The Pandemic And The Stress Thereof

BY EMMANUEL IBE KACHIKWU

These are sorrowful and mournful times. There is hardly anyone I know who has not lost a family member, friend or an acquaintance. What makes these deaths more traumatic is the suddenness of the occurrences. There is very limited socializing, people hardly get to see their loved ones. Next thing you know the cold hands of death strike. How does anyone deal with that?

These are troubling times indeed. I learnt with shock and immense sadness of the death of two fantastically fine gentlemen, Bolu Akin-Olugbade, lawyer, entrepreneur and inimitable Lagos socialite and that of Admiral Joe Aikhomu, the personification of an Officer and a Gentleman Extraordinary. Both from COVID-19 infections.

May their gentle and sweet souls Rest In Peace. They will be terribly missed and their death is a reminder of the ultimate price we all have to pay and the very vanity of life itself.

And whilst still on that, my family also mourns the death of a close uncle, Mr. Felix Onekanse Kachikwu who died of twin COVID-19 and cancer attacks and fought gallantly for two months before giving up.

He fought and recovered from the Covid-19 but that in itself exacerbated the underlying cancer infection he had been fighting for years. He could not beat that venom and so at 75 years of age he quit the stage. I am saddened because we were very close. As the absentee high chief in my village that I was, he covered my duties as ODOGWU of Onicha Ugbo and member of the Obi in Council. And he did that so well. I will miss him.

For those of us alive and left to carry on, the sheer stress occasioned by the immobility of the lockdown, and the challenges posed by economic decline in our income strata is all sometimes frightening. But carry on we must.

My few tips for staying ahead:

a) Exercise more than you ever have: Apart from the health benefits, it
simply pumps your adrenalin and gets you out of the daily recurrent low moods. And please, if you do workout, make it serious and set targets for yourself. Don’t waste an hour on a bench “gisting” with a friend, then go have a beer or huge meal thereafter and mark the morning down as gym time.

b) Pick a new project: whether it is refocusing on a hobby or learning a new
language or working harder to make an old relationship work or starting a new one. Focus on the new and momentous. Guys, this is not a license to jettison a troubled relationship and ascribe it to Covid survival tips.

c) Consciously fight depression and recognize your dark low moments. Live for now and push the crises as forward as you can so you build momentum to face it eventually. In facing it please focus on incremental solutions.

d) Pray: the good thing about prayer is that it always works. It also has a way of relieving you of the burden of resolving overwhelming problems all on your own. The feeling that a Supreme Being above takes responsibility to help you with the problem also helps to “ginger” you. But do not mistake this for complete exemption from playing your part.

Please, dialogue your own unique solutions and share with our followers…

Shalom!

Kachikwu is Nigeria’s former Minister of State, Petroleum Resources