On Sunday afternoon, as I was about entering the car to drive off to work, my gate man, a likeable and well-mannered young man named James, walked up to me with some unsteady steps. It was rather unusual as he had always bid me bye, with a reassuring smile and a friendly wave, anytime I was going to work. Not so this time round. His mission? To inform me he would be travelling back to his home state of Kaduna that night. This happened barely 24 hours before the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), made his third national broadcast on the COVID-19 pandemic containment strategies outlining, among other issues, an interstate lockdown across the country. Before then, Lagos, Ogun and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, had been under a lockdown for over 14 days. Other states had similarly announced some form of restrictions and curfews aimed at mitigating the spread of the coronavirus.
I was left gazing at him with some unhidden incredulity. “What happened? Hope no problem?”, I asked him. “My mother called me, from home, that I should come back”, he replied. “Is there anything the matter? Did anybody die at home? Doesn’t know there is a lockdown in Lagos?”, I further probed. “No, Sir. She just said I should return”, he said. I tried to dissuade him from the possible voyage of tragedy and point out the futility and risk in embarking on such a long interstate journey at a time like this, when there are wide-ranging lockdown restrictions announced by the various state governments across the country. Instead, he volunteered that his cousin had already arrived Kaduna from Lagos via a night bus even with the closure of the entry points into the state. “Please, don’t risk your life on such a journey. Call your mum and tell her you will come back after the relaxation of the lockdown restrictions by the government,” I vainly pleaded with him as I drove off to work. He nodded indifferently.
I had barely settled on my desk when I got to the office, minutes later, when I got a call from home asking me if I sent him on an errand. It then dawned on me he had already decided to take his destiny in his own hand, practically, to travel to Kaduna, a 12-hour 54-mins 771.3 km journey by road, at a perilous time as the one we are in fighting a pestilence at war against humanity. Curiously, the journey was made at a time numberless security agents of every shade and colour are on a presidential order to enforce a stay-at-home and no-movement order except to vehicles on essential services! How was this possible?
Interestingly, days earlier, someone I know had called me to know how I was getting on in these trying times. Because he lives in Kaduna, the same city of interest, I was concerned about his welfare too. “How your side”, I asked him. In response, he let out a loud laughter that jerked my phone literally: “I’m in Owerri o. I have left Kaduna for them o.” Incredible! “How did you do it knowing there’s lockdown in your state and Imo”, I asked again. “I entered a night bus from Kaduna to Owerri”, he answered.
I was stupefied. From Kaduna to Owerri in a public transport during a lockdown? By night? Strikingly, there is a curfew in place in both Imo and Kaduna states, enforced by security agents. What then happened to the law enforcement agents enforcing compliance with the no-movement order? Is it a case of lacking the capacity to enforce the order or deliberate refusal to do so because of corruption?
In yet another instance, I was told the story of a family taking the corpse of their loved one from Lagos to Enugu but was stopped at Ore by uncompromising security agents. I was told they returned to Lagos, procured the services of some soldiers and set out again for the journey. This time round, they had an easy ride to Enugu, a state that is also enforcing closure of its entry points since the index case of the virus berthed in the state. Similarly, barely hours after the President’s speech on Monday, I know of a man who took the corpse of his wife who died on Sunday from Lagos to Kogi, the interstate lockdown notwithstanding. Before then, a family of seven that I know in Lagos travelled to their home in Delta State, after spending a night at Benin. And there are countless security agents enforcing lockdown in the state and its entry points. A source in Aba told me that despite the lockdown in Abia State, intending interstate passengers could do so if they were ready to part with additional money that could be used to buy their passage at the various security checkpoints.
This point was corroborated by a Twitter user, @alabamabell20 (Prince Alabama, in response to a tweet by investigative journalist, ‘Fisayo Soyombo, on Friday that “…soldiers manning a roadblock on the recently renovated stretch of Oshodi Expressway are granting thoroughfare to vehicles, including buses to the brim with night travelers, in and out of Lagos”. He tweeted: “We are experiencing same (sic) in Jos, someone just travelled from Ibadan today to Jos, stopped over in Jos to get vehicle but unfortunately he died while trying to get vehicle to Bauchi. The wife said he had been sick and coughing. How did he get to Jos despite border closure”? Soyombo had earlier asked in his aforementioned tweet, “How will this lockdown ever yield maximum results” with such developments?
It is therefore safe to say that the spread of the virus from one state to another in Nigeria has taken place with the active connivance of a rogue elite and patently corrupt and compromised security agents. Simply because some still live in denial while others prefer to make money at the expense of public health. If the security agents enforcing compliance with the lockdown restrictions across the country apply themselves to their patriotic duty and desist from seeing such as an opportunity for self-aggrandisement, the rising cases of community transmission these interstate movements during lockdowns engender will be stemmed.
For instance, the Anambra State index case just as the Kano index case returned from Lagos, a state that has been on lockdown for the better part of last April. The index case in Nasarawa State is a young lady who came into the state from Kano State last week despite restrictions in both states. Plateau State index case, 20-year-old Hauwa Yakubu, came into Jos from Kano on April 17, 2020. In the same vein, the index case in Katsina State, who operated a private health facility in Daura, visited Lagos and his home state, Kogi. Another interesting case was that of a male, who worked as a gateman in the Mando area of Kaduna, but had returned from Lagos.
In Ekiti State, a pregnant 29-year-old female community health worker based in Lagos, sneaked into the state in spite of the lockdown order in place. The consequence of that action has been very dire for the state.
Coincidentally, on April 28, 2020, 195 new confirmed cases and four deaths were recorded in Nigeria, bringing the total to 1,532 confirmed cases, 255 discharged cases and 44 deaths in 33 states and the FCT. Lagos, once again, came tops with 80 out of the 195 new cases, Kano (38), Bauchi (15), Ogun (15), Borno (11), Gombe (10), Sokoto (9), Jigawa (5), Edo (5), Zamfara (2), FCT (1), Enugu (1), Rivers (1), Delta (1), Nasarawa (1).
If we are really serious about flattening the curve of, and ultimately defeating this “zeruwa”, as one Igbo radio presenter called the pandemic, everyone has a role to play. And patriotically too. Like a friend said, coronavirus is a gentleman who doesn’t come to you unless you go to him.
If you are in Kano, Lagos, Abuja and other endemic areas of the virus, obey the restriction order. Don’t take advantage of the compromised security agents and endanger your loved ones in other areas.
It is commendable that Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State recently signed into law the Coronavirus Disease and Other Dangerous Infectious Diseases and Related Matters which makes it a criminal offence to violate the directives and orders of the state government on the measures put in place to prevent the spread of the disease.
Such measures include violating the curfew and lockdown, social gathering, social distancing, and approved hygiene practices.
Those whose duty is to enforce the order of the state should not shirk their responsibility. Those who delight in disobeying lawful orders should be made to face the full wrath of the law. Be they security agents or passengers. We must do all we can to stop this creeping community transmission.
jnwokeoma@punchng.com 07085183894
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