If there is any lesson we have learnt from the past five weeks,
it is how difficult it is to enforce a meaningful lockdown or
social distancing in Nigeria. All over the country, wherever
restrictions are imposed, the pushing and shoving that occurs
during market hours have themselves become serious risk factors.
Last Friday, two children were crushed to death in Taraba State
following a stampede at Jalingo main market during the four hours
(10am to 2pm) allotted for residents to stock household essentials.
Many churches and mosques continue to remain open. And last week
Monday, thousands of young boys in Kano took part in a football
tournament described as ‘Corona Cup’. Despite Abia being “the only
state that is mentioned in the Bible” which resulted in Governor
Okezie Ikpeazu’s promise that “none of these diseases will touch
God’s people” and that COVID-19 “will also pass us by,” two index
cases have been recorded in the state. And by last night, the virus
had been confirmed in no fewer than 33 of the 36 states and Abuja.
I believe we can now safely conclude it is in every state of the
country.
In one of my earlier interventions on the COVID-19 pandemic, I
warned that a nation of our demographic magnitude must remain on
perennial alert for potentially devastating public health
emergencies. I also spoke to the hunger and deprivation that many
would face in the event of a lockdown they neither anticipated nor
prepared for in advance. When life is a struggle, according to The
Economist article I referenced, “it is hard to worry about a threat
you cannot see.” In a subsequent column titled, ‘Mallam Has Said
There’s No Corona’, I admonished Nigerians to brace ourselves for
the immediate, short, medium and long term implications of this
global pandemic and its ensuing health, social, political and
economic ramifications. Almost all my ‘prophecies’ have come to
pass.
In managing COVID-19, my biggest concern has been that if
governors were left to take uncoordinated actions that do not fit
into a national strategy, the virus would enter their communities
with all the dire implications for the health of our society. By
not taking direct responsibility from the outset, the president
allowed governors too much latitude in dealing with a global
pandemic. One governor in the South-South is drawing huge crowds,
propounding silly theories to his largely illiterate (and clearly
endangered) audience. Others are closing ‘borders’ to their states
and personally arresting citizens. While one governor in the
South-East is legislating ‘Koboko treatment’ for any journalist in
his state who would not report the pandemic the way he wants, some
of his northern colleagues have been exchanging Almajiri deportees
almost as if these neglected citizens were diplomats of their
‘states of origin’. Amid all these, majority of Nigerians are still
waiting to ‘eyemark’ the palliatives on which billions of Naira are
being earmarked by the federal government and the authorities in
the states. But the biggest challenge has now come from Kano where
people are dying in droves, with strong suspicions that the
deceased may have succumbed to complications arising from
COVID-19.
When on 30th March President Muhammadu Buhari declared a 14-day
lockdown of Lagos and Ogun States as well as the Federal Capital
Territory, I wondered whether he was well advised to leave out
Kano. When, in renewing the 14-day lockout on 13th April, he again
ignored the state where a monumental tragedy was developing, I was
beyond shocked. By then, the first index case had been confirmed in
a manner that should have sent alarm bells ringing. The patient, a
retired diplomat, had attended the popular Da’awah Juma’at Mosque
as well as two private hospitals and had mingled with several
people within the city. The only major action taken in the
aftermath was that “all commercial tricycle riders will carry only
one passenger” and that the task force would “also meet with Chief
Imams of Juma’at mosques and Reverend Fathers to decide on how to
operate places of worships in order to curb the spread of the
virus.” It therefore came as no surprise when within a period of 24
hours last Thursday, no fewer than 23 prominent citizens died in
the city!
The signs of an implosion in Kano had been there since 21 March
when Governor Abdullahi Ganduje inaugurated the COVID-19 Task Force
with his deputy, Nasiru Yusuf and Professor Abdularazaq Garba Habib
as co-chairmen. Habib, an expert in infectious diseases at the
Bayero University, Kano, was expected to lead efforts. But a few
days after inauguration, Habib tested positive for COVID-19 along
with two other members of the task force. So, the structure
established to fight the pandemic in the state collapsed before the
assignment even started! That provided a perfect opportunity for Dr
Amina Ganduje, daughter of the governor who had been appointed into
the task force, to practically take charge. And from that period,
efforts to tackle COVID-19 in an urban centre like Kano became a
family affair.
