CAN replies Bill Gates on COVID-19, ‘God’s mercy has kept us’

 

The President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Dr Samson Ayokunle, says Nigeria and other countries in Africa continue to enjoy God’s mercy as evident in the low COVID-19 infections and associated deaths.

This, according to the CAN leader, is in spite of the continent not having the requisite standard healthcare facilities and the technological wherewithal to fight the global pandemic.

Ayokunle was reacting to a statement made by one of world’s richest men, Bill Gates, who said he was yet to understand why COVID-19 cases and fatalities still remain low in Africa.

Billionaire Gates, who is in the forefront of vaccines production to tame the disease that has changed the way the world lives, had in his 2020-year-in-review notes titled, ‘These breakthroughs will make 2021 better than 2020’, said: “One thing I’m happy to have been wrong about – at least, I hope I was wrong – is my fear that COVID-19 would run rampant in low-income countries.

“So far, this hasn’t been true. In most of sub-Saharan Africa, for example, case rates and death rates remain much lower than in the US or Europe and on par with New Zealand, which has received so much attention for its handling of the virus.  The hardest-hit country on the continent is South Africa – but even there, the case rate is 40 per cent lower than in the US, and the death rate is nearly 50 per cent lower.

“We don’t have enough data yet to understand why the numbers aren’t as high as I worried, they would get.”

READ: Why we will not go to Church this Sunday – Okotie

But reacting in his 2021 New Year Message on Thursday, the CAN president said the mercy of God made the difference in Africa and in Nigeria.

Ayokunle, in the message titled, ‘Dwelling in the Secret Place of the Most High: Key to Overcoming Challenges throughout the Year’, said dwelling in the secret place of God saved Africa.

He said: “I was reading in the newspaper the statement of Bill Gates who said that he could not explain why COVID-19 mortality was low in Africa generally, where healthcare was poorer than the Developed World. The right answer is that dwelling in the secret place of the Most High saved Africa.

“We are technologically poor but we believe we have a big and great God whom we can trust, whom we can run to His secret place and abide under His shadow. The mercy of God made the difference in Africa, especially Nigeria where health experts predicted that 30 million people would die.”

The CAN president further noted, “I am not saying that the advanced nations of the world do not believe in God but that our own lack of human strength, lack of health infrastructure (though not our pride), have made us to trust in God more than human science and technology. The mercy of God has preserved us and will continue to preserve us all the days of our lives in the name of Jesus Christ.”

Ayokunle also urged the Nigerian authorities to restore security and bring about peace and prosperity for Nigerians to enjoy the Year 2021.