Covid-19 and Nigeria’s exposed underbelly

For every nation of the world, it takes a crisis to bring out the best and the worst. Crisis exposes a nation’s underbelly revealing strengths and weaknesses. A superficial examination of Nigeria’s corporate response to the Covid-19 crisis for instance, kills your confidence in the Buhari Government to cope with the pandemic. But you then […]

For every nation of the world, it takes a crisis to bring out the best and the worst. Crisis exposes a nation’s underbelly revealing strengths and weaknesses. A superficial examination of Nigeria’s corporate response to the Covid-19 crisis for instance, kills your confidence in the Buhari Government to cope with the pandemic. But you then realise that you have missed a detail as critical as the appearance of high resolution thermal cameras at Nigeria’s International Airports to provide accurate imaging of incoming passengers unobtrusively, determining who was coming in with temperature, suggestive of viral infection.

Who put them there? When were they acquired and installed? The Federal Government of Nigeria had promptly installed these as soon as the Covid-19 pandemic became imminent. You are forced then to thumbs up the Buhari government. Indeed it is possible that this process exposed many legislators who on being personally accosted at the airport, refused to submit themselves for further screening. This has led to the trending reports that several legislators may be battling with self medication instead of reporting to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control as is required. This is counterproductive and self destructive. It is true then that although he had not addressed the nation, President Buhari had been silently at work to combat the pandemic.

A look at the exposed underbelly of the country could therefore change mindsets about President Buhari. Obviously he would prefer to give experts a free hand to excel as he monitors quietly, allowing them to personally take the credit. In this regard no one can question the capacity of the Nigeria Centre on Disease Control NCDC, in its approach to dealing with the coronavirus crisis. Nigeria was able to keep a lid on the numbers up to this moment, topping as low as 131 cases, 2 fatalities and quite laudably, 5 complete recoveries, including the index case. That we have achieved recoveries is very assuring that the country has acquired the hang of it and can deploy the treatment protocol to the states. When President Muhammadu Buhari applauds the NCDC, I agree because I am sure and comfortable that victims can be treated locally successfully.

The pandemic has compelled President Buhari to come out of Aso Rock Presidential Villa, with a broadcast to the nation. His silence had elicited public angst. It was felt strongly that the nation needed his personal assurances. President Buhari’s broadcast to the nation was an undeniable morale booster. It gave assurances to the citizenry that indeed the President has been kept abreast of developments. Every citizen desires that in times of crisis, the father of the nation makes the kind of assuring declarations which indeed, President Buhari made emphatically. The broadcast shifted gears not only on Covid-19 and health care, but as well as on national cohesion, oneness of the citizenry and patriotic zeal to actively play individual roles in the “war”.

The coronavirus pandemic has however exposed in the country’s underbelly, the decrepit nature of our health system, the inadequacies for which thousands of ordinary citizens have endured, most of them just dying unfortunately. The Nigerian healthcare institutions, having suffered neglect over the years nationwide are generally poor. There are infrastructure deficiencies, shortages in medical supplies, and a severe drain of the best medical personnel the nation has produced, sucked up by developed countries of Europe and the Americas. It is however encouraging to note the pragmatic response of the government in fervently working to lift standards that would immediately enable the country cope with the coronavirus pandemic. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has been working assiduously to have well equipped diagnostic laboratories, as well as trained diagnosticians. So far, so good from when the pandemic landed our shores. Standards for isolation centres have been set and developed. States are individually taking steps to ensure conformity and compliance. This is good. To ensure that red tape does not hinder the response to the crisis, President Buhari appointed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, to Head the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19, making it easier for relevant ministries and departments to work in synergy for the achievement of all set goals.

I have tried hard to appreciate the efforts of the Government in confronting Covid-19. It is not to say that it is entirely a perfect rosy picture. Citizens face challenges when incidents that lean towards attacks of Covid-19 occur. Call centres fall short of expectations of anxious callers, seeming unprepared with clear answers for specific locations in the country. The enlightenment says that in the event of an incident, victims should not be rushed to the hospital but instead, NCDC should be alerted. It is evident that the NCDC call desks (typically Nigerian) are at a loss what to tell callers when they receive calls. Citizens will take patients to the normal hospitals spreading the disease the more, and putting health workers at risk. There is yet to exist any protocol and facilities for samples to be ferried to any of the test centres located far from each state. The state health systems will initially work instinctively.

It became evident during the week that up to 3 state governors had tested positive to the virus. This may have exponentially worsened the awesome contact tracing given the average retinue of a Nigerian governor and his daily itinerary of public engagements. NCDC had revealed last week that it was chasing after over 4000 persons who had established contact with confirmed victims. If you add  this to a governor’s average contacts, the enormity of the challenge of contact tracing with regards to the exposure of the entire political class can only best be imagined. Indeed, the earlier confirmed cases are of highly placed public officers. Nigerians believe that this trend is so mainly because it is only that category of very important citizens that have access to credible testing for the virus. Is it conceivable that there are hundreds of asymptomatic victims roaming the streets and simply passing it on? Are we on the precipice of a deluge? That is why I went into self isolation even before a lockdown was dictated. I am not afraid. I am concerned that a large proportion of our ordinary citizens do not believe that a catastrophe is in the offing. God have mercy.