The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Community transmission: Individual and community responsibility

    Community transmission: Individual and community responsibility

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

    MOST readers of this column are aware of the existence of the coronavirus strain known as COVID-19; but some of them may not fully appreciate its possible impact on their immediate community. They learn about the daily infection figures released by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, quite alright. However, such statistics are just figures to those whose relatives, friends, or close acquaintances have not been infected by, or died from, the disease.

    Yet, the virus now lives in various communities, possibly including yours, because there already could be local vectors, that is, transmitters, of the virus who were infected by some other persons they may or may not know. The infection could have come from passengers on buses; from sellers and buyers in open markets; from relatives or friends recently engaged in face-to-face conversations with others, and so on.

    The problem with the coronavirus is that the vectors could be asymptomatic for a while, that is, they may not manifest any symptom of the disease or even know they have been infected with the virus. Yet, once infected, they could easily infect others without knowing it. It is this phase of the transmission that is known as community transmission. The community may be a local government area, a small neighbourhood, an isolated ship, or an area set apart from others by some physical or social boundary. Some examples will suffice.

    In 1911, experts learned a lot about measles from its rapid community transmission on Rotuma, an isolated Polynesian island. The failure to isolate the first few vectors of the disease led to high fatalities on the island. Similarly, much was learned about influenza in 1979 from how quickly it spread among passengers stuck on a grounded plane in Alaska.

    Even more recently, we learned about how the coronavirus infection spread very quickly among passengers on various cruise ships. Similarly, as many as 50 sailors were infected by COVID-19 in April, 2020, aboard a French Navy’s Aircraft Carrier. On a much wider scale was the rapid spread of COVID-19 infection of 600 sailors on USS Theodore Roosevelt about the same time.

    Perhaps, by far, the most dramatic case of close community transmission is the one reported by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It was an outbreak of COVID-19, which affected as many as 52 of 61 people at a 3-hour choir practice in March in Skagit County in Washington state in the United States. In each of these cases, it took one or two infected persons to infect the others. In the case of the choir group, it was just one person with mild respiratory symptoms, who triggered the outbreak.

    These rather isolated examples are symbolic of community transmission on a large scale, which is now the situation with COVID-19 throughout the world. The Nigerian case is particularly significant, partly because of its large population and high urbanisation, partly because of inadequate testing, and partly because many people are in denial, including the leadership in hotspots in the North, such as Kano, and many slum and rural dwellers across the country.

    Yet, the speed with which the infections spread in Kano and other Northern states in recent weeks should highlight the hitherto undetected spread of COVID-19 in many other communities across the country. Regardless of the authorities’ denials, the so-called “mystery deaths” in the North are believed to be related to COVID-19.

    The good news is that the opportunity to limit community transmission of COVID-19 is right at our disposal. An outline of the opportunity was provided at one of the Presidential Task Force briefings last week by the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. Below s a modification of the model of community surveillance he suggested.

    The nucleus of the model is a Community COVID-19 Incident Management Committee under the leadership of a respectable community leader with the councilor in each ward and at least one healthcare worker as members. The Committee’s functions would include:

    Working with traditional, political, religious, business, market, and union leaders as well as local associations to identify and designate a Holding Centre within the community, such as a hall, school, church, mosque, or an unoccupied house.

    Mobilising community members at home and abroad to furnish the centre with basic living and welfare needs and the healthcare workers on the committee with adequate personal protection equipment.

    Working with community members to provide surveillance and identify those who either think they are infected by the coronavirus or are already manifesting symptoms.

    Encouraging the movement of such persons to the Holding Centre in order to save others from infection.

    Contacting the nearest public health officials for proper management of identified cases and their transfer to the nearest state Isolation Centre.

    This suggestion is particularly useful in crowded communities, where a state-designated Holding Centre is non-existent or far away. Of course, the community Holding Centre should be seen only as a stopgap, rather than a treatment centre. Its usefulness is in quickly pulling out infected members of the community before they spread the virus beyond control as we have seen in Kano.

    As Northern leaders have come to realise recently, the existence of COVID-19 can no longer be denied. Nevertheless, the masses still need to be convinced that it is a killer disease that can attack any and everyone. That’s why public education is still necessary at the community level.

    Therefore, the Community COVID-19 Committee should work with appropriate local authorities, community leaders, and associations to sensitise their people to the reality of COVID-19 and the need to enforce necessary guidelines provided by the NCDC and emphasised during the PTF’s daily briefings.

    Everyone should be educated to understand that lockdowns; staying at home; wearing face masks; washing hands frequently with soap or alcohol-based sanitiser; and maintaining physical distance of at least 5 feet from others are necessary mitigation measures adopted worldwide to protect citizens from spreading or contracting the virus. It is now time for community leaders to shoulder this educational responsibility.

    While a community committee is needed for surveillance, the education of the masses is also necessary if we want individuals to take responsibility for protecting themselves. As Aregbesola had suggested, the guiding philosophy should be: “One for all, all for one”.

     

     

     

     

     

  • The Coronavirus diaries (8)

    The Coronavirus diaries (8)

     

    Festus Eriye

     

    IT is not called novel for nothing. Many months after it was identified in Wuhan, China, the best minds in science are still trying to understand a virus that’s always one step ahead of human knowledge.

    It is humbling hearing famous doctors, and the best scientists, repeat that there’s so much about this disease we don’t know, therefore necessitating caution in the way it is handled.

    Everyone is experimenting – even politicians for whom the virus has dropped like a hideous fly in the electoral ointment. US President Donald Trump, for one, has gone from just advocating the efficacy of the unproven hydroxychloroquine, to actually gobbling ‘a pill a day’ as prophylaxis.

    Here in Nigeria, tardiness of conventional medical practice in providing a cure has caused many to push government to embrace alternatives like herbal medicine.

    Always on the lookout for something new, they have embraced the so-called Madagascan herbal mixture that was supposedly so effective that it healed all on the island who contracted Covid-19, with no fatalities. It helped that the island country’s president has mounted a vigorous campaign touting the brew, selling it as his favourite tonic.