Although he was initially in denial about the Kano deaths,
Ganduje admitted for the first time on Sunday that there was a
challenge: “I will like to inform you that the situation is getting
tougher and tougher; the situation is getting serious, and serious
and very serious. But equally the same, we are determined. They say
when the journey is tough only the tough can keep on moving. We
assure you we will keep on moving until we see to the end of this
deadly disease with the help of Allah.” Ganduje can keep on
‘moving’ in whichever direction he likes but harassing the federal
government for N15 billion will not address the monumental health
crisis that has now been foisted on his state.
Having finally admitted that the number of deaths points to
something unusual, the state has now resorted to ‘verbal autopsy’
to unravel what happened. “Kano State government has begun
house-to-house engagement with families of those that have died to
carefully administer questions on the symptoms exhibited by the
victims before they died. This is what is termed clinically as
verbal autopsy and it will allow the health professionals to
predict the possible causes of the recorded deaths,” said COVID-19
task force deputy coordinator, Dr Sabitu Shu’aibu. That exactly is
what I have also been doing in the past few days by speaking with
many of my friends in Kano as well as prominent citizens within the
city to unravel this ‘mystery’. Their feedback scares me.
Hours before the president declared a lockdown on the city on
Monday, I received the report of three Kano-based female medical
practitioners who conducted an investigation into the deaths. The
trio of Maryam Nasir, Zainab Mahmoud and Khadija Rufai said that
over the span of 48 hours, they received reports of 183 deaths in
Kano metropolis that occurred between 18th to 25th April, 2020.
Following a verbal autopsy they conducted, using the World Health
Organization (WHO) template, they gathered two sets of data from
the deaths. “The first data set was obtained through direct family
members (first degree relatives) of the deceased and the second
data set was from indirect sources (friends, neighbors or relatives
of the deceased). We obtained demographics, symptoms, exposure
history and medical history of the deceased. Some family members
volunteered further information around the deaths. We compiled and
analyzed the data,” they wrote in their report.
The conclusion of their investigation was that of “a trend of
febrile and respiratory illness that progresses to death within one
to two weeks. These deaths occurred in various localities in Kano
and are predominantly amongst elderly people with underlying
medical conditions. This presentation mirrors severe COVID-19 cases
reported around the world.” And they explained: “One of the
contacts, who had lost a father, stated that he became ill about
one week after (attending) a wedding ceremony. He had fever,
shortness of breath and diarrhea. Attempts to contact the Nigerian
Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) were unsuccessful and he passed
away a week later. Another contact stated that the deceased had
fever and shortness of breath for a week. He was initially treated
for pneumonia at a private hospital and subsequently required a
ventilator. There were several reports of multiple people in a
household or in a neighborhood dying from similar illness. Of note,
40 out of 51 deaths had no recent travel history.”
While we await the outcome of the official verbal autopsy, the
report of the medical doctors corroborates that of others,
including the one by Yusuf Yau Gambo of Yusuf Maitama Bello
University, Kano. Dated 28th April, 2020 (Tuesday), the
‘community-based survey’ report (reviewed by Auwal Abubakar, a
medical and health professional with the University of California
Berkeley and Audu Liman, Chief of Party, USAID SENSE Project,
American University of Nigeria) indicates that given the symptoms
exhibited by the deceased, the incubation period of their illnesses
as well as the age group involved, “the possibility of relating the
situation to the current COVID-19 pandemic could not be ruled out”.
Meanwhile, Maryam Nasir, Zainab Mahmoud and Khadija Rufai made
far–reaching recommendations. These include enhancing testing
capacity and community-based testing; establishing mobile testing
centers within the city; providing personal protective equipment
(PPE) to all staff with potential exposures especially at points of
initial patient contact; recognising the consequences of neglected
non-COVID-19 medical care and imposing strict guidelines for
burials.
From respected clerics to eminent scholars and medical
practitioners, I have read many interventions by Kano stakeholders
on the mismanagement of COVID-19 by Ganduje and the urgent need for
President Buhari to take personal responsibility for the state.
