SELFLESS SERVICE DURING THE WORLD’S PANDEMIC DISEASE By PROSPERLINE ONYEKACHI AMADI

Throughout the pages of history, there have been occurrences of pandemics that have claimed the lives of millions of people and changed the course of history. There has been the Justinian Plague of AD 325, The Black Death of 1346, The Spanish Flu of 1918, The H1N1 Swine flu of 2009, The Ebola Pandemic of 2014 and more recently The Covid-19 Pandemic. Throughout these periods topmost on the minds of human beings has been survival. The incessant research of medical scientists has been to understand these diseases and proffer cures to save or preserve human life. One good thing about these pandemics is that people have lived through it and will live through the current one. It is therefore wise that we go back to the pages of history and understand what gave people better chances of survival in times like that. It is important to ask: Just before science came through with explanations on the various causes of previous pandemics and their cures or prevention, how did people scale through the fear, despair, stress and death that followed these pandemics?

Now, imagine you took a flight with several of your friends and during the journey, there was a crash. You opened your eyes after the crash and realized that you alone survived on a big and uninhabited island. Chances are that you could survive and come off the island. However, you will agree with me that your chances of survival will be increased if you had several of your friends alive with you. Nobody knows how many days you’ll be on the island before help comes. You are bound to lose hope and wish for death but another to encourage you to keep going could just be the key to your survival. It is important to understand that we need others to survive and the need to help others survive and scale through difficult situations invariably ensures our survival as well. This is the concept that selflessness puts forth and has equally been the key to survival in previous pandemics.

Selflessness connotes a lack of the thought of self in everything that one does. Selflessness as defined by Oxford Dictionary of English connotes the attitude of having, exhibiting or being motivated by no concern for oneself but for others. It simply means being, unselfish. Thinking less of yourself and more of others – SELF + LESS. Selflessness is often portrayed as an act of service toward another as it is not possible to be selfless to oneself. In evolutionary biology, Selflessness (altruism) connotes increasing the fitness of another to one’s own detriment (C. Thomas, 2020). It is this form of selflessness that is often required of us in times of such global pandemics.

There are times that natural disasters and pandemics hit not just nations but the world at large. Presently almost every nation of the world is suffering in one way or the other from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. These uneasy times usually test the humanity of mankind. How much of ourselves we think of and how much of a helping hand we are willing to lend to others to ensure that they scale through such trying times. History records the activities of some Catholic Sisters during the 1918 Spanish Flu. They were called “The Sisters of Mercy”. These sisters who had no prior knowledge of Medicine volunteered to be Nurses when the flu got so bad that nurses were scarce. They went into the homes of the sick at the detriment to their health and took care of dying men, women and children. They made sure that there was food to eat, clothes to wear and drugs to take. These sisters kept the houses of the sick clean, cooked their meals and generally gave lots of sick people the hope to scale through those rough times. Today they serve as examples of acts of selfless service to the current world. They show how the selflessness of one person or groups of persons can help many pull through in times of pandemic.

In Nigeria specifically, there has been a commendable level of selfless service from individuals, organizations and the government to help cushion the effects of the pandemic on its citizens, especially with the prolonged period of lockdown. The word palliative became a popular vocabulary of most Nigerians because of the numerous relief materials distributed to the less advantaged throughout the country. The ravage of the current pandemic was felt on the economy world over. There were salary slashes and numerous retrenchments. In extreme cases, upcoming start-ups folded up. These palliatives have helped keep the soul and body of a lot of citizens together. The health officials during this period have shown great acts of selflessness and remain undeterred even as some contracted the virus and subsequently died.

Furthermore, men and women of the force who at risk to their lives in various parts of the country and under any kind of weather, enforced the lockdown measures. The citizens who agreed to stay indoors despite how uncomfortable it might have been having also rendered selfless acts of service. Virtually, everyone who did one thing or the other to help flatten the curve has rendered acts of selfless service. This is the reason that we scaled through thus far and will scale through eventually.

However, there is more to be done when it concerns acts of selfless services. One more thing that should be done is extending the hands of selflessness to those in the hospitals, motherless babies’ homes and orphanages, old people’s homes, prisons etc. These are people who seem to be forgotten in these trying times and who depend on our selflessness to survive. I would also like to appeal to the sellers of goods and services in Nigeria. This is not a time to hike the prices of goods and services. This is the wrongest time to seek profit. Let your act of selfless service be the maintaining of the prices of goods and services or even a possible reduction in price. Remember that selflessness connotes the lack of self even to one’s own detriment. Let’s join hands and offer ourselves the chance to scale through this. We are all we have got.

 

ABOUT THE WRITER

Prosperline Onyekachi Amadi

OS/19B/3803