By Folu Olamiti
To many frequent air travellers around the world, the year 2020 was a horrible one. It was the year of the great plague. It was the year the deadly coronavirus, labelled COVID-19 by the United Nations, crept on the world like a boar constrictor, stretched it to its limits, and attempted to snuff its life out. The pandemic was so deadly in its effects that citizens of the world were caged in their homes. All over the world, human traffic and all sorts of movements were either partially restricted or outrightly barred. World economies crumbled. Even America, the world’s number one economy, was on its knees, crying for divine intervention.
Tourism and allied industries collapsed. Life came to a standstill. In the history of mankind, the novel coronavirus generated so much panic and such gripping tension that many thought the end of the world had come. A few travellers, no matter how much addicted to flying, dared confront the unseen enemy. The fear of COVID-19 marked the beginning of wisdom for millions of travellers across the globe.
For the first time in my adult and working life, my yearly vacation abroad hit a brick wall. It went comatose. I recall that I tweeted in May last year that: “COVID-19 is here to stay…The only solution to fight it is to confront the menace physically (using the recommended non-pharmaceutical measures), and then back it up with fasting and praying.”
Did our prayers work? As a Christian, as a Knight of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, I fervently believe the effectual prayers of the Saints availed much for the world on the rampaging pandemic. That is an issue for another day.
Back to where I digressed: transportation was badly hit. Airlines and vehicular traffic were totally crippled in 2020. And when there was a glimmer of hope in 2021, the agent provocateurs came up with another scary resurgent theories one of which was christened Delta variant. Countries that…