Many politicians, including former Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso
have also weighed in. Calling on the president to declare a state
of emergency in Kano, Dr Mukhtar Datti Ahmed said he cannot imagine
a graver situation than what is happening in the state today. “21
years of personalised government and denudation of the civil
service and civil structures have joined forces with Covid-19 in
wreaking disaster among our people”, he wrote. He added that
although Lagos was given 10 billion to aid its fight against
COVID-19, “I fear the mind-set of the current government (in Kano)
would render any grants as good as water down the drain. There
simply isn’t a credible plan or a coalition of experts to make the
best use of any funds provided.”
As much as I believe Ganduje has mismanaged the crisis, I worry
that politicising the tragedy will not serve the interests of Kano
people. President Buhari must get the governor to work with
political, traditional and religious authorities in the state.
Ganduje must also be made to understand that when you have a
complex problem, raw measures don’t help. He must follow the advice
of experts and invest in soft skills such as surveillance and
laboratory systems. Ganduje should also quickly put together a
media team that will embark on risk communication in Kano State.
And he must work with all federal agencies, private individuals and
development partners that may want to help in dealing with this
challenge.
But beyond the Kano debacle, there are more challenges ahead as
the COVID-19 pandemic ravages the entire country. From Monday,
restrictions placed on residents of Lagos and Ogun states as well
as those in Abuja will be lifted. With that, we are embarking on
the Swedish option of taking personal preventive measures, and
ultimately hoping for a measure of ‘Herd immunity’. This happens
after infections have resulted in the deaths of many (hopefully not
too many) and the recovery of others. Lifting the lockdown was
predicated on the reality that daily survival has become too
difficult for our citizens. However, this also comes with a cost,
especially in our kind of environment. That will become clear in
the days, weeks, and possibly months ahead.
If we are to win the war against COVID-19, there are several
things that should happen. One, we have to destigmatise both the
reportage and the manner in which infected people are being viewed
by society. When people begin to hide what ails them as a result of
stigma or run away from isolation centres as has happened in some
states, they endanger themselves, their families and the rest of
us, especially as we enter a new phase in the battle against the
virus. Two, there is an urgent need for the president to host a
meeting (even if virtual) with the governors so they can all be on
the same page in this fight. Right now, they are pulling in
different directions. Three, it is important to streamline
activities of the presidential task force. As to be expected of
such a body with nine ministers, I understand the task force has
become dysfunctional. What we need is a command and control system
that will place the federal ministry of health and the NCDC at the
centre of efforts to tackle the pandemic. The present arrangement
is not working.
However, this pandemic also comes with opportunities to reinvent
our country. For instance, contact tracing has been difficult
because there are no credible records to work with. If we are to
build an economy based on the productive capacity of our people as
opposed to sharing dwindling oil money, there are salient questions
we must address. How many Nigerians are we? Where do we live? How
many are unemployed? How many tax payers do we have? What are the
age demographics of our citizens? These and several other questions
are hanging in the air. If we are serious, one of the first things
we should do after this COVID-19 scourge is to begin the process of
a biometric-driven population census. We must stop running our
country on the basis of assumptions.
The next issue, of course, has to do with the health care
delivery system in the country. COVID-19 has exposed our nakedness.
Even the affluent have no place to run. In posing the question,
‘Can Africa really afford lockdowns, and can they be effective?’
and whether people on the continent can successfully and
sustainably defeat COVID-19 by copying the template of Western
nations in his well circulated paper, former CBN Governor, Prof
Chukwuma Soludo advocated the trial of local herbs. “While the U.K.
and others are experimenting with vaccines, you never know if an
Africa herb might be the cure. Necessity is the mother of
invention, and only those who dare, succeed!” he wrote.
Aside his brilliant economic prognosis, I like Soludo’s
proposition on local herbs which has been tried by other countries.
