PRESS STATEMENT: MAINTAINING ORDER DURING A PANDEMIC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The key to defeating the current pandemic and economic challenges is to increase health measures as well as keeping the country running. The Government and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control have done remarkably well. Government should ensure all funding and logistical requirements for the NCDC are continually provided. Whenever restrictions are eased, there will be a plethora of people intending to seek financial transactions and other means of livelihoods. What this actually says is that many people are financially challenged becuase of the current predicament. It is precarious for people to be locked down for too long because when they come out, they will be in large numbers irrespective of when they come out since the end date of the pandemic is not yet known. What is required is efficient management of people in public places with strong and effective but not repressive enforcement of guidelines. Oil and commodity prices have crashed, the country has huge debt (however debt relief efforts are starting to pay off) the private sector is struggling to survive (even the biggest companies are finding it challenging). The opportunity cost of keeping people at home is gargantuan and has much greater impact on mortality and livelihoods eventually. For example, only a small percentage of people of means probably die from malaria. Keeping people at home too long ensures that the poor (at least 82.9 million according to Nigerian Bureau of Statistics) cannot earn money and therefore cannot attend to their health and nutritional challenges. There is a need to conduct an independent and comprehensive impact assessment of the lockdown measures.
If a company has to relieve its workers or reduce their pay, that affects everyone who benefits in one way or the other from those workers (family, food and cloth suppliers, phone credit and data etc). The implication is that more people become poor. While keeping people at home should be optional for those who can work from home or can afford to stay at home it should not be compulsory for people who cannot survive without their daily pay. Government is unable to provide palliatives for even one quarter of the population at best so people need to be allowed to earn a living. What needs to be avoided at all costs is getting to a stage where people refuse to obey restrictions en masse. If a critical mass of people are at home and can't make a living and have no support then at some point there will be resistance (this is happening in some countries already). If this happens the whole situation eventually becomes largely unmanageable and more severe health, economic and security implications become inevitable..
Everything needs to be done to keep people safe and productive. People should not get to the point where they cannot accept the benefits of the restrictions. Restrictions on interstate travel and curfew have been announced and should be enforced completely and humanely. The current restrictions from Government are sufficient. What is needed and strongly recommended now is effective and humane enforcement by security and other relevant agencies.
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria! Nigeria shall prevail! God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
Signed
Abiodun Ajijola
National Coordinator
No comments:
Post a Comment