Barely one week after the lockdown was eased in FCT, Lagos and Ogun states, the number of COVID-19 cases has risen from to 4, 151, with 745 discharged and 128 deaths.
The breakdown showed Lagos state has so far reported 1,764 cases, with Kano trailing with 576, FCT – 343, Bauchi – 161, Borno – 159, Katsina – 156, Ogun – 115, Gombe – 110, Kaduna – 98, Sokoto – 96, Jigawa – 83, Edo – 67, Zamfara – 65.Oyo – 64, Osun – 38, Kwara – 30, Nasarawa – 25, Rivers – 21, Kebbi – 18, Delta – 17, Plateau – 17, Adamawa – 17, Akwa Ibom – 17, Taraba – 15, Ondo – 15, Yobe – 13, Ekiti – 13, Enugu – 10,Ebonyi – 7, Niger – 6, Bayelsa – 5, Benue – 2, Imo – 3, Abia – 2, and Anambra – 1.
The development has become a source of worry for both the federal and Lagos state governments, who both expressed concerns over non-adherence to guidelines released by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on the eased lockdown.
FG/LASG threat
At the daily update on its activities Thursday, the PTF warned of a possible fresh lockdown of the country over the violation of the guidelines on the eased lockdown.
National Coordinator of the task force, Dr Sani Aliyu, said if Nigerians continued to fail to respect and follow all the guidelines, the PTF might review and possibly change them.
Similarly, Lagos state Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu at a briefing on the ease of the five-week lockdown, said there would be a change in the state’s isolation strategy in the coming weeks.
He said government was taken aback, by residents going about their businesses in the first five days after the ease of lockdown without complying with the public health guidelines despite massive advocacy.
He said: “As a government elected to uphold security of its citizens, which include health security, we will not hesitate to review the terms of the easing of lockdown if we do not see an improvement in adherence to our public health guidelines in the next couple of days.
“We will be forced to take a painful decision of bringing the entire system under lockdown if we continue to see evidence that Lagosians are determined to flout the rules.”
Buhari’s order
President Muhammadu Buhari announced the eased lockdown of thee FCT, Lagos and Ogun states following the advice of the PTF, headed by Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha.
Among others, the president ordered wearing of masks, banned inter-state travel and reiterated the rule on social distancing while some government offices, banks and some business were allowed to partially operate.
With one week into the eased lockdown, Nigerians did not comply with the guidelines, thus fuelling speculation that the federal government might call off the eased lockdown, a development some citizens believed would be counterproductive.
What they say
Speaking in this regard, Minister of State for Labour and Productivity Festus Keyamo (SAN) said another total lockdown in the country would be counterproductive, hence the need for Nigerians to learn to live with the coronavirus for now.
The minister was expressing his personal view against the backdrop of rising cases of coronavirus pandemic after the government eased the lockdown last week.
Keyamo said Nigerians should practice the skill of avoiding the virus like a landmine, adding that people cannot perfect the skills through total lockdown.
Posting this view Sunday on his Twitter handle @fkeyamo, the minister said: “My personal view is that another total lockdown would be counterproductive. Before defeating the virus, we must learn to live with it all around us & practice the skills of avoiding it like a landmine. Practice makes perfect. We cannot perfect those skills by locking ourselves up.”
Reacting to Keyamo’s tweet, a Sokoto-based journalist, Nasiru Suleiman, also supported the minister’s views, saying lockdown creates more tension because of the fear that comes with job loss, loss of income among others.
On his twitter handle@NasiruSulaiman0, he said: “The way to go, lockdown creates more tension because of the fear that comes with job loss, loss of income, inactivity and many other issues associated to locking people indoor, a father that is battling hypertension that woke up to the realization he can’t provide for them.”
Another Keyamo’s follower identified as Iyamability @Pepperrested said: “Words of wisdom, very true. The virus has become part of our daily living and as such we must keep adhering to the advices of @ncdc and other government’s health agencies. Another lockdown is synonymous to losing the war against the virus.”
But Draize @draizident warned against the repeat of 1918 experience.
“Lol. Read about the 1918 flu. People asked to be let out and more deaths occurred. Until a vaccine is out, it cannot be part of our daily.”
It won’t solve our problems -CLEEN
Also speaking, Executive Director of CLEEN Foundation, Dr Benson Olugbuo, said the lockdown “may not likely solve our problem at the medium and long terms because we noticed a lot of breaches during the lockdown phase.”
He said, in addition, hunger and starvation became existential issues during the lockdown as the palliatives distributed by government were grossly inadequate.
Olugbuo further said the rising number of COVID-19 patients might be a consequence of new testing centers established by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
“As we increase the testing centres, numbers will definitely rise. However, in the short run, Nigerians need to cooperate with government and obey all the guidelines introduced to curb the infection, including wearing face masks, observing social distancing and personal hygiene,” he said .
Also, the sustainable transport expert & Director of Strategy, Transportation Growth Initiative, Abuja, Engineer Emmanuel John said reverting the lockdown “would depend on the gravity of the situation. How drastic was the difference between the lockdown period and when it was relaxed?”
He said if the difference was significant and traceable to the relaxed lockdown, reverting remained the best option.
“But I think any significant change would be the fact that the strategies/measure put in place to forestall the spread of COVID-19 are not sufficient, and even the ones put in place are not being obeyed, so you would expect a raise in the cases.
“So, inadequacy of the strategies,/measures, flagrant disobedience by residents and failure of enforcement are the problems, ”he said.
