Relaxing lockdown, way to Golgotha
By Bisi Olominu
“I have never seen a country easing COVID-19 lockdown when its confirmed cases are rising embarrassingly. There was 288 cases again on Saturday, May 16, 2020. We will soon discover that it is better to be alive than to be dead” Babajide Otitoju.
As the rampaging coronavirus is unrelenting across the length and breadth of Nigeria like the bushfires, the federal and state governments have relapsed the restrictions imposed on Nigerians. The pandemic is ravaging the whole country killing the small and mighty in the land. Is it therefore not good for Nigerians to be alive than to be killed by the pandemic?
There is groaning in the land and people are clamouring that they should be left alone to fetch for their needs. But with the way the pandemic is increasing and the isolation centres short of bed spaces, is it not noble for both federal and state governments to impose another round of restrictions to curb the excesses of Nigerians who have refused to comply with the law of social distancing, covering their noses, watching hands with water and sanitizer?
Relaxing the lockdown is nothing but another failure of government at all levels to provide for the populace. It is glaring that governments have failed in this aspect and people preferred to confront the pandemic rather than die through hunger pandemic.
As at Saturday, May 16,2020, the country had 288 new cases with confirmed cases rising to 5,445, deaths 121 and recovering cased now 1,320.
Some governors had proclaimed that mosques and churches should open for Sunday and Jumat services, this will no doubt increase cases of coronavirus pandemic in the country. Are these governors having medical experiences? Who advised them to come out with the harsh and irrational decisions?
With the border sabotage and the invasion of the land by the almajiri, it is so certain that the pandemic will be very difficult to curtail. For decades, the northern states which practised almajiri system are now plagued by the system. They have been troubled in addressing many of their outdated cultural and religious practices, and today many of the almajiri are suffering from coronavirus and are being pushed outside their domains to spread the virus.
Not too long after the northern states governors described the lockdown response to COVID 19 as impracticable in their states and that the new measure would make the pandemic more complicated and perhaps more rewarding, they have been visited by more deaths. Their prominent sons and daughters have been reaped by the reaper.
There have been fear that if coronavirus will berth in the most populous states in the north, chaos could ensue. Their fears are not misplaced. Indeed Kano and some states in the north are being reaped by death everyday. What then is the essence of relaxing the lockdown? What does the country intends to achieve with this? Relaxing the lockdown is nothing but the way to Golgotha.
Speaking on the issue, the President of the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, Dr. Alibi Sokomba said: ” The whole dimension of COVID 19 management has been drifting gradually from medical intervention to political power play, and we are beginning to feel that the stakeholders are using this to settle scores”
” Otherwise, the lockdown in Kano was instituted in good faith. In fact, it is either the people don’t understand the nature of the disease we are dealing with or they just want to do things differently for political expediency.
” The very first time this disease had the opportunity of spreading very much in Kano was when the lockdown was lifted- I think some days to the beginning of the fast. The government said that everybody should go to the market and shop.
” As much as I want to speak medically, I think medical stand in itself cannot be the only solution to the problem in Kano. I would have suggested that the state government synchronizes and harmonized its position with the federal government on whatever they are doing to curtail the spread of the disease”.
With the coronavirus pandemic rate going astronomical in Nigeria on daily basis and deaths itching disquietly towards catastrophic, is there any sense in relaxing the lockdown by the government?
The Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, has described relaxing lockdown in the country as premature and can potentially exposed more Nigerians to the virus.
The association warned that the country could experience a bounce in the number of coronavirus cases as health workers are trapping with numerous challenges like lack of bed spaces in the epicenter of the pandemic, especially Lagos, unraveled cause(s) of deaths in Kano State and delay in the distribution of personal protective equipment, PPE, to public and private hospitals among others.
The President of the NMA, Dr. Francis Faduyile said: ”As the incidence of the COVID 19 hits the 5,000 mark by this weekend, it figuratively tilts the epidemiology curve towards an upward spike”.
”More so, the revelation by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC,that the nation lacks bed spaces in Lagos worsens this frightening scenario.
” The confusing situation in Kano is neither unraveled nor resolved. At the same time, some states continue to live in the delusion of zero COVID 19 incidences.
‘’ The easing of the lockdown even in phases is very premature. Nigeria should learn from her neighbour Ghana where the same action produced 100 per cent increase in infection rate in just a week.”
