Three weeks into what is beginning to look like an endless Covid-19-induced lockdown, masses in the poor and densely populated areas of Lagos and some parts of Ogun State are beginning to really feel the pinch. They are complaining about the inadequacy of the much touted government palliative amongst other things. Omolara Akintoye writes.
On April 13 (2020), President Muhammadu Buhari announced that the total lockdown earlier initiated on March 30 in Lagos State, neighbouring Ogun State, and Abuja, the nation’s capital, would continue for another 14 days. The move was not unexpected, as the number of confirmed cases of the dreaded virus was steadily on the rise. As at April 16, Nigeria had 407 confirmed cases. Several other state governments, including Rivers, Kaduna, and Ekiti, have also initiated full or partial lockdown.
While applauding efforts of the federal government in containing the spread of the virus, many are of the view that if it does not improve on its efforts at providing palliative to the masses, hunger is likely to kill them faster than the virus.
“So many Nigerians observing the lockdown lack the food and income that their families need to survive,” said Tola Ajakaye, a civil engineer who works in Lagos.
The lockdown is also preventing many Nigerians working in the informal sector from commuting to work and conducting their business. Local food vendors and traders, who survive on daily earnings, have raised the alarm over increasing difficulty at feeding their families. Increase in food prices has also meant that many cannot stock up on necessities.
“The vast majority of people outside of the formal system are affected by the lockdown,” said Dr. Martin Agwogie, Executive Director, Global Initiative on Substance Abuse (GISA) a non-governmental organisation. “Any interruption to their daily livelihood has a significant impact on their ability to meet their most basic needs.”
The informal sector, in which more than 80 percent of Nigerians work, includes a wide range of occupations, from street traders, taxi drivers, tradesmen, and artisans to food vendors and hairdressers. In Lagos alone, according to a research by a non-governmental organisation, 65 percent of the estimated 25 million people work in the informal sector. Informal workers have lower income and often do not have savings, health insurance or pension.
President Buhari, in announcing the current lockdown, said the government would put in place measures to “preserve the livelihoods of workers and business owners, to ensure their families get through this very difficult time in dignity.” He added that “the most vulnerable in our society” would receive conditional cash transfers for the next two months, while Sadiya Umar Farouq, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, said food rations would be distributed to vulnerable households.
On April 1, the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry began paying 20,000 Naira (US$ 52) to families registered in the National Social Register of Poor and Vulnerable Households set up by the Buhari administration in 2016 to combat poverty. The government said each family on the register will receive monthly cash payments for four months.
But a visit to most of the densely populated areas in Lagos where the downtrodden resides reveals that majority are yet to benefit from either the federal government’s cash payment or the one being touted by the state government.
“From where do we get sanitiser and the extra water to wash the hands you are talking about,” queried Abiola Iyanda, a 30-year-old woman, who resides in a one-room tenement in Makoko area of Lagos State.
As for Mrs. Omowaiye, it will be hard to remain indoors (or maintain social distancing), as she and her family live in one room in a 40-room block, popularly referred to as ‘Face-me-I-face-you’ because of the close proximity with neighbours. Aside that, all tenants have to take turn to share two toilets and bathrooms.
‘Our fear is hunger, not the virus’
There is no pipe-borne water either and Mrs. Omowaiye has to trek more than 50 metres to a broken public water pipe for her daily supply.
“It’s my children I am worried about,” she said.
All four of them were lying on the floor as it rained outside. A single window was the only source of air into the room and it could get very hot at night.
“If I am not able to go out and sell, how will they survive?” Omowaiye, who earns money by selling fruit and vegetables by the roadside, asked. Her husband, who works in a security firm in Lekki is also at home due to the lockdown.
“I make money daily from my market and it is from the profit that I make that we feed but with this lockdown, it has not been easy to feed the entire household. In fact, there is no money to stock the house with food,” she lamented.
A visit to other densely populated areas in the state like Alimosho Local Government, reveals that many people still relate in clusters by virtue of the houses they reside and markets they patronise, thereby increasing risk of further spread of the virus.
“They are at home yet they are still gathering in crowded conditions. If you have someone with the virus in their midst, chances of spreading it is high,” said Dr. Joseph Odubanjo, a public health physician.
As it is, all non-essential travel has been banned in most states, and many asked to work from home. Last week, governors also agreed on another 14-day lockdown, in a move to further flatten the spread curve.
Odubanjo, however lamented that with lack of adequate electricity supply and poor internet connections, it is hard to see how most people can get any work done.
President Buhari in his last nationwide address outlined some measures to ease the hardship, including a one-month advance payment of the monthly $13 to the poorest of the poor, but most people feel that millions of self-employed Nigerians have been left without financial aid.
At Ile-Epo market near Abule-Egba in Lagos, hawkers competed for every inch of available space to sell their wares, ignoring any thought of social distancing. Most were unconcerned about the virus.
“All death is death,” a woman selling fresh fish on a tray said in pidgin. “If I stay home, I will die of hunger; if I come out to hustle, you say I will die of coronavirus. There is nothing we have not seen and we are still here. We shall survive this one,” she said in a mixed tone of resignation and hope.
Meanwhile, The Nation was at some of the relief centres in Alimosho, where the distribution processes of food items were marred by violence.
A case in point was the African Church, Pry. School 2, Ile- Iwe Meiran venue, where pandemonium took over.
The sharing of the relief materials which took off around 1pm in the afternoon, co-ordinated by the chairman of Oke-Odo LCDA, Dr. Augustine Arogundade, took another dimension 30 minutes later when the police officials on ground could no longer manage the crowd and resorted to firing tear gas to disperse them.
One of the attendees spoken to, Oluwaseyi Iyanda, a transporter, said: “If the sharing of the relief materials can be like this at the beginning of the lockdown, then there will be crisis on our hands before the lockdown is over.”
Speaking further, he said, “It is so sad that we have food inside this school, but rather than the masses getting it, it is the rich people and party officials that are carting them away. Rather than giving us food and sanitiser, police is using tear gas to send us away.
“Before the government provided the relief materials, we were working and fending for ourselves but if they are asking us to stay at home with our children, how do they expect us to fend for ourselves. As a transporter, I make daily income but since the lockdown, I have not been able to earn the daily income any longer. If government wants to send us money, they have our BVN number, they should send the money through that means,” he said.
Another citizen, Biola Atanda, wants the Lagos State government to ensure that the relief materials get to the people who need them. “See my swollen eyes; I fell down when the police were throwing tear gas. (Displaying wounds all over her body) If the lockdown continues like this, there is going to be problem. We want Gov. Sanwo-Olu to please help the poor in the state,” she said.
Attempts to speak with the police officers on ground proved abortive. However, one of them, who pleaded for anonymity, said the police’s presence was to secure lives and properties.
Speaking on the unfortunate turn of event in a telephone chat with The Nation, the Chairman, Agbado Oke-Odo LCDA in Alimosho Local Government Area, Dr. Arogundade, said, “Distribution of the relief materials was done directly by the State Committee to the Community Development Associations (CDAs), Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Imams; and not through the LCDA. The leftovers that were taken to the LCDA were meant for other community downtrodden and physically-challenged but were hijacked by hoodlums, and the council office vandalised.”
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