News | State / Democracy - Africa - West Africa - Corona Crisis The Fight Against the COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

Socio-economic devastation and inconsistent enforcement

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Author

Angela Odah,

People waiting at the gate of Nigeria Red Cross Society of Nigeria, as they distributes of Emergency kits of food and essential supplies to residences in Lagos State, during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on April 25, 2020. Photo by Olukayode Jaiyeola/NurPhoto/picture alliance

Nigeria is the giant of Africa, with a population of more than 200 million and the continent’s largest economy. Its major cities such as Lagos, Kano, Ibadan, Benin City, and Port Harcourt are economic centres with vibrant cultural lives. Their universities have been breeding grounds of the academic left for decades, even if this has declined somewhat since the 2000s. They are also magnets for internal migration, with high population density in their poorer quarters and informal settlements, where reliable electricity and running water are thin on the ground. Rural areas, once breadbaskets and agricultural exporters, have been neglected since crude oil extraction came to dominate the economy some 60 years ago. Rural poverty is widespread and violent conflicts like the Boko Haram insurgency or the clashes between herders and farmers make international headlines. COVID-19 has added to the challenges the country is facing.

Angela Odah is an RLS Programme Manager for Youth and Politics based in Abuja, Nigeria.

Devastating Effects of the Lockdown

In Nigeria, the lockdown in the key states of Lagos and Ogun, and in the capital Abuja, and the restrictions in place in many of the other 34 states of the federation, have had a devastating effect on the livelihood of workers in the informal sector, which the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates to be over 70 percent of the total workforce. The federal and state governments in Nigeria are yet to develop a sustainable cash transfer policy to help these vulnerable segments of the population through this difficult period.

In its latest report on the COVID-19 pandemic (7 April 2020), the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that an equivalent of 195 million jobs will be wiped out globally in the second quarter of 2020. In a news conference on 7 April 2020, ILO Director General Guy Ryder said that workers in the informal sector—who account for 61 percent of the global workforce, or approximately two billion people—will need income support to survive and feed their families as their jobs disappear. On the implementation of lockdowns in several countries around the world as a measure to fight the pandemic, Ryder was quoted in The Guardian (8 April 2020) as saying: “if you require people to stop working, go home and stay at home but they have absolutely no other source of income, then the choice can become between that of protecting yourself against the virus and having no means of surviving, no means to feed yourself and these are impossible dilemmas”.

The lockdown in Abuja, Lagos, and Ogun, combined with other restrictions in movement in the rest of the country, has brought a lot of pressure on informal sector operators, majority of whom are women. For instance, the women who sell fresh bananas and peanuts around the corner of our estate in Abuja said that since the lockdown began, they had been forced to leave their homes in the settlements on the outskirts of Abuja by 4 a.m. in order to avoid being stopped from entering the town by security forces enforcing compliance with the lockdown.

Similarly, the Federal Capital Territory authorities have restricted the activities of markets, which are now permitted to open just twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., and are only allowed to sell foodstuffs. It goes without saying that they are losing a lot of customers. It may also have the unwanted effect of actually promoting the spread of the virus, as markets are overcrowded during these reduced opening hours.

Federal and State Efforts at Fighting the Virus

Nigeria recorded its first case of COVID-19 on 27 February 2020 in Lagos State. With the experience of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa in mind, the country went into action and introduced registration forms which all new arrivals in the country had to fill out. The information passengers were expected to provide included the location of their residence in Nigeria and phone contacts for themselves and their next of kin. The health authorities also installed temperature-reading devices at the airport entry points, which all those coming into the country are expected to pass through before undergoing immigration formalities. This is to detect passengers with fevers, which is one of the first indicators that someone might need to be examined more closely. The contact addresses and phone numbers provided were to aid the authorities in tracing people in case anybody on the flight were to become ill and test positive for COVID-19. If this were to happen, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) would reach out to the affected persons and ask them to self-isolate until the NCDC could come to test for the virus. This was the initial protocol members of the public were expected to follow. Nigeria is a federation composed of 36 states and a Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which is administered like a state.

Early in March, the president established a high-powered Presidential Task Force (PTF) to coordinate the response, while state governments also set up their own committees on the pandemic, headed up by deputy governors or secretaries to the government.

