Jiti Ogunye
I am unhappy. I assume that millions of Nigerians are equally unhappy. The government (federal and the states) and the COVID-19 management authorities are not behaving responsibly. They have a duty to act decisively and firmly to ensure that the coronavirus does not spread exponentially in Nigeria, occasioning the preventable loss of thousands of lives, making living difficult and ruining the country’s economy.
The federal government, the government of the states and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) rolled out the prevention regulations for the spread of the coronavirus. They have an incumbent duty to enforce these regulations. Of course, we are not unaware that in the enforcement of the ban on or restriction of movement component of these regulations, security and law enforcement agencies have been violating the rights of ordinary citizens. We are painfully aware of these violations, which are very ungodly and grossly inhuman, at this dire time. Some policemen, in particular, have gone rogue, taking advantage of the situation, as policemen usually do. They have embarked on an orgy of extortion and corrupt practices. Soldiers in some parts of the country have in tandem registered their own “regular trademark”, leaving sorrow, tears and blood (akin to Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s 1978 description). Some Nigerians have reportedly lost their lives in the course of the enforcement of the regulations by security and law enforcement agents. How security and law enforcement agencies can continue to enforce the regulations, especially the no movement directives, without further violating the rights of the people has, in the prevailing circumstances, become a big concern.
However, in spite of these egregious violations of the human rights of the people by the security and law enforcement agencies, the regulations must continually be enforced to contain the spread of the virus.
The Nigerian government and the prevention authorities for the spread pf the coronavirus, therefore dishonour the sacrifice and perseverance of millions of Nigerians who faithfully observe the prevention regulations, including social distancing, by their glaring laxity and dubiety in the enforcement of the regulations when it matters the most. And when, unpleasant as it is, opportunity is created to demonstrate that we are all equal before the law, just as we are all equal before the coronavirus scourge, which is indiscriminate and does not spare anyone on the basis of economic standing, social status or the enormity of wielded political power.
Before now, some state governments in the country had openly declared that they weren’t going to lockdown their states because their “agrarian” economies would not permit such. We have also seen some state governments sanctioning large religious congregations (Jumaat on Fridays and Easter celebrations) in defiance of the social distancing advisory and directive in the COVID-19 Regulations.
Of course, the federal government of Nigeria needs to take urgent action before “divisive elements” from familiar quarters start exploiting the “north-south” dichotomy in the observance and enforcement of the COVID-19 Regulations by insinuating that the Regulations are being used by “northern agenda” setters and implementers to cripple the “economy” of the South, while the “economy” of the North remains afloat. Happily, the good COVID-19 Regulations enforcement work that the Kaduna State government has done will invalidate any such insinuation. The seeming reluctance on the part of the federal government to take this urgent action is part of the reason why I declared at the outset of this intervention that I was angry.
It has been a mixed bag. While some state authorities are guilty of laxity and cavalier irresponsiveness, some have been guilty of arbitrariness, engaging in a childish and needless COVID-19 power tussle. These state governors behave so irrationally and arbitrarily in making and enforcing the Regulations in their states. Still waters run deep. Shallow “rivers” burble, attracting negative attention and notoriety but lacking in depth.
The issue isn’t whether some governors haven’t been courting declaration of a state of emergency in their states for long. Or at the very least, litigations in the Supreme Court of Nigeria, under Section 232 of the Constitution, granting original jurisdiction to the Court in legal disputes between the federal government and state governments, to define the limits of the exercise of their assumed COVID-19 powers, and other powers by these state governors. They have. The issue is whether the man empowered by law to proclaim a state of emergency or initiate an action in the Supreme Court who, since inception of office, has been reluctant to so do, even when it is warranted, will ever do so. In addition, the issue is whether the federal government, creatively and imaginatively, can extend the coverage of the COVID-19 Regulations under the Quarantine Act, Cap Q2, LFN, 2004 to these disruptive states, such that once so extended, any extant COVID-19 law or regulations in those recalcitrant states in the federation can be lawfully superseded, overridden and kept in abeyance under the well known constitutional principle of covering the field.
Yesterday, April 18, at the burial of the departed chief of staff to the president, Mallam Abba Kyari (may God rest his soul), the government, again, woefully failed to enforce the social distancing component of its COVID-19 Prevention Regulations. A burial that was publicly announced as a private ceremony was besieged by a throng of mourners who were there to conduct the final burial rites. Unfortunately, the ceremony was televised live to the astonishment of the international viewing public, thereby showcasing our official duplicity in Nigeria and how we openly violate our own rules, regulations (and even laws). The cemetery where Mallam Abba Kyari was buried is block-fenced. Soldiers, policemen and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) personnel, under the control of the federal government in Abuja, the FCT, were available to enforce movement restriction and prevent mourners from massing up at the cemetery and possibly causing the spread of the virus. The federal government, the FCT administration and the NSCDC failed in this regard. When we cry or mourn, still we can see, as we are not blinded by tears (tí a bá nsūnkún aa ma n ríìrãn). One may even add that grieving and emotional distress ought not to lead to outright insanity. While it is true that people recover from the coronavirus infection, it remains a killer disease that we all must avoid if we can.
