THE capacity of Nigerians for adjustment is on trial at this period of national emergency.
How is the ‘nation,’ particularly the frontline states and their residents, coping with the lockdown triggered by the Coronavirus pandemic?
The violation of the stay-at-home directive means that citizens are at the risk of contacting the dreaded disease. The temporary forfeiture of the normal opportunity for earning a living may be a prelude to starvation. Where is the middle ground?
Psychologically speaking, human beings inevitably adjust to challenges, be it adversity, deprivation, poverty, want and squalor, gaps in social service delivery, pestilence, corruption, or poor governance.
There is a dichotomy. Adjustment has a spectrum. The process of adaptation in some circumstances could be herculean. All mortals adjust. But, while some people manage to adjust well, others adjust badly. Relative ease of coping, adjustment difficulties and failure of adjustment are a function of the adequacy or shortage of adjustment capabilities and resources.
As Coronavirus ravages Nigeria, government has imposed a lockdown in Lagos and Ogun states, and Abuja. Are the differential adjustment patterns not reflective of differences in socio-economic status?
The coping trends have implications for future policy making, the reordering of society, wealth redistribution and considerations for the evolution of a human and rational leadership that can foster equity, fairplay and justice in a subsistent, pauparised country.
While differential occupational endeavours determine differential wage status, as evidenced by the reward for labour in the public and organised private sectors, the two sectors are less than five per cent of the entire population. If the lean period of Covid-19 is not elongated, government and the private sector may be able to guarantee the pre-existing salary structures for privileged civil servants and private workers.
But, under the prevailing lockdown, what will be the fate of those who depend on daily hassles-market women, okada riders, commercial bus drivers and conductors, artisans and peasants who are not salary earner- before they can get their daily bread? Inevitably, the need or the hunt for daily bread is challenged by obstacles.
Judging by the exclusive criteria of access to food and purchasing power, it would now appear that only few rich Nigerians, including top public servants or government , politicians, traditional rulers, top clerics and business mogul who made their money through honest and crude means, can easily cope with the effects of lockdown. Their concern may be the transient impediments to their wider opportunities to make more money. In fact, if the Covid intervention programme and distribution of palliatives are not insulated from corruption, this class will get richer.
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Although the lockdown is justifiable as it would interrupt the prospects of community transmission, low income earners may not be able to cope well. The masses just have to endure and pray to God for divine intervention so that normalcy can return. Between March 22 and last Monday when the first lockdown was to expire, Covid-19 cases rose. If the curve does not come down between now and April 27, when the lockdown extension should end, the likelihood exists that the preventive measure can still be extended again in Lagos, Ogun, FCT. The entire country may even witness a total lockdown.
Poor people are complaining about the escalation of the boring social condition that even preceded the pestilence. According to them, their restless children who are in-doors now consume much more foods than when they attended schools. Many households are boiling over the inability of family heads to cough out sufficient money to meet domestic needs. Domestic dispute and violence are on the increase.
Artisans, peasants and others cannot do menial jobs to augment their low income. Yet, they have obligations to meet-house rents, NEPA bills and three square meals. Many of them are also thinking about school fees for their children and wards in post-Covid period.
Thus, market men and women, okada riders, commercial bus drivers and conductors are defiant. They flout the stay-at-home order to their peril.
At Ikorodu, for example, there is no lockdown. Only the Agric-Garage Expressway is avoided. The message of social distancing obviously falls on deaf ears. Residents continue their normal busineses as usual. Commercial motorcyclists are at work. Shops remain open. People move about the streets. Some danfo drivers even have the temerity to carry passengers from Ikorodu to Ketu.
The popular Sabo market on Sabo-Itamaga Road has been operating. There is always traffic snarl at the market. It is as if Ikorodu is not part of Lagos. On Monday, around 10 pm, some youths even held a sort of Easter Carnival along the street adjacent to the High Court premises. Officials of Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy, who had stormed Ikorodu towns of Igbogbo, Bayeiku, Imota, Agbowa and Odogunyan for an enlightenment and sensitisation programme on Covid-19 pandemic were taken aback. People rationalised their violation of the lockdown order by complaining about hunger virus.
Also, the popular Mile 12 market has continued to operate. At Mushin, traders display their wares on the road. But, the highly populated Alimoso is the worst. It is a major source of concern to the state.
Law abiding jobless graduates who roam the streets are at a disadvantage. They continue to be liabilities to their loved ones. They have nothing to fall back to as short-term succour. They bury themselves in self-pity at home.
But, not for frustrated and maladjusted hoodlums, who a popular Lagos Fuji maestro described as “omo aye” (children of the world). Under the aegis of the “One Million Boys” and “Awawa Boys,” they harass and terrorise the Lagos suburbs of Agege, Ifako, Idimu, Ejigbo, Ikotun, Iju, and Ijesatedo, Surulere. Armed with guns and other dangerous weapons, they knock at doors asking for foods and money, and robbing people. Fears are now rife that they may extend their nefarious activities to the homes of the rich, who they inadvertently perceive as tormentors who should be held accountable for the national economic and political adversity.
The protesters now constitute security and health risks to the communities they chose to invade. Their protests constitute a colossal disobedience to lockdown, which may boost the prospects of community spread. People who cannot go out are also engulfed with anxiety and fear under their roof.
The late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, did not have Coronavirus in mind when he warned, decades ago, that “ the children of the poor you refuse to train will not allow your children to have peace.” Is his prediction not coming into fulfilment?
Nigerian society is permanently fragmented, polarised and divided on the twin accounts of poverty and wealth. Those who have really have in abundance, and they continue to swim in opulence, to the disadvantage, discomfort and and consternation of those who are consigned to live in penury. Nigeria is positioned very far from egalitarianism.
How can the majority poor be motivated and assisted to cope with these hard times? Many poverty stricken citizens do not even have bank accounts. They eat from hand to mouth. How can the benefit of the conditional transfer be extended to them?
Government can assist the masses to cope through its fidelity to the various coordinated intervention programmes aimed at reducing the impact of the lockdown. The palliatives should get down to the downtrodden.
Religious leaders can also help by being at the vanguard of enlightenment programmes. Since people listen more to their religious leaders-pastors and imams- than government, the men of God should help government and society by appealing to their church and mosque members to stay safe at home.
This not the time for government to thread artificial populist path to make a fake impact. Assurance of post-Covid measures geared towards genuine poverty alleviation and lessening of financial burden can be motivational for those who are economically down.
President Muhammadu Buhari claims to run a progressive government. Therefore, the administration should emulate Awo’s ‘Life More Abundant’ creed, which is the model for progressivism, in word and deed.
If Nigerians have the assurance that after the successful Covid war they will have access to better life, improved so isl condition, substantially free education that will lift the burden of school fees, free health services, job opportunities, stable power supply, further fuel price decrease, good roads and other social infrastructure, efficient transportation system, reduction in institutional graft and improved security, there may be no difficulty in coping with the current difficult time. (The Nation)
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