From my diary; June 30, 2020. It is three solid months that we started the lockdown in Lagos, Nigeria. Looking back I have thought of the pains and the gains of the 90 days of incarceration necessitated by the global pandemic code named Covid-19, caused by coronavirus.
Without any doubt, the virus has left many tales of woes, at global and national levels. Economies have been destroyed, many people have lost families, and loved ones. Millions are said to have lost their jobs, and quite distressing it is not like the pestilence is in a hurry to go but for the prayers of the faithful. Many people, experts and observers have been telling us that the virus is what the world may have to live with for sometime. It is my prayer that the wave of coronavirus will not sweep us away in Jesus name.
In every sense people say there is sense in every pain, people talk of gain and in every disappointment come blessings. Therefore the need to take the coming of Covid-19 with equanimity is an option we cannot run away from.
We have been told that Covid-19 and its lockdown came with its embedded opportunities and of course its challenges that stared everyone in the face.
The experience of the lockdown was to sit at home, go no where and maintain safety standards. It did not prevent us from doing whatever we could do at home, it did not stop us from reading and learning, it never prevented us from thinking and praying. It was a period of absolute silence, stillness and serious thinking.
We have variously been told and actually learned that God works in various ways, and He could do anything under whatever circumstances to achieve whatever He wants to accomplish. So as a child of God my expectation was to see the will of God prevail.
Looking into my diary the first two weeks of the lockdown, was filled with fun. It was like days or weeks we had never seen before, husbands and wives were at home, jisting and talking, as well as sharing and doing many things that interested them, especially for those who modestly had some things at home to keep body and soul together. Thank God we did not lack the essentials of life.
The fun still continued in the two weeks that followed, but with some skirmishes. The food were being drained, money was not coming in and there was nobody you could turn to assist you.
The palliatives of government were not going round and everybody was becoming vulnerable, especially when insecurity occasioned by the threat of hoodlums was setting in. But we thank God for His maximum protection. We had some few exciting weeks of keeping watch in the night.
After first thirty days, the reality of the lockdown was clearly staring many of us in the face. Many fast thinkers were pondering on the way out, more words entered global vocabulary. Then we came to a season of New Normal, a period to RESET, moment of Reinventing and Post Covid-19 era, and in all these there was no option left for the wise but to follow the cerebral thinkers.
There came lectures, seminars or webinars, online trainings and programmes. The first that caught my attention was how to transform from an offline print publisher to an online publisher. I have earlier shared my story. We came up with PTLNews website www.ptlnewsng.com, and it was a blast, a very good success, and another boost to our work and ministry. It has remained a dependable stream of blessing. Thank God for all that God used to bless us by it.
Another lesson I learned was that the world had shifted, and ways of doing things had changed. What would be selling are marketing, and it is sales by online device. I also keyed into it. I spent much of my time to read about it, I took my money to register for trainings and by the special grace of God, by the end of the first 90 days of Covid-19 lockdown I can stand where Social Marketers and Facebook advertisers stand.
Henceforth it will not surprise you when you see different product displays on my social media handles. I thank God for opening my mind to this.
Yet it was clearly established that one sector that would thrive well after Covid-19 lockdown was the development and growth of small medium scale enterprises. While I was under serious lockdown, I had said it earlier that two ideas came to my mind. I thank God for giving me a responsive heart to think, and I thought very fast about how to approach this. The two ideas were to see what I could do with SMSES, one was to engage in physical distributive trade, and the other was to look into the literary, academic side of my calling and profession.
I settled for the second being my best area of expertise. By the special grace of God, at the end of the three months of the lockdown I leaned business plan writing, today I have in view a certificate in Business Planning. That is what education can do for someone. By the grace of God my academic knowledge was put to value. I gained new ideas, and I got more education, and I am better for it.
So as we are coming out of the lockdown by the special grace of God, as you people have also thought of what business you intend to do in the post Covid-19 era, and what do to access loans and palliatives from the government, a professionally scripted business plan is one of the prerequisites. Please contact us and recommend us for the writing of your business plans.
Beloved, that is my account of the 90 days of the lockdown in Lagos. It has shown that even if you are at home locked down your drive and energy are not locked down. If you have not started doing something, or if you don’t know what to do, you can contact us for brainstorming and counselling.
By the special grace of God we will survive Covid-19, we will testify and we will all have every cause to thank God.
Thanks for keeping faith. God bless you. Praise The Lord.
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