    Now, by popular demand, the magic potion has landed on these shores by the circuitous route of Guinea Bissau. But trust President Muhammadu Buhari to be a spoilsport. The mixture, he has warned, wouldn’t be dispensed to thirsty Nigerians until it has passed a rigorous scientific examination!

    President Andry Rajoelina swears the so-called ‘Covid-Organics’ works despite never being subjected to clinical trials. He has done a good job of marketing it by pushing buttons that resonate in a world held spellbound by conspiracy theories.

    “What if this remedy had been discovered by a European country, instead of Madagascar? Would people doubt it so much? I don’t think so,” he asked in a recent interview.

    “What is the problem with Covid-Organics, really? Could it be that this product comes from Africa? Could it be that it’s not OK for a country like Madagascar, which is the 63rd poorest country in the world… to have come up with (this formula) that can help save the world?”

    The drink is derived from artemisia – a plant with anti-malarial properties – and other indigenous herbs, and supposedly cures patients in ten days.

    By the way, Madagascar just recorded its first coronavirus-related death despite ‘Covid-Organics.’ But that’s not bad, compared to the toll in countries which have turned their noses at this bit of liquid African magic.

    That said, the malaria link is quite intriguing. Don’t be surprised if –when a cure is found, or an explanation established for why Africa has not produced the death rates recorded in Europe and North America – there’s a connection to malaria.

    A little over a week ago, proprietor of African Independent Television (AIT), Dr. Raymond Dokpesi, and some members of his family who had been diagnosed as Covid-19 positive, were treated and managed a swift recovery from the disease.

    Dokpesi, on release from isolation, regaled the world with tales of being treated solely with malaria drugs. He wondered whether there was really any difference between malaria and Covid-19. For his trouble he got a polite lecture from NCDC boss, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, about one (Covid-19) being caused by a virus, and the other, brought on by a parasite.

    Many would continue to doubt if apples are different from oranges until they have a Damascus Road conversion – most likely in an isolation ward.

    Fresh from his lockdown heroics that saw him bulldozing two hotels whose proprietors violated his Executive Order, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, announced a relaxation window of four days to enable his people stock up on necessities for the final battle against the virus.

    The very next day he was seen attending an event of his People’s Democratic Party (PDP). He even managed to find himself in the middle of an overcrowded photograph that appeared to have been taken in an age before someone invented ‘social distancing.’

    Cynics allege he deliberately relaxed the lockdown to create a convenient legal window for the event. But who can begrudge a man a little overcrowding after the exhaustions of keeping the crowds off the streets of Port Harcourt.

    One thing that is becoming clear after nearly two months of living under restrictions, is that people are developing corona fatigue.

    Lagos is the epicentre of the outbreak with 2,550 of the over 6,000 confirmed cases. After five weeks of a pretend lockdown, the government has been casting around for other solutions – including imposing a short term shut down.

    It subjected the idea to, of all things, a social media poll. On Facebook it was roundly rejected. I am mystified as to why anyone would do this. This is a matter that should ordinarily be determined largely by science, even if its implementation would have economic consequences. Why subject it to polling by a multitude – many of whom lack knowledge to decide rationally, or don’t even believe Covid-19 exists?

    Social media polling has its uses, but I would rather it is left for voting out participants in a reality show than for deciding measures to rein in a killer virus.

    The government has since come out to say it is working to open up the entire state economy.

    Around the country, governors are falling over themselves to do the same – not because the rate of infection is declining, but because pressure for people to get back to their normal lives is becoming unbearable. People cannot abide being shut away for long, so we have to adjust to the implications of carrying on in the absence of cures and vaccines.

    When HIV/AIDS broke out in the 80s, there was so much fear and dread; and for many who contracted it in those days it was a death sentence. There’s still no cure or vaccine for it. But therapies have been developed over the decades that have enabled people live fairly normal lives whilst carrying the virus in their bodies.

    With regular handwashing, rubbing of sanitiser and wearing of face masks, we are simply making peace with the fact that Covid-19 will always be an unseen threat – a touch, a breath away – until science delivers a solution.

  • Loot for expressways/Niger Bridge, not governors

    Tony Marinho

     

    COVID-19 spreads relentlessly and records deaths approaching 325,000, infections 5,000,000, with around 6,500 recognised cases in Nigeria.

    We who are educated or well informed about Covid-19 has a huge responsibility of enlightenment and education to inform those around us about prevention including social distancing six feet apart.

    The return of Abacha loot is welcome. No doubt there is a huge amount of money stashed abroad belonging ‘Fellow Nigerians’ but diverted by different rulers, their spawn, and their cohorts.

    There is a feeling that Abacha loot is all the rage today because he is dead and can no longer retaliate in the manner, he is notorious for and others in his shoes are still capable of.

    Secondly the loot was so huge, approximately $5billion that the foreigner bankers, partners in corruption, greedy, could not hide it even by ‘bankers’ silence and secrecy’ and more in a growing era of greater international transparency with governments sanctioning some banks for corrupt practices!

    The call by the Nigerian Governors Forum for the federal government to disburse the fund through the three-tier system is unfortunately not taking in the whole picture.

    They are not right, just as they were wrong to refuse to save up to $100b, in reserves and other funds like the Sovereign Wealth Fund, during the seven+ years of plenty when requested to do so by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for a rainy day. Well it is pouring now and no apology yet and we face a recession because our leaders failed to save.

    The federal government again is correct in the light of falling projecting revenue streams and the urgent need for the ‘quick’ completion of the chosen projects.

    However, it could have carried the governors along with nationwide benefits of a speedier completion of the 20-year ludicrously prolonged rehabilitation of the cursed Lagos-Ibadan former expressway, completing the 40-year overdue Second Niger Bridge and completing the Abuja-Kaduna Road.

    Note that the dreaded eight-year loan of $3.4b from the World Bank is less than the funds looted by one man -Abacha- whose name must be removed from stadia, estates, streets and schools and his GCON honour stripped from him.