Following that irresponsible conduct of the burial ceremony yesterday, there was an outcry in the social media. A mixture of blatant mischief and righteous indignation. As a means of damage control, many familiar regime social media propagandists quickly rose to the occasion by sharing the NSCDC regulation governing the burial of deceased COVID-19 patients, submitting that the conduct of the burial of Mallam Abba Kyari was in compliance with that regulation. Unfortunately for them, the FCT Health Authorities have since come out to acknowledge that there were violations of the social distancing regulations at the burial, and that many of the attendees have been identified and advised to go into self-isolation for fourteen days.
In the South-West of Nigeria, while Lagos and Ogun States have been locked down, Oyo State has refused to follow suit. Yet, it requires no high level intellect or reasoning to imagine that given the geographical and social contiguity amongst Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States, and the population movement between Lagos and Ibadan in particular, any progress made in Lagos in terms of containment of the spread of the virus, vide the one month lockdown, will likely be reversed when the lockdown is over. The probability is that a highly infected but untested Ibadan population will further spread the virus in Lagos. One step forward, two steps backward!
From what we have stated thus far, there is obviously a case for a more robust coordination at the national level in the fight against the spread of the virus.
By the double and uneven standards in the enforcement of the COVID-19 Regulations across the country, the federal government, some state governments and the COVID-19 management authorities are, to put it mildly, encouraging the spread of the virus. As the virus spreads, of course, government and these authorities will call for, justify and direct further extension of the lockdown across the country. This extension will not be fair to those who have been faithfully and very responsibly observing the regulations, including staying at home, to the detriment of their personal and business pursuits.
The lockdown is taking a toll on Nigerians who desire and deserve to be “released” from it as soon as feasible and possible. Prior to the lockdown intervention of the federal government in Lagos and Ogun States, and in the FCT, Abuja on March 31, Lagos State had been in a sort of lockdown for about ten days. With the directive that salary grade levels 1-12 public servants, statewide, should stay off work and remain at home, the Lagos State Judiciary was forced to shut down. And with the directive (about the same time that those of the Lagos State government were made) from the NJC under the chairmanship of the CJN that the courts, countrywide, should suspend sittings, save hearing of urgent causes an actions, the federal courts were shut down also.
Many businesses in the private sector, including law firms, were forced to shut down. Thus, many persons and businesses in Lagos State have been on lockdown for almost three weeks. Any, extension of the lockdown, at the end of the current phase, will, therefore, be devastating.
In the circumstances, we hereby call on the Federal Government of Nigeria, the governments of the states and the COVID-19 Pandemic Management agencies to effectively coordinate their activities and create synergy in such a way that the spread of the virus in Nigeria can be combated effectively and speedily, employing even standards and procedures of containment.
If the virus spreads, there will be an ostensible need to extend the lockdown. Yet, the government cannot just be resorting to lockdown ad infinitum – indefinitely – without fully utilising the lockdown and social distancing measures already proclaimed by honestly and impartially enforcing the COVID-19 Regulations. Time is of essence. Any idea that the lockdown tool will always be available to government to contain the spread of the virus, no matter how long it may take to contain the spread, may be catastrophically counterproductive. Such a mindset will be courting open defiance and mass revolt. Unlike in some other countries that are hard hit by the pandemic and which are observing lockdowns, there are no credible and sustainable social security and safety nets regimes here. Nigerians are not receiving US$1,200.00 each from their federal or state governments. And they have no opportunity to file unemployment claims or benefits for the loss of jobs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and paralysis of daily work and business activities. Sure, reasonable and sensible Nigerians who are complying with the COVID-19 Regulations do not want to contract or die by the virus; but they also do not want to die by hunger, starvation, boredom and frustration, arising from the lockdown. Desperation and survival instincts may push people out. Already opportunistic or economic deprivation induced criminal activities have spiked in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown. This is ominous.
The reasonable and sensible Nigerians, who are scrupulously complying with the COVID-19 Regulations are doing their part in containing the spread of the virus. There is no reason government should not do its own part.
If European countries and the United States are projecting July and August for their own lockdowns to be fully lifted, for their economies to be reopened and for normality to return, we have no such luxury of time here. Our economy is too broken and social and economic inequalities are too pronounced to withstand such a prolonged impasse and hiatus.
Let us hasten to save lives and save our country.