According to China’s National Health Commission, about 90 percent
of their nationals infected with COVID-19 took some form of
traditional Chinese medicine to treat their symptoms. These
traditional remedies, according to the commission, helped to
alleviate symptoms, reduced the severity of the virus, improved
recovery and reduced mortality rate. Growing up in the village
where you took these concoctions every morning, some of us are well
aware of the efficacy of herbs, even though we have not developed
them as other societies have. Perhaps this is the time to commence
efforts in that direction.
It is regrettable that the federal government has not challenged
our universities and research institutions to find a workable
testing regime and vaccine. For a country that boasts some of the
best experts in most fields, based both at home and abroad,
government funding should be channeled towards enabling our
national scientific efforts to be part of a lasting solution.
Rather than asking the president to allow them to “import a plane
load” of herbs from Madagascar for a trial on COVID-19 as the
secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), Mr Boss
Mustapha is suggesting, we should look inwards. This is not a time
for frivolity. Now that we are easing up from Monday, what can we
do individually and collectively, given our realities, to prevent
an explosion? What is the responsibility of thought leaders,
employers, and governments? What is the place of individual
responsibility? Have we engaged our clerics enough, give the
influence they hold over their members? Those are the issues that
should concern Boss Mustapha and his presidential task force.
While the health system in our country is weak, a product of
decisions taken over decades, even the best health systems in the
world have not come out smelling of roses in their encounter with
COVID-19. The number one lesson when dealing with a pandemic is the
quality of response matters more. All factors considered, we have
not done too badly in that area even when there is room for
improvement. The greater challenge is how not to waste this crisis.
We must learn appropriate lessons to improve our health system and
build a more resilient economy for the post-coronavirus world.
Sex for Grades!
I am encouraged by the feedback I have been receiving on my latest
book, ‘NAKED ABUSE: Sex for grades in African Universities’. From
the pro-chancellor of a state-owned university who shared with me
his experiences on the battle he fought with such lecherous male
lecturers to a former governor who commended the book, many believe
it is an important literature on a rather vexatious subject.
Meanwhile, interested readers in Lagos and Abuja can still purchase
their copies from max.ng/NakedAbuse. It will be delivered to them
at home.
• You can follow me on my Twitter handle, @Olusegunverdict and
on www.olusegunadeniyi.com
If there is any lesson we have learnt from the past five weeks,
it is how difficult it is to enforce a meaningful lockdown or
social distancing in Nigeria. All over the country, wherever
restrictions are imposed, the pushing and shoving that occurs
during market hours have themselves become serious risk factors.
Last Friday, two children were crushed to death in Taraba State
following a stampede at Jalingo main market during the four hours
(10am to 2pm) allotted for residents to stock household essentials.
Many churches and mosques continue to remain open. And last week
Monday, thousands of young boys in Kano took part in a football
tournament described as ‘Corona Cup’. Despite Abia being “the only
state that is mentioned in the Bible” which resulted in Governor
Okezie Ikpeazu’s promise that “none of these diseases will touch
God’s people” and that COVID-19 “will also pass us by,” two index
cases have been recorded in the state. And by last night, the virus
had been confirmed in no fewer than 33 of the 36 states and Abuja.
I believe we can now safely conclude it is in every state of the
country.
In one of my earlier interventions on the COVID-19 pandemic, I
warned that a nation of our demographic magnitude must remain on
perennial alert for potentially devastating public health
emergencies. I also spoke to the hunger and deprivation that many
would face in the event of a lockdown they neither anticipated nor
prepared for in advance. When life is a struggle, according to The
Economist article I referenced, “it is hard to worry about a threat
you cannot see.” In a subsequent column titled, ‘Mallam Has Said
There’s No Corona’, I admonished Nigerians to brace ourselves for
the immediate, short, medium and long term implications of this
global pandemic and its ensuing health, social, political and
economic ramifications. Almost all my ‘prophecies’ have come to
pass.