    With Ibrahim Gambari as Chief of Staff to President Buhari, who was around during the era of Abacha culminating in the execution of Kenule Saro Wiwa and eight others and the annulment of June 12, is Abacha’s name plate secure, for now at least? ‘Stolen’ means a little, ‘looted’ mean a ‘lot’ was stolen! If this $311m Abacha loot is divided, it will have only minimum impact by being diluted and dissipated by being divided among 1,000 projects [$31,000, N12.444m]/project] among 744 LGAs, 36 +1 states and the federal government instead of into the three projects above, those projects will not be completed in our lifetime!

    All Nigerians are dependent on the roads and the expected bridge to, long overdue, ease their lives. Finish the expressways and 2nd Niger Bridge.

    Nigerians see international quick builds from skyscrapers to 1000 bed hospitals but lack such inspirational events to be proud of at home.

    The poor state of the Lagos-Ibadan road and the trouble visited upon users of the road have been an albatross around the neck of successive governments.

    The Abacha loot will allow the government to ‘quickly’ finish the long overdue project. Why should our citizens suffer forever on and for the road that would have been fixed in a year by a serious government?

    Almajiris are unfortunate religious, economic, political and health victims of a feudal system and a single focus ‘religious education only’ system.

    Nothing however in the 2020s can justify compounding their problem and suffering by forcing them to beg for their food for half of every day as their lot in life.

    Of course, they will become hungry and angry –‘hangry’, jealous, disillusioned and dangerous to any alleged enemy.

    Some observers feel almajiris are beings just sent south to cause trouble and fill an agenda of domination by flooding with young humanity.

    Some think they are sent south because their parents and teachers have realised they can no longer cope and seek to transfer their responsibility to others.

    Some even think that they are biological weapons to spread Covid-19. Whatever the reason, the individual almajiri are the ages of our brothers and sisters, children, and schoolmates.

    While only time will reveal which of the above conspiracy theories they present, they represent a Child Human Rights Humanitarian Crisis with serious social, medical, accommodation and feeding problem perspectives visited up Nigeria by an irresponsible adult-hood and governance system.

    Do they deserve succour or censure, caution or kindness, friendliness or fear, love or loathing, charity, or condemnation? If they are no threat and we see and treat them as a threat, they will become a threat as they will react and remember the bitter pill we asked them to swallow and become a threat to us tomorrow.

    If they are a threat and we treat them well, will that kindness stop them from carrying out whatever threat they have been brainwashed to carry out?

    Yes, the herdsmen and accompanying terrorists have unfortunately changed the South in the last 10 years with murder, slash and burn attacks at or even without the slightest provocation.

    Is ‘The almajiri question’ a cause or a consequence of problems? Is it a part of or separate from the herders and ISIS terrorists campaign? Why is government silent!

  • CBN reserves $100b? 4th Mainland Bridge

    CBN reserves $100b? 4th Mainland Bridge

    Tony Marino

    COVID-19 spreads relentlessly and records deaths approaching 300,000, infections 4,300,000, with around 4,700 recognised cases in Nigeria. Each of us who is in any way educated or well-informed about Covid19 has a huge responsibility of enlightenment and education to inform those around us about prevention including social distancing six feet apart.

    Millionaires and billionaires worldwide and especially African and Nigerian have begun to think not about the big money picture which they may not live to spend and which they cannot carry beyond the grave. Some, but not enough of them are thinking and taking action about the small picture in their community and corporate citizens, and there are over 100million of them. That is the picture they can prayerfully carry beyond the grave to judgement day. That picture is of the life meted out to all citizens and the changes that can be made by outside sources like millionaires and billionaires. That picture is of the love and appreciation or neglect of any nation’s greatest asset -its unappreciated poor. You do not have to be dirty to be poor. One can be well-dressed and be financially poor. A living wage, not a minimum wage, is the key anti-poverty strategy. Even if you grew from poverty to billions, it does not make poverty right!  As we applaud the Africa Philanthropy Forum and individuals, ask the business moguls to care better for their own struggling minimum wage workers, daily pay workers. Conversely, they think nothing of giving Maserati-size bonuses to senior workers. The stock trader and bankers’ bonus are among the insulting bonuses. They insult the intelligence of those who save lives for a living be they bus drivers, ships captains, doctors, nurses, police persons and soldiers risking death daily.  Why is saving or giving a life worth nothing more than late-paid salary while making a stock rise or earning a bank dollar bill is so rewardable in a banker’s bonus??? Everyone deserves a bonus in proportion to good work.

    Aside from that. Back to the poor… Where are these poor? Everywhere! The biggest health challenge to the world is not Covid19. It is the carelessness towards the poor who the politicians and economic leaders deliberately ignore. Politicians out of maliciousness, greed or ignorance systematically denied life-sustaining facilities like adequate sanitation, health, housing, transport to the less-than-wealthy citizens. Please note that during pre-election political debates ‘ignorance’ means disqualification and failure during the election. Knowledge about strategies of achieving SDGs is vital and can only be obtained by study. Which politicians can study anything apart from the amount in their bank account? Most of us study hard to get qualifications to become and remain professionals.

    Nigerian politicians take among the highest fees for questionable quality of service in the world. The Salaries and Perks SAPping Nigeria dry must be stopped. We call for a 75% permanent cut in salaries and perks.

    Today across the world millions of millionaires and thousands of billionaires are forced, under threat of Covid19, to sit at ‘Home Alone’. Money is not bad on its own. Not every billionaire is bad. All money is useless to all the dead. Their children do not guarantee eternal corporate existence. Eternal fame and shame are different sides of the same coin.  Forced to be at home alone, they open the finest wine and Champagne bottles, bringing no lasting joy after the first week of Covid! Luxuries need to be flaunted, shared, stared at, envied for ego-pumping and gloating, the gluttony of the mind.

    Only the magic words ‘Thank You’ from genuine beneficiaries will bring that glow that only ‘Genuine Giving without expecting reward and receiving without guilt or debt’ can do. As they enjoy the fruits of their honest or illegal labour, the wealthy in funds and the wealthy in social and political power know which, they must know that greed and charitable handouts and palliative donations are not enough to save the world. To lift more out of poverty, the wealthy in money or power must plan a better world to avert an explosion of the rumblings of Covid-19 which has unleashed many local hunger and anger or ‘h-anger’ riots.

