Despite the gradual lifting of the lockdown hitherto imposed by President Muhammadu Buhari on different parts of the country on March 30, a cross-section of Nigerians have demanded total lifting of the lockdown, even as the demand comes with misgivings from different quarters. PAUL OKAH reports.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic berthed in Nigeria, many government officials at the federal and state levels, even without being prompted, declared that the country was ready for any eventuality.
Even when the virus was confirmed in Nigeria on February 27, many state governments believed that it was just “a Lagos thing” and maintained their avowal that their hospitals and health care professionals were fully ready to tackle the pandemic.
However, just a few weeks into the month of March, the true situation of the nation’s health care system was exposed as states started crying out for help and intervention to enable them to control the pandemic.
Nevertheless, despite the provision of palliatives to “the poorest of the poor” in different states, the implications of the lockdown became evident when businesses started winding up, workers laid off by organisations and Nigerians lamenting that they would prefer to be infected with Covid-19 than die of hunger at home.
Also, as a result of brewing civil disobedience against at the backdrop of extrajudicial killings by security agencies implementing the lockdown, concerned authorities appealed to President Buhari to consider lifting the lockdown. Health experts opine that the pandemic will be in different countries for a long time, and that there is no sense in locking Nigerians down at home without adequate palliatives.
Therefore, as a result of the aforementioned factors, President Buhari announced gradual opening of the economy, starting on May 4, by lifting the total lockdown on Ogun, FCT and Lagos and imposing a fresh lockdown on Kano, a state that alarmingly started overtaking the FCT in the number of confirmed cases, revealing that the situation would be reviewed every two weeks.
Since then, the situation has been reviewed twice by the federal government, with more sections of the economy, including banks, hotels, aviation (airlines are expected to resume operations on June 21) being opened for businesses and more measures being put in place to ensure that the pandemic is controlled, including the extension of curfew time from 10pm to 4am.
While declaring open the second phase of ease in lockdown, the national coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19, Dr. Aliyu Sani, said caution must be applied while people go about their businesses.
He said, “The goal of phase two over the next four weeks is to balance public safety with protecting livelihoods as well as allowing the full restoration of economic activities across the country. We are not opening places of worships across the board. We are saying that opening is conditional and it is based on these clear-cut guidelines and would only cover regular church and mosque services.
“Effective from Tuesday, June 2, 2020, the nationwide curfew will remain in place, but the timing of this will be reduced to 10pm to 4am. The purpose of the curfew is to limit social interactions and therefore reduce the risk of transmission of the virus.
“Persons that are on essential duty, including but not limited to those involved in the provision of health care services, media services, and critical infrastructure, are exempted from the curfew. All interstate travels by individuals remain prohibited except for essential travels and the movement of goods and services. All restrictions on the free movement of goods and services is now removed in this phase.
“There will be full opening of the financial sector with banks now allowed to operate normal working hours-five days a week. The mass gathering of more than 20 people outside of the work place or places of worship remains prohibited. There will be controlled access to markets and locations of economic activities. But local authorities will continue to provide guidance on opening times.
“Restricted opening of places of worship will be based on state government protocols and restrict guidelines of physical distancing and other non-pharmaceutical interventions. This will apply to regular church and mosques services only. In terms of general movement, persons may go out for work, go to buy necessary food and for exercise; provided that they abide by the curfew hours.
“Movement between local government areas is strongly discouraged unless for critical reasons such as healthcare and work. I will like to emphasize that it is still safer to stay at home and avoid crowds. The pandemic is not over in this country and the relaxation of some of the rules doesn’t mean that it is safer to go out. If you do not need to go out please continue to stay at home.
“With intra-state travel, we will implement new travel processes for areas of the country with high burden local government areas and this will be restricted to essential travel but for the moment with intra state travel all the prior guidelines will remain, including reduced occupancy for buses and taxis, the need for temperature check and where available, the provision of hand washing facilities and the maintenance of physical distancing.
“For the industry and labour sector in terms of working hours, normal working hours will apply to offices other than government offices provided this is kept within the curfew hours of 10pm to 4am. Offices are to maintain working at 75 per cent capacity while maintaining the two meter physical distancing.
“For government offices, they can open between the hours of 9am to 2pm. So, no change in opening hours, but can work from Mondays to Fridays. Prior to this, we allowed a three-day working week. However, only persons that are within the grade level 14 and above at both the federal and state government levels will be allowed to come to work. We will encourage staff to continue to work from home if possible, including the business and private sector, making the best use of technology that is now available.
“Hotels may re-open but must observe all mandatory non- pharmaceutical interventions. Restaurants, other than those in hotels must remain closed for eat-ins but are allowed to prioritise and continue practising the takeaway system.
“The Federal Ministry of Education has been instructed to work with school owners to prepare students that require exiting exams to allow them to take exams early in the next phase of the lifting of the lockdown. State governments and security agencies are enjoined to ensure effective and strict enforcement of these guidelines while respecting the exemptions that have been approved by Mr. President.”
School owners protest
Speaking to journalists on the development, on June 1, following the directive of the federal government that schools should remain shut, private school owners wrote to the federal government, saying they are hungry and depressed.
An educationist, Abdul-Ganiyy Raji, who spoke on behalf of the private school owners, said it was high time government at all levels extended financial support to private schools, to mitigate the effects of the lockdown.
