In this report, ENE OSANG examines Nigeria’s response to the dreaded coroner virus (COVID-19) pandemic and its implication on women as caregivers.
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has continued to take its toll on many countries, even as Nigeria has recorded 44 cases as at March 24, 2020, a sharp increase from eight cases last week.
There are currently eight cases in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and 29 in Lagos, the country’s commercial hub, as well as one in Ekiti and Oyo states, respectively.
This is as one death has been recorded, and two of the 44 patients have fully recovered.
Majority of the cases involve people who returned from the USA, UK, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, while just about two were linked to community spread.
Stay Home policy
On Tuesday the federal government ordered civil servants in the federal civil service from grade level 12 and below to work from home as part of efforts to curb the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.
The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan, issued the directive in a memo titled “Compulsory Stay At Home Of Non-Essential Public Servants On GL 12 And Below As A Further Measure To Curtail The Spread Of COVID-19.”
In the memo the federal government said it was concerned about the welfare and safety of Nigerians, hence the need to protect them from the virus.
“As a further step to check the spread of COVID-19, all non-essential public servants on grade level 12 and below are to work from home with effect from Tuesday, March 24, 2020, until further notice.
“All other categories of officers, who will be at work, are strongly advised to limit the number of visitors they receive to the barest minimum. This is to reduce physical contact as much as possible,” it said.
The federal government also urged all Nigerians to observe strict adherence to personal hygiene, including frequent washing of hands with soap and running water.
Reactions trail policy
The CEO of HEIR Woman, Anuli Ola-Olaniyi, who lauded the policy describing it as a good initiative, however noted that this may not be effective as people’s realities are different.
She stressed the need for appropriate measures to be taken before a total lockdown to avoid deaths out of hunger just like the advanced countries the country models after has done.
“It is a good initiative only that it is effective for only a few people because everybody’s realities are different. I have a little money saved down for this crises but a woman who earns her living daily cannot.
“A woman who lives day to day by selling tomatoes on the streets may find this policy difficult because if she stays at home her kids will suffer. Again, some women in the streets live in closed-circuit houses may not keep to the kind of hygiene I can keep. So, if we lockdown do we have parameters set for such,” she asked.
“It is good we want to shut down but in advanced countries they have good food delivery system and some people who cannot afford food get free food. For instance, if you go to London now there are no homeless people in the streets because of the virus, people have paid for hotel accommodation for them to get them off the streets. Can that be the same for us,” she further queried.
I’ll be more stressful for women
Contrarily, a Director Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) AUDA-NEPAD, Adimula Adefunke Cecy, strongly supported the stay home policy saying Nigerians should rather pray harder this period and adhere to directives to ensure safety for everyone.
Adimula, however, agreed that the period would be more stressful for women and urged citizens on alternatives like using small radio when there is power outage to keep them abreast of happenings and information being disseminated.
Additional challenges for women
Briefing the media on the issue, the Minister of Women Affairs Dame Pauline Tallen lauded the steps being taken to limit people’s movement, public gathering, closure of
Schools, and the ultimate Stay at Home directives.
Tallen noted that women, as the family focal person and central home managers, are the fulcrum of survival at the home level, noting that the additional burden of home and community management, poor financial health status of most families and weak supply chains will be enormous while family relations would be severely strained.
She said, “In practical terms, the additional challenges on Nigerian women would include amongst others: reduced participation in food production and the agricultural value chain, Increased pressure on food preparation, serving, preservation, and storage the informal food vending sub-sector.
“Also, caring for children, the youth and elderly and ensuring continued education for school age children, maintaining adequate sanitation levels of homes, neighbourhoods and the community will be added responsibilities.
“They are saddled with ensuring that recreational and health needs are met even under the shutdown circumstances as well as ensure that adequate protective measures are provided for the female healthcare workers who are in the majority of rending services to those affected at this time,” she said.
“In view of these realities and to join the crusade to protect lives, it has become imperative for the Ministry of Women Affairs to specially appeal to Nigerian women especially the mothers to comply with state directives and
adhere to basic guidelines.
