Dayo Sobowale
I found it rather confusing and agonizing to read the information from the boss of the Nigerian Human Rights Commission Tony Ojukwu that although the corona virus pandemic has killed 11 Nigerians, the nation’s security outfits between them, have killed 18 Nigerians in the first part of the two week lockdown, now extended by the Nigerian President by another two weeks. Certainly this makes one to wonder which is the greater danger to Nigeria’s teeming millions of citizens between their security apparatus and a fast killing global pandemic. This in a way confirms the American president’s retort this week to a press conference question that asked what would happen if more people die if he reopens the economy. The media beleaguered president Donald Trump retorted that death is already the name of the game in lockdowns and he in particular mentioned suicides from unemployment and isolations. Already the US is the epicenter of the global epidemic but the American president is already touting the notion of bouncing back by opening the economy and ‘America bouncing back‘
However in Nigeria although we still have the unfinished and un -won battle with the deadly Boko Haram insurgency and terrorism even as the army has been deployed to Lagos and Ogun states to make sure the now one month lockdown is effective according to the Presidents’ orders .Of course the President is the Commander in Chief but we are not at war and if our security forces kill more people in lockdowns than our invisible enemy of a pandemic, then there is need urgently to review the lockdown security of Nigerians, generally. Indeed there is urgent need to question the rationale for extending the deadline other than to make Nigerians die from starvation or be killed by violations of the lockdown or both, one way or another. An unfortunate but good example of this pathetic situation is from India which has more unfortunate poor people than Nigeria. In India, desperately poor and unemployed people were trekking to their villages after lockdowns made them jobless in the capital Delhi. Most of them said they were ready to die on the road because if they stayed in the capital they would definitely die of hunger. We are yet to hear of any being killed for walking hundreds of miles in violation of the lock downs which their PM has callously extended till early May without considering the plight of such people.
In consonance with the topic of the day it is my view that in spite of the spread of this deadly virus our leaders should show empathy for the suffering Nigerian masses who were neck deep in poverty before the pandemic and are now being sent on a date with death by sheer hunger, with the extension of the two week deadline. We do not need to be copy cats like the rest of the world in solving the problem with lock down of our economy. If, as we have done, we close Lagos and Ogun states again, we endanger the economic and commercial arteries of our economy and the result is economic death, either before or after the pandemic.
Fortunately, we in our part of the world have lived with Malaria and AIDs and many deadly suffocating diseases and have survived as a nation and as a people and the reason is not farfetched. It is because of the peculiar constitution of our people that has maintained our health and survival. Why can we not look for a solution from within and just stop being copy cats of other foreign models? When anti malaria drugs were mentioned as a solution , the US President was all for it until the experts cautioned on tests and corroborations .But here we know the capabilities of our herbs to cure Malaria, fever coughs and difficult breathing which are the symptoms of the corona virus. Why can’t we ask our people to step up on their local respiratory herbs and drugs while observing the basics of hygiene like we did during the Ebola crisis which we survived and whose memory is still with us as a battle won? We can add social distance to that and ask people to go into self isolation while they expect treatment once they have the symptoms. We can as a community be our brothers’ keeper in helping such people to get the attention of the health authorities in our immediate environment.
In Lagos alone, even on Lagos Island on the major streets like Igbosere, Lewis Street, Freeman, there are houses with six or ten people in a room and you wonder where is the room for social distance or self-isolation. But remember we survived Ebola and should survive this corona virus without dying of hunger from lockdown in this pandemic. In addition we cannot afford to discriminate amongst ourselves in finding a solution to this pandemic. We should ask ourselves where is our former INEC Chairman Professor Maurice Iwu? I know he is busy with the EFCC on other matters but we need his expertise now. He proposed before or was associated with using bitter kola to treat respiratory diseases or even ebola. We can ask the EFCC to allow him to help find a local solution to this problem of a pandemic which is a matter of life and death for Nigerians.
I want to illustrate the need and urgency of this local or Nigerian solution with an ancient French story which is the name of a brand of vinegar called –‘Four Thieves Vinegar’. The story is about four thieves caught stealing during the Black Plague in Franc ages ago. On arraignment , the judge asked them that in exchange for their freedom they should tell the court how and why they were not infected with the plague while stealing. The thieves explained that they used a potion of garlic soaked in sour wine called vinegar. According to the story ‘variants of the recipe were used during the plague and were passed on by generations for hundreds of years thereafter‘. I doubt if the government of French President Emmanuel Macron remembers anything about Four Thieves Vinegar to consider it as a solution for the pandemic in this high-tech era. Yet the pandemic has killed thousands of French people without let and the lockdown has even been extended till May. Both French and Nigerian leaders should not scoff at herbal solutions especially now with this pandemic. Moreso in Nigeria where the deaths are minimal compared to France but the lockdown persists. However many Nigerians know the efficacy of garlic and onions in treating flu like symptoms and will not abandon these herbs or other such solutions to survive this pandemic in spite of the lockdowns. This is because they know if their government does not know, that desperate diseases require desperate cure and charity should begin at home.
The other story on discrimination I want to highlight has been nipped in the bud from the same part of our nation. The Northern governors met during the first lockdown and agreed that there was no need for a lockdown in the North and they were not ordering one because their people are farmers who need to go out on a daily basis to earn their living. Which precisely is the situation in Ogun and Lagos states where the President ordered a lockdown and extended it later. What is good for the goose in the North should be good for the gander in Lagos and Ogun states. Cheekily the governors asked for funds to set up testing centers and other facilities to contain the virus in the North . They however got a rebuttal from a group from the same North called Coalition of Northern Groups -CNG -which asked the FGN not to give the funds as they would ‘abuse ‘ it as they did with the FGN funds to pay backlog of workers’ salaries given the governors some time ago. That really is a great indictment of the leadership of the North in particular and Nigeria in general on the sour need for integrity and empathy in governing in Nigeria.
Even here in the South it has been donations galore for the Corona virus fund and right now when those who need such funds don’t have it during the lockdown. Not to talk of where and how to access it after the pandemic.This is not to discourage the spirit of philanthropy. But charity cannot be a substitute for governance especially in a nation that is observing the rule of law and is an elected one, expected to look after the welfare of its people which elected it into power in an election in a democracy. The prerogative of accountability and the rule of law make it mandatory for government to financially take care of its people with apparent empathy and commitment and not rent such important and essential role out in the name of charity. That makes accountability and transparency difficult to monitor and follow as expected in any worthwhile democracy and that is not a good sign of good governance in any democracy. Once again, long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria .
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