As the cases of COVID-19 in the country began to increase, with many of the cases coming from people who had recently returned from countries with serious outbreaks, various states took a number of drastic measures to curtail the spread of the pandemic. These measures include the closure of all schools, closure of state borders, and the banning of public services in churches and mosques. Social distancing was strongly advocated, while all social activities—such as weddings, funerals, going to cinemas, clubs and bars—were prohibited. A mandatory stay-at-home order was also issued in some states.

At the federal level, the Federal Ministry of Education ordered the closure of all tertiary, secondary and primary schools nationwide.

In his first address to the nation on the COVID-19 pandemic on 29 March, President Mohammedu Buhari ordered residents of the states of Lagos and Ogun, as well as Abuja in the FCT, to stay at home for an initial period of 14 days, beginning at 11 p.m. on Monday 30 March. The order exempted hospitals and all related medical establishments, as well as organizations in healthcare-related manufacturing and distribution. The president said the containment period was designed to allow health authorities to identify, trace, and isolate all individuals that had come into contact with confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Earlier, the Presidential Task Force had announced the suspension of all inbound flights from 15 countries where the COVID-19 pandemic was most pronounced. The president also announced that all airports, land and sea borders were to be closed.

President Buhari also set up another committee to recommend fiscal measures to address the economic disruptions occasioned by the COVID-19 crisis. The president has approved a number of fiscal stimulus packages to address the health and economic challenges posed by the pandemic. The measures include the establishment of a N500 billion (1.25 billion US dollars) COVID-19 Crisis Intervention Fund. The finance minister also announced the government would approach the IMF, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank to seek a loan of some 7 billion dollars under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) offered by these institutions, in order to finance the economic stimulus package.

While visiting the secretary to the government of the federation and chairman of the Presidential Task Force on 8 April 2020, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) announced that they would grant the Presidential Task Force full access to 435 Catholic hospitals and clinics spread across the country to help tackle the pandemic.

According to the Presidential Task Force for the Control of COVID-19, it has successfully traced no fewer than 8,932 people of interest said to have had contact with people who tested positive for the virus across the country. It is also monitoring a further 220.

According to the information minister, the strategy of the task force to curtail the virus was to “trace, test, isolate and treat”. “We are tracing people who came from countries with high prevalence of COVID-19 and those who have come into contact with them”. He told those contacted to monitor their health status, stating that “if you have not developed any symptoms within 14 days of your arrival into the country or coming into contact with some body that has it, we will let you go”.

Challenges In the Response to COVID-19

Despite the actions of the federal and state governments in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic outlined above, Nigeria faces several challenges.

One major challenge is the structural neglect of healthcare infrastructure throughout the entire federation as a result of decades of underfunding by all tiers of government. According to a member of Nigeria’s National Assembly, Senator Adeyeye (also a medical doctor), University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan, where he trained as a doctor in the early 1960s, used to be ranked fourth within the British Commonwealth, and the Saudi Royal Family used to come for treatment. Presently, as a result of ill-equipped medical facilities and the resultant massive brain drain of Nigerian medical professions to Europe, America, and the rest of the world, the pandemic is coming at a moment when the country is ill-equipped to handle a major health crisis.

The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) raised concerns about the lack of face masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE), as well as ventilators. The reality on the ground confirms the concerns of the NMA. According to the Director General of the NCDC, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, by the second week of April, Nigeria would be testing 1,500 people for COVID-19 every day. Up until that point, 500 tests were being conducted per day. Some states, including Oyo and Edo, have complained that they were facing a shortage of COVID-19 testing kits. In a country with a population of approximately 200 million people, this is unacceptable, given the scope of the crisis. Even the donation by the Chinese philanthropist Jack Ma consisting of 100,000 face masks, 20,000 test kits, 9,999 face shields, and 1,100 other items of PPE, is still grossly inadequate given Nigeria’s population.

Inconsistent Enforcement of Measures at the State Level

Another major challenge in the fight against COVID-19 in Nigeria is the inconsistency in the implementation of the lockdown and social distancing measures at the state level. By Easter weekend, six states had told their residents to feel free to go to church for Easter services or to the mosque to pray. Five other states were said to be preparing to lift their restriction orders.

Bauchi State, where the governor and five others had tested positive for the virus, also did not observe the social distancing directives while the governor was in self-isolation. The deputy governor, Mr Tela, told journalists during one of his briefings on COVID-19 that he was “disappointed” that the residents were not complying with the social distancing directives issued by the state government. The state government has demonstrated little commitment to combatting the spread of the disease. The government explained that it had to reverse its decision on the two-week total lockdown because it didn’t have enough resources to provide the necessary support to residents who would have to remain at home.