Also, an Abuja-based journalist, Miriam Humbe, lamented that Nigerians were not disciplined and that no amount of lockdown would stop the spread.
She observed that most Nigerians refused to adhere to the social distancing rules, adding that “stand or walk outside on the street, they will nearly push you to the ground in a very spacious place.”
Open up in phases
A resident of Abuja, Mohammed Usman said there was no need to lockdown again despite the rising cases of COVID -19.
He said the country should be opened in phases with strict enforcement of the directives of the NCDC.
In a chat with one of our correspondents, Usman said: “I say no to lockdown. Though the number of confirmed cases continued to rise, but will lockdown solve the problem? And for how long can we afford to lockdown Nigeria? Lagos, Abuja and Ogun were locked down by Mr. President, yet they had increased cases. So lockdown without massive testing and treatment will amount to another waste of time.
“We have a challenge, how do we impose lockdown when majority are hungry? To me, I think the federal government has started on a good note that is re-opening in phases. They should open the country in phases, security personnel should help enforce government directives.”
“State governments should also ensure that citizens across the country obey the directives of the NCDC. Also, we must all be responsible as citizens. Keep physical distance, wear face mask, wash our hands frequently under a running water and stay at home as much as possible. We can do this till the world will get a cure or vaccine for coronavirus.
“Lockdown again will cost a lot, we are already broke and many are finding it difficult to survive during lockdown. Another lockdown will likely bring about social disorder.”
NYCN
On his part, the National Publicity Secretary of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, (NYCN) Comrade Olugbodi Damola said another lockdown would be a waste of time and resources.
In a phone chat, Damola told Blueprint that:”It is a global pandemic, but we must adopt some local and realistic measures to curtail it, not copying lockdown from other countries.
“Almost half of our population are poor and some of our security personnel are likely going to compromise. So lockdown will not give us good result like they got in some countries.
“Besides, the virus is already in most communities across the country, so there is no need to lockdown again. The federal government should open the country in phases, scale up testing and management.
“My advice is that, there should be strict compliance to all measures put in place by states and federal government. And that of the NCDC should also be followed.
“This virus is here, we should not run away from it. But learn to deal with it and manage it till there is a solution”. Let us keep running our economy to avoid a bigger problem.”
‘We need lockdown again’
However, another Abuja resident, Madam Grace Joseph said: “The lockdown should be reversed because of the rising cases of coronavirus, it’s over 4000 now in Nigeria.
However, on people’s livelihood and sustenance during extended lockdown, government should think of the citizens’ welfare.”
Similarly, Faith Joy Olatunji, a medical student in Abuja said: “I think it’s better for us to have complete lockdown because cases are rising and we are endangering lives. So it’s preferable for us to go back to the lockdown.”
To Mrs. David, “We should go back to lockdown, because even going out is a problem. There are too many checkpoints and transport fare is high.”
Another Abuja resident, Mr. George Joseph said: “What’s happening is that some Nigerians do not believe corona is real, but the truth is that the government and the media need to do a lot of sensitisation. In remote places people still go about their normal businesses like nothing is at stake.
“To keep safe is better than had I known and being in isolation or battling the stigma of Covid-19. For me, I strongly support the lockdown, but if we can obey rules of NCDC on social distancing or obey the rule of the Ministry of Health, WHO, our economy will bounce back. But people are going about without mask and not obeying social distancing, so I believe we must use the iron hand. I support the total lockdown, but government should give palliative to Nigerians through their BVN.”
‘..It will spell doom’
And from Abeokuta, Ogun state, some residents told Blueprint that reverting to lockdown would spell doom for the nation’s economy.
In his view, Professor David Olufemi Bamgbose, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the 2015 governorship election in the state told Blueprint that the lockdown was no longer effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19 hence “it is needless.”
He said rather than the continuation of the lockdown, the inter-state travel ban, compulsory use of nose mask and social distancing orders should be strictly enforced.
He faulted the extension of the lockdown by the state government, describing it as the height of government’s insensitivity to the plights of the people.
He argued that the continued extension of the lockdown was responsible for what he described as the “rushes, frenzy, emergency” of people whatever they have the opportunity to go out to either the markets or banks during the period of relaxation of the lockdown.
He said: “40 days, containing that working days and the holidays, it is on record that as of today, the government of Ogun state has tested 700 people for coronavirus of about seven to eight million citizens, you are talking of less than one percent of the citizen.”
“So, if we are locked down, do we have the kits to test the people? I’m saying that the action of the governor in doing this latest extension didn’t take into cognisance the effect of hunger and the problem of the lockdown on the citizens of the state.”
“Lagos State is the epic centre of coronavirus in the country and they are not locked down. So there are measures that can be enforced – like the social distancing and the compulsory use of nose mask, among others.
“Oyo State has not been on lockdown and they are yet to record the number Coronavirus cases that we have recorded”, Bamgbose said.
Another respondent, Mrs. Funke Alabi queried the essence of the lockdown where cases of coronavirus were rising at an alarming rate every day.
Alabi, a civil servant said: “There is something the government is not telling us. We have been on lockdown for the past one month, how come cases are rising and rising by the passing of each day?”
“What I think the government should do is to increase the number of people tested by day instead of acting as if they have no direction.”
Another respondent, Mr. Idowu Sofoluwe also advised against lockdown, arguing that its effect on the economy would be devastating.
Sofoluwe said a lot of state governments had lost billions of naira to revenue and another bout of lockdown will spell doom on the economy.
He suggested that partial lockdown should be adopted, saying instead of locking down an entire state, some local governments that have high number of cases should be locked down.
