Lagos considers re-opening of economy
Labour and the organised private sector have warned the federal government against a fresh lockdown order saying it would have grave negative economic and social consequences on the country.
The OPS and labour made their voices heard as President Muhammadu Buhari is billed addresses Nigerians today after 14 days of relaxing the lockdown rule in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos and Ogun states.
The lockdown order was announced on March 30 to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the affected areas but the other states followed suit by taking measures to contain the pandemic.
The director general of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Assembly (NECA) Dr. Timothy Olawale, said the implications of another lockdown will be shocking to the economy, businesses and individuals.
“It will threaten between 1.28 million and 2.75 million of jobs nationally. Prior to the advent of COVID-19, the economy had been struggling with a huge budget deficit that was occasioned by low revenue and external shock.
“Therefore, easing the lockdown is about the only way of striking the necessary balance between the economic and the health crisis as a nation.
“The OPS would rather request that governments at all levels should be responsible for restoration of the economy while working towards flattening the curve.
“We would rather suggest that, it is imperative that the federal, state and local governments should set up robust safety guidelines and measures in place and strictly enforce them to enhance sustainable living whilst reducing and containing the spread.
“The implication for the Nigerian economy can only be imagined. The most important thing is that all protocols should be enforced by government. The failure of the public to observe the guidelines is not enough reason. The government should bring its full weight to bear on the enforcement,” he said.
For his part, director general of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Mr. Ayo Olukanni said another lockdown is not the way to go.
“Rather, we must work to achieve a balance between curtailing the rate of infection and keeping the economy running. Another national lockdown is not a guarantee that we will no longer have spread of infection because we have seen that these lockdowns have been obeyed more in its breach.
“We may not have the exact figures now, but economic losses from the first lockdown have been estimated to be in trillions of Naira,” he said.
In his contribution, the general secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Emma Ugboaja, said any measure, which would stifle the economy, is not what is needed at the moment.
“We are against total lockdown; we are for opening the economy sector by sector. You should give a sector-specific guideline. We are for opening up not shutting down. The government should be able to give guidelines for each sector to operate.
“We need people at the construction site, we need people in the farm to operate the agricultural sector and we need the transport sector to be on the move effortlessly,” he said.
Meanwhile, the governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said the government was considering full reopening of some critical sectors of its economy.
However, he said the decision will not be taken in a hurry.
Sanwo-Olu stated this yesterday after the state’s security council meeting held at the State House, Marina.
He said the government would, in the coming days, roll out Register-to-Open initiative as part of the plans that would enable it assess the level of readiness of the players in the identified sectors for supervised operations.
“We are at a level where we are reviewing the other arms of the economy. In the coming days, we will be starting what we call Register-to-Open, which means all players in the restaurant business, event centres, entertainment, malls and cinemas will go through a form of re-registration and space management.
“There is a regulation that will be introduced to supervise this move. We will be coming to their facilities to assess their level of readiness for a future opening. I don’t know when that opening will happen in the weeks ahead, but we want these businesses to begin to tune themselves to the reality of COVID-19 with respect to how their work spaces need to look like,” he said.
With ThisDay report