In managing COVID-19, my biggest concern has been that if
governors were left to take uncoordinated actions that do not fit
into a national strategy, the virus would enter their communities
with all the dire implications for the health of our society. By
not taking direct responsibility from the outset, the president
allowed governors too much latitude in dealing with a global
pandemic. One governor in the South-South is drawing huge crowds,
propounding silly theories to his largely illiterate (and clearly
endangered) audience. Others are closing ‘borders’ to their states
and personally arresting citizens. While one governor in the
South-East is legislating ‘Koboko treatment’ for any journalist in
his state who would not report the pandemic the way he wants, some
of his northern colleagues have been exchanging Almajiri deportees
almost as if these neglected citizens were diplomats of their
‘states of origin’. Amid all these, majority of Nigerians are still
waiting to ‘eyemark’ the palliatives on which billions of Naira are
being earmarked by the federal government and the authorities in
the states. But the biggest challenge has now come from Kano where
people are dying in droves, with strong suspicions that the
deceased may have succumbed to complications arising from
COVID-19.
When on 30th March President Muhammadu Buhari declared a 14-day
lockdown of Lagos and Ogun States as well as the Federal Capital
Territory, I wondered whether he was well advised to leave out
Kano. When, in renewing the 14-day lockout on 13th April, he again
ignored the state where a monumental tragedy was developing, I was
beyond shocked. By then, the first index case had been confirmed in
a manner that should have sent alarm bells ringing. The patient, a
retired diplomat, had attended the popular Da’awah Juma’at Mosque
as well as two private hospitals and had mingled with several
people within the city. The only major action taken in the
aftermath was that “all commercial tricycle riders will carry only
one passenger” and that the task force would “also meet with Chief
Imams of Juma’at mosques and Reverend Fathers to decide on how to
operate places of worships in order to curb the spread of the
virus.” It therefore came as no surprise when within a period of 24
hours last Thursday, no fewer than 23 prominent citizens died in
the city!
The signs of an implosion in Kano had been there since 21 March
when Governor Abdullahi Ganduje inaugurated the COVID-19 Task Force
with his deputy, Nasiru Yusuf and Professor Abdularazaq Garba Habib
as co-chairmen. Habib, an expert in infectious diseases at the
Bayero University, Kano, was expected to lead efforts. But a few
days after inauguration, Habib tested positive for COVID-19 along
with two other members of the task force. So, the structure
established to fight the pandemic in the state collapsed before the
assignment even started! That provided a perfect opportunity for Dr
Amina Ganduje, daughter of the governor who had been appointed into
the task force, to practically take charge. And from that period,
efforts to tackle COVID-19 in an urban centre like Kano became a
family affair.
Although he was initially in denial about the Kano deaths,
Ganduje admitted for the first time on Sunday that there was a
challenge: “I will like to inform you that the situation is getting
tougher and tougher; the situation is getting serious, and serious
and very serious. But equally the same, we are determined. They say
when the journey is tough only the tough can keep on moving. We
assure you we will keep on moving until we see to the end of this
deadly disease with the help of Allah.” Ganduje can keep on
‘moving’ in whichever direction he likes but harassing the federal
government for N15 billion will not address the monumental health
crisis that has now been foisted on his state.
Having finally admitted that the number of deaths points to
something unusual, the state has now resorted to ‘verbal autopsy’
to unravel what happened. “Kano State government has begun
house-to-house engagement with families of those that have died to
carefully administer questions on the symptoms exhibited by the
victims before they died. This is what is termed clinically as
verbal autopsy and it will allow the health professionals to
predict the possible causes of the recorded deaths,” said COVID-19
task force deputy coordinator, Dr Sabitu Shu’aibu. That exactly is
what I have also been doing in the past few days by speaking with
many of my friends in Kano as well as prominent citizens within the
city to unravel this ‘mystery’. Their feedback scares me.
Hours before the president declared a lockdown on the city on
Monday, I received the report of three Kano-based female medical
practitioners who conducted an investigation into the deaths. The
trio of Maryam Nasir, Zainab Mahmoud and Khadija Rufai said that
over the span of 48 hours, they received reports of 183 deaths in
Kano metropolis that occurred between 18th to 25th April, 2020.
Following a verbal autopsy they conducted, using the World Health
Organization (WHO) template, they gathered two sets of data from
the deaths. “The first data set was obtained through direct family
members (first degree relatives) of the deceased and the second
data set was from indirect sources (friends, neighbors or relatives
of the deceased). We obtained demographics, symptoms, exposure
history and medical history of the deceased. Some family members
volunteered further information around the deaths. We compiled and
analyzed the data,” they wrote in their report.
