Nigerians in the nation’s capital Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states have thrown caution to the wind after the relaxation of the five-week lockdown by the Federal Government. This has forced state governments to mull a reversal, to contain the deadly virus from wrecking more havoc, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE.
PERHAPS the bigger picture many Nigerians have refused to reflect upon is what will happen should the nation’s coronavirus (COVID-19) cases spiral out of proportion.
Like a huge farm of birds, which suddenly regained their freedom, Nigerians had swooped on the roads, especially in Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states, which had been lockdowned for five weeks.
Commercial buses were filled, throwing the social distancing caution to the winds. Pedestrians took over the roads and public places in disregard of the guidelines laid down to help contain the deadly virus.
Public transportation across the country and, indeed, the three epicentres locked down on the order of President Muhammadu Buhari was burdened and operators wantonly flouted the rules mandating them to operate at only 60 percent capacity during this period.
A commercial operator shuttling the Ogba-Oshodi route in Lagos State said the laws would be hard to obey.
He said the unions were still collecting the same rates and that the operators would still have to buy fuel, bribe policemen and other transport managers and pay the vehicle owner at the end of the day, even as they must now return home at 6pm in obedience to the 8pm curfew regime.
“It would be hard for us to survive without carrying full capacity at this time, especially when the commuters themselves are the ones crowding the buses unmindful of the social distancing in the buses,” the operator who simply wanted to be known as Raymond told our reporter.
Raymond is a yellow bus operator, but his conclusions are similar to what obtains among franchised operators of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) buses many of who brazenly flouted, for most of last week, the 22-capacity sitting regulation laid down by the Lagos State government ahead of the easing of the lockdown.
This week may be the decider for Nigerians as governments at the federal and state levels, especially in Lagos and Ogun, as at weekend, mull the idea of a reversed relaxation of the total lockdown order, aimed at preventing community transmission of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
Top echelon of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, penultimate week hinted that the President might be left with no option than to rescind his order and reinstate the lockdown, especially in the two states of Ogun and Lagos.
Reviewing the development at his weekly briefing penultimate Saturday, Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun had extended the lockdown on the state by another week.
This, according to him, is to help the state get a grip of the ravaging pandemic, the figures of which continue to escalate in neighbouring state of Lagos.
While the extension lasts, the state, the governor further stated, would continue to observe an 8am-5pm relaxation on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, even as the curfew imposed by the President would continue.
Abiodun has enough reasons to be scared. In two weeks, Nigeria added over 4,000 cases of the COVID-19, taking the current case update, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to 5,621, with 176 deaths, while 1,472 have been discharged. Instructively, as at 72 hours to the relaxation of the lockdown, the NCDC’s nationwide figure was 2,388.
Invariably, Nigeria recorded 1,763 new coronavirus cases in one week.
If this is not worrisome, the Lagos projections give more room for concern. At his weekly briefing on Friday, the state Commissioner for Health Prof Akin Abayomi had asked Lagosians to brace for more scary figures, indicating that it may hit 120,000 in the next 60 days, if the people refuse to voluntarily comply with the rules of safety on the pandemic.
His colleague in the Ministry of Transportation Dr Frederic Oladeinde, same day, in a statement, bemoaned the poor attitude of the people to guidelines on social engagements and interactions at this period, insisting that all owed it a duty to comply with the rules if they must stay healthy and alive.
For him, while the government has the responsibility to protect lives, the responsibility to stay alive rests with the people.
Assessing the development on Saturday, last week, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said though the government has projected that new cases might rise to between 90,000 and 120,000 in the next 90 days when Lagos is expected to get to its peak, the projections may not be, if the people cooperate and partner the government.
“The only way to ensure that projections do not become our reality is by ensuring that we take the projections as a warning and use them to modify our behaviour towards greater compliance and discipline,” the governor said.
According to Sanwo-Olu, to stay alive and well, the people must abandon old habits and customs and learn new ones.
He scored transportation low in terms of compliance in the last one week of the relaxation of the lockdown order, adding that if Lagosians must flatten the curve, transportation remains one sector where he is expecting greater compliance in the coming weeks.
Sanwo-Olu said compliance, especially by yellow buses in the first week, had been abysmally low, while commercial motorcycle operators brazenly flouted the suspension on their operation.
Another area the governor said needed to be bolstered is the interstate travels, which in line with the presidential order, remained suspended except those carrying essential goods, food and agro-produce.
According to him, trucks and other vehicles bearing such items have played major roles in breaching the order by concealing and smuggling people in and out of the state.
“In many instances, people make the final leg of the journey into the state on foot to beat the restriction,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu, who also observed the scant attention to face masks, said the government would not hesitate to review the terms of the easing if Lagosians continued to demonstrate their determination to flout the rules.
To ensure stricter compliance, the governor reeled out whistle blower hotlines 090105013197; 09010513198 and 09010513199 for people to lodge complaints or violations of the orders and restrictions.
While saluting the Lagos State government for being ever proactive and forward-thinking since the virus broke out in the country on February 27, this year, the President Centre for Human and Socio-Economic rights (CHSER), Alex Omotehinse, described the decision to ease the lockdown as hasty and hurtful.
He said the three digits increase the country had been witnessing since the decision is a testimony to the failure of the decision. He pleaded for a reversal of the order in the public health interest.
“Easing the lockdown at this critical time is not good enough for Lagos, Ogun and Abuja, considering the rising cases of the COVID-19 daily.”
He said if appropriate steps were not taken by the government, the country might slip, and find itself in the same shoes Italy, Spain, France, United States and Russia found themselves, where despite their sophisticated healthcare systems they had been recording huge casualties daily in the last two months.
For him, it is worrisome that Lagos, a state with less than 2000 daily testing capacity, is already projecting to harvest 120,000 new cases by August, and if this happened, only God knows the kind of figures other states would be posting if nothing is done to prevent a major health disaster.
Safety expert Patrick Adenusi said this unpredictable season called for greater understanding by the citizens, who must see the battle as one they must join the government to win.
He said this is not the time for all operators in the transport sector to think of profit, but to think sacrifice.
“There must be strict compliance to all safety protocols regarding public transportation and safety. All parks must have a running water system and soap, and bus operators must have alcohol base hand sanitiser for the use of passengers/conductors. No bus should carry more than eight passengers, while large capacity buses must also not carry more than 22 passengers. No bus should pick anyone without face mask, while no tricycle should carry more than two passengers at the back seat, among other rules,” Adenusi said.
To prevent community transmission regarded as the most dangerous curve in the progression of the virus, Adenusi said transport owners/operators must recognise the need to partner the government. To do otherwise is to risk a reversal, which may be too costly.
“We need not,” according to him, “push ourselves to the stage we would be asking: ‘why we did this to ourselves?‘’’
