What is the effect of COVID-19 lockdown in Nigeria?

What is the effect on the citizen over COVID-19 lockdown? 

Nigerian citizen: I prefer to die from Covid-19 than hunger

With a population of over 200 million people, Nigeria is one among the foremost populous black nations worldwide. like the remainder of the planet , Nigeria is currently handling the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, but during a somewhat different fashion.

On Feb 27, 2020, the primary official case of  COVID-19 in Nigeria was announced. The patient was an Italian citizen, who had recently arrived in Lagos from Europe and who, a couple of days later, tested positive for the disease. In Ogun state, a neighboring state to Lagos, another patient was identified and was discovered to possess been in touch with the primary patient. Since then, things has developed with more cases occurring, no matter measures initiated by the state and federal to combat the virus and return to normalcy. As of May 1st , there have been 1932 confirmed cases, 319 recoveries, and 58 deaths.

WHO has advised on several methods to assist prevent spread of the virus and to save lots of health systems across the planet from an entire collapse—eg, health washing, social distancing, and staying reception . However, Nigeria's health system before the pandemic was nearly non-existent. In most of the cities', health systems are completely dilapidated as they need not received adequate attention, and a few officialdom have contributed to health system collapse by encouraging medical tourism.

The federal of Nigeria enforced an initial 2-week lockdown on March 30, 2020, for 3 of 36 states (Lagos, Ogun, and Abuja) and, on April 13, extended it another 2 weeks. Shortly after the order was announced by the President, Muhammadu Buhari, there was an uproar among the citizens thanks to a myriad of concerns. Nigeria, in 2018, was announced by the planet Poverty Clock to be the poverty capital of the planet , with over 40% of its citizens living below the poverty level. 

Therefore, an outsized proportion of the population, especially within the commercial hub of Lagos, survive daily income with no savings to act as a financial buffer during the lockdown. The prospect of staying reception could, therefore, cause another problem: hunger. Several people, like Osas, a young plumber who lives and works within the city, have commented on social media about how, despite being fully informed about COVID-19, they still cannot relate thereto the maximum amount because the hunger being experienced across the country.

Buhari promised the citizens some palliative measures, which include disbursing of funds and food items to those most affected. But the truth on the bottom may be a far cry from the guarantees made; only alittle proportion of the population attest to receiving any support. an outsized number of citizens have disobeyed the lockdown order within the hope of creating sales or trying to earn money through other services, but they were apprehended by the police. The combined effort of the police and therefore the military to enforce the lockdown may have caused more deaths than the infection itself.

As well because the other negative outcomes attributed to the lockdown, Lagos has seen an enormous spike in armed robberies.

One has got to question whether these aforementioned negative effects override the explanations for the lockdown within the first place: to flatten the curve of infections. consistent with news from other countries in Africa, things in Lagos is nearly an ideal mirror of things across the entire continent, with the exception of a couple of countries (eg, Rwanda), where governments are ready to enact effective solutions to the pandemic and supply palliative measures.

There are some positives to consider; the private sector, churches, and non-governmental organisations have provided tons of support to communities across Lagos and therefore the remainder of Nigeria. they need facilitated countless distributions of food items to a number of the foremost deprived areas of Lagos. Also, there's hope that the health sector will finally receive the eye it needs from the govt in response to the teachings learned from this pandemic. Despite the socioecomonic differences seen across Nigerian communities, there has been a way of togetherness during this point .

Irrespective of these positive aspects of COVID-19 and of lockdown, fears remain that the amount of deaths as a results of lockdown measures are going to be greater than those thanks to infection. The Nigerian government must aim to guard its citizens and supply them with the required commodities or funds to assist mitigate the results of this pandemic.

By Inama Blessing