The conclusion of their investigation was that of “a trend of
febrile and respiratory illness that progresses to death within one
to two weeks. These deaths occurred in various localities in Kano
and are predominantly amongst elderly people with underlying
medical conditions. This presentation mirrors severe COVID-19 cases
reported around the world.” And they explained: “One of the
contacts, who had lost a father, stated that he became ill about
one week after (attending) a wedding ceremony. He had fever,
shortness of breath and diarrhea. Attempts to contact the Nigerian
Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) were unsuccessful and he passed
away a week later. Another contact stated that the deceased had
fever and shortness of breath for a week. He was initially treated
for pneumonia at a private hospital and subsequently required a
ventilator. There were several reports of multiple people in a
household or in a neighborhood dying from similar illness. Of note,
40 out of 51 deaths had no recent travel history.”
While we await the outcome of the official verbal autopsy, the
report of the medical doctors corroborates that of others,
including the one by Yusuf Yau Gambo of Yusuf Maitama Bello
University, Kano. Dated 28th April, 2020 (Tuesday), the
‘community-based survey’ report (reviewed by Auwal Abubakar, a
medical and health professional with the University of California
Berkeley and Audu Liman, Chief of Party, USAID SENSE Project,
American University of Nigeria) indicates that given the symptoms
exhibited by the deceased, the incubation period of their illnesses
as well as the age group involved, “the possibility of relating the
situation to the current COVID-19 pandemic could not be ruled out”.
Meanwhile, Maryam Nasir, Zainab Mahmoud and Khadija Rufai made
far–reaching recommendations. These include enhancing testing
capacity and community-based testing; establishing mobile testing
centers within the city; providing personal protective equipment
(PPE) to all staff with potential exposures especially at points of
initial patient contact; recognising the consequences of neglected
non-COVID-19 medical care and imposing strict guidelines for
burials.
From respected clerics to eminent scholars and medical
practitioners, I have read many interventions by Kano stakeholders
on the mismanagement of COVID-19 by Ganduje and the urgent need for
President Buhari to take personal responsibility for the state.
Many politicians, including former Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso
have also weighed in. Calling on the president to declare a state
of emergency in Kano, Dr Mukhtar Datti Ahmed said he cannot imagine
a graver situation than what is happening in the state today. “21
years of personalised government and denudation of the civil
service and civil structures have joined forces with Covid-19 in
wreaking disaster among our people”, he wrote. He added that
although Lagos was given 10 billion to aid its fight against
COVID-19, “I fear the mind-set of the current government (in Kano)
would render any grants as good as water down the drain. There
simply isn’t a credible plan or a coalition of experts to make the
best use of any funds provided.”
As much as I believe Ganduje has mismanaged the crisis, I worry
that politicising the tragedy will not serve the interests of Kano
people. President Buhari must get the governor to work with
political, traditional and religious authorities in the state.
Ganduje must also be made to understand that when you have a
complex problem, raw measures don’t help. He must follow the advice
of experts and invest in soft skills such as surveillance and
laboratory systems. Ganduje should also quickly put together a
media team that will embark on risk communication in Kano State.
And he must work with all federal agencies, private individuals and
development partners that may want to help in dealing with this
challenge.
But beyond the Kano debacle, there are more challenges ahead as
the COVID-19 pandemic ravages the entire country. From Monday,
restrictions placed on residents of Lagos and Ogun states as well
as those in Abuja will be lifted. With that, we are embarking on
the Swedish option of taking personal preventive measures, and
ultimately hoping for a measure of ‘Herd immunity’. This happens
after infections have resulted in the deaths of many (hopefully not
too many) and the recovery of others. Lifting the lockdown was
predicated on the reality that daily survival has become too
difficult for our citizens. However, this also comes with a cost,
especially in our kind of environment. That will become clear in
the days, weeks, and possibly months ahead.