    The Covid-19 has revealed self-worth jobs besides politics and business. Clapping and pressing car horns in honour of previously denigrated and insulted ‘essential workers’ like health workers, fire personnel, security staff, waste disposal and market staff is good. So, included in any such ‘Nigerian/World Anti-Poverty Strategic Plan’ plan must be improved survivable wages to the lower cadre of workers, and higher percentages allocated to schemes against poverty. Nigeria needs a new generation of service politicians who will go to and return from office without corruption or scandal.

    Nigerian billionaires should come together to raise $50-100billion to donate/ lend to Nigeria to back up Nigeria’s foreign reserves.

    Lagos State must give the 4th Mainland Bridge to a consortium of upright Nigerian engineering companies and engineering faculties of universities. It is a bridge, not nuclear physics. Nigeria has deep sea divers used to welding oilrigs. We have maybe 25 universities offering engineering. Nigerians alone can build bridges! For how long will Julius Berger, RCC continue to spoon feed us? Why do four different Chinese companies want to build our bridges? This is the greatest Nigerian construction of the 2020-2030 decade. Are we again going to be bystanders paying huge funds for foreigners’ salaries and perks? Do not bring more professional shame on us!!

  • The Coronavirus diaries (7)

    The Coronavirus diaries (7)

    Festus Eriye

    The total number of confirmed coronavirus infections in Nigeria is within touching distance of 5,000 with fatalities just over 150. Compared to a staggering 1,390,000 cases and 82,000 deaths in the US, you may be forgiven for thinking we don’t have a problem.

    But with just a little over 27,000 tests conducted, this is far from the true picture of what we are contending with.

    Those who take the threat seriously understand that with an infectious disease, the potential for explosive growth is just one indiscretion away.

    Last weekend, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo told his countrymen how one person at a fish processing plant in the port city of Tema infected 533 of his co-workers!

    From the early days when the index case was identified in Ogun State, authorities at state and federal levels have reacted with varying degrees of seriousness to the pandemic.

    One of those who clearly took it seriously, perhaps too seriously, was Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike. First, he arrested two Caverton Helicopters pilots and prosecuted them for violating his state’s Covid-19 regulations.

    It turned out the pilots had clearance from the Federal Government. Not long afterwards he apprehended a busload of oil workers and it took the threat of a nationwide shutdown of the oil and gas sector for him to let them go.

    A few days ago, he made it clear how serious he was about locking the virus out of Rivers State: he bulldozed two hotels that violated the Executive Order he issued shutting down parts of Port Harcourt.

    The massive fallout that followed raised the question whether he had overreacted. Was this the perfect example of the cure being worse than the disease? Some suggested he could have sealed the buildings or converted them to isolation centres. Perhaps he should have sealed them and waited for a court to order demolition in line with the law.

    But what is appropriate punishment for an action that not only endangers lives, but actually leads to death? If someone had died after being exposed to infection at the hotels would the proprietors of the facility be guilty of manslaughter or murder? Viewed in that light was demolition excessive?

    Of course, there’s no guarantee that the demolitions would deter other potential violators. After all, the existence of the death penalty has not stopped people from committing crimes that attract capital punishment.

    While Wike battles on against all comers, up north the business of mysterious deaths continues unabated. First, it was Kano, now there are reports of hundreds dying in parts of Bauchi, Yobe and Jigawa.

    Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, admitted that 150 people died in Azare town in one month and not one week as claimed by a former member of the House of Representatives, Ibrahim Baba. But just like his Kano State colleague, Abdullahi Ganduje, before him, he blamed the deaths on hypertension and other ailments – insisting they were not Covid-19 related.

    Since those affected had been buried, it is not clear if state authorities reached this conclusion after exhumation of the bodies and examining them. Or they relied on verbal autopsy as in the case of Kano.

    Meanwhile, in Jigawa State an interesting dimension emerged with a certain Senator Ibrahim Hadejia asserting that people were dying not from coronavirus but fasting!

    The trouble with his theory is people have been observing the annual fasting ritual for eons and there’s no record of them dropping dead in numbers because of their spiritual exertions.

    As his intervention became the subject of a thousand jokes, the senator tried to walk back his comments. He said he had been quoted out of context – the favourite excuse of everyone in Nigeria who comes down with a bad case of foot-in-the-mouth disease.

    One of the biggest challenges authorities face in tackling the pandemic is not shortage of bed space or testing capacity. Rather it is the enduring scepticism. If anything, as the toll has risen so has the ranks of the sceptics grown.

    Even worse is the attitude of many towards the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). For them, this is not an agency out to save lives, rather it’s a mere advocate of lockdowns sent from hell to disrupt their lives and businesses.

    Aside disputing the numbers churned out daily, they insist that Covid-19 in Nigeria is not the original article.

    They argue that unlike coronavirus patients in New York, London and elsewhere who you see clinging to life on ventilators or looking sufficiently sick, their Nigerian counterparts are anything but. They sneer when you talk of varying degrees of severity of symptoms. You point out in vain that Mallam Abba Kyari died from this disease.

    But who can blame them? A few days ago, Covid-19 patients in Gombe State broke out of isolation and blocked a major road chanting anti-government songs to protest maltreatment at the facility.

    In another incident, two doctors and a nurse were held hostage by patients at the Kwanar Dawakin isolation centre in Kano. They were angry over delays in testing and treatment. Back in Kaduna, a fleeing coronavirus patient engaged a security official who wouldn’t let him out to pray in a scuffle.

    At a facility in Oghara, Delta State, a naval rating pulled a knife on guards who tried to stop him from smoking a marijuana joint. In a recent video, some bored patients were captured doing cartwheels in their ward. They were that ill.

    Let’s end with some cheery news. There may be an increase in new cases, but hundreds have also been discharged in Lagos and other states.

    But even this bit of positivity is suspicious for the sceptics. How come people are recovering in droves from a supposedly deadly virus? This development solidifies their position that what we have here is simply malaria and typhoid masquerading as the real thing.

    It’s all too reminiscent of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who dismissed Covid-19 as just a “little flu.” As you read this, nearly 12,000 people have died since the outbreak of that “little flu” in his country.