He said, “It has now dawned on everyone that the current race is not a sprint, it is a marathon. Nobody can even predict when schools will reopen in this country. It would be callous of the government to wait for owners and teachers of private schools to start dying of starvation before it comes to their aid, something should be done now.
“We cannot afford to keep ignoring the welfare of private schools. We must remember that private schools survive primarily on earnings from their customers. We all know that schools have not collected third term fees from their customers. We are aware that all the sources of income of private schools have been blocked by the current lockdown. The government should please do something about private schools.
“In Lagos where I live, schools were shut down as far back as March. As I write this article, we are almost at the end of May. Are we aware that some school owners have not paid March and April salaries?
“You can now imagine what will happen when payment of May salaries is due. Some private schools slashed their staff’s salaries as far back as March. When schools were first shut down, many school owners and teachers had predicted that the closure would only last for a few days or weeks.”
Businesses still affected
Not every business has been allowed to open officially, though even those who were hitherto ordered to stay at home have been defying the orders of the federal government to go and earn a living, else they would die of hunger at home, without the government giving a hoot. Even those who manage to open still regulate time of closure and resumption, leading to calls for a full return to business.
In a chat with Blueprint Weekend from his Lagos base, an artisan, Akanbi Atanda, said his plan was to get married in April this year, but that the plan has been dashed with the situation of the economy.
“You may not understand how this so-called Covid-19 has ruined my whole plan of getting married since 2015. I am a plumber and I also own a mini bus, which I use for commercial transportation in my area, but the coming of the pandemic disrupted my plans of getting married this April.
“Despite the fact that religious gatherings have resumed, kit may take time for me to find my feet again. I am particularly concerned because work has not resumed fully. There is no plumbing work available for me and also no rest of mind here in Lagos state. LASTMA, VIO, FRSC, Neighbourhood Watch, taskforce are enforcing the so called Covid-19 law on commercial vehicles like mad men, so I have really been affected.”
Similarly, in a chat with this reporter, a civil servant in Abuja, Muhammadu Ahmed, said many countries had since opened their economies when it became evident that the pandemic is not going anywhere soon, while Nigeria “is still groping in the dark.”
“Some countries have long gone into planning on how to live with coronavirus, but here in Nigeria, the NCDC is still trying its best to convince the myopic youth that the virus is real. I will advice the federal government to, as a matter of urgency, open up all sectors of the economy for us to get back to where we were before the coming of the pandemic.
“We wasted time in setting up our hospitals in order to combat the pandemic and it is not the fault of the hapless Nigerians bearing the brunt. The present situation does not demand further waste of time, especially the interstate ban. We have hunger problem and the solution is opening the economy. When one is not aware that he has problem, he will never look for its solution,” he said.
Fears over community transmission
The concern of many doctors is that the pandemic will continue to spread, especially now that the transmission is at the community level, with many Nigerians doing everything possible to compound the situation.
In fact, on Monday, June 1, apprehension enveloped Asaba metropolis and its environs when seven men reportedly stormed the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Asaba and forcefully moved a 53-year-old chief nursing officer, Mr Michael Mordi, who tested positive for Covid-19 from the hospital.
According to media reports, the men came in two cars, entered the hospital premises at about 6pm, against the consent of those on duty at the FMC treatment centre, took the patient in one of the cars and sped off, claiming to be the relatives of the patient from Agbor, but could did not give reasons why they were taking the patient away or where they were taking him to.”
Nevertheless, the Delta state ministry of health expressed displeasure over the uncooperative stance of Mr. Michael Nwachukwu Mordi, whom it said tested positive to Covid-19 on May 23rd and was admitted into the FMC Treatment Centre, Asaba, on May 24.
The Ministry in a statement, stated that, “Since the admission of Mr. Michael Mordi, he has been very aggressive and continually threatened the caregivers and also rejected his medications. “At 6pm on Monday, June 1, against medical advice, Mr Michael Nwachukwu Mordi, obviously consenting, was forcefully removed from the treatment centre by 7 men who claimed to be his relatives and without wearing any protective coverings.
“The men therefore, constitute danger to their own health and that of populations and communities with which they come in contact. We used this medium to alert the general public about the public health danger of associating with the patient and with those who have exposed themselves to him.
“The Ministry strongly advise that the said patient be returned to the treatment centre for proper care and those who have already been exposed to him should immediately go into supervised self-quarantine for the next 14 days.”
NMA’s take
Also, the president of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Prof. Innocent Ujah, on Monday urged President Buhari not to allow states take full control of managing the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, as it hitherto proposed.
Speaking on Sunrise, a Channels Television breakfast programme, the NMA boss kicked against the decision, saying if governors were allowed to manage cases, many Nigerians would suffer for it.
He said, “The president should not devolve those powers to the state governments because, apart from Lagos and maybe one or two other states, the commitment is, to say the least, very disappointing. I can say that because I’m a clinician myself.
“I believe that the president should please not devolve those powers. This is an emergency. Coordination is very important and the coordination should be central, should be from a point, because once you do that, Nigerians will be finished. And we pray that he doesn’t do that. “This is not a political issue; this is a health issue. It cuts across everybody. We know where the commitments are and we will need the president to please prevail on the governors. If we leave it to the governors, our people will suffer; they will die and it doesn’t really matter to many of them.”
