By Chris Paul Otaigbe
Leading the over 540 national confirmed cases of the coronavirus with a whopping 306 cases, 93 discharged, 13 deaths and counting, it is becoming increasingly clear that Lagos may have a potential blow out, of this pandemic, on its hands.
What then comes to mind immediately, is the frightening possibility of the virus unleashing its full fang on the over 20 million Lagosians, which may, perhaps see Lagos overtake New York’s escalating cases and deaths issuing for this dreadful plague.
Yes. New York, like Lagos, may be on lockdown as are many States across countries and continents
The big American State may be managing the crisis, comparatively, better in terms of relief packages for citizens it has asked to stay home to keep safe via weekly cash transfers among other palliatives.
Compared to other States in Nigeria, however, Lagos has taken the lead in the demonstration of its understanding and appreciation of the situation through palliative measures it has been giving residents to provide then some respite, however minimal.
Unfortunately, the practical reality of those palliative measures has actually disgusted and incensed the residents because of the method, quantity and quality of the relief package and the spread of that gesture.
A situation where one loaf of bread and less than a kilogram of rice or garri is given to whole streets and neighborhoods to share shows how dismal the thinking that went into the very idea of the palliative policies.
This is true and even worse at the federal level and other States.
These governments must all know that the time for their usual tokenistic show of compassion for the cameras has gone. That was pre-COVID -19 lockdown when people could go about their lawful business ignorant of government, since the hustle and bustle of looking for their daily bread took up their attention. After all, they probably never felt the existence let alone the impact of any state or national budget except the information they see or hear from sources whose preoccupation revolve around that part of government.
But now that they are being forced to shutdown their livelihoods and businesses, they have all the time to know, actually what the State has for them. If the State could be so concerned for their Health and life, it could order them to stay at home, to the extent of shutting down their source of livelihoods, that same State should be concerned enough to know how to ensure they have some support for themselves and families while staying in their homes.
In one of the many viral videos, a good-looking young man, wearing a little above knee cap jeans knicker, sleeveless top with a fairly expensive Bluetooth earpiece is seen addressing a relatively small crowd of people who makes a circle around a few measly-looking branded bags of rice and a few loaves of bread. Obviously, one of the ‘man Friday’ errand boys of the politician representing that area had been sent to deliver those items as Lagos State government relief materials for that neighborhood.
So, the young man had to first prepare the minds of potential recipients of the foodstuffs. The less than four minutes video production, shot with the phone of one of the more exposed members, opens on a medium shot of the relief items on the ground at the center of the gathering, with the voice of the young man at the background. It focuses its lens to reveal the young man addressing the little congregation of residents.
While admitting that the food items were just a token and thus symbols of the State’s gesture to give the impression that the government cares for them, he admonished them to share the items among themselves with love and appreciation of the government’s show of compassion.
Before he could conclude his statement, you could hear the chuckle and cynicism from the people who obviously felt insulted with the whole idea. His explanation that it was the share given to the neighborhood out of the 800 bags allocated to the Local government further aggravated their annoyance.
Having lost patience with the spokesman, one of the residents told him to his face that the so-called gesture was not enough to ask them to stay at home doing nothing while their families continue to suffer unmitigated poverty and hunger.
In another video, also trending online, a neighbor in an area around Agege shot a group of young boys and girls fighting over one of those mini bags of garri. In the scuffle, the bag is torn and the content scattered all over the floor.
One other video showed young boys kicking one of the loaves of bread, given by the State government, around like a soccer ball. The commentary explaining the action in the trending video is done by one of the spectators in response to the question from the voice behind the video.
This is the story and response surrounding Lagos State palliative measures to the residents to relieve them of hunger during the lockdown period.
Billions of naira being raised in this direction do not seem to have been properly managed to achieve the objective.
Reeling under a relentless battering impact on their lives and livelihood, Lagosians are faced with the very worst period in the history of the State as many who were poor and struggling to survive pre-COVID -19 are barely hanging on, on a fast loosening grip on life. Many who were barely living are slowly slipping into the camp of those loosening their grip on survival in this era of COVID -19 induced poverty.
Few days into the extended stay at home order, food crisis is beginning to hit home and hard, as over 75% of residents are finding it difficult to afford the punishing price hike on foodstuffs and other items.
Over 80% of them within that bracket may soon lose the capacity to buy anything since most are not earning income as a result of the shut-down.
Consequently, a silent disobedience of the stay at home order is creeping rapidly to the surface.
The days I have had to go out to monitor compliance within the State, the people I met were visibly angry and determined to dare the might of government in defiance of the presidential lockdown order just to find something to eat or work to do to earn an income.
