Niran Adedokun
These are certainly not the best of times for anyone with the title of leader anywhere in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenges that test the capacity of the most knowledgeable in the affairs of man, materials and resources. As a citizen, Nigeria’s President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), his cabinet and governors of the 36 states are in my thoughts and prayers at this time more than ever.
But leaders are made for times like this! The Yoruba talk about the uselessness of a kite, which, in spite of its uncommon ability to soar swiftly, is unable to catch and eat chicks. Leadership is made for tough times. And even though such times are usually shorter and fewer than the moments of glamour and bragging that leaders encounter in the pendency of their service; they historically determine the legacies of leaders who ride the storm creditably.
How did Franklin D. Roosevelt become a reference point in the democratic history of the United States of America? The only man who was elected for a record fourth term in the history of the US had the lot of taking the country through the Great Depression as well as the Second World War with commendable gusto. Why do we talk of all ancestors from across the country today but the valiant displays in times of trouble? So, while every good conscience would spare a thought for leaders across the world today, it is indeed the time for them to prove their mettle.
The Buhari regime has surely found itself in the middle of a crisis it never envisaged. So, the country has “fumbled and wobbled” on since the incident of the index case of coronavirus in Nigeria, but things are getting to a head where leadership is critical.
On Monday night, Buhari addressed the nation for the third time in two months. The address communicated government’s decision to lift the lockdown, which the previous ones introduced as part of the non-medical interventions to contain the spread of the coronavirus in Nigeria.
The speech suggested that the President had two main considerations in arriving at the hard decision to end the four weeks old lockdown. The first is that he had listened to a variety of opinions and decided to harken to the voice of the people, who have become restless for being unable to engage in business activities that assure their survival. And that is quite commendable. The Nigerian economy is largely informal comprising people who work and feed by the day. Preventing such people from going out to work weeks on end, would expose them to hunger and possibly death by other means. It will also escalate social tension leading to more crimes than the nation’s overstretched security forces can cope with and ultimately hamper the country’s economy.
The second point is just a corollary. Nigeria’s economy is in dire straits. The cash cow -crude oil- is currently more of a curse than blessing. It has turned the country into a prodigal abandoning every other possibility and now becoming a near-liability. Here is a country that eats the seed and the fruit at the same time, one which thinks only of today without saving for the raining day. So, how does such a country sustain a lockdown where most economic activities are grounded and an obligation to provide palliatives for millions of citizens, who do not even seem to appreciate government’s efforts! So, end the lockdown!
It is however possible to query the President’s premises especially as the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 is unable to assure the citizens that Nigeria is in any better place than it was when the lockdown was first imposed.
As gratifying as it is that he aggregated various opinions in arriving at the decision, one wonders if relaxing the lockdown is the best decision at this period when community transmission has become the main mode of infection in the country.
The other day, a company announced that one of its staff visited his father-in-law, wife and children on the Lagos mainland for the weekend. By the time he would leave on Monday, his family members were diagnosed as positive for the virus and just a few days later, he was also pronounced positive. The implication of this is that the virus is now very close to the people and chances of an uncontrolled spread are high in places like Lagos when you allow unimpeded movement.
So, should the President have ignored the people? Yes, he should have, at least until such a time when the country can save as many lives as possible. The majority is not right every time. It is like a herd of cow moving in the direction of a pool of water capable of sweeping them away, it behoves the herdsman to redirect them to salvation. The people are sometimes too emotional to see their own salvation or the future with clarity, which is why leaders are expected to be visionary and able to pull them towards the right direction. They would ultimately see the light and be grateful.
One is capable of making the same arguments on the desire to jumpstart the economy. How prepared are we to ensure that we do not throw Nigerians to their deaths by asking them to go to work while still struggling with the structure to take adequate care of them if they eventually contract this deadly virus.
There are arguments that fatalities reported in most places are of older populations with underlying medical conditions. This means that a lot of those who fall sick in Nigeria, given largely youth demography in the urban areas are not likely to die. But true as that may be, it is a huge gamble. We should take the fact that those underlying health conditions manifest in a lot of younger people these days and that the country does not have the health system to cope with an overwhelming outbreak no matter how old they are into consideration.
More important however is the question of what we can say Nigeria has learned from the past lockdown. While some criticise its copy and paste nature, the saving grace we bank on for the coming weeks on is as alien as it is unrealistic. How is social distancing possible for instance in the commercial buses of Lagos or in the face me, I face you buildings that litter our cities or even in the boreholes that are mostly the only sources of potable water? How do people wash their hands under running water in places where wells provide the purest source of water even in Lagos? And what is the idea of the night curfew? Does the virus only spread at night?
The PTF says Nigeria now has the capacity to test 50,000 but it has tested 11, 426 in the eight weeks between February 26 and April 26, 2020, yet government wants to set the people in the epicentres loose to work out their own salvation.
All of this would make sense if we had spent the past couple of weeks working out a home-grown solution like Madagascar did. This is in spite of the fact that we have had testimonies of the efficacy of natural therapies from people like Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State amongst others.
Weeks on, no deliberate investment in contributing to finding a solution to this problem, no active engagements between the government, universities or traditional medical practitioners on prospects for Nigeria to register itself in the company of problem-solving countries rather than glory in the offer of ventilators by a struggling President Donald Trump of the US. The government of the United Kingdom recently granted funding to 21 different projects (including the £22.5m Imperial College initiative to accelerate the development of a potential COVID-19 vaccine) for research on treatments, vaccines and epidemiology. Has Nigeria written itself off being able to provide comfort for the world? Such progressive action is what should have emboldened us to relax this lockdown even though we are at the most critical period in the spread of the virus.
Since it seems a done deal already however, here is one counsel for every Nigerian; do the best to keep safe. As we are now, it is everyman with a strong immune system for himself and God for us all.
Twitter:@niradedokun
