With the regular reminders of the regular washing of hands with no food on the table is a misnomer. The watch word for people around the globe with Corona virus threatening many lives around the world is becoming so misleading.

The use of alcohol based liquid to wash our hands has become the open sesame for people to walk into banking halls, and ceremonies with more than twenty persons in attendance it only tempts the palate of human beings to want to sniff at some nice meals and delectable jollof rice. The unseen enemy that had lurked around us with a flaming fire and brim­stone hanging over our heads.

The sneaky operations of covid 19 virus hasoverwhelmed hospital beds and other health facilities. The jobless millions around the world are busy looking forward to have a good meal, at least once a week. Most families in these austere times are essentially to provide the basic food on the table.

No frivolous spending on non- essen­tials and even the reopening of churches in certain quarters is suspect in the way and manner to behave in their churches as they begin reopening their doors to members to come and sing and offer praises to their God. The common feeling for people as they wash their hands with the sole purpose of having a harvest of foods on their tables. The salivating masses with food on their tables do not seem to care about a virus with no end in sight.

The day Delta opened up partially for business, some of us who had remained in the homes in obedience to the state laws and instructions suddenly found ourselves as new comers to the city where cars were so minimal on the streets and traffic was free as the air. The compulsory lockdown at homes had brought out the closeness of family bonds which were taken for granted in the preceding years.

The pandemic has brought the world closer to everybody as we have seen football stars Samuel Eto who came down heavily from his foreign base to return home to Cameroun and identify with his people and kids who are being introduced to sports in the way he started as a young star. Ordinarily, simple hygiene teaches us to wash our hands before eating and after meals.

It now took Corona Virus to instill simple hygiene in the humanity across the world.

Banquets by state governments are rare these days and it has become economical for such extravaganzas in our clime. If you ever visited any mechanics work­shop they ahrdly observe such simple decency like washing of hands before devouring their amala plates with stork fish and kpomo in plenty. These external displays of simple clean­liness in eating habits are usually ignored as they guld their big amala balls with a black bottle of stout with relish.

This outward sign of hand washing has entered into our daily vocabulary and instinctively, almost even without aplate of food on one’s table hand washing has become the norm.

With masked faces as the new dress code many women could hardly recognise their husbands from those who are pretenders.

There was a recent joke in a cartoon in one of the national daily newspapers when a woman was asked who was the father of her baby, she replied ‘ He wore a mask when he came in the night.’

Which is emphasizing that he could be any other man in a mask.

Could the child have been by another man or an adulterer pretending to be her husband?

All persons are now looking like ghosts roaming the streets and other places.

People without masks are seen as law breakers.

And could be fined or detained and sent to some centres for quaranteen of law breakers.

Hand washing had instinctively crept into our daily lives and we seem better for it.

But for how long shall we live under the shadow of Masks and fear of arrest by the police or security personnel.

Do Nigerians realize the enormity of the burden of hand washing which had made washing of hands as a compulsory habit for the whole of humanity. For the security personnel they do npot use thewir discretion to carry out orders given them by superior officers.

Discretion in these days and times are not the better part of valour. It is never exercised by senior security officers who enjoy seeing their fellow citizens humili­ated by men in uniform.

Somehow uniforms have a way of em­powering the wearers some dictatorial tendencies whereby they think they could get away with murder.

It is instructive to understand the frame of mind of uniformed officers asked to patrol the highways and street corners from day to day. We believe that hand washing has become an essential part of our collective lifestyles to remain safe and keeping alive.