the best civil engineers and their likes. Day and night, they worked and within 10 days, an estate of hospitals had been erected with all its appurtenances ready. This is the long and short story of what has come to be known as Leishenshan hospital in Wuhan, China.

For purposes of recapitulation, Wuhan has the bight of the world map today courtesy of China’s Institute of Virology located there. It is thus, the largest Chinese Laboratory Centre and the epicentre of the novel coronavirus.

While the US initially thought the outbreak was a hoax and apparently, delayed its containment responses, the Chinese swiftly locked down the city of Wuhan and dashed into the labs, searching for the vaccines and antidotes. Have they found one? Don’t know yet. But then, as at today, there are no records of new cases in their region. No new outbreaks. The import of this, simply, is that the rampaging and ravaging virus had been successfully contained on their shores.

But it had already escaped abroad and the whole wide world is at war with the invisible monster. That silent devourer. Now, there are convulsions everywhere. The world is scared-stiff, debilitating and sick.

From the thresholds of the American hemispheres to the monarchial fronts of Europe down to the tropical, sub-saharan Africa, body bags litter the hospitals. The streets have been deserted. Factories have been shut. Production lines are empty. Schools and shops are closed. Football pitches and other sporting events suspended. Governments are on lockdown just as the global economy has plummeted.

For the first time in my life, the worship centres, churches and mosques are shutdown with stern warnings from the authorities to back off. In my lifetime, I see worshippers thoroughly whipped for playing the recalcitrant and the deviant. Quarantine is the word and social distancing is the new parlance. Is Armageddon finally here?

Of course, my Africa, the innocent Africa, the baby of the world is caught up in the melee and obviously paying the price of what it is yet to know about.

Now, there is this piece of math that is not adding up. Look at this: While the West wells up in their own tears, burying their dead in their staggering numbers, the hitherto heavily virus-infested China amid the scourge airlifted helps to Europe and Africa. Oh! Yes, they did. Also, while the US, UK, Italy, Spain and other European superpowers are counting their dead and Putin’s Russia also constructing a mega hospital day and night for the containment of the pathogens, China is up, helping Africa. Then, amid the virus attacks in Wuhan, the China’s trillioniare, Jack Ma or Ma Yun, if you wish, found time to produce medical supplies and disposables for Africa of which my Nigeria is a beneficiary?

Indeed, Jack Ma must be a good Samaritan. He’s God’s sent. Indeed and generally too, the Chinese must be a very wonderful people. Wonderful in the sense that while the rest of the world is still battling to produce more ventilators for the sick, China has recuperated and by April 8, 2020, Wuhan, the land of snake and bat eaters would resume commerce in earnest. What a wonderful healing and cleansing that has come to them even when jaws are dropping on why Beijing, the Chinese Capital and other countries within the earshot of the East and Asian region are not reeling in so much pain as the Americans and European countries. Indeed, China must be one of the countries so close to God’s Heart to have received this unusual divine help.

Now, if you are an inquisitive lot like myself, a keen follower of global trends and an avid reader of books with special cursors on international politics, relations and diplomacy, you would surely worry yourself with the flying conspiracy theories. Though not yet substantiated, the conjectures however sound very compelling and I am game by it.

According to reports, there are two main versions of the rumor, and they have one common thread: that the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, originated in a level 4 (the highest biosafety level) research laboratory in Wuhan.

In one version of the rumor, the virus was engineered in the lab by humans as a bioweapon. In another version, the virus was being studied in the lab (after being isolated from animals) and then “escaped” or “leaked” because of poor safety protocol.

But while the Wuhan Institute of Virology is a real place and the largest Chinese lab, the exact origin of the novel coronavirus is still a mystery, with researchers racing since the outbreak began to figure it out.

Now, there is no gainsaying the fact that there is no love lost between the US and China since the time immemorial. Beyond the façade of the usual malesh facial smiles and broad laughter between the leaders of both countries, past and present, there is a deep seated rift and aggression premised upon their individual economic interests and dispositions. The subtlety of this cold war is however loud and intrinsically so. Even though both countries have respectively emerged world economic powers and technological supermachines, there is still this envy and supremacy tussle and only God knows how long the feud will last.

But then, Africa is their till. Their target. Their fiefdom. And I foresee a scramble akin to what led to the balkanization of Africa at the end of World War 1 in 1918. I also foresee a dislodgement of US allies in Africa. I foresee an economic shift from Europe and America to China. China may just be at the verge of becoming the new Police of the World. And from every conceivable stance, the shit may become feasible when all this eventually goes away.

But for now, it can continue to stand firm on its position of not having a prior knowledge of the pandemic. That’s the way to go. That’s the truth it needs to tell the world. Until proven otherwise, China is innocent. So, let no one insinuate anything. They are Africa’s lifeline and it doesn’t matter if they exploit us. After all, capitalism is an economic system that allows for the exploitation of the poor, the vulnerable and pauperised by the rich and powerful. But I am cocksure that when this crisis is all over, there will be diplomatic enquiries.

Yet, again, my worry remains Africa, the land of my birth, the weeping child of the world, the raped and the abandoned who is right now, amidst the ongoing turmoils feeling the heavens. Yes, ours is a religious (?), praying Continent. By God’s grace, we are. We are neither atheists nor evolutionists. For us, science and technology are subsumed in true religion, the religion of God. They are not parallel. The world and everything therein is God’s. The US, China, UK and the lot may boast and glory in their machines, in their intellectual notoriety but Africa believes in God Almighty and in this believability, nothing happens by chance. Even when black inventions by humans ravage the world and man’s inhumanity to man stretches to unbearable limits, there is a spiritual connotation to it. Such is our lot. Our believe system.

But indeed, our docility and scientific backwardness may have bought us our salvation. Yes, God has always, i mean, always shown us mercy. No earthquakes. No mudslides or landslides. No hurricanes and no sprawled fires. Ours is a flurry of divine blessings. And now, I pray God will also deliver Africa from the current pestilence. From the locusts and the virus fauna. Yes, that’s the meaning of grace. While the storm rages on in the world, Africa and indeed, Nigeria are shielded from on high. There will be no more fatalities beyond the present. Yes, this is Africa’s prayer and inheritance from God and it is believably so. May be, that’s why our leaders have refused to build and equip hospitals. Just may be.