  • You may host the Coronavirus soon

    You may host the Coronavirus soon

    Niyi Akinnaso

    Not my portion, as some Nigerians would say of this headline. Such denials, however, do not lessen the danger of this coronavirus, code-named COVID-19. The truth is that it is easily transmissible and, therefore, highly infectious. It has infected over 4 million people and killed nearly 300,000 worldwide. Although the figures still appear relatively low in Nigeria—over 4,000 infections and nearly 200 deaths—we must be very careful with the virus, because it is already lurking in our communities and infecting more and more people daily.

    This is what is meant by “community transmission” or “community spread”. There are vectors among us, that is, those who are already infected with the virus, having been infected by previous contacts. Some of the vectors may not even know, because they have no symptoms—that is, no signs of infection yet.

    Nevertheless, they transmit droplets of the virus, whenever they talk, sneeze, or cough within a meter or less of other persons. The droplets can then infect those other persons through the mouth, nose, or eyes. They eventually make the lungs their habitat, leading to fever (higher than normal bodily temperature), headache, sneezing, coughing, and other symptoms. As the virus takes over the lungs, breathing becomes more and more difficult. That’s why some infected patients need oxygen to help them breathe. In extreme cases, the lungs may fail, leading to the use of a ventilator to take over the breathing process.

    If you are not convinced yet that community transmission has arrived with full force, just look to the almajiri in the North. They are perhaps the largest most potent vectors of coronavirus in Nigeria today. Following their forced exodus from Kano by the vengeful Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, they’ve become itinerant vectors of coronavirus across the country, infecting people in Jigawa, Kaduna, Bauchi, Taraba, and Oyo among others.

    That’s why their attempts to cross state borders, in spite of government-imposed state border closures, have been met with stiff resistance, Thus, recently, food ferrying trucks, loaded with almajiri, have been turned back in Abia, Benue, Cross River, Ogun, Ondo, and Osun states.

    The guidelines provided by the Nigerian Center for Disease Control are intended to prepare the general public for preventing themselves against infection. The guidelines include

    • imposing a lockdown, especially on hotspots;
    • staying at home during the lockdown;
    • wearing a face mask on stepping out of the house;
    • washing hands frequently with soap under running water or using alcohol-based hand sanitiser;
    • avoiding touching one’s face, nose, and mouth, because those are the entry points of the virus; and
    • maintaining physical distance of at least 5 feet away from the next person. These guidelines are based largely on those provided by the World Health Organisation.

    Federal and state government have been assisting the most vulnerable members of society financially and materially in order to ease the economic effects of the lockdown. Businesspersons, communities, organisations, and individuals have also been assisting in the process.

    It is also the duty of the government to give hope to the people, by assuring them of their safety, while also telling them the truth about the handling of the virus. This, in fact, is the basis for the daily briefings on the progress made in containing the virus and the daily publication of infection cases and casualties. President Muhammadu Buhari may be missing in action, as usual, but the Presidential Task Force he set up has been up to the task in the face of global competition for the same medical supplies and with limited funds.

    To be sure, federal and state governments continue to be criticised for not doing enough as are governments and their leaders all over the world. Neither American Donald Trump nor British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who got infected and nearly lost his life in the process, are exempted from sharp criticisms. No government was prepared for COVID-19, and no government has a perfect answer to the attendant problems.

    Nevertheless, there is no doubt that COVID-19 has exposed the Nigerian government’s inadequate investment in healthcare more than many other countries. This was clearly demonstrated by the admission by the Director General of the NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, that there are only “about 3,500 bed spaces available across the country” to serve a population of over 200 million! “This is insufficient”, he added, “and it leaves the infectious disease control agency to struggle.”

    This admission is indicative of the shortfalls in all areas of healthcare across the country. There are shortfalls in healthcare providers. There are shortfalls in testing laboratories. There are shortfalls in medical supplies, including personal protective equipment for medical personnel.

    The inadequacies of the country’s health facilities should have guided the government in its initial reaction to the pandemic. International borders should have been closed by February 28, when it was clear that the index case came from Italy and that the virus was already spreading in Europe and the United States. Furthermore, arrangements should have been made much earlier, rather than wait until recently to scamper for hotels to use as isolation centres for quarantining and testing returnees from the Diaspora.

    These shortcomings should have warned the general public to be prepared to take responsibility for their own safety. Unfortunately, there are far too many poor people in the country, who could not withstand prolonged lockdown without dyeing of hunger. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, about 83 million Nigerians live on less than N137,430 a year, that is, less than N400 a day! Their disdain of the government was accentuated by the celebrated palliatives, which never reached them. Besides, the high level of incredulity about the virus among poor and illiterate populations makes compliance with prevention guidelines difficult, if not impossible.

    Of course, the elite have taken the guidelines seriously. However, they seem to forget that the masses that threw caution to the wind, especially after the government relaxed the lockdown on May 4, 2020, could become vectors of the disease. The artisans, drivers, and other daily paid workers, who work for the elite, could re-infect the elite, who are now cocooned in their homes. They, therefore, have a dual responsibility of self protection and of educating the masses to protect everyone by protecting themselves first.

    The elite have to do this if they don’t want to host the coronavirus soon.

  • Reactions to COVID-19 and mitigation measures

    Reactions to COVID-19 and mitigation measures

    Niyi Akinnaso

     

    AFTER the coronavirus, otherwise known as COVID-19, had landed in Nigeria through airplane travellers from Europe and the United States, the government began contact tracing, testing, and treating infected persons. The general public was advised to wear face masks; wash hands with soap under flowing water or  rub hands with alcohol-based sanitiser; maintain physical distance from other persons; and avoid crowds.

    Nigerians have reacted differently to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has infected over 3.6 million and killed over 253,000 people across the globe. The reactions vary from  ignorance, indifference, and denial to anxiety, worry, and confusion. At the same time, there are also those who understand the lethality of the coronavirus, and are, therefore, very cautious. Unfortunately, the latter group is in the minority in Nigeria. Yet, this is the group that the government typically speaks to on television and in print.

