Amidst the fear of the third waves of Covid-19, residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have defied the FCT Administration’s directive on wearing of face masks, TOPE SUNDAY reports.
Over a year after the Covid-19 pandemic made its debut in India with some countries already experiencing the third wave of the pandemic residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) may have let down their guards as they have jettisoned the wearing of face masks which is one of the guidelines to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Investigations and participatory observation by Blueprint Weekend confirmed that some resident now use the face masks for cosmetics’ purposes. This is as the facemasks are only mandatory in public places like banks, government agencies among others.
Similarly, some worship centres within Abuja have also long ago jettisoned the use of face masks. This development, observers say may cause the spike of the virus in the territory.
Alarming figures
Nigeria, which recorded its first case of Covid-19 in March 2020, has recorded 165,233 confirmed cases. Out of this number, which was accessed on the website of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC’s), Wednesday, 155,381 victims had been discharged, while 2,063 were casualties.
According to the statistics, a number of 1,939,165 samples were tested out of which 7,789 are the active cases of Covid-19 in the country.
Aside from Lagos, which is leading in the number of Covid-19 cases both in casualties and those discharged, the FCT is second in that order.
Lagos had recorded 58,515 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 56,990 discharged and 439 deaths in less than two years of the outbreak of Coronavirus in the country.
Though Lagos experience with the virus might be alarming, FCT also experienced the same fate though two twice lower than the Lagos figures.
According to the NCDC’s statistics, between March 21, 2020, and the time of this report, the FCT had recorded no fewer than 19,791 confirmed cases of which 19,097 were discharged and 166 fell to Covid-19.
FCT’s efforts
Blueprint Weekend reports that the FCT Administration headed by the Minister of the FCT, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello and the Minister of State, Dr Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, strived to curtail the spread of the virus with the setting up of the of the FCT Covid-19 Enforcement Task Force and Ministerial Expert Advisory Task Team led by the former Minister of the FCT, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo.
The Modibbo-led team is saddled with the responsibility of harnessing private sector support and efforts towards defeating the deadly virus.
Specifically, the team was mandated to rally wealthy individuals and organisations to provide medical, financial and other material support in cushioning the effect of the pandemic in the territory.
Also, the FCT Covid-19 Enforcement Task Force headed by Mr. Attah Ikharo, through the outdoor mobile court in February this year, prosecuted and fined 46 people for the violation of the Covid-19 guidelines.
Despite the efforts by the FCT’s administration to curtail the spread of the virus, some of the residents have continued to flout the Covid-19 guidelines mandating them to wear facemasks.
Blueprint Weekend investigations revealed that most of the commuters in the territory do not comply with the Covid-19 protocols of wearing facemasks.
Our reporter, who on Monday, boarded a commercial vehicle from Kamtape Junction to the popular AYA Roundabouts, observed that four passengers were conveyed by the driver.
Other than this reporter, all the passengers and the driver did not wear face masks for the duration of the trip.
Another trip embarked upon by our reporter from the Nicon Junction to Area One, also revealed that none of the passengers observed the Covid-19 safety protocols.
Speaking with our reporter, a commercial driver Abdullahi Aminu claimed he had tried to observe the Covid-19 protocols earlier in the day but removed his face mask in the afternoon to avoid suffocation.
“Most times, I wear my facemask in the morning but when it is noon, I will remove it to avoid being suffocated because of the scorching sun in Abuja.
“Also, I usually ask my passengers to wear their facemasks. While some of them will oblige me, others will refuse. I must admit here that I don’t have power to force them to comply,’’ he said.
Another driver, who identified himself as Akeem and plies Jabi-Mpape route, said he had stopped wearing face mask long time ago because he did not believe that the virus still exists in the country.
“I don’t believe in it (Covid-19). Since the lockdown imposed on us last year was lifted, I have stopped wearing it (face mask). What does it do? There is no Covid-19 in Nigeria anymore,’’ he said.
An Abuja-based journalist, who spoke to this medium but preferred anonymity, said some of his neighbours in Kuje, a suburb of Abuja, perceived anyone wearing face masks as being infected with Covid-19.
The journalist cited an example where he was at a market in the area and everybody was not wear face mask except him. The development, he said made him look isolated.
“My brother, let me tell you that now, it looks like a crime if you wear a face mask in Abuja. Some of my neighbours in Kuje now see anybody who wears a face mask as Covid-19 victim.
“My experience when I went to a market in my area recently made me look like an outcast. I looked isolated because I was the only person wearing the face mask in the market.’’
Another resident, Adeshina Saheed, said he stopped the use of facemask in April this year because of what he called ‘the western world imagination. According to him, the western world is celebrating Covid-19 because it emanated from them.
He asked if they celebrated Ebola when it broke out in Africa in 2014.
“The western world is celebrating Covid-19 because it came from them. If the virus had emanated from Africa or Nigeria, they would have long abandoned us to our fate. Did you remember the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria in 2014?
“Did they celebrate it? No! Or we did not survive it? We did. For me, I have stopped wearing facemasks since because of the western world’s imagination about the Covid-19.
“Also, Nigeria’s sun is enough for me than to be wearing the facemask that may cause other health challenges for me,’’ he said.
Efforts to get reaction from the ministerial enforcement taskforce chairman on the development were futile as he did not pick his calls or reply to text messages sent to him via WhatsApp.
However, in an interview he granted to journalists recently, Ikharo said over 3,000 FCT residents were prosecuted for non-compliance with the Covid-19 safety protocols.
He said: “Both during the first and second waves, we prosecuted over 3,000. These were the low, the high and the mighty.
“We are still working, but what we are doing now is largely advocacy. Once in a while we supervise, once in a while we guide people on what to do: physical distancing, wearing of face mask, and use of hand sanitizer, disinfecting places, and reducing the number you may have during an event and all the safety protocols. But the arresting, and the prosecution, we do not do that now.’’
