Azuka Onwuka
Last week, with Nigeria recording about 2,000 cases of COVID-19, the Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, lamented that they might start treating COVID-19 patients at home because of shortage of bed spaces at isolation centres. Ihekweazu, who made the disclosure on Thursday when the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 was briefing the press, explained that there was a shortage of bed spaces especially in Lagos, and partially in Abuja and Kano where cases were high.
“Across the country, we have about 3,500 bed spaces identified and available for COVID-19. But in Lagos, we are already struggling,” The PUNCH quoted him as saying.
He added: “We will always be honest with Nigerians. We are struggling at the moment. We might have to adapt our strategy because of the realities we face over the next few days and weeks. As we do that, we will make that clear to Nigerians. Our policy hasn’t changed but the pressure is there and it might have to change in the next few days.”
Population estates put Nigeria at about 200 million people. Before COVID-19 came into the country, health officials, led by the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said Nigeria was ready for COVID-19. Yet, with only about 2,000 cases, officials have started informing Nigerians that they are already struggling with bed spaces. Imagine if the COVID-19 figures were as high as 20,000.
Note that many of the bed spaces currently used for COVID-19 patients were provided by corporate organisations and individuals. Last week, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, said hotel owners refused to make their hotels available as isolation centres for Nigerians to be evacuated abroad. This is a country that said it was ready for COVID-19. This is a country that has an annual budget for health. This is a country that, even after the initial mistake of carelessly allowing the first COVID-19 case to enter from Italy, still kept its borders open until unknown number of cases entered the country between February 27 and March 23.
It should be properly put into perspective that Nigeria’s COVID-19 figure of about 2,000 does not reflect the true picture. Record shows that Nigeria is among the countries with the lowest test figures, if not the lowest in the world. For a country of 200 million people, Nigeria has tested only less than 15,000 people. South Africa with a population of 60 million has tested over 200,000 people. Last week, the United Kingdom with 66 million people announced that by the end of April, it had met its target of conducting 100,000 COVID-19 tests per day. Yet, in about two months, Nigeria has conducted less than 15,000 COVID-19 tests.
Another area where Nigeria displayed incompetence was on the enforcement of the lockdown. Even though many states announced their own lockdown in addition to the one announced by the Federal Government in some states, people continued to travel from state to state. What they needed to do was to keep enough cash to share to security agents on the way. In some cases, security agents would be paid to sit in the front seat of the bus. Once security people on the highway see a fellow officer in a bus, they allow it to drive past. That way, the virus was transferred continuously from one part of the country to the other.
The Kano State Government capped it up with the decision to send street children (called the almajiri) to their states of origin at a crucial time like this. That thoughtless and insensitive action merely helped to spread COVID-19 to different states of the North, thereby worsening a bad situation. It also brings up the question of whether state governors have the right to send Nigerian citizens out of any part of the country.
The essence of the lockdown was to keep people indoors, so as to curtail the spread of the virus. But during the lockdown, COVID-19 figures rose astronomically. That was an indication that the lockdown was ineffective.
The lockdown was hugely ineffective because of obvious reasons. For people to stay indoors, they need food to eat and other essential things like electricity, water and safety. For a country that has over 112 million poor people, it was tragic that Nigeria would keep her citizens indoors without sending them palliatives like other countries did. Countries that have reliable data of their people sent money into their bank accounts and also sent other essential items to their doorsteps. Most exclaimed in bewilderment when Nigeria announced that it had shared N20,000 each to 2.6 million extremely poor Nigerians within 10 days. A country that could not share millions of voter cards for two years found it easy to share cash to over two million people within a week!
The lack of adequate data and the use of physical mode of handing over cash to people were signals of corruption. In such a case, any amount that has been announced as shared cannot be questioned.
Conversely, what could not be done well by the state and federal governments was done almost with perfection by communities and individuals. In many communities, effective organisation in the sharing of COVID-19 palliatives played out.
Many communities mobilised their sons and daughters based in all parts of the world to contribute money for the procurement of food items like rice, yam, beans, noodles and also cash. Some were donated solely by one prominent individual. There were no reports that the people got rowdy, mobbed those sharing the items and stole the items. The reports showed that individuals sat down calmly at the village squares or stadiums where these items were assembled. The items were shared fairly. And the quantity each person got was big to last for a while. It was not as ridiculously meagre as the items shared by the Federal Government or state governments and was not trailed by accusations of nepotism, tribalism, corruption, falsehood, etc.
Why did the communities show a better organisational capability than the state governments and Federal Government? The first reason is that the Nigerian system makes governance alien: no man’s business. Nobody owns it and everybody wants to steal from the system that belongs to no one. But the things of the communities belong to someone. You dare not steal it or misappropriate it and still live in peace in that community. You will be shamed, your family will be shamed, and life will be made miserable for you.
The second reason is that the communities have the data of every member like foreign countries do. Even members who are sick or absent will get their share. Conversely, the Nigerian states and FG have no trusted data. There is no foolproof means of differentiating between who is a Nigerian and who is a Cameroonian, Beninoise, Nigerien, Chadian, or Togolese. So, it is very easy to steal whatever is meant for the people. A leader can therefore choose to share things meant for the nation or state more to his kinsmen.
Most people could also not stay at home for more than a couple of days without going out because of the poor electricity supply in the country. Fresh food items need constant electricity supply to remain fresh.
Security was also a big issue during this lockdown. Criminal elements seized the opportunity to terrorise many communities. Residents had to turn themselves into security operatives to guard their communities when it was obvious that the police were incapable to guarding all neighbourhoods.
Crises like COVID-19 decide the patriotism level of Nigerians. The citizens do not feel that sense of protection and care from the country. They always feel that they are on their own. It is therefore difficult to demand that they display high patriotism towards the country.
– Twitter @BrandAzuka
