COVID-19 And Failure Of The Nigerian Nation -By Segun Ogunlade

When we joined the rest of the world to say ‘Welcome 2020,’ very few people would have thought the world would be hit by a pandemic known as Corona Virus or Covid-19 very early in the year. Only a handful across the globe would have thought that a viral disease would claim so many lives before the middle of the year. Covid-19 has proven to be more deadly than most people anticipated when it was first reported.

Thousands of people have lost their lives worldwide. These include the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the believing and the unbelieving agnostics, sceptics, and all other categories of people the human mind can conceive of.When the first case was recorded in Nigeria, the country did not know what was coming to hit her as days turn into nights and nights into days. Total and partial lockdown was declared in some states because Nigeria as she is cannot afford a full blown epidemic. Government at all levels have not prepared the country’s health sector for a time like this. Our political leaders did not envisage the outbreak of a pandemic that could condemn them to the medical facilities they have watched deteriorate without intervention. They thought their medical pilgrimage to foreign hospitals could never be hampered by anything. But now that the pandemic all of us to stay within our borders, all we can do at this time is to curb any activity that could lead to a full blown pandemic the country.

Although the country is trying to combat the pandemic, it has not done well in the area of palliatives that could help the citizens survive especially in places where total lockdown was declared.

The category of people that the Federal Government has identified as deserving the palliatives more than the others calls for more questioning. According to the Federal Government, palliatives would only be given to the poorest of the poor. Apart from the poorest of the poor being demeaning to the people they have classified to be in that category, one could ask for their description of the poorest of the poor and the criteria they are using to classify these people they called the poorest of the poor. Imagine entering a place that is full of beggars, carrying a bag of rice and can of malt. Under normal circumstances, all the beggars that are present would expect to get something, either rice or malt because they are living under the same condition. None is better than the other. But if you insist on giving rice or malt to the poorest among them, then they begin to look at you as an idiot. That is because all of them are poor and they need to survive. If you want to share anything for the beggars, good judgement requires that you share the rice and the can malt without categorising them. If you are poor, you are poor. And if you want to help people, you should help them. As it is now, majority of the citizens deserve the palliatives and not only the poorest of the poor. The lockdown has had an effect on everybody outside the political class and the members that belong to the top echelon in the country where the money is. The decision to give palliatives to the poorest of the poor has shown the failure of the government in taking care of the citizens in the country.

The decision of the Federal Government to give palliatives to only the poorest of the poor shows the government insensitiveness to the plight of many citizens, many of whom their sources of income had hitherto been affected by the lockdown. The government is apathetic because it found it worthy to declare lockdown but not forthcoming in giving to the citizens. It is hard for people to survive at this time especially those who survive on the money they make during the business of the day. By inability to provide for all the citizens that deserve to be taken care of, one could then ask what the government would ever do for the people. Before the outbreak of Covid-19, many citizens provide for themselves what the government should have provided for them. Many owners of small and medium scale enterprises generate their own power supply because of the epileptic nature of the country’s power supply. Many citizens have become a mini government to themselves as they provide their own electricity, water, job and security. Yet, the government that doesn’t give much to the people collect tax from the citizens. These are citizens that have minimal level of dependency on the government because the government have mastered how to collect from the citizenry but not to give to them in return.

Government at all levels have consistently failed to help the citizens in the good days when there was no lockdown. And in the bad days when Covid-19 is ravaging the country, the government has shown to be disinterested in how majority of the people fare at this time. It is true that when you put enormous pressure on anything, its original content will be revealed. The pressure that was mounted on the government to give palliatives to the people has revealed the nature of the government in Nigeria of not having the citizens in mind.

If the country is progressing as it was in the early years of the country’s independence when for example the standard of education was high and foreigners were coming to University College Hospital, Ibadan, for medical treatment, its growth would have surpassed that of some of the countries it now looks up to. Instead, Nigeria now houses the highest number of poor people anywhere in the world and also has the highest number of out-of-school children. One could then begin to question how successive government in the country have been managing its resources. Despite the fact that crude oil has been explored from the country since 1957, Nigeria is struggling to survive and make the environment liveable for the citizens. Many of the other oil-producing nations don’t have the level of poverty and government neglect witnessed in the country. Citizens of countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates don’t suffer what an average Nigerian would suffer because their government always put them in mind when managing their resources. In fact, citizens of many non-oil-producing countries and countries that are not feeling the scourge of poverty and government neglect. It is not as if Nigeria does not have the resources. But how do the administrators manage it? One of the major differences between a developed country and a developing one is the management of resources.

While developed countries manage their resources so many could benefit, developing countries manage their resources so that few people could benefit. It was this poor management of the country’s resources that could have prompted one of the past leaders to say that Nigeria has a problem in that it didn’t know how to spend the money generated from its resources. Since Independence, the colour of the country’s problem has changed colour from white to black. So far, subsequent administration in the country has shown ineptitude in people and resources management. Politics has become one of the most lucrative businesses in the country and the corridor of power is filled with people that have no business there. Most of the country’s resources go to the politicians. Little wonder the self-acclaimed Giant of Africa is grappling with development after fifty-nine years of independence.

Although the Federal Government has now reviewed some of the nationwide measures on the lockdown, Nigerians need more than that. Beyond the palliatives, they need accountability and a government that cares about them at all levels. It is not enough to demand taxes from the citizens when the government wouldn’t give anything in return to make life easy for the citizens. As they say, proof of life is growth and if a thing is not growing, then it is not good. If as a nation Nigeria is not growing towards meeting the basic need of its citizens and it is still struggling to manage its own resources, then it is growing in retrogression. The major problem of Nigeria as it is does not lie in the lack of resources but how to manage those resources. No nation thrives by building on hope alone as a transformational strategy. Hope alone doesn’t a change a thing.

Therefore, the government should do more for the people. Giving back to the people shouldn’t only be when the nation is on lockdown. The country has enough resources to cater for everyone within its borders if those resources are managed well. We do not have to wait on others to solve our problems for us. Our resources are ours to manage for the betterment of everyone. If nations with lesser resources are succeeding, then Nigeria has no excuse for failing. God has blessed us with many things. Those entrusted with those things are to manage them well so that when posterity beckons on them, they would have something good to say about their stewardship.

God bless Nigeria.

Segun Ogunlade writes from University of Ibadan, Ibadan. He is a final year student of the department of Religious Studies. He could be reached via email at ogunlade02@gmail.com. His number is +2348085851773 (SMS and Whatsapp only).