Burundi: You must not play with Covid-19 Mr President: The lives of millions of Burundians depend on it.
We are speaking to President Ndayishimiye Evariste, who heads the poorest country on the planet, Burundi. It is poor not because it lacks both human and mining resources, but because it is poorly managed. It lacks visionary leadership. Where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverb 29:18). When the whole world was mobilized against the coronavirus, in Burundi the leaders were saying that their skies were protected by God. Yet people continued to infect themselves, others to die in absolute silence. The elections had to end to dare to talk about it, otherwise, to say that there is coronavirus in Burundi was a mortal sin. When General Ndayishimiye settled down in the chair he had just stolen from light, he began to mobilize the Burundians against the corona virus. Saying it is not enough, a good leader must lead by example. But, Evariste Ndayishimiye is the counterexample, what he does is what not to be done. He forgets that his actions endanger millions of Burundians. To play with Covid-19 is to play with fire.
Before returning to the actions of the General President, let’s take a look at the current situation of covid-19 in a few countries: The United States leads the way with 4.9 million people infected, and more than 160,000 deaths. This high number of Covid19 cases in this country also depends on the behaviour of their president in the face of this pandemic (the importance of leadership). Brazil comes in second with 2.86 million infected cases with 97,418 cases of death. In Africa, South Africa has 530,000 already infected cases, with 9,298 deaths. Within the EAC, Kenya records 23,873 cases of contamination with 391 deaths; Uganda has 1,213 people infected, with only 05 dead; Rwanda has also lost 05 people with 2,104 cases already testing positive. In Tanzania, official reports give 509 people who tested positive and 21 died, while in Burundi, only 395 cases tested positive and one person already died.
It is not that there is in official reports a single case of death in Burundi that there is no covid19. Everyone knows very well that this report is false and archival. Each reader of this article knows at least one or two people who have died of covid19 in their entourage or within their immediate or extended family. Why try to hide these numbers? What interest in power? Not to say so would save him from being forced to take stringent measures until containment; which would risk ruining an already dying economy. How would the authorities in Gitega manage to hide the fire when there is smoke? Covid19 is present in Burundi, and it is wreaking havoc. Only, having few means to cope, Ndayishimiye and his clique minimize its effects, but people continue to die. The minimum was to educate people on a large scale (in churches, markets, stations, use of media and social networks etc …) and take barrier measures for prevention (avoid places where several people gather such as parties , churches, schools, cabarets, nightclubs, markets, and using masks, washing your hands regularly, etc.). Does it require a lot of resources? Even if this were the case, people’s lives are paramount, you just need to make it a priority, the means would not be lacking. The leaders must first be aware of the danger and have a minimum of love for their people.
As we said earlier, Evariste Ndayishimiye’s good speech on the fight against Covid19 is not enough. Rather, we need to take action on it and lead by example. Peter Drucker once said that “effective leadership is not about giving speeches or being loved. Leadership is defined by results, not attributes. ”We saw him on August 01, 2020 at the Commons Day sitting with thousands of people around him in his home town; President Ndayishimiye shared sorghum or banana beer with everyone with a few three or four torches, no social distancing, no protective masks. And these images have circulated around the world on social networks. The first reaction of anyone aware of the dangerousness of Covid19 was: “Is there any covid19 in Burundi”? The president will only be seen wearing the mask when he meets foreign delegates accredited to Bujumbura or when he has visited laying hens in Ngozi or during a visit to a Covid19 analysis laboratory at Gitega hospital. But, in large gatherings of Burundians, it seems that the Covid19 is absent.
URNHITAMWONEZA asks all Burundians to take their destiny into their own hands. If the government fails to impose barrier measures to combat this pandemic, if leaders do not lead by example, we the citizens are smart enough to follow the evolution of this pandemic and learn from it which allowing us to protect ourselves. Let the President and his military clique prepare to assume the consequences of the slippages that will result from the lack of effective and timely decision-making in the fight against Covid19.