    The reactions to the coronavirus pandemic in the country reflect two extremes, indicating variations in levels of education, exposure, and historical knowledge. At one extreme are those Nigerians who simply have no idea whatsoever what coronavirus is or means or simply deny its existence. They include illiterates, artisans, and various categories of daily paid wage earners.

    I got to know their views through telephone conversations with contacts in Ondo state, especially Idanre, my hometown, and Akure, the state capital, where I have been in self isolation since mid-March. Most of the informants were people I grew up with and others who had worked for me or my wife on one project or the other in the last eight years.

    I found the level of incredulity among many of them intolerable. Nothing like coronavirus, many of them claimed with unfounded certainty. Some of them argued that the Federal Government manufactured the disease to get loans and donations from big businesses and that states were only providing figures of infected persons to obtain their own share of the money. There are some among them who thought it was only a disease associated with rich and powerful people since no one contracted it in their neighbourhood and the deaths they heard about were those of well-to-do people. Clearly, some of their views were molded by their knowledge of rampant corruption in the country.

    The people’s incredulity was further intensified by fake news, conspiracy theories, and the government’s policy shifts, occasioned by new knowledge of the pandemic and its steady spread across the country.

    A large chunk of the incredulous group consists of people officially designated as poor. Recent figures released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics indicate that 82.9 million Nigerians belong to this group. They live on about N138,000 a year, which translates to about N11,500 a month, that is, less than 400 Naira a day. Unfortunately, the longer the lockdown went on, the more hungry and uncomfortable this group became. This is also true of daily paid workers whose resistance to the government’s containment measures got intensified by hunger.

    The policies developed by various countries to curb and contain the pandemic have had debilitating effects on every kind of economic activity imaginable with the rare exception of those involved in the production of medical supplies.

    True, an economic meltdown of global proportions is in the making, the prospect for Nigeria is particularly dire. A country that has been struggling to survive largely on loans long before COVID-19 has had to borrow more in order to meet the costs of containment and treatment of the disease.

    Yet, the price of oil, Nigeria’s major source of income, has been slashed in half! The various emergency measures, including curfews and lockdowns, established by various governments, have led to drastically reduced demand for oil and its products, leaving oil producing countries with over-supply.

    Unfortunately, millions of Nigerians have no idea about the global economic situation and how it affects them. They are consumed in their own world of daily living, of waking up, finding something to do or someone to beg to provide food for the day. Just picture the almajiris in the North with begging bowls in hand. Unfortunately, they are now among the major carriers of the coronavirus as they move or are moved across Northern states.

    It is against the above backgrounds that we must assess the government’s COVID-19 policies. Although the government did well in initially restricting incoming flights to Lagos and Abuja, international borders should have been closed even at that time.

    The initial restriction of the lockdown to Lagos, Ogun and the Federal Capital Territory, where infections were initially detected, was also a grave error. The President should have secured the cooperation of all state governors to apply the lockdown nation-wide and close inter-state borders. All incoming arrivals from overseas should have been quarantined and their movement restricted within Lagos and Abuja for at least 14 days. Those initial errors reflect the government’s poor understanding of the patterns of spread in Asia and Europe, where lockdowns were applied nationwide.

    Today, the nation is suffering from the pains of those initial oversights as the virus spreads across the nation. This is particularly true of the North, where Northern governors were initially resistant to taking necessary mitigation measures. The warning editorial by The Punch newspapers on April 23, 2020, has turned out to be prophetic: “Severe danger lies ahead, … particularly with the stance of the Northern Governors’ Forum … (which) … decided that it would not prescribe a lockdown of the region … That decision is wrong and shows that these governors are not handling the pandemic scientifically”.

    A much greater danger lies ahead for the entire nation as the Federal Government lifted the lockdown on Lagos, Ogun, and the FCT on Monday, May 4, 2020. As the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 noted on Monday, the level of compliance with safety measures to ward off infection has been extremely low.

    It may appear too early to assess the government’s action. But one thing is clear: In countries, such as Germany, Ghana, and Hong Kong, where lockdowns were lifted, the second spike has been devastating. We must expect an even greater spike, because we lifted the lockdown in the highly infected areas, even as the infection rates were going up.

     

     

  • The coronavirus diaries (6)

    The coronavirus diaries (6)

    FESTUS ERIYE

     

    THE government envisaged a ‘gradual easing’ of the lockdown: the people executed a chaotic, mass breakout from confinement.

    By the end of Monday, May 4, 2020, the day residents of Lagos, Ogun and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were free to move about after a five week shutdown, all the best laid plans of the Boss Mustapha-led Presidential Task Force (PTF) were in tatters.

    Some of the most anarchic scenes played out, predictably, in Lagos, where from early morning huge crowds besieged bank premises in a desperate bid to lay hands on cash.

    In one viral video, four security staff of a bank battled gamely to prevent the surging crowd from forcing their way through the narrow pedestrian gate and overrunning the facility. People in a faint nod at Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) guidelines had cloth masks across nose as they pressed on others in front of them – social distancing be damned!

    Commercial buses whom state authorities had asked to operate at 60% capacity were largely back in business as usual, packed to the rafters.

    I read the account of a bus conductor who suggested that many drivers were willing to obey but the existing system of extortion by transport union enforcers and the police made the economics unworkable.

    Giving his assessment of how the first day went, NCDC chief, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, in a massive case of understatement said the conduct of Nigerians had been unacceptable. He then suggested that if people don’t behave and infections rise, the authorities may have no choice than to lockdown again.

    I don’t see that happening in a hurry. The spike would have to be earth-shaking to provoke such a response. What drove the policy initially – science – isn’t able to sustain it in the face of political and economic pressures.

    Consider this. Last Monday, after President Muhammadu Buhari announced a 14-day lockdown of Kano, many were relieved that firm action was finally being taken to contain the spate of deaths believed to be linked to Covid-19.

    But many were shocked when Governor Abdullahi Ganduje barely days after began campaigning for government to relax the measure. He followed up last Saturday with the stunning announcement that he had relaxed the shutdown and people were free to go shopping for essentials on two days.

    Before his dramatic action, he didn’t consult the PTF. Perhaps he knew they would discountenance his request, so he went straight to the president who he said granted approval.