“Stock food, vegetable and water, be extra cautious in sourcing water, firewood and local herbs, Stock adequate sanitary materials including soap, detergents, disinfectants and personal toiletries, sanitization instructions including washing hands with soap and water, use of sanitizers and fumigation of the home and environments,” she urged.
The minister called on all the Commissioners of Women Affairs to rise up to the challenge and be proactive in supporting women and children through this trying period.
“To ensure a well-coordinated approach in managing the home level dimensions to the pandemic, all Commissioners of Women Affairs are kindly requested to update the ministry, on a daily basis to mitigate the negative impact of the virus on families,” she stressed.
Information disaggregation by sex
Expressing concern on reported cases, the Executive Coordinator of the Ajoke Ayisat Afolabi Foundation, Foluke Ademokun, worry that no mention or consideration was given to the sex or gender of cases, except for a 30-year-old female returnee from the UK who self-quarantined, and another female linked to an index case from Britain, as well as a mother and a six- week old infant, whose sex remains unknown.
Foluke said while so much information has been shared about the origin and spread of COVID-19 Pandemic, not so much information is communicated on how the disease affects men and women differently.
“Regular updates on disease spread are important, but as it is, across the world and in Nigeria, these updates are silent on the gender dimension of the pandemic, and this is dangerous,” she warned.
According to her, “Judging by evidential reports on the clinical and economic consequences of the disease, measuring how it impacts men and women differently would not be out of place.
She maintained that this decision would inform the quality and extent of emergency response at this very chaotic time, particularly, for a country with weak public service and infrastructures.
Generally, it can be assumed that more men than women are affected by the virus due to differences in lifestyle choices and social pattern and economic endeavours but as disease carriers, women are more likely to spread the virus due to their role as caregivers.
“For instance because of their dependents and contacts with their mothers, children are more likely to test positive where mothers are affected as in the case of the six-week-old baby listed by Nigeria’s Centre for Disease Control (NCDC),” said Ajoke.
She added that till date, a gender neutral approach to reporting COVID-19 cases and susceptibility, not minding the gender dimension to vulnerability and mortality. “For instance as service providers, nursing as a female dominated profession comes to mind readily.”
Female, male ratio
Statistics from Nursing Nigeria World suggest a female-male ratio of 5:2. As care providers, they are more likely to carry and share the burden of the diseases at home where they are caregivers to family members who are forced to socially distance themselves due to the shutdown of educational institutions on account of containing and mitigating the speed of COVID-19. This will further increase the burden of unpaid domestic and care work on women significantly.
The Aviation and hospitality sectors offer large employment opportunities to women at various levels but also have been identified as high risk prone to COVID-19.
The executive director stressed that to address the effect of the virus on the female workforce, means to deal with the attendant challenges of the outbreak in a wholesome manner.
“Therefore, underlying social differences between men and women should feed into the government response in a manner that addresses their specific needs.
“In my estimation, in order to impact the preparedness against the spread of COVID-19, the government should commit to capturing gender relevance data to serve the planning purpose that will enable key agencies offer gender responsive directives to the citizens,” she said.
COVID-19 knows no gender
Expressing a different view, a female medical practitioner Dr. Azuka Egiogo, argued that gender may not come to play as there may also be more male sick patients who would be exposed to the disease because they are at the hospital.
“The virus knows no gender; it affects everyone once you contact it so there is no basis for any gender analysis. Yes there are more of female nurses, but at the same time there could be more male doctors or patients who would be exposed to the disease because they are at the hospital,” she said.
Risk burden as caregivers
Administering care at home and shopping for children has overtime been the responsibility of women in most Nigerian homes.
While the world is inundated with data about those affected in terms of the elderly and youthful population, and the geographical scope such as the source of disease and the spread along border lines, little or nothing has outlined the impact of this deadly disease from gender perspectives.
Foluke stressed that, for Nigeria to prepare adequately to overcome the scourge of the virus on its health system and economy, it must review critically how the disease affects men and women differently in the country, bearing in mind the socio-economic peculiarities of its environment.
“All hands must be on deck to stop this virus from deepening existing inequality gaps in public service and infrastructure,” she said.
