By Emeka Alex Duru
(08054103327)
Growing up, we were regaled with the story of the Tortoise that had endured the ordeal of being holed in a cesspit for seven days but on the eve of its release, cried out that it could no longer withstand the stench of its environment. The story was an illustration of the futility of desperation that characterized our actions, then.
This sums the desperation that was manifested by many Nigerians in Lagos, Abuja and other parts of the country, on Monday, May 4, following the phased relaxation of the lockdown in the wake of the ravaging Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Before the March 26 nationwide broadcast of the President on strategies at containing the spread of the pandemic, Lagos had been on partial lockdown for a week. Added to the five weeks that the president had ordered, residents of the state experienced six weeks of inactivity. Their eagerness to visit their places of work and businesses following the relaxation was therefore not surprising.
Few residents of the state are government employees. For these, their salaries are guaranteed, whether they go to work or not. Many are self-employed who depend on their daily activities to eke a living. For people in this class, staying off their activities for six weeks was not a tea party. It came with huge costs. This may explain the desperation that was on display in Lagos and Abuja on Monday. Aside the return of the gridlocks on the roads, the human traffic was large. Like a chimpanzee on heat, everyone seemed to be on the loose.
In both Lagos and Abuja, many residents threw caution to the wind in flouting the basic recommendations of social distancing, putting on face masks, avoiding crowded places and other measures aimed at curtailing Covid-19 spread. At the bus terminals, banks and markets, the pictures created were those of inmates escaping from Concentration Camps during the Second World War.
With spikes in the rate of the pandemic, this portends trouble in the days ahead. Lagos and Abuja are leading in the infection rates, with Kano occasionally barging in. The three cities are Nigeria’s centres of attraction and constitute the most strategic in various aspects. But the residents incidentally appear the most culpable in putting up actions that suggest not being bothered at curtailing the disease. If you look at their desperation from angles of stubbornness, naivety or plain ignorance, you may have your reasons for doing so.
The truth however is that Nigerians in Lagos, Abuja and other parts of the country are in dilemma on matters of curtailing the spread of Coronavirus. For them, it is a question of to be or not to be! To be sure, no one wants to die. They want to live and enjoy. After all, when Nigerians were recently described as the happiest people in the world, residents of the three cities must have been considered in arriving at the report. But living with hunger is akin to life of a living dead. Many Nigerians under the lockdown came close to that. Aside television appearances by government officials with their litany of populist pronouncements, not much actually got to the poor and vulnerable Nigerians in terms of palliatives. In situations as in Lagos Council Development Areas where three bags of rice and few packs of noodles were extended to 60 households, such cannot by any stretch of definition pass for palliatives. At the federal level, the directive by the President to expand the national social register from 2.6 million to 3.6 million, amidst over 80 million poor, merely scratches the problem.
What is required to lift the country from its current piteous state is real action. The situation at hand does not provide room for partisan postures or grandstanding by officials of the state. Nigeria is really on its knees. The report by the National bureau of Statistics (NBS) which estimates almost 82.9 million people living on less than one United States dollar per day, is frightening, to say the least. The figure represents 40.09 per cent of the total population. The prediction by the Bureau that the rising trend will likely continue creates more fears.
NBS report tallies considerably with the April 7 alert by the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, on Nigeria’s economy being threatened by the twin shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated sharp fall in international oil prices. A study by the African Union (AU), had at the same time predicted that Nigeria and Angola, two African largest oil producers could lose $65 billion in income this year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The AU report predicted 20 million job losses, as a result.
With these scary pictures, the future for most Nigerians looks bleak. More hunger looms, it appears. But all hopes are not lost, with right policies and dedicated leadership. What is needed is a leadership that will roll its pants to confront the challenges at hand. Doing this will require transparency and sincerity, the type that will motivate the citizens and position them for the task ahead. For now, such inspiring leadership is lacking at the states and the centre.