And the president spoke

Emeka OMEIHE

Penultimate Sunday’s national broadcast by President Muhammadu Buhari seemed to have put to rest raging controversy over his silence while the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the country. Though somewhat belated, it is nonetheless good a thing the president eventually spoke to the nation.

Before then and while responding to criticisms, Information Minister Lai Mohammed had said it was not yet the appropriate time for the president to address the nation on the matter. Toeing the same predictable line, the special adviser to the president on media, Femi Adesina rationalized the inability of his boss to address the nation as a matter of style.

He seemed to have come out more clearly when he said the style the president has adopted is to set up a presidential taskforce committee headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF to handle matters arising from the pandemic. By extrapolation, he was implying that having set up the taskforce such a broadcast may no longer be necessary. He is entitled to his opinion.

But as fate would have it, the president eventually addressed the nation in a manner reminiscent of what his counterparts across the world had been doing. The fact of this has put to serious question the issue of style as a credible reason for his inability or reluctance to address the nation all this while.

And if the president’s style differed from those of other world leaders, how then do we place his recent nationwide broadcast? It would seem the reason adduced for the president’s inability to touch base with his constituents at the peak of the pandemic lack public appeal.

The matter has neither anything to do with style nor the setting up of the taskforce. These excuses pale into insignificance and zero impact in the face of the direct intervention of the man with the mandate of the populace to superintend over the affairs of the country. The buck stops at his table.

Maybe the excuse offered by Mohammed that it was not yet the appropriate time for the president to address the nation makes better sense. But then, the appropriateness of the time the president spoke is another contentious matter altogether.

It took about five weeks from the time the first incident case was reported in the country and three months since the pandemic emerged in the world scene for the president to speak. How appropriate that timing was and its efficacy will be borne out by some of the measures rolled out in his broadcast.

In that much expected broadcast, the president had among others indicated that right from the time COVID-19 was turning into an epidemic; his government started planning preventive, containment and curative measures in the event the disease hits Nigeria.

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He said the first confirmed case of the disease in the country was on February 27, and by the time he spoke on March 29, it had risen to 97 cases. What this explanation was intended to serve is that his government was on top of the situation all this while.

The situation in his calculations had not gotten that bad for him to speak despite the fact that corona virus had long been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization WHO. He is entitled to that view. But given what we know of the fast spreading nature of the virus, the pitiable state of our health facilities and the ravaging poverty in the country, the nation needed quick therapeutic responses and assurances from the highest quarters that necessary efforts were on top gear to contain the pandemic.

It was imperative to secure assurances that the president was really in charge especially given speculations all this while about a cabal in the presidency that has become a cog in the wheel of the nation’s progress.

Only the president’s address could have provided the soothing tonic direly needed at that period of serious national emergency. Even then, the fact that the number of those infected doubled a few days after the president’s speech and has been on a steady rise corroborates the view that the president’s intervention should have come somewhat earlier. Perhaps also, this point will become clearer when some other measures in the broadcast to contain the pandemic are subjected to critical appraisal.

Among the tough and desperate measure announced by the president were the cessation of all movements in Lagos, the Federal Capital Territory and Ogun State for an initial period of 14 days. All citizens are to stay at home while travel to and from other states have been put on hold. All businesses and offices within these locations are also to be shut within the period.

The period in the view of the president will be used to identify, trace and isolate all individuals that have come into contact with confirmed cases and also restrict further spread to other states. He also banned the movement of all passenger aircraft, both commercial and private jets while special permits will be issued as the need arose.

Before then, our borders had been shut down and international flights banned except for emergency services that will be allowed on special permission. But criticisms have trailed the president’s order banning movements in Lagos, Ogun and the FCT.

Those who took up the president on this, contend that we run a constitutional democracy and it is illegal for the president to take over the affairs of states without the express consent of the people of that state through their elected representatives.

They are of the further view that it is only the governor of a state through the House of Assembly of the state that can make such declarations. The fear is that if such infractions are allowed, they could lead to abuse of powers by the executive.

There is merit in this position. But we are in very dire times. And the circumstances of the times may not permit strict compliance with such constitutional issues. The nature of the pandemic does not even allow either the national or the state assemblies to sit in deliberation of such matters.

Even then, the action of the president is largely in the public interest; to safeguard the lives of citizens put at grave risk by the pandemic. To that extent, we have to live with the measures.

If the president were to wait for the national or state assemblies to sit before the action, things would have got out of hands. But that also brings to mind the excuse offered by the information minister that it was not yet the appropriate time for the president to speak.

Had he been very proactive on the matter, the needed synergy would have long been built before we get to the point where the president will take resort to actions that are seen to infringe on constitutional governance. This is the issue to contend with.

These issues would have been properly harmonized had the president squared up to the challenge of engaging the nation before the pandemic got to the point of limiting public gathering. Then, it would have been possible for the National Assembly to play its role.

But that opportunity has been sadly foreclosed by our response time. The point is that some of the measures enunciated by the president should have come much earlier especially given the mode of transmission of the virus.

Had we promptly shut our borders and halted international and local flights when returnees were importing the virus into the country, perhaps the rising incidence of the disease with heightened fears of community spread would have been nipped at the bud.

The case of 127 returnees from Côte d’Ivoire who returned to Osun State with a good number of them testing positive bears this out most poignantly. Had they arrived at the Ogun State land border before some of these measures were rolled out, we would have been worse for it.

Even now, our land borders are still porous. Herdsmen from neighboring countries still have a field day straying into the country. If nothing urgent and serious is done to halt check movement, efforts to halt the scourge may come to naught. We shudder at such prospects.