There
is no better warning about the growing confusion that seems to be gradually
beclouding the federal government’s response to the coronavirus challenge than
the belief it betrayed last week that, perhaps, all it needs to calm the fears
and apprehensions of Nigerians about its ability to halt the spread of the
virus is to reel out a catalogue of activities President Buhari was said to
have undertaken so far concerning the pestilence, whether the people felt their
impact or not.
 |
| *President Buhari and his spokesman, Femi Adesina |
Now,
if your family is starving badly, do you solve the rumbling signs of biting
hunger in their stomach with some wild tales of the efforts deployed by you so
far to feed them, or just keep quiet, give them food, and they will see and
feel for themselves that you have played your role responsively and
effectively? Or if you must talk, tell them something you have done whose
benefits they can readily verify and identify with.
Indeed,
some Nigerians are beginning to achieve the conviction that there must be
something about being in government in this country that seems to diminish the
reasoning ability of people once they get in there and deprives them of the
capacity to realize when they have stopped making sense or even become
downright annoying. This is very pathetic.
And
so, last week, presidential spokesperson, Mr. Femi Adesina, issued a document
entitled: “COVID-19: What President Buhari Has Done And Is Doing.”
And, I suppose that with the release of that handout, the virus immediately
received a deadly blow and vanished from the country! Aren’t we so blessed? Why
then are Nigerians not on the streets celebrating the unprecedented feat?
A
prominent item on Mr. Adesina’s list is the president’s March 29 broadcast. And
what exactly did the broadcast achieve? The two things I can readily remember
now is that Gen Buhari had announced the continuation of the school feeding
programme for pupils who are all at home now due to the closure of schools as
part of the efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Probably, nobody
remembered to inform him and his speech writers that school children were on
compulsory holidays, or are they going to send the food to them in their homes?
Or, perhaps, somebody is trying to find a justification for the billions of
naira we will be informed later was spent on the exercise?
Also,
the president proclaimed the lockdown of Lagos and Ogun states and the Federal Capital
Territory (FCT). And when he was through, he returned to his hideout –
where only a few privileged eyes and ears see and hear from him, and then come
out to tell us what they think he has said or done.
Now,
what exactly was the lockdown meant to achieve? Okay, as social
interactions are reduced, the chances of spreading the virus decrease.
Yes, but what else? Has anyone seen any evidence that there were any
plans to use the stay-at-home period to access the people and step up medical
tests to determine how many people have become infected with the virus and how
they could be attended to?
The
government that was boasting that it was “adequately prepared” to tackle the
virus was later to prove when the virus eventually arrived that it was only
making empty claims as usual. A country of 200 million people has yet to
demonstrate any capacity to test even a reasonable fraction of one percent of
her population. And somebody is publishing a document to tell us what the
president was supposed to have done or is doing. As if such boring tales will
remove the cloud of gloom hovering over Nigeria?
Again,
in a country where electric power is just an unaffordable luxury for many, how
can a leader just lock down some states and return to his hideout to continue
his “vacation” that was rudely interrupted by the loud, persistent and widespread
demands that he should address his country even though some other presidents
were doing daily briefings and leading the war against the virus from the
front? As the markets closed and movements became restricted, how are
those who could afford to buy and stock food items at home preserve them
without electric power?
What
of the greater population which depend on daily earnings for their
survival? What is the government’s plan for them? Okay, we are hearing of
palliatives that have been extended to this category of people and the billions
of naira that have already been transferred to their accounts? Now, who
has encountered the happy recipients of the twenty thousand naira (N20, 000)
said to have been given to each of them? Are there really existing data
showing the social and economic status of every Nigerian which is in the
possession of the authorities? So, all the “poor and vulnerable”
Nigerians now have bank accounts whose details are known to the
government? So, why then are too many Nigerians very suspicious of these
claims as shown in their social media comments? And why is such a rare display
of kindness by this government not being celebrated? Or have the funds (if
indeed any were shared) ended up in the hands of the same people who have more
than enough to need them while those who are genuinely deprived remain terribly
famished?
Already, the biting
hunger out there is forcing a growing number of people to defy the no-movement
decree and soon, the whole effort might be defeated, and the country will
return to square one. Information Minister, Mr. Lai Mohammed, is
threatening that the lockdown may be extended if Nigerians fail to behave
themselves. But what he should rather have done is to hasten to school himself
to realize that there is always a price to pay when leaders leave the country
they claim to be governing in great disarray only to suddenly wake up when
there is an emergency to grope for fix-quick solutions.
A few days after the
president’s broadcast (that is, Tuesday, March 31), Daily
Independent carried a front page lead story about 26 Americans who
came into the country through the Murtala Mohammed International Airport and
headed to Calabar without being screened. Now, who cleared their trip to
the country and why were there no health officials available to screen them and
ensure they were quarantined for 14 days before being allowed to fly to
Calabar? Is it because they are Americans or clients of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) or both? Does that automatically
exempt any of them from being a carrier of the virus which is presently
ravaging their own country? What kind of government claims to be fighting
a virus with one hand and using the other hand to be undermining the efforts
being deployed to contain it?
Okay, the Minister
of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has just announced that an 18-man Chinese team
of medical “experts” will soon arrive the country to “assist” Nigeria in the
fight against the coronavirus. Now, is it the federal government that asked
China for help or was it China that volunteered their assistance? Indeed
many Nigerians are vehemently opposed to this gesture at this time. Our
own local medical experts have not shown any signs of being overburdened by the
work, so what difference are these 18 Chinese doctors and nurses going to
make? Will they, like the 26 privileged Americans, also be given express
entry into the country or will they be isolated for 14 days as should be the
case, before they would be allowed to start rendering their “assistance”?
Do we really need
this Chinese gift now or is it that the government lacks the liver to politely
decline their offer of help, despite the widespread apprehension among the
citizenry about their involvement (since many Nigerians, habour strong fears
that the gesture might turn out a Greek gift)? Even the umbrella body of
Nigerian doctors, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), has come out to
strongly oppose the coming of the Chinese medical team. Is it that our
government is too intimidated to say NO to China’s offer probably because it
has yoked itself so much with crushing debts due to its excessive borrowings
from them – debts, whose positive effects on Nigerian lives many are yet to
see?
I raise these points
because, although, Nigeria has recorded one of the lowest deaths from
coronavirus, it was the stubborn refusal of the government to close our borders
when it became very necessary and urgent (and despite calls from well-meaning
Nigerians) that led to the explosion in the number of confirmed cases that the
country has recorded today. In saner climes, the government should have
profusely apologized for that terrible miscalculation that is costing the
nation so much now.
But it now has
another opportunity now to gratify the yearning of Nigerians and reject the
Chinese offer even if it is well-meaning and the fears about it are misplaced.
Now, what lessons is
the government taking away from the scourge of coronavirus? Will they see the
need to equip our hospitals this time and upgrade at least few of them to world
standard now that they have realized the folly of always waiting to use public
funds to send themselves and their families abroad to treat even minor
ailments? For the first time in Nigeria, the naïve and largely misguided
Nigerian leaders have found out that it is not always safe to seek solutions
for health challenges outside the country and that there is afterall no place
like home. This is hoping that the lesson will endure and be redemptive.
*Ugochukwu
Ejinkeonye, is a Nigerian journalist and writer. (scruples2006@yahoo.com)
...First published in his
column on the back page of Daily Independent, Monday, April 6, 2020
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