Dear Editor,
CLEARLY, leadership about Covid is in your hands.
We all get the current statistics about the Covid situation in our country every day. I know many are worried through their posts on social media and from personal chats.
But the question I have is, what have you done about it apart from your expression of how the situation is getting worse by the day?
What are you doing about these statistics apart from being concerned and lamenting about the strain on resources, terrible effects of losing great men and women with so much to offer etc?
We are waiting for leadership guidance right!?
Evidently, we need to do leadership at personal level to fight Covid. Don’t wait for a decision from the Church, political, traditional, institutional, departmental, family or household levels before you decide what you know is best for you and the people around you.
What if we all just didn’t turn up for physical church services and attended online ones or through radio and TV?
What if we turned down invitations to weddings, of all sorts of parties, luncheons, Chilanga mulilos etc.?
What if we didn’t go to that public event when invited?
What if we turned down invitations to physical annual general meetings or otherwise, official gatherings that can otherwise be done online or postponed to later dates?
What if our traditional leaders refused to receive visitors unless it was a critical matter concerning their chiefdoms?
What if we didn’t take our children to school for a short period?
What if we stopped intercity travels for purely social purposes?
The current challenge is many of us are not doing anything or much to stop the spread. We know masking up, hand sanitising (even with hundred percent alcohol) social distance (which now has even reduced to 2.3cm apart) are not the perfect and only ways to prevent Covid infections.
Plainly, we are waiting on our leadership to make decisions te? Hmmm…
What if we chose to help our leaders, adopt what they have been afraid to decide for fear of criticism from us, by doing exactly what they know we should be doing?
Sometimes, because of our democratic rights we make it so hard for leadership to act in our best interests. Therefore, let’s show them we are interested in our own best interests.
So, let us do what they know we should be doing (staying at home, limiting trips to public places, staying away from super spreaders, worshipping through online means) and they too, in turn, will be comfortable to tell us the extra mile we must go together with them to ensure we lock down the spread of Covid-19 in Zambia for a specific period.
We can do it. It is okay to stay away when you can, when you should and when you must!
MILDRED MWABA CHAMA.
Author