    This confusing flip-flop was even harder to understand when Dr. Sani Gwarzo, the PTF coordinator sent to Kano to conduct investigations announced that mysterious deaths that had claimed several prominent citizens of the state were related to Covid-19. He was merely confirming what many had long suspected.

    The upshot is that while official figures hover around 100, actual fatalities may be much higher. Bear in mind that undertakers in Kano had been reporting burials in the hundreds in a matter of days.

    So coronavirus may have claimed hundreds of lives while we comfort ourselves with official statistics – and this is not being sensational.

    A continuing story line in the evolution of the pandemic is the fact that two states – Kogi and Cross River – haven’t reported a single case despite being surrounded by states with multiple infections.

    Could it be that the authorities in these states know something about keeping the virus at bay that others don’t? If they do, they are not sharing the secret with the rest of the country – just content to enjoy their perfect, infection-free cocoons!

    What they do know and have been sharing is mindboggling. Kogi State Information Commissioner, Kingsley Fanwo, claims there’s an “unholy conspiracy to declare Covid-19 in all states of the federation.”

    He then pointedly alleged that there were “recent pressures from some interesting quarters for Kogi State to find and declare cases of the disease.”

    This is a serious allegation. Unfortunately, he doesn’t say who’s behind this conspiracy.

    But even without that information, we can discuss motive. In whose interest is it that Kogi is listed among infected states? Buhari, NCDC or the PTF? Perhaps, he is talking about local political rivals of Governor Yahaya Bello. Even if that were the case, the state wouldn’t be an exception as 34 others are already infected. It also has a long way to go to catch the likes of Lagos, Kano and FCT.

    The case of Cross River is equally outlandish. State governor, Ben Ayade, fancies himself some sort of intellectual maverick who refuses to follow the popular path in dealing with the pandemic. That’s fine. In Brazil and Sweden the leaders disdained conventional wisdom, now they are paying with deaths in the thousands.

    It would appear that not only are people jealous of the amazing tactics deployed by the governor to shut the virus out of Cross River, these faceless malevolent forces are working overtime to ensure the state is listed as infected.

    State Commissioner for Health, Betta Edu, made the astonishing claim that people were being offered millions just to accept that they are infected with coronavirus. Who would make such an offer? Who would consider it believable? In any case, if indeed millions were truly on offer, dear commissioner, many would gladly jump at the giveaway – shooting your state up the Covid-19 rankings.

    So with Nigeria nowhere the peak of infections the strategy seems to be hope and pray that responsible conduct on the part of citizens would help slow the rate of infections and fatalities until a vaccine is ready.

    I am not too optimistic. Nigerians are so used to living with killers they are not going to be easily intimidated by a virus they can’t see or touch. Every year thousands of our people are killed by malnutrition, various types of sickness and disease, extra-judicial killings and terrorism just to mention a few. So, for many, this virus is just an upstart killer joining a long queue.

    And as we do every day in these parts, the battle to outwit coronavirus is now down to every man for himself.

     

  • Covid-19: Wash masks!! Federalism now!!

    Tony Marinho

     

     

    COVID-19 spreads relentlessly and records deaths approaching 260,000, infections 3,700,000, with around 2,800 recognised cases in Nigeria. Each of us who is in any way educated or well informed about Covid-19 has a huge responsibility of enlightenment and education to inform others about prevention including social distancing -six feet.

    Surely most businesses and corporate bodies who have sacked their workers while pretending to ‘generously’ give token donations should instead pay all and especially their junior workers something close to their salaries during this 2-3-month period of the pandemic as a powerful grassroot-reaching palliative strategy.

    Masks to be worn nationwide, a serious strategy with poor social distancing in public transport and crowded areas like markets and travel. Remember to wash your masks and dry them before wearing them the next day. You need at least two.

    A dirty mask is a dangerous infected piece of cloth. Even a clean but incompletely dry mask is a bed for growing bacteria and especially fungus – a particular danger to the lungs.

    Keep your mask in a separate bag or envelope. Never just stuff it into a dirty pocket. It will just get dirtier and more infected. Masks can save lives or become a source of infection. Care for your mask and it will care for you.

    Covid-19 is initially an invisible disease and for most people the disease is mild. For 2-5%, Covid19 does cause Grievous Bodily Harm and sadly, death. No one is safe, everyone is at risk.

    The list of the dead and afflicted reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ and ‘Who is Not Who’. No one is immune no matter how much money, muscle or mansions people have or do not have. Poverty is an aggravating factor because social distancing is impossible in the close confines of living, working and transportation- added risks.

    The best approach to staying alive is prevention. Self-isolation is ideal but even your safe place is contaminated with household members going to market and not being supervised on return especially when what is delivered or exchanged is not cleaned.

    A big part of prevention, beyond social distancing and hand washing, is to keep all surfaces constantly clean- steering wheels, seats. Keep your hands washed.  Remember everything may be infected by other unseen person’s cough or handling.

    NB: Every bottle should be considered dirty and infected. Every bottle, of water and especially a shared sanitiser bottle, should be wiped with sanitiser BEFORE you use it.

    Women should remember that they carry around with them, of necessity or out of fashion, an infection source which penetrates from contacting an infection in infected markets and offices and public transport right into their bedrooms and children’s rooms.

    It is a major unrecognized carrier of infection but especially in a pandemic- the handbag. Every handbag is thrown around, put on the floor, on chairs and on seats and handled by others -servants, assistants, family members -all are infection surfaces.

    Many women and girls think their own handbags are ‘Covid19 immune’ and exempt from spreading infection. Some bags are easier to wipe clean than others.

    Let us all advise women and girls to please advise each other to use simple plastic, easy to repeatedly wipe clean. And remember bag handles. Only plastic bags should be fashionable during a pandemic.

    Most countries unite during a war. Unfortunately, Nigeria has messed up its ‘unity’ and disappointed approximately 100 million+ Nigerian unsatisfied at the military and ethnically politically imposed warped relationship between the haves and have nots and resultant creation of the single arrogantly supervising ethnic group and oppressed subservient ethnic groups.

