Contest Entry: My Pandemic Story

Hello all, I am Eneghe Ofor, graduate of Topfaith International Secondary School and this is my Pandemic story.

Photo from contest announcement post

It all began on a chill night on the 27th of March, 2020. I just came back from my night prep, all tired but still ok. I reached my hostel, undressed and came out to join others for the evening prayers. We sang and prayed and when we were done, my hostel manager told us that he had a very serious announcement. Some of us thought it was the "normal" he wanted to tell us so some people went inside their rooms but some like me stayed to listen. He then broke the news to us that we were to return home the following day. Every single one of us was confused and in shock. This was news given to a bunch of students who just finished their UTME examinations and were preparing for our SSCE in about 3 weeks time. The hostel was in jeopardy and a little bit of tumult filled the air. Our hostel manager explained to us that there was a virus spreading and in order to keep us safe, we had to be at home. We were pissed but what could we do. The next day we entered our classrooms and packed our books and then our parents came to pick us. Some of us thought it was something very minor and thought it would last maybe 2 weeks or at most a month. Little did we know that we were in for something bloody.

After we went home, most of us acquired more knowledge about the virus. How it started, it's symptoms and what we could do to prevent it. It was kind of hard to not know about it due to the fact that it was on the news and every radio station.
We students stayed at home for about four devastating months. The first month(April) was all fun and jokes for us😂. Memes flying everywhere and people making jokes about being the "brave" ones who can stop the virus😂. But this all stopped because we then realised that things got serious. In Calabar where I live, there was a lockdown which prevented people from buying and selling, going to work, even visiting friends and family. It was hectic in the early days but luckily for me and my family, we had just enough food to last us the few weeks of the lockdown.

But things got better in Cross River(where Calabar is located). It wasnt infected with the virus in April according to the NCDC statistics. This provided an opportunity for the government to to allow the people purchase foodstuff during the day and but return home before 4pm because a curfew was imposed at that time. This made life easy for everyone here but we still had to be careful because NCDC might be testing the wrong people. Laws were made in my household concerning the Pandemic such as bathing immediately after every outing and proper usage of sanitizers and face masks. It was annoying but we had to fo all we could to be safe.

In late May, the first real case of covid was detected in Calabar and there was a rapidly increasing rate of infected people in the country. This cause a one day lockdown which, to me, was very pointless by the Cross Riverian government. Because it really changed nothing in terms of proceedings.

In all honesty, the Pandemic didn't mean much in Nigeria because everybody needed to go out to put food on the table and almost nobody really adhered to covid guidelines, at most just the face masks and washing of hands.

In the months of June and July, the federal government of Nigeria were considering reopening schools Nationwide because the NCDC records showed a wonderful recovery rate and manageable death rate of victims but weren't sure of a date to fix but then they settled on the 4th of August. This was were they lifted most of the quarantine for us and this was where my pandemic story ends.

Luckily for me, none of my family members got infected with the virus and my friends that got infected didn't give up the ghost.

I want to thank @supo for organizing this contest and @opopa for the wonderful invitation. Good luck to me and the other contestants. Thank you.

PS: My apologies for the inadequacy of pictures.