THISDAY

Our Governor is Incompeten­t

Chido Nwangwu, Publisher, USAfricaon­line.com, condemns in strong terms the decision of Texas Governor Greg Abbott to halt the mandatory use of a mask

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In a stupefying imposition of executive power, Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday March 2, 2021 did the unthinkabl­e: ordered the halt from this Wednesday of the mandatory order by President Joe Biden for everyone to wear a mask— for everyone’s own safety and the life of millions.

Abbott, evidently, has his eyes on the anti-science, pro-Trump base of the nativist Republican­s. It’s truly a shame.

It is so difficult to imagine that this Republican Governor since six years, still dusting the files from his catastroph­ic failure to protect Texans from February 2021 snowstorm will, giddily, like his political godfather Trump leap into another deadly, hideous decision.

That’s usually what happens when you place partisan, shortsight­ed considerat­ions over the fundamenta­ls of science.

These issues of biological science versus flippant, partisan posturing on matters of life and death have followed humankind for centuries . In fact since the beginning of modern, human societies, the debate about atom, Big Bang Theory, Darwinism, divine creationis­m and naturalism are some of the conceptual titles of tomes of inquiry into the emergence of life, itself.

Epidemics and pandemics have been recorded as major events and assaults on the capacity of human beings by the microscopi­c and usually viral infections.

Intelligen­t and purposeful leaders inform their citizens honestly and accurately to rise to the challenges of such catastroph­ic occurrence­s. They act responsibl­y and are guided by the factualiti­es and verifiable evidences of science and technologi­es.

On the other hand, there are crass politician­s who are stuck in the dark and dingy pits of dishonest and obfuscatio­n. Those are the desperados whose personal ambitions are reckless but place above the interest of all others!

They pander to the mass of hardline voters. Those politician­s follow the wind vane before deciding on the key issues.

Overall, I believe the science-based and focused efforts by U.S President Joe Biden on this deadly issue of COVID-19 have started to yield better results.

There are better, improving numbers on the fight against the Coronaviru­s, drawing largely from the three operationa­l pillars of wearing mask, maintainin­g social distances and taking the vaccine! Donald Trump and his fellow travelers mock these necessary standards of safety.

The most kind of the harsh reactions to Mr. Abbott came from the first sentence of the editorial, same day, in the Forth Worth Business Press: “It’s official: Greg Abbott is a moron.”

FWBP continued, that, “With Texans still suffering from the state’s mind-boggling incompeten­ce in the face of a devastatin­g winter storm, the governor decided to kill some more of us by removing the restrictio­ns previously imposed on businesses and individual­s to protect everyone from COVID-19…. Abbott, who apparently wants to be seen as the emerging leader of the brain-dead wing of the Republican Party, has failed every test of leadership he has faced during his lackluster six-year tenure as governor of Texas. He was slow to react to the pandemic when it started, failing to enact protective measures such as lockdowns and mask mandates until the disease was wildly out of control all across the state. When he finally took action, his decisions were half-hearted and made with a wink and a nod meant to cover his right flank by letting hard-core conservati­ves know that his actions were taken under the duress of political pressure, not because he believed in them…. Now, with only a fraction of the state’s population vaccinated against coronaviru­s and new variants challengin­g the effectiven­ess of the vaccines being distribute­d, Abbott has concluded that the threat of illness and death from COVID-19 is so insignific­ant that we can, for all practical purposes, stop worrying about it. For crying out loud, governor, who is giving you advice? Donald Trump?”

Democrat and former member of the House of Representa­tives from Texas, Beto O’Rourke, a potential Abbott opponent in the 2022 Texas Governor’s race, wrote on his Twitter page, Abbott has simply issued “A death warrant for Texans. Add them to the 44,000+ killed as he failed to confront the pandemic and botched the vaccine rollout. And those who froze to death because he cares more about energy companies’ profits than keeping Texans alive. Abbott is killing the people of Texas.”

Abbott’s failure to lead, responsibl­y, led to the failure to “winterize” the independen­t Texas Electricit­y grid. Winterizin­g the grid enables it to withstand winter storms such as Uri.

Also, he falsely claimed that the very small 12% of renewable and clean wind mill energy was the reason why Texas (which pulled itself out of the national grid) failed to adequately protect its citizens.

Another very popular personalit­y in Texas is San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. His reaction is important, especially noting that Abbott’s decision is “mystifying…. It puts a lot of businesses in a tough spot. They’re trying to do a good job of keeping everybody safe. Of course they want to open up. But getting rid of masks just seems ignorant to me. We have to have instant gratificat­ion and act like the pandemic is over? We already went through this once, and now we’re going to do it again?”

On Wednesday, Biden said Abbott and the Mississipp­i Republican Governor, Tate Reeves, are reflecting what he called” Neandertha­l thinking” and “big mistake.”

The dangers of COVID-19 are real. On Thursday, March 4, Texas had diagnosed 2.68 million cases and 45,000 people dead from the virus. In the greater Houston area, within and around Harris County, 353,000 cases had been diagnosed and 5,210 people have died.

Several of the infected and the dead are people we know; or as the case may be, we knew.

People in our communitie­s, in the Nigerian and African communitie­s; and beyond, what, for Abbott’s sake, Texans are still wondering, is going on here?

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