Faced with soaring pressure from the business community and simmering tension from a disgruntled citizenry, the Federal Government on 27 April announced the easing of the 28-day lockdown that had been imposed on the states of Lagos and Ogun, as well as the Federal Capital Territory, to curb the spread of the raging coronavirus disease.
President Muhammadu Buhari, in a televised broadcast, hinted that the decision to begin the partial relaxation on 4 May was a trade-off between the determination to defeat the pandemic and the desire to steer the country’s fragile economy away from the path of another recession.
To further emphasise that the threat of the virus was still very real and that the easing of the lockdown was not total, the government rolled out a set of guidelines and safety measures to be adopted within the period. These included: Prohibition of interstate travel, except for essential travels and services, as well as for persons on essential duty; mandatory use of non-medical face masks for all persons while in public spaces; prohibition of mass gatherings of more than 20 people outside of the workplace; retention of a ban on all passenger flights; restriction of religious gatherings; social distancing of two meters must be maintained among people in workplaces and other public spaces; imposition of overnight curfew from 8 pm to 6 am.
It came as no surprise that the majority of health workers, who had been at the frontline of stemming the pandemic in the country, were against the government’s decision. Groups, such as the Nigerian Medical Association and the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals warned of astronomical surge in the number of infections and other consequences. The easing of the lockdown had come at a most inauspicious time – when the number of cases had just begun to escalate. Going by the World Health Organisation’s recommendation, a country can only start to ease restrictions on people’s movement once it is sure that transmission is controlled. Sadly, the reverse is the case here.
Truth be told, in a country like Nigeria, where the health system itself is gravely ill, where the majority of the over 200 million population are living in abject poverty and in overcrowded environments, and where the government had not deemed it necessary to set up any social welfare structure, the safest option would have been to do all that could be done to prevent the virus from entering the country. But since it is here already, the only realistic strategy in winning the war is to maintain a delicate balance between safety of lives and sustenance of livelihoods.
Our recommendation therefore is that, more than ever before, all hands must be on deck to salvage the country from the precarious conundrum in which it has found itself. It must be a collective fight, if we must prevent the catastrophe being predicted by experts and analysts in the aftermath of the lockdown relaxation. Suffice to say that, as things stand, the prognosis does not look very good, judging by the level of compliance with the safety guidelines rolled out by the government. In many areas, the social distancing rule has been largely ignored, with people crowded at banks and bus stops, and many not wearing face masks. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has indeed warned that these flagrant violations could result in more persons being infected and may result in another lockdown.
We call on Nigerians to make concerted efforts in terms of involvement, awareness, enforcement and investment to defeat COVID-19. Especially now that community spread has begun, leaders at all levels must intensify their involvement in ensuring adherence to the guidelines. No leader – political, organisational, religious or traditional – must stand aloof at this time because this has become a “swim-together-or-sink-together” emergency. When leaders are seen to be active, followers naturally take a cue.
We must emphasise that this involvement must begin with the government and, by that, we mean the president in particular. The current approach of occasional pre-recorded national addresses neither communicates involvement nor inspires hope in the citizenry. Similarly, state governors need to join hands with the FG to ensure coherence in this fight. The present trend in which some governors are blatantly countering the NCDC’s directives and others twisting, politicising and even commercialising reports about the situation in their territories is utterly unacceptable.
The issue of awareness is also of particular importance. Presently, there are still many Nigerians who insist that all the brouhaha about COVID-19 is just a hoax. Consequently the restriction and personal hygiene guidelines are merely seen as punishment. Government, in conjunction with community leaders, needs to address this. Enforcement of guidelines also has to be intensified with the help of the various law enforcement agencies. This requires utmost sincerity as current reports do not indicate sanction but collusion with offenders for monetary gain.
Lastly and most importantly, there is need to invest more funds and donations in winning this fight. Scaling up testing and tracing capacity throughout the federation is a matter of priority. Provision of test kits, personal protective equipment, testing and isolation centres, as well as qualified and motivated manpower are of paramount importance. The battle line with COVID-19 is drawn already and Nigeria must emerge victorious.