    Nigerian leaders must see the big picture, beyond the pandemic, beyond ‘it is okay to fail at government’, beyond self-enrichment, beyond-government backed criminality, beyond party affiliations, beyond ethnic greed for power and beyond greed for the national cake- if any remains after the pandemic, oil price fall and absent seriously saved foreign reserves of $100b.

    The pandemic war, any war, is supposed to clear our eyes, toughen us and point us to greatness as a country still struggling to become a nation.

    Now, political salaries and perks should be cut by 75% permanently. ‘True federalism’ should be dug up from its burial site in 1966 under a military unitary government under ethnic guidance which got too greedily attached to Nigeria’s wealth leaving too little for the citizens.

    The government remains mislabeled as a ‘federal’ government, and even when it became ‘political’ it never relinquished unitary power.

    The pandemic is the time to retrace the unitary steps exacerbated by this government’s ethnic agenda and have it replaced with a ‘true federal government’ as the crowning principle of 2020 governance.

    Nigerians are crying out for a more honest distribution of palliatives. Much has been donated and borrowed and we cannot afford to lose this money in yet another medical or fiscal corruption scam.

    A word about isolation. If we isolate ‘suspected’ cases of Covid19 in dormitory or ward-like situations, we are bound to have cross-infections. Those without the disease will be infected. They must be separated from each other during isolation.

    Leadership and statesperson-ship is about helping people through their difficult and depressing lives imposed by a weak, selfish and greedy and unaccountable governance system. Just perhaps, the post-Covid-19 pandemic era will be the era of mutual respect for all 345 ethnic groups and not just ‘’all power and all wealth’’ in one hand???

     

  • COVID-19, Rice palliative palaver!  

    COVID-19, Rice palliative palaver!  

    By Tony Marinho

    COVID-19 spreads relentlessly and records deaths approaching 220,000, infections 3,100,000, with around 1,200 recognised cases in Nigeria with Kano the new epicentre with its inability to self-distance and its massive unemployed close-living population with no interest in wearing face masks. Costs are unquantifiable but in excess of $15trillion.

    Nigeria struggles under righteous demands for further cuts in petrol and also diesel prices amidst the lower prices, even nearly negative worldwide, Covid-19 induced transport paralysis and the Russian-Saudi Arabian, oil price war.

    Nigerians are questioning unpleasant stories and the nation awaits explanation for the apparent differences in the anti-hunger and anti-violence palliative funds distributed to different states. EFCC, ICPC be proactive; Nigeria cannot afford another international disgrace and enquiry regarding corruption in the billions pouring in for the Covid-19 war! People hear the money but not a recognizable equivalent in palliatives and their tummies are increasingly rumbling in hunger under lockdown. The matter is not helped by the finger pointing, accusations and denials surrounding some palliative rice delivered to many states with some complaints of poor quality of the product in Oyo and some other states.

    I do not want to believe that anyone high up in the federal government, the Customs or the states affected would be so criminally-minded against innocent Nigerians but a full independent examination must urgently confirm the truth and identify. Guilty parties may be guilty by omission of due diligence following unsatisfactory poor prolonged storage and zero agricultural microbiological supervised quality control before quality assurance prior to release and on arrival. Suggesting that such a large volume of rice could have been criminally switched between the warehouse, wherever that is, and the destination without full connivance of customs and police and federal officers is unimaginable. Where would a state get such a quantity of rice- the exclusive preserve of exclusive-listed federal customs service?

    Nigeria is looking around for even more loans from the UN, WHO, European Union, World Bank, International Monetary Fund claiming its entitlement from chunks of money made available to Africa but it should look inward both the fight the Covid-19 and the replenish the foreign reserves. The president should undertake to phone friends and a few enemies. He should remind them of how much individually they have benefitted from Nigeria with facts and figures given to him by Interpol, Transparency International, Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, and as many foreign leaders as possible. He could ask for a generous contribution in naira or any foreign currency to the foreign reserves to bring them up to $50b. Covid-19 should have taught many people the valueless-ness of their wealth in the face of such a serious attack.

    Now is the best time for wealthy Nigerians to back the economy by strengthening the backbone of the CBN with a boost to the foreign reserves. It is worth noting that Nigeria repeatedly lost the opportunity to build up its foreign reserves under every single government as it was plagued by a spend-spend-spend political class led by a band of governors, mostly now senators, demanding the undeserved title of ‘Distinguished’, who now shed crocodile tears at the pervading super-Corruption, Incompetence, Negligence and Selfishness -CINS- along with what now appear to be criminally and prosecutable high overheads of governance and legislative greed, compounded by a peculiarly Nigerian politicians’ penchant for perpetual salaries for life, after just four or eight years work, and/or commensurate super-pension scams/schemes even as they transited to other lucrative government offices on full-full salaries and Perks further SAPing the country dry and millions without pensions.

    With Covid-19, we announce the death of gossip: Billions of subjects of gossip and natural gossipers have disappeared in the lockdowns worldwide, so the whispered wicked word and sniggering are no more. No one has done anything to gossip about unless they are foolish enough to put it on social media and then it is often quickly dismissed as ‘fake news’. Suddenly the enemies in the office, always good for gossip, and those lounging threateningly on the street corner, in the park, and in the shadows in the dark have receded, physically and psychologically and are no longer a threat. One fear is gone but replaced by another -Coronarvirus. Gossip, the focus, cause and content of so much conversation, time, effort, emotion and all those face contortions is dead for now at least. That is a good thing. People’s minds are purer as a result.

    With Covid19, the bully is also at last dealt with, a suspended terrorist species! Unless one is living with you, or in a face me I face you, the bully is at last forced to keep a safe distance and is forced to suspend hostilities. The bully, be the person a he or she, in your school, office or on your journey is kept at bay. Hopefully the bullies themselves will realise the beauty of life without bullying and will learn that they too can survive without bullying.

    Will the death of gossip and bullying translate into a better life after Covid-19? Perhaps not. Recurrence is a serious possibility. But we are enjoying the periods of ‘silent conversation’ and the enhanced wellbeing and personal security caused by the suspension of gossip and loss of bullying opportunities worldwide. We must still fight on-line gossip and bullying but we can always switch off the computer.