Economic impact
Aside from the negative clinical impact of the virus, the pandemic also tows the economy in a grievous manner. There would be loss of income, particularly, for poor households headed by women.
Foluke pointed out that as a response to the loss of economic opportunities; Nigeria like governments across the world is providing economic relief to the tune of N1 trillion for businesses.
“On the surface, this broad based stimulus to enhance economic stability is commendable but a gender-sensitive economic package should be inclusive and designed to capture and reward the participation and contributions of women owned businesses to the nation’s economy,” she urged.
“The intervention should be programme to deliberately accommodate sectors, largely operated by women that would be impacted negatively by the outbreak.
“It is common knowledge that women more than men have lesser access to productive assets, are more likely to live in poorer housing conditions, and more likely to be poorer as heads of households, particularly, as widows, half-widows or single parents.
“A combination of these factors has grave food insecurity consequence should prolonged community lockdown be activated.
“The implication of this is adequate social protection plan for this category of households that are mostly headed by women.
It also makes good sense to consider the impact of poor housing conditions on self-isolation, where the ratio of occupants to a room is violated,” she added.
Implication of schools’ lockdown
Since the directive of schools shut down took effect, a lot of mothers lauded the moves however have complained of being overwhelmed with care giving duties as they had to ensure the home is properly taken care of.
Adimula said aside the risk of contracting the virus; the period will be more stressful on women because they are saddled with the responsibility of caring for the household.
“It’s more burdensome on women because it is believed that women should take care of everybody and now that everybody is at home she will cook more, talk, educate more and this can be stressful for the woman.
“Women will spend more too because there are more people at home now and constant cooking too but they must learn to educate their children to be more understanding that instead of three meals in a day you cut down to two then fast anf pray more because this is the time we must all draw closer to God even as we keep to the directives on safety.
“To women, be happy and don’t be discouraged. Tolerate your husbands, especially those who are not used to staying an hour without quarrelling, please tolerate and watch over the children because we must all be on top of the situation” she added.
For Anuli, she took the burden of re-educating her dependants and domestic staff because the general knowledge of it was not enough.
“I am constantly re-educating my dependants and domestic staff to make sure they have a good understanding of the danger. I showed them videos, we had meetings, demonstrations and those who did not need to be with me like the drivers have gone back to their homes.
“I had to allocate a budget to get necessary resources like face masks, sanitizers, and other needs and I don’t know how God created men because they are just the way they are and they believe we are overdoing it but I am not taking chances because I have children to protect, she said.
“From the gender point of view it affects men and women but women carry much of the load, now imagine women go out to get food for their families, we don’t know how domestic violence will be this period but there is hope,” she assured.
Way forward
According to Foluke, evidence from other countries suggest that routine medical care and elective surgical procedures may suffer on account of pressure on infrastructure and personnel.
She stressed that deliberate care was required to ensure routine child immunisation plans are not abandoned on the account of COVID-19 emergencies, stating that with the high maternal-child mortality record, Nigeria cannot afford to sacrifice the health of pregnant women and children on the altar of corona virus management.
“Response to the virus must consider the peculiarities of Nigeria’s gender dimension. The government must find alternatives that won’t put primary health care in jeopardy especially for poor users,” she stated.
On her part, Anuli called for more sensitisation at the grassroots levels and in different languages to ensure that everyone gets the message, saying the country is yet to get it right at this end.
“If government had listened to us long time ago people would have been better prepared to stock up and everything would be lockdown by now. There is panic buying in the world but a lock down now may lead to deaths,” she argued.
Similarly, Adimula urged the media to help with more and constant information dissemination saying this is beyond government alone.
“Media should translate coronavirus messages and precautionary measures in different local languages so that everyone will be informed and play their part in tackling this evil. Everything is not about money, there is a lot we can do because the virus is real but I believe it is a noise-some pestilence and God will take it away,” she assured.
Similarly, the minister appealed for palliatives stating: “On behalf of Nigerian Women, I appeal to corporate organisations and well-meaning businessmen and women to understand the peculiar predicament of women in managing homes at this crucial time and extend support and palliatives to buffer the homes and assist the ministry in safeguarding lives.”
