Review of The War Against COVID-19

The Nigeria Christian graduate fellowship held a review meeting yesterday April 20 on the war against COVID-19 for the third time since the inception of the battle in Nigeria in February. The fellowship received reports from her members in various states across the nation on the following areas:

Implementation of palliatives by the federal and state governments.
Effectiveness of lockdown orders by various governments.
Crime and criminal activities in the lockdown.
Security agencies’ response.
Testing, recovery, and fatality rates in the country.
Impact of Chinese doctors on the war.
Impact of death and burial of chief of staff to the president, Mallam Abba Kyari on the war.
Assessment of the stage of the battle.
After a painstaking assessment of the situation on the ground in the country, we make the following observations and offer the following advice on how to continue the prosecution of the war with the intention to win the battle.
We are convinced that this battle as tough as it is, is winnable, and with God, on the side of the nation, we shall be victorious. Consequently, we encourage the citizens to continue to adhere to the laid down rules on conduct such as observance of the stay-at-home directives and personal hygiene. We also call on the nation to continue in prayers while the medical personnel is doing what they can. God the great healer and deliverer will hear our prayers and save our nation.

We observe that effective adherence to the lockdown directives hinges on the provision of palliative as a hungry man will take every necessary step to ameliorate hunger, including breaking the rules of lockdown. We noticed that though the federal and state governments are providing palliatives, these efforts are not making desired impacts because they are fraught with distribution hiccups and manifest manipulation that needed to be addressed. A situation where a family gets 3 cups of rice after a long period of queuing as reported in some states makes a mess of the entire program. We reiterate that political structures should not be used in the distribution of the palliatives.
We looked at the observance of the lockdown directive and discovered that in some places it is effective while in some it is not. It is our view that enforcement of lockdown in a society such as ours will be difficult for obvious reasons. We, therefore, advise on a homemade strategy to suit our circumstances. These include community segregation which will see the closure of main markets while neighborhood markets should be open; enforcement of universal wearing of face masks which should be provided to the entire population; allow small offices and artisans to open, but ensure social distancing and provision of handwashing facilities in public places.
The House reviewed the crime rate and criminal activities and found that it is becoming alarming that if not checked citizens may lose more to criminals than to the pandemic. Further, there may be a total breakdown of law and order. We, therefore, call on the law enforcement agencies to rise to the occasion and checkmate citizens with criminal tendencies before the matter gets out of hand. However, we are worried that in the attempt to enforce the rules, the security agencies out of selfishness and act of unprofessionalism have killed more citizens than the pandemic. At the last count, more than 20 Nigerians have been shot dead, others extorted by security agencies. We are aware that the Human Rights Commission has and is documenting these extrajudicial killings and human rights abuses. We call on the relevant authorities to ensure that those who violate the rights of citizens in these circumstances are brought to book.
The House reviewed the testing, recovery, and fatality rates so far and we are of the opinion that though there is a relative improvement in testing rate, there is a need to increase the number on a daily basis if we must have a clear assessment of the number of the infected. We are very much happy with the rate of recovery across the board and call for the sustenance of this, even as we are worried that fatality rates are also increasing every day.
We are aware that the present statistics cannot be said to be the true reflections of the situation as it is clear to us the nation has not reached the peak now that community transmission is being reported. We call on all and sundry to brace up so that the peak which we are praying should not be in distant time will not find the nation recording outrageous fatality. At this juncture, we disagree with some predictions pointing towards doomsday for the nation and Africa. Though these are coming from reputable institutions with all expertise in forecasting the present circumstance, we make bold to say that it shall not be as they have said. Our confidence is anchored on the fact that there is a God who rules over the universe. He also answers prayers. According to Lamentations 3: 37 No man will speak and it will come to pass if the lord has not given approval to the speech. We believe that God has not given approval to these predictions that are solely based on physical evidence, because we believe He is answering the prayer of the nation.
The Nigeria Christian Graduate Fellowship also reviewed the implication of the involvement of Chinese medical personnel despite all entreaties by the Nigerian Medical Association and the entire nation, the federal government went ahead to bring in the Chinese who will end their 14days isolation period anytime from now. We still call on the federal government not to create a hitch on the prosecution of this war as an attempt to lose confidence and cooperation of the Nigeria Medical Association at this critical moment will spell doom to the nation. Therefore, whatever is government interest should not compromise the safety of her citizens. We reiterate that china has enough challenge in this matter and should concentrate on discharging the moral burden on her over covid19 and not exporting personnel to places where people are suspicious of her intentions. We join the NMA to say no to the involvement of Chinese medical personnel.
Finally, we considered the implication of the Federal government handling of the sickness, death, and burial of former chief of staff to the president, Mallam Abba Kyari on the war against covid19 pandemic and observed that the government demonstrated a high level of recklessness and irresponsibility in breaking rules it set up for the prosecution of the war. A government that makes laws and breaks the law as it is common with this Administration should not expect to be taken seriously by its citizens. We note the apologies offered by the Presidential Task Force on the management of covid19 and advise that the Federal government should purge itself of acts of indiscipline as its conduct has put the safety of the citizens in jeopardy.
We advise henceforth that the office of the chief of staff should neither override nor undermine elective offices as was the case with the former occupant. It is our prayer that both governments and citizens will conduct themselves decently in these trying times. God seeing our humility will help us out.