In response to the relaxation of the restrictions in Rivers State, the Catholic diocese of Port Harcourt said in a statement that it preferred for its members to stay isolated at home rather than coming to church for Easter.

In yet another statement on 10 April, the NMA said that “relaxing any guideline that promotes mass gathering in any part of the nation now can only heighten and not flatten the curve of transmission dynamics”. It urged the state governments to “rescind their decision in the interest of safety of lives”.

For Owei Lakemfa, columnist with the Vanguard Newspapers, wrote that “if Saudi Arabia and the Vatican can enforce lockdowns, how can Governor Bello Masari (of Katsina State) be wiser than our collective wisdom and Governor Akeredolu (of Ondo State) be more Catholic than the Pope”.

Ondo State eventually cancelled Easter celebrations after another person tested positive for the virus in the state. A statement signed on 10 April by the state commissioner for information, Donald Ojogo, maintained that the government made the decision after consultation with the Christian Association of Nigeria.

Conclusion

There are a lot of holes in the Nigerian strategy for combatting the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the lockdown measures are difficult to sustain for a long period, as the experience of the first two weeks of the lockdown have shown. Therefore, this needs to be reviewed. The Asian model of extensive testing and contact tracing might be more effective than a complete lockdown.

Similarly, support which the federal government said it had distributed to 2.5 million households via the repurposed Social Investment Programme (SIP) seems not to have seriously impacted on the lives of those whose economic activities have been severely disrupted as a result of the stay-at-home order that was in force over the last two weeks. A more transparent and wide-ranging intervention programme would need to be put in place with the participation of critical stakeholders, such as organized labour, employers’ associations, and civil society organizations.

The weakness of Nigeria’s response to the crisis can be seen in the low number of tests being carried out. For a population of about 200 million people, reaching 1,500 tests per day as projected by the Presidential Task Force and echoed by the minister of health is completely insufficient. The government hopes to increase the country’s testing centres from six to twelve. This will still be grossly inadequate. Ideally, testing centres should be established in each of the 36 federal states and in the FCT, and in each of the country’s 774 local government areas.

In the same vein, the economic stimulus package outlined by the minister of finance, the main highlight of which is the establishment of the 500-billion-naira intervention fund, may be insufficient to address the economic turmoil this pandemic has caused for the economy. Therefore, more comprehensive measures need to be articulated that provide concrete support for small businesses and other key sectors of the economy.

As Prof Jibrin Ibrahim aptly put it, “the real governance issue is that we are in crisis today because we have allowed our health system to collapse as our elite became completely reliant on foreign systems and now they cannot go abroad as everyone is in crisis. We must plan our way out of this crisis with a renewed commitment to rebuild our health and educational systems so that we can survive the uncertain future that is arriving”.

The enforcement of the various lockdown measures by the Nigerian government in the bid to fight the COVID-19 pandemic has raised some concerns about a return to the strong-arm tactics of the authoritarian state which existed in Nigeria for many years under military rule. While the limitation of freedom of movement and freedom of assembly, among other measures being enforced, may be deemed necessary given the nature of the crisis we are facing, there are reports of some of those returning from trips overseas giving inaccurate information regarding their address, next of kin, and phone numbers. This may be due to fears that the state may use this information for other purposes than just fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report of the Nigerian National Human Rights Commission, titled “Press Release on COVID-19 Enforcement So Far, Report on Incident of Violation of Human Rights”, dated 14 April 2020, reveals worrying trends with respect to the security agencies’ treatment of citizens. The report documented a total of 105 complaints in 24 of the 36 states of the federation, including the FCT. Lagos and Abuja topped the complaints of human rights violations, with 28 and 10 incidents respectively. According to Tony Ojukwu, the executive secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and author of the press release, “there were 8 documented incidents of extra-judicial killing leading to 18 deaths. Out of this number, 12 deaths were recorded in Kaduna State. Abia State also recorded 2 deaths arising from 2 incidents; while Delta, Niger, Ebonyi and Katsina States recorded 1 death each”. The report further stated that as of 14 April 2020, COVID-19 had killed 11 people, while law enforcement agents had extra-judicially executed 18 people while enforcing the lockdown. The statement went on to describe this as a “sheer display of impunity and reckless disregard for human life in law enforcement by security personnel”.

At this stage, the success of the struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria is difficult to predict, as the necessary synergy between Federal and State government policies is yet to manifest.