Nigeria as a nation in custody has sunk into its sunset with the advent of the Coronavirus, also called COVID-19. This sunset of tragedy is inevitable in Nigeria considering that many Nigerians solely rely on daily incomes. Also, because the number one measure of curbing the COVID-19 is to maintain social distancing.
The government, on the other hand, is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that social distancing is being enforced and adhered to by the Nigerian populace. This has compelled the Federal government to order lockdown in the most affected states, and wisely, some state governors have followed the steps in order to stop the pandemic from coming to their state.
However, the federal government (FG) directives on lockdown, ordering the people to state at home have left many Nigerians a choice between two dilemmas. The choice for many Nigerians now is to decide between going out of their houses and possibly become infected with the deadly Coronavirus or stay at home and die of hunger. Sadly, Nigerians are choosing the former over the latter. This forced dilemma is as a result of many factors related to the concept of the survival of the fittest.
Hunger Kills Faster than COVID-19
COVID-19 is a disease that can be cured with prompt medical attention and most especially, good balance diets that strengthened the hormone system. In our rural environments, nothing like balance died, we eat, we’re satisfied, and we survived. However, the absence of food will kill a lot of people as there might be a possible outbreak of kwashiorkor, ulcer, cholera and other deadly diseases that surface as a result of lack of food.
Before now, this category of people feed on little, but now, they have nothing to survive on. These people are of a different category, they include children, widows, persons with disabilities and the less privileged ones.
Millions of Nigerians who rely on daily incomes for survival have been subjected to face hunger directly. Before now, this category of people feed on little, but now, they have nothing to survive on. These people are of a different category, they include children, widows, persons with disabilities and the less privileged ones.
For instance, in each motor parks in Lagos, there are hundreds of youths who are unemployed but who have resorted to soliciting passengers for commercial drivers without a conductor. This act is usually referred to as “shadow” in the motor pack parlance, and each “shadow” they do for the commercial driver, they get 100 naira or 50 naira which is a heck of a tough way to earn a living. This category of people has no savings because as the money comes, it goes into feeding directly.
Let’s think about the widows and women whose husbands’ incomes have been handicapped by COVID-19 Nigeria’s situation. Many women hawk drinks and other items in the traffic, car parks and other public places. In my street, I saw a girl who was hawking sachet water into the street, and someone asked her where her Mom was and she said her mother was at the bus stop hawking drinks as well. People bought from her not because they wanted to drink cold water but because they felt ten people could assist her with ten naira each, so about ten persons bought sachet water from her.
In my house, I heard my neighbor telling his four kids that this time, nothing like satisfaction; but at least you have something to put in your belly. He told them that they will have to eat only in the morning and at night. Despite the lockdown, this man has to go out daily and hustle for what the children will eat. Anyone that will stop him must be ready to provide for his family’s daily meals. The typical life in face-me-I-face-you environments in Lagos cannot endure this lockdown.
The Politicization of Government Palliatives
As usual, every democratic dividend that is promised the common people in Nigeria always gets wide media coverage. In the real sense, these dividends always end at the doorsteps of the top political figures in the community. News reports speak to government announced figures —appropriations, which are given wide publicity, but which end up unaccounted for in terms of direct benefit to ordinary Nigerians. This seeming intended consequence is more apparent among certain groups or states especially if they belong to the wrong political party.
For instance, the food that was distributed by the Lagos State COVID-19 Team was merely given to Imams of Central Mosques, CAN Members and Traditional Rulers. The Imam of the Central Mosque where I worship, for example, received only a bag of COVID-19 food which includes four derica (cup) of rice, four derica (cup) of beans and a loaf of bread. This Imam has a family, and also ten Imams of small mosques under him that also have families and congregations.
An average family in the rural communities is made up of about five to six persons each: father, mother and three or four kids, but some families might have more or less. Each family eats about two derica (cup) of either rice or beans per meal which means that what government shares will only last for about six to eight days, that is if the family decided to go for one meal per day.
The government should not always rely on foreign assistance in this situation as foreign countries are having similar problems. Instead, they should proffer bold and pragmatic measures that are in steps with the gravity of the current situation.
What’s the Government Responsivity?
At this juncture, it is, therefore, necessary for the government to device a lasting solution to the COVID-19 disease. The government should not always rely on foreign assistance in this situation as foreign countries are having similar problems. Instead, they should proffer bold and pragmatic measures that are in steps with the gravity of the current situation.
The government should not hesitate to put local drugs to lab tests, including tests suggested by some local health researchers. Prominent Nigerians like the Ooni of Ife Ooni Ogunwusi Ojaja II and the Executive Governor of Oyo State, Gov. Seyi Makinde have both proffered local traditional remedies against the scourge. Rather than seeing these suggestions as being primitive, it is better to give it a trial. Besides, primitiveness is seeing what you have as worthless and believing what someone else brings as valuable.
This is not the time for the government or politicians to politisise the COVID-19 palliative programme. Neither is it time also to wait for the western world to find a solution to the COVID-19 problem without embarking on solution-oriented national initiatives of our own. Absence of such bold approached, we might end up having hundreds or thousands of dead victims of COVID-19.
