Festus Eriye
How times have changed! It wasn’t too long ago that President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman was defending his silence at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak as a matter of style. Now, in the space of four weeks he has delivered three broadcasts!
I never thought the day would come when people would look forward so expectantly to a Buhari speech. Given rising tension over the four-week lockdown, such was the anticipation that someone in Aso Rock leaked a rough draft of the address and it was all over social media in minutes.
Two weeks ago, the president warned the ‘lockdown would last as long as was necessary’. He said lifting it would depend largely on what science had to say. On Monday, as he announced a gradual easing in Lagos, Ogun and FCT, it was clear economics had trumped science.
For weeks in this diary, I had reported how widespread poverty was undermining the lockdown.
So while he talked up the positives of the shutdown, Buhari admitted Nigeria couldn’t pay the economic price.
For now, those who made the case that hunger would kill more people than the virus may have had their way, but it could very well turn out to be a pyrrhic victory.
It is certain that as the population mingles more, the rate of infection would spike. It is good talking about wearing masks, washing hands and keeping a safe distance, but as we have seen during the lockdown enforcing these things is a tall order. If we couldn’t curtail massive violations of the stay-at-home directives, I doubt whether we can be too optimistic about policing curfew and wearing of face masks.
We don’t have adequate public transportation in key cities like Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and Abuja. Mass transit remains in the realm of futuristic planning. So, today, it is a fond hope to expect any form of distancing in our danfo and molue buses, or in our cramped slums.
Knowing this, and knowing the nightmare scenarios that could play out, the government buckled under pressure and took away the only measure which, for now, appears to be blunting the virus.
Critical to this decision was the position of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), mostly politicians, who have to contend with pressure from a restive population.
To be fair, the coronavirus emergency caught many nations and governments by surprise. For most the experience has been akin to feeling their way about in the dark.
Many governors are rushing around issuing decrees about a situation they haven’t taken time to understand. In Ebonyi State, Governor Dave Umahi, threatened those who wouldn’t wear face coverings with floggings. I understand his need to look busy, but for a while it felt like being in a time warp listening to a military governor.
On television recently, the Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, was asked what magic has kept his state out of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control’s (NCDC) daily Covid-19 rankings. He replied that they had an app for monitoring the situation! Oh, really!
His state is like a few others who appear to think that the coronavirus infection is some badge of shame to be avoided at all cost! It’s as if they are in a beauty contest and any outbreak would mar their looks.
Take the case of Akwa Ibom State which at the outset was virtually forced to shut down schools. When the NCDC announced the first set of cases in the state, the Health Commissioner disputed the figures with such vehemence you feared he would head for the Supreme Court to challenge them. Just the other day, the state’s chief epidemiologist was fired for ordering 30 tests which his boss felt was excessive. Amazing!
It’s like a man who shuts his eyes all morning just to deny that day has broken.
In Kano State, it’s a similar scenario. With over 600 people dying in matter of days, the authorities were struggling to blame it all on malaria, diabetes and assorted maladies. Some equally pointed out Covid-19 wasn’t such a swift executioner.
But given that there was no functioning testing facility on ground and the government was playing religious and political games when drastic action was called for, it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility that coronavirus has been reaping a grim harvest here.
Elsewhere, the constant refrain about hunger made the federal government’s offers of help a hot topic. Oyo and Akwa Ibom States which were given 1,800 bags of rice each as ‘palliatives’, looked the gift horse squarely in the mouth and said no, thanks. According to them the items were weevil-infested, expired and unsafe for human consumption.
It’s been a tough time for vulnerable groups. Take the almajiris – children street beggars across the north. Kano and Kaduna have ordered their expulsion to curtail the spread of coronavirus. When I see northern governors taking such steps it makes me wonder whatever happened to regional, ethnic or religious solidarity.
Apparently, in the time of coronavirus self-preservation has buried the same regional identity deployed for many dubious political ends at other times. Now, it’s every state for itself!
As the nation enters the next phase of the battle against the pandemic, I am struck by the prevalent lack of understanding of our new reality. For many, easing the lockdown means a return to life as we knew it. Not so. It is actually the beginning of the journey into an uncertain future.
The lockdown didn’t kill the virus; unlocking it won’t make it disappear. The pandemic still lives with us; that’s why certain countries are insisting there would be no easing up until infections drop to certain levels. Two weeks ago the national total in Nigeria was a little over 300. As of yesterday that figure was 1,337. Who knows what further testing in hotspots like Lagos and Kano would reveal?
Now we can dart around from 6.00am to 8.00pm until the curfew kicks in. But it is doubtful what good this would do because even in normal times vehicular movements and human interactions diminish as night falls. Our populations are actually locked down nightly, making this new curfew superfluous.
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