Sometime last week a young lady was interviewed somewhere in Lagos State. Her reaction was to the initial partial lockdown announced by the Lagos State Government as a measure to contain the spread of the virus. The lady retorted “…so please, I am bleeding for our Governor, our President.
They ought to, they can, as in, I am bleeding. So, I am on my knee… they can help us. Corolla virus is something…. as in… I am hearing it right now at Mushin there, are you hearing now? I think you are hearing? The crowd is a lot. Many people are shouting for hungry, for eating…”.
I also joined in the frail and made a mockery of the lady because she couldn’t put the words together properly. But, the position that the young lady maintained is the sad reality today. Are we not bleeding? Can’t you hear the crowd shouting? Don’t we have hunger inland? General Muhammadu Buhari, don’t tell me you cannot feel the pulse of Lagos and Ogun State. Even if you do, we will not take that from you.
As I write, the attendant insecurity occasioned by the total lockdown is staring at us. Sir, you have botched your part of the social contract by failing to provide palliatives that are commensurate with the lockdown, and as it were, a relatively stable power supply to differentiate the lockdown from detention.
The desperation of the idle youth population has boiled over. Since Friday, we have experienced serial cases of daylight armed robbery in more than ten (10) areas in Lagos State concurrently. Ogun State has its own fair share of the unrest. Meanwhile, the people have resorted to self-help. They have formed themselves into vigilante groups brandishing all sorts of weapons to protect their lives and property.
What is more? Sir! You have again failed us in the primary responsibility of the government with which we have entrusted you. That is the security and welfare of the people of Nigeria. I think this should have been the time when the civil security architecture is not overburdened.
Then, we couldn’t have been able to help the situation we found ourselves in today more importantly when the Secretary to the Government of the Federation never knew Nigeria’s healthcare infrastructure is in such a bad state, Health Minister see no reason to pay or insure medical officers
and the Police are hard-working in their extortionate practices. Sir, this is the upshot of your paltry budgetary allocation of less than 8% to the health sector, education, and youth development from 2016 to date. Mr. President, these boys are no longer begging. They are demanding menacingly with weapons.
Sir, I can see the fear in your face. You are terrified by this situation. You cannot look us in the eyes and tell us the sad truth. Maybe that is why your tards took to Twitter to admonish Nigerians on Saturday 11th of April, 2020, to continue to endure the unfriendly sufferings courtesy of your approaches, dispositions, and attitude to issues of national importance. General Buhari, you need to man up. Those Tweets cannot be taken for an exercise of your powers under the Quarantine Act. As it is, we are in a state of a quandary as to the extension of the lockdown that ended yesterday.
Yes! You have brought this suffering on us. COVID-19 was already in more than Sixty (60) countries before the 27th of February, 2020 when we recorded the first case of an Italian Citizen who returned to Nigeria on the 25th of February, 2020. Yet, you do not order restrictions on flights till 25th of March, 2020,
when your daughter and other of top government functionaries and politicians arrived in the country infected with the virus. Before now, all reported cases of COVID-19 were imported. You could have intensified contact tracing and indexing of all returnees within the last 30 days using the airline
manifests. You should have invited them and treated any case of disobedience as an enemy of the State.
Sir, I understand that we are dealing with a pandemic that has changed human history in less than a Hundred (100) days and that the lockdown has to be maintained to contain the spread of coronavirus but, the people are hungry. Your people need food. If you do not consider them now, the next ten (10) days will not be funny. There is anger in the land, the tension is palpable, tempers have risen across boards, and any extension or prolongation of the lockdown without a watertight mechanism or provisions to cushion the effects, would most likely spell doom in the long run. Let us avoid socio-economic Armageddon!