The United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator in Nigeria Edward Kallon speaks with Assistant Editor BOLA OLAJUWON on how the UN system in the country is coping with the COVID-19 challenges, how it established a Basket Fund, the global agency’s concerns that Nigerians are not abiding by the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) guidelines to contain the virus and the way out. Excerpts:
Coping in this critical moment of COVID-19
As you all are aware, this is a trying moment for humanity. The coronavirus pandemic is a global crisis, no doubt, and Nigeria is not an exception to it. This is a trying moment for all of us as I said earlier and our shared humanity is under threat of the COVID 19 pandemic and societies are in turmoil and economies are in a nose-dive.
As the United Nations in Nigeria, we are coping well. We have established the UN COVID-19 Task Team and we deployed staff and resources across the states to support states Emergency Operation Centres (EOCs) to assist in contact tracing, training of health officials, risk communication, among others. As frontline workers, our staffs are also exposed. We have those who have been infected but are recovering well under our Duty of Care programme. Unfortunately, we have also had one staff that has passed on. We will always remember his family members. May his soul rest in peace.
Donations in view of the paucity of funds
Yes, this is one of the most productive efforts of the UN System in Nigeria in my very, very long period. The pandemic came as a shock to many countries, including Nigeria. It affects the nation’s economy and businesses of individuals. However, we thought it wise that we must respond as “One UN” to contain the pandemic. We must support the government. We must raise funds. Nigeria is a great country. Nigerians are kind and compassionate. The first thing the UN did, we established a Nigeria/ UN COVID-19 Basket Fund. We at the UN in Nigeria did not just put an empty basket out there and wait for donors. We made the first contribution of $2 million to the basket to demonstrate both the need and the urgency to collectively respond to the crisis we are facing.
Our action was premised on what we call the “Four Ones” i.e.: One National COVID-19 Multi-Sectoral Pandemic Response Plan; One COVID-19 National Coordinating Authority with a broad-based multi-sector mandate; One COVID-19 monitory and evaluation (M&E) System for tracking and reporting progress; and One COVID-19 Financing and Investment Platform.
This approach is what we collectively agreed on March 23, 2020, when the national COVID 19 leadership of Nigeria met with the UN Country leadership and key multilateral and bilateral donors to discuss the unfolding emergency. So, the Basket Fund has been designed to serve within the One COVID-19 Financing and Investment Platform, through which the different stakeholders (including UN, other multilateral and bilateral donors, as well as the private sector, foundations and philanthropists) can channel their financial contributions to the multisectoral efforts of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 Response. It is important to state clearly here that the basket fund is not the only source of funding for the response. It is simply a fast-track funding mechanism for the UN in Nigeria to respond rapidly and efficiently to Nigerian needs in a time of a global crisis.
The Basket Fund was jointly launched on April 6, by the UN, the Government of Nigeria, the multilateral partners and the private sector. Of course, we all are aware of the very generous contribution of Euro 50 million announced by the European Union (EU) at the launch, and I must add that the EU has redeemed that pledge and the money is already making a difference in the response; the Dangote Foundation has contributed $3.5 million, APM Terminals $200,000 and several other bilateral donors and foundations have made pledges to the Basket Fund, which we hope will be redeemed any moment from now.
His predictions in respective of Nigeria and others meeting the meeting 17 key SDGs and containing COVID-19 pandemic
First, we need to acknowledge the macro and micro socio-economic realities that the COVID 19 Pandemic is expected to place (and it has already placed) immense pressure on Nigeria’s healthcare system and will also result in serious economic and fiscal challenges. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reassessed the prospect for growth for 2020 and 2021, declaring that the global economy has entered a recession – as bad as or worse than in 2009. We must respond decisively, innovatively and together to suppress the spread of the virus and address the socio-economic devastation that COVID-19 is causing in our world today. The socio-economic impact of COVID-19 has implications on the SDGs. No doubt, the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has shifted focus as every government and communities are more concerned about the survival, good health and wellbeing (SDG-3) of the people during a difficult period of health emergencies as we do have now.
COVID-19 will affect the fiscal space necessary to ensure implementation of interventions required to achieve SDG targets. As we speak, the government with the technical support of the UN, is finalising what we called “the Voluntary National Report (VNR) on SDGs implementation” in the country and we are still working very closely with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Princess Adejoke Adefulire to ensure that we remain focused and deliver on key SDG milestones, even as we respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On if Nigeria will contain the virus, Yes, Nigeria will. As I said earlier, the only effective way to contain the virus based on emerging evidence is through testing, isolation and contact tracing. Added to this is for the people to abide by the guidelines of NCDC and WHO. The UN has supported the government in ramping up testing capacity in the country; we are supporting Isolation and Testing facilities with essential medical supplies and deploying trained personnel and vehicles to support contact tracing by NCDC officials.
The WHO guidelines to contain the virus
We are extremely concerned about the great denial about the disease. There is only one way out and that is diligent adherence to NCDC and WHO guidelines. What we have learnt from the Chinese is the word “cooperation”. The guidelines were drafted by experts, including epidemiologists and public health specialists. To ignore expert advice at this time is dangerous, not only to the people involved but other people around them and their various communities at large. The UN is working with the government at both the federal and state levels to flatten the curve of the pandemic. This will be difficult to achieve if members of the public do not do their parts, which is abiding with WHO and NCDC guidelines on wearing of face masks in public, maintaining physical distancing, washing of hands with soap regularly and thoroughly using of alcohol-based hand sanitisers, among others.
We, in the UN, must support the government and civil societies to ramp up risk communication and community mobilisation. I urge the Nigerian public to support the government to fight the coronavirus pandemic by adhering strictly to the guidelines by NCDC and WHO. I repeat, the Chinese in Wuhan cooperated with their government and that was why they were able to contain the virus. And until Nigerians are ready to cooperate and abide with the WHO and NCDC guidelines, we are not going to be able to contain this pandemic. So, I called on all the good citizens of this country that you do this not only for yourselves but for your brothers and sisters.
Advice to the Fed Govt, states, local councils and the citizens
In response to COVID-19, the UN is not advising the Federal, state or even local councils, we are partners and we are all in this together, of course under the Federal Government leadership. The response to COVID-19 in Nigeria should be and is one. Every case that happens in a local government area, in a particular state is a case that happens in Nigeria and our collective response is the same as needed. The government should continue to increase its capacity to test as well as expand the capacity of available treatment facilities in the country. The government should continue to implement its COVID-19 containment strategy with diligence. State governments and their local councils should comply with the guidelines of NCDC and WHO, who are jointly leading the government response and have the technical capacity and competence we all need at this time. It is a responsibility for all. It’s a call to all.
It’s not government responsibility alone. Nigerian citizens have a role to play. To my Nigerian brothers and sisters, if we don’t say no to this disease, who is going to say no to it? So, until we come together and agree among ourselves that we have to care for our brothers and sisters as we care for ourselves, we are not going to find a solution to this. I know these are difficult times, but as we say COVID-19 is coming with some rare changes, what we called “the new normal”, nobody was expecting that we are going to start wearing facemasks and going back to 1918 during the Spanish Flu Pandemic. The impact on the world was huge – over 50 million people were killed by that virus in 1918. And based on information that I read, over 500,000 were killed by that virus in this country at a time when the population was barely N30 million. So, we are at a crossroad to ensure that we contain this virus in Nigeria. We have a huge population here and we also have huge development challenges that the country has to deal with. Again, I called on the Nigerian people to come together, work with the Federal Government and states to find a solution to this crisis.
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