If we are to win the war against COVID-19, there are several
things that should happen. One, we have to destigmatise both the
reportage and the manner in which infected people are being viewed
by society. When people begin to hide what ails them as a result of
stigma or run away from isolation centres as has happened in some
states, they endanger themselves, their families and the rest of
us, especially as we enter a new phase in the battle against the
virus. Two, there is an urgent need for the president to host a
meeting (even if virtual) with the governors so they can all be on
the same page in this fight. Right now, they are pulling in
different directions. Three, it is important to streamline
activities of the presidential task force. As to be expected of
such a body with nine ministers, I understand the task force has
become dysfunctional. What we need is a command and control system
that will place the federal ministry of health and the NCDC at the
centre of efforts to tackle the pandemic. The present arrangement
is not working.
However, this pandemic also comes with opportunities to reinvent
our country. For instance, contact tracing has been difficult
because there are no credible records to work with. If we are to
build an economy based on the productive capacity of our people as
opposed to sharing dwindling oil money, there are salient questions
we must address. How many Nigerians are we? Where do we live? How
many are unemployed? How many tax payers do we have? What are the
age demographics of our citizens? These and several other questions
are hanging in the air. If we are serious, one of the first things
we should do after this COVID-19 scourge is to begin the process of
a biometric-driven population census. We must stop running our
country on the basis of assumptions.
The next issue, of course, has to do with the health care
delivery system in the country. COVID-19 has exposed our nakedness.
Even the affluent have no place to run. In posing the question,
‘Can Africa really afford lockdowns, and can they be effective?’
and whether people on the continent can successfully and
sustainably defeat COVID-19 by copying the template of Western
nations in his well circulated paper, former CBN Governor, Prof
Chukwuma Soludo advocated the trial of local herbs. “While the U.K.
and others are experimenting with vaccines, you never know if an
Africa herb might be the cure. Necessity is the mother of
invention, and only those who dare, succeed!” he wrote.
Aside his brilliant economic prognosis, I like Soludo’s
proposition on local herbs which has been tried by other countries.
According to China’s National Health Commission, about 90 percent
of their nationals infected with COVID-19 took some form of
traditional Chinese medicine to treat their symptoms. These
traditional remedies, according to the commission, helped to
alleviate symptoms, reduced the severity of the virus, improved
recovery and reduced mortality rate. Growing up in the village
where you took these concoctions every morning, some of us are well
aware of the efficacy of herbs, even though we have not developed
them as other societies have. Perhaps this is the time to commence
efforts in that direction.
It is regrettable that the federal government has not challenged
our universities and research institutions to find a workable
testing regime and vaccine. For a country that boasts some of the
best experts in most fields, based both at home and abroad,
government funding should be channeled towards enabling our
national scientific efforts to be part of a lasting solution.
Rather than asking the president to allow them to “import a plane
load” of herbs from Madagascar for a trial on COVID-19 as the
secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), Mr Boss
Mustapha is suggesting, we should look inwards. This is not a time
for frivolity. Now that we are easing up from Monday, what can we
do individually and collectively, given our realities, to prevent
an explosion? What is the responsibility of thought leaders,
employers, and governments? What is the place of individual
responsibility? Have we engaged our clerics enough, give the
influence they hold over their members? Those are the issues that
should concern Boss Mustapha and his presidential task force.
While the health system in our country is weak, a product of
decisions taken over decades, even the best health systems in the
world have not come out smelling of roses in their encounter with
COVID-19. The number one lesson when dealing with a pandemic is the
quality of response matters more. All factors considered, we have
not done too badly in that area even when there is room for
improvement. The greater challenge is how not to waste this crisis.
We must learn appropriate lessons to improve our health system and
build a more resilient economy for the post-coronavirus world.
Sex for Grades!
I am encouraged by the feedback I have been receiving on my latest
book, ‘NAKED ABUSE: Sex for grades in African Universities’. From
the pro-chancellor of a state-owned university who shared with me
his experiences on the battle he fought with such lecherous male
lecturers to a former governor who commended the book, many believe
it is an important literature on a rather vexatious subject.
Meanwhile, interested readers in Lagos and Abuja can still purchase
their copies from max.ng/NakedAbuse. It will be delivered to them
at home.
• You can follow me on my Twitter handle, @Olusegunverdict and
on www.olusegunadeniyi.com