At 7pm on Sunday, March 29, 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari took to the airwaves to make certain declarations whose impacts would have wider social, economic and security implications in the days and weeks ahead as Nigeria joins the rest of the world in battling the upsurge in the coronavirus pandemic.
Amongst the key issues highlighted by the president include the release of N15 billion to support national efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19. President Buhari also announced the suspension of domestic air travels across the country and the restriction would also affect all commercial and private flights. Other issues addressed by the president include a three month moratorium on all loans owed the federal government by individuals and businesses through several channels and programmes including TraderMoni, FarmerMoni, MarketMoni and all loans channeled through agencies like the Banks of Industry and Agriculture. There will also be conditional cash transfer to the most vulnerable people in our country and the appropriate agencies were directed to put machineries in place for its implementation.
For most Nigerians however, the most far reaching declaration made by the President Buhari in his presentation last night was the decision to restrict movement in two of Nigeria’s three most important cities- Abuja and Lagos. The president also announced restriction of movement in Ogun state, South West Nigeria because of its proximity to Lagos and the number of COVID-19 infections in the Gateway state already.
By restricting movement in Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states, the president took a decision with extensive implications for the nation’s economy, the livelihood of millions of families and the social wellbeing of the affected communities.
How will Abuja, Lagos and Ogun residents and business survive in the next 14 days as counting begins? Only time will tell. What is however not in doubt is that these five groups of Nigerians living in the affected states will have a very difficult two weeks.
Labourers: Most labourers in Nigeria feed from hand to mouth. Whatever is earned at the end of each work day is used in settling bills, buying food for the family and then, transport fare the next day. For this category of Nigerians, be they masons, brick layers, brick makers, painters and all those whose sustenance each day depends on how much soil their hands can till, what is earned each day is barely enough to afford a decent meal for the family in addition to meeting other obligations not to talk of savings. Sadly, our financial system is not yet sufficiently structured to cater for this class of workers. Credit facilities are hardly within reach and at a time when many are struggling, little help may be coming from friends and relatives. How about the government, can they prop up something to support these labourers? Sadly, there is no reliable data to even identify who and who are in this economic sub-set and even if provisions are made to cater for the poorest of the poor as the conditional cash transfer announced by the president is expected to do, how do you trace them? The fear of hunger may be much deadlier than the terror of coronavirus for millions of Nigerians who will live through unprecedented uncertainties in the next 14 days.
Food vendors: Food vendors rely largely on a functional economy to keep their business alive. They sell most when labourers are at the sites, civil servants are in their offices and commercial drivers are at the motor parks picking and dropping passengers. Sadly, there will be no such activities in the next fourteen days and one of the biggest victims will be those who haul cooked food and drinks in wheel barrows, carts and small vehicles around the aforementioned places.
Commercial Drivers and Motorcyclists: Millions of Nigerians rely on commercial buses and cabs to get to their offices everyday. The drivers and cyclists who make their cars and bikes available to provide these services earn good returns conveying thousands of workers thro and fro daily. In the next fourteen days however, these drivers will have to either make do with a few workers who provide essential services in these towns or completely park their vehicles and rest their legs in their homes. Like the labourers, things will also be difficult for them finically because several of them exhaust what they earn from their services each day, confident that “tomorrow is another day.” This time however, tomorrow will not be so close. 14 days is a long time to be without money for a man who has no fall back option.
Beer Parlour Operators: The president announced that essential services providers would be exempted from the lockdown meaning that as long as workers who fall under this category have their identification cards, they won’t have any problem going about their lawful duties. There will however be no such privileges for those who sell alcoholic beverages in the affected cities. Can they claim being in the essential services category too considering that thousands of Nigerians visit such outlets each day to either gauge the pulse of the city, catch up with old friends or just distract themselves from the daily worries of life. It is one thing to claim that your services are essential; convincing the authorities that your argument is worth consideration is a different matter entirely. On the basis of what we know for now, beer parlour operators and their patrons will not be in contact for a while after today.
Sellers of perishable commodities: Many traders who deal on perishable farm produce like fresh tomatoes and peppers, vegetable spices and fruits will have a very difficult two weeks. It is true that the government has exempted food traders from the restriction of movement meaning that these traders can still have access to their stalls. However, the businesses depend on steady human traffic for patronage. Many who sell fruits and vegetables around Federal Secretariat in Abuja may have nobody pricing or buying their wares in the next two weeks. Interestingly, many of these traders just got fresh supplies from Kano and Kaduna. In the absence of proper refrigeration and other storage and processing mechanisms, these fresh fruits and vegetables will be damaged before activities will resume at the Secretariat around the middle of April, if things improve. The story is similar for the sellers of everything and anything perishable in the affected places in the next two weeks. How will they recoup the investment already made before the president’s speech last night? Even more importantly, how will they raise the money to buy food items in bulk within the limited timeframe available? Things won’t be the same for the next couple of weeks one can say with confidence.
In the light of these, the government must as a matter of urgent national necessity put in place, appropriate mechanisms to ensure that the compatriots captured in the economic sub-sets identified above are not eviscerated by hunger long before the dreaded coronavirus pandemic locates them. While trying to save Nigerians from the seemingly intractable virus, the authorities must as a matter of public priority see that hunger does not become the next epidemic.
