By Emeka Alex Duru
The Corona Virus pandemic is an instance in situating the uniqueness of Nigerians, in the face of mounting fatalities. It is an illustration of a people and a leadership sold to fatalism and conspiracy theory; a case of motion without movement, as it is said. A visit to any part of the country, outside the city centres, is all that one requires to come to the grim reality that not much is being done to fight or contain the pandemic by the people and the government, strictly speaking.
Curiously, all are agreed that the virus is a common enemy that should be dealt with. For effect, high officials of the government have not failed in shouting from the roof tops on what should be done to curtail the spread. The people, on their side, are not deaf to the preachments. But there is no communication in the real sense of the word. The trust factor, a major ingredient needed in the intercourse, is seriously lacking, thus, reducing the encounter to a dialogue of the deaf. In the suburbs, residents go about their normal activities not much bothered at the dangers of the virus.
Some weeks ago, at a function in the East, I took time to observe that few of us that managed to keep to the established protocols in preventing the disease, were all returnees from Lagos. In the efforts to educate the people on the high risk they were engaged in, we were taunted as ones not perceptive enough to realize that the COVID-19 issue is a scam by the government and its officials to hoodwink and fleece the people. The fact that some of those pushing the strange view were educated to university level, made the situation more pathetic. In such situation, it was tempting to dismiss the people as being simply naïve.
But who really do you blame on the development? On one hand are the leaders who should show the way but have severally failed the people in providing them with good governance. On the other hand are the supposed opinion moulders, religious leaders who are feasting on the naiveté of the people and deceiving them that the pandemic is a hoax.
Next, are the people who seem to have completely resigned to their fate – a case of everyone for himself, God for all! Thus, there is confusion. But the government must take the greater part of the blame. It is on occasions as we currently find ourselves, that leadership matters. The primary function of government all over the world, is protection of life and property of the people. The government owes it a duty to ensure the security of the governed, as its share of the social contract. This, incidentally, is what the Nigerian citizens have been denied by successive administrations in the land.
Government at all levels, has succeeded in abdicating its responsibility in such issues as education, basic infrastructure, health and security to the people. But what perhaps that has exposed the duplicity of the Nigerian state to its citizens is its poor management of the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic is novel and costly. It has defied all known medical remedies, so far, leading to authorities coming up with different strategies to manage the situation.
Elsewhere, governments have stepped in to take off the pressure from the people by way of palliatives, grants, monetary advances and free health facilities. This is not the case here. Rather, the people have been abandoned to their fate. Aside the efforts by the government in picking the bills of earlier cases, subsequent victims of the disease have been left on their own. In a system where the people have been reduced to the point of merely living for the day by the prevailing economic climate, the dangers of such crass irresponsibility on the side of the government can better be imagined.
Expecting the average citizen on the N30, 000 national minimum wage which some states are struggling to pay their workers, to undertake the N20, 000 – N50, 000 COVID-19 test for five members of his family, aside the ensuing treatment in the case of any testing positive for the disease, is out of tune with reality. To worsen matters, the few provisions donated by kind-hearted individuals and organisations to counter the pandemic, have not been transparently managed by the people they have been entrusted in their care.
When therefore, the people jeer or snigger at the government officials in their homilies on the virus, you can understand where they are coming from. It is not as if they are suicidal or impervious to reason. But they have been variously shocked and disappointed by the government to the point of not knowing who to trust or what to believe any more.
So, the solution is not in threatening another nationwide lockdown, closure of markets and worship centres or reviewing the resumption dates for schools as mooted by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19. It is rather about carrying the people along and presenting them with the true state of affairs. This is obviously a tall task for the government.
Truth be told, there is not much on ground to indicate any precise strategy by the Nigerian state in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, there have been several knee-jerk actions in selling the dummy to the outside world that something is going on to check the spread of the disease. These are however, perfunctory and not adequately coordinated. How for instance can it be explained that at a time when nations are drumming it hard on their citizens to maintain social distancing and other protocols against the disease, Nigeria’s Ministry of Communication, is instigating a deadly convocation of Nigerians in the mad rush for linking their National Identification Numbers (NIN) with telephone service providers?
What is it that has made the exercise so important that it must be carried out at this challenging time? Why would our officials behave as people from another planet? And if Nigerians are so pained to blame the Minister, Ali Pantami for the irrational directive, what has the President, to whom he reports, done to call him to order? It is in the Nigeria of the Muhammadu Buhari presidency that silence in the face of calamity, has been elevated to an art of governance. In such situation, everyone is on his/her own.
It is not strange that the people are treating the regular briefings by the PTF chairman and secretary to the government of the federation, Boss Mustapha, with scorn. They have not been convinced on the sincerity of the government on COVID-19. They see the campaign as another job for The Boys or a plot to harness funds for 2023 elections. This is fatalism at its extreme. It comes with dire consequences on the health of the nation. But that is where the irresponsibility of the government has pushed Nigerians to.
- DURU is the Editor of TheNiche Newspapers, Lagos ( (08054103327, nwaukpala@yahoo.com)