At Ilepo market, along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, a young man, Bidemi Adekanbi, who had taken to drinking to get over the harsh economic impact on his life as caused by the stay at home order, waylaid my crew and I. recognizing that we were a media house, he insisted he must be allowed to speak on camera. Seeing the crowd gathering in support of his demand, I asked my Camera man to switch on the camera so we can concede to his demand.
By the time we were done, we had spoken with over ten residents, young men, including Bidemi and women, many of whom were in their early sixties. They were older women who were concerned for their children who may now be forced to face starvation as moneys and little foodstuffs stored at home are depleting fast because of the lockdown directive. Bidemi’s anger is not about the order but about the harassment those who want to sell their wares to survive and the extortion their customers face in the hands of the security agents posted to that axis of the state.
As far as he was concerned, he understands the stay at home order. But what he will not tolerate is the unfair extortion, sellers and buyers experience daily in the hands of the security personnel working around the area.
This is happening all over the State and residents are no longer comfortable with government’s insensitivity towards their plight at this time when they need State’s assistance the most.
Unfortunately, the State government may not want to agree with these aggrieved residents because, as far as they are concerned the State is doing its best to serve their needs with some of the relief measure put in place by the government.
Considering the State government’s emphatic message concerning the palliative measures, it is almost impossible to fault the push back by officials of the administration especially going by official pronouncements by the Administration concerning the policy.
In his tweet on March 27, 2020, the State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said “I am happy to announce an economic stimulus package to help our residents cushion the effects of our #stay-at-home directive to stop the spread of #covid19.
The first stage is targeting 200,000 households at an estimation of six people per household. We hope to ramp it up quickly.
The stimulus package will contain bags of rice, beans, garri, bread, dry pepper, drinking water and vitamins. We want each ration to last for 14 days as we continue to evaluate the impact of #covid19.
Please stay at home with your loved ones. We want the best for you.” Sanwo-Olu tweeted.
From the wording of this tweet, virtually all residents were supposed to have been served, at least were meant to be given each of these packages the Governor emphatically stated in his tweet.
However, the reality on the ground makes a lie of the Governor’s intention or interventionist policy.
Listening to one of the State’s officials in charge of the relief package, on the Discourse with Jimi Disu, a program aired on Classic Radio, 97.3fm, two Sundays ago, the official did acknowledge the mismanagement of the first round of distribution of the food items. He said the next round will largely be for only the physically challenged among the residents in the State.
The loophole in this policy is that at a time when everybody, able-bodied and physically-challenged are facing hunger at the same time with equal effect, it may not make much sense to give one and leave the other in the food distribution program.
My concern, here, is how officials bringing food to one person who is physically-challenged in a neighborhood, would succeed in getting food delivered in a zone where angry and hungry youths are descending on every available food truck that pass their area.
Personally, I believe the palliative program was not well thought through. What I believe is possible to do at this time is for the State government to put all the money from the Relief fund together, then bulk-buy all these items the Governor had outlined and distribute them to existing and designated markets that MUST be fairly organized to capture the mass of the neighborhoods across the State.
Having taken this first step, the next is for the government to force down the price of the items in the market and actually determine the price and how they are sold.
For instance, a paint bucket of garri which used to sell for N600 pre-COVID -19 now goes for N1,200 in the State and that is dangerous for residents and the administration in the long run.
What the State would have done, in this instance, would have been to peg the price of garri at N200 per paint-bucket and since it would be sold around neighborhoods, an administrative committee to comprise of executive members of Community Development Areas (CDAs) and Community Development Councils (CDCs) would be constituted and drafted to monitor and supervise the sale of the items in a manner that it would get to the mass of their residents.
This, for me, is a major strategy that will calm nerves at this time. the six food center set up by the State government is inadequate to feed the teeming population of the homeless, hungry and jobless youths prowling around to devour the next victim from nearby neighborhoods. What would work is to engage this same structure across CDCs scattered across the Local Governments and Councils in the State.
This way, the objective of the administration to feed the mass of Lagosians during these trying times would have been achieved.
Otherwise, if the Government insist on the sustaining its current strategy, the State may wake one day soon to a residents’ response that may bring the beast in the people and create the level of chaos and mayhem, the government may not be able to handle.
Already, armed robbers are visiting homes and estates in the States with POS machines dispossessing residents of the food and resources they are managing during the coronavirus lockdown. In the words of philosophers, when the poor is done eating the poor, they will face the rich.
This time seems to be driving the State and indeed the entire Nigeria on that road.
