BY Oseloka H. Obaze<\/p>\n
It ought not to be a hard sale to convince anyone, that try as we may
\nand have, Nigeria is well behind the emergency response curve required
\nfor tackling the Covid-19 pandemic. Hence, now is the time to escalate
\nthe national resiliency level holistically, and in an unfettered manner.
\nLuckily, we have global response examples, best practices and lessons
\nlearned to borrow from, as well as mistakes that should be avoided
\nentirely.<\/p>\n
My assessment of this matter in non-partisan and purely from the policy
\nand complex emergency response perspective. First, I believe that those
\nwho are against shutting down non-essential public and academic
\ninstitutions are wrong. They are putting their economic considerations
\nfirst. We must be aware, that whatever economic of financial losses we
\nincur nationally in our preventive efforts, will ultimately pale, when
\ncompared to eventual national losses, if we fail to mitigate the spread
\nof Covid-19 expeditiously.<\/p>\n
Here is the painful reality. Nigeria now has a total of 27 cases of
\ncoronavirus in the country. Covid-19 infections in Nigeria will
\nextrapolate exponentially. For now we seem comfortable in orchestrating
\ncontainment. The spread of infections will eventually rise because of
\nindiscipline, our fluid form of urban and rural transportation, lack of
\nsocietal control regimes and structures during emergencies, poverty,
\ncompelling need to fulfill sustenance and hierarchy of needs at any
\ncost, poor national safety net, illiteracy and poor national orientation
\nin compliance with public orders. Furthermore, we seem to be allowing
\nour success in managing the limited scope Ebola outbreak to induce a
\nfalse sense of response capabilities.<\/p>\n
The wide distrust gap that exist between the national population and the
\ngovernment is a critical factor. If we must sell fear and use shock
\ntherapy to induce compliance with preventive measures, now is the time.
\nThat may be the only way to guarantee the escalation of our national
\nresiliency to the required level. Federal and state cooperation will be
\nimperative, beyond setting up the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19,
\nand the National Economic Council meeting intermittently. Our national
\nleaders must also lead by example; first by personally exhibiting
\npublicly, the value of social distancing. That is not happening yet.<\/p>\n
There are some other biting realities we must contend with. What, for
\ninstance, is the acceptable national casualty and fatality threshold.
\nWill we accept hundreds, thousands or millions before the blame game
\nstarts. For now, fate has been kind to us, but I suspect it won\u2019t be
\nfor long. We, as a nation will eventually overcome the Covid-19
\nchallenge, but the costs and fatality rates will only be mitigated, if
\nwe act proactively and expeditiously.<\/p>\n
I have commented elsewhere on the prevailing challenges. My point of
\nview remains unapologetically consistent. I\u2019m not into dooms day
\nscenarios, but it\u2019s better to be safe than sorry. Bearing in mind that
\nNigerians including traders, fuel vendors, contractors, consultants and
\neven healthcare providers tend to profiteer from crisis and emergency
\nsituations, the federal government must take the lead. We must have a
\nstrict Presidential Executive Order on hoarding and price gouging. That
\norder must also be enforced. Various states might have some comparative
\nresponse advantages in terms of finances and social and health
\nstructures; but this is time to collaborate and not compete.
\nDecentralization will work best and help overcome the red tape and
\nbottleneck approach, associated with all efforts, policies and finances
\ncoming out of Abuja.<\/p>\n
So what to do? The healthcare providers need more support. But we must
\nhave structured and uniformed response units at the state level. The
\nreactive responses so far are grossly insufficient for the scope of
\nimpending complex emergency and crisis that could be cataclysmic for
\nNigeria. At the state level, we must to start setting up centralized and
\nlocalized testing and holding spheres, as well as quarantine areas. The
\nNational Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and it\u2019s state
\ncounterparts (SEMAs), military and para-military agencies and all first
\nresponders should now be on \u201cCode Yellow\u201d operational mode across
\nthe nation. Our national prevention advocacy is disjointed. Television
\nand Radio jingles and handbills in various ethnic languages are not
\nreaching the critical masses out there. This explains the recent cases
\nof chloroquine overdoses, by those self-medicating. It also explains the
\nlackadaisical response to social distancing. We need to escalate public
\nawareness preventive measures advocacy process. Such campaign should be
\nnational in scope.<\/p>\n
We must also marshal all available national financial resources required
\nto tackle this pandemic. Announced Federal Government response funding
\nand Central Bank intervention support of N50 billion soft loans to small
\nbusinesses are worthwhile. Likewise the announced CBN increase in its
\nintervention by another N100 billion in loans to support in 2020 the
\nhealth authorities and ensure that laboratories, researchers and
\ninnovators work with global scientists to produce vaccines and test kits
\nin Nigeria to prepare for any major crises ahead.<\/p>\n
Yet, I have, even at the risk of sounding unrealistic advocated that FGN
\nshould as a matter of urgency release at the minimum, N74 billion
\ndirectly to the 36 States, the FCT and the Nigeria Centre for Disease
\nControl (NCDC). I stand by that recommendation. The resources
\nrecommended might seem outrageous, but Nigeria has expended far larger
\namounts on less critical national security matters. I remain convinced
\nthat not responding robustly and expeditiously now, will ultimately cost
\nNigeria more, financially, materially, morally and certainly, in terms
\nof human casualties.<\/p>\n
Covid-19 challenge to Nigeria, will demand collective national
\nleadership that is assertive and robust. Nigerians need to see President
\nMuhammadu Buhari and VP Osinbajo personally leading that campaign.
\nPresently Nigeria is on the lower rung of the COVID-19 spiraling totem
\npole. The extrapolation and increase will definitely come, if lessons
\nfrom Iran, Spain, Italy and US are anything to go by. Our demographic
\nmosaic is much more diverse and equally much more susceptible. Our local
\npopulation will involuntarily shift from epicenters of infections, and
\nin doing so abet the spread. The crisis high-point will come if and when
\nwe are eventually required to lockdown cities, towns and communities. We
\nmust, therefore, contemplate what our contingency sustenance plans will
\nbe for city and rural families in terms of healthcare, food, finances,
\nif we arrive at the critical juncture.<\/p>\n
From past experience, some, including bureaucrats, policy makers and
\nconsultants, have exploited moments of dire national emergencies as
\nmeans of getting rich quick. It happened in Niger Delta and in the North
\nEast, and even the 2012 flood disaster. Yet, we should not allow such
\nexperiences from stopping the federal government in releasing the funds
\nrequired to combat this pandemic robustly. States can\u2019t go it alone
\nand should not pretend to be ready, when they know they are not. We must
\nescalate our national resiliency now. We must seize the moment.<\/p>\n
\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n
Obaze, MD\/CEO Selonnes Consult, is former Secretary to the Anambra State
\nGovernment and a former U.N. official.<\/p>\n
BY Oseloka H. Obaze It ought not to be a hard sale to convince anyone, that try as we may and have, Nigeria is well behind the emergency response curve…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n