Two different videos but with the same message went viral last week. The first was that of youths playing football with bread.
The second was people tearing bags of gari (cassava flakes) and dumping the contents on the streets. The message ostensibly was that the food palliative of Lagos State was so small it was insulting.
And the best way to treat it with the ignominy it deserved was by playing soccer with it. A friend who spoke to me about it said he was happy with this manner of rejection. It would, he said, teach politicians not to treat people shabbily and cheaply. That seemed to be the popular sentiment. I do not agree with this sentiment.
While not excusing the mind-set of those who prepared the measly package, I just do not think the truly hungry will dump gari on the street in anger because they think it is insultingly small. Those who scavenge dustbins for food due to hunger will not play football with a loaf of bread or even half a loaf because it is too small. And there are many of such people in Lagos. Too many to count. So many that it seems a crime to waste food just to score a political point.
A young man walked down a popular street in Surulere because he wanted to stretch his legs after being in his apartment all day and also to buy some fruits. The street was devoid of the usual hustle and bustle – those selling hard currency, those displaying wares. But the fruit sellers were there. In smaller numbers, but they were there.
They had to be if they wanted to survive. He bought some fruits and headed back home. But not before he saw people congregating in front of ancient, dilapidated houses and drinking –probably out of boredom. That was their idea of a lockdown. Just as their notion of COVID 19 is that it is a rich man’s disease that has nothing to do with them.
Some officials passed by and asked them to disband and get inside. They explained that it was their ‘inside’. It was where some people would spend the night. Only the aged and the coupled would squeeze into the small rooms inside. Everything was communal and tightly so. Social distancing as W.H.O describes it is simply impracticable.
On his way home, he was approached by a slightly younger man who said he hadn’t eaten anything since the previous day. He knew it could be a scam. But the look of desperation and anguish on the man’s face was so real that he knew it would haunt him if he turned his back. He dipped his hand into his pocket.
The only note in his pocket was a thousand Naira note. Not only was it higher than what he had in mind, it meant he would be going home penniless. He gave it anyway. The look of surprise and joy on the guy’s face was enough reward. Then something amazing happened.
This guy offered to use part of it to buy food for an old woman who had witnessed the transaction. This story of hunger can be replicated in every inner city in Lagos. These people are unlikely to dump gari on the streets or play football with bread.
The story of a typical inner city dweller in Lagos is the story ‘the hustle’. There are people who spend hours at ‘Shop Rite’ to buy five, six loaves of bread each. They add a hundred Naira on top of each one and spend hours in traffic trying to sell them to commuters.
There are people who collect wares from distributors or even fellow hustlers and hit the streets with them depending on whatever they get to survive. Some visit market places or construction sites looking for any menial job. Some survive by selling food to this class of people. Even semi-skilled workers like masons, electricians or vulcanisers depend on daily take home.
For many, home is where they can find it. Bed is where they can lay their heads. Hygiene, any form of it, is a luxury. Health care depends on ‘liquid medicine sellers’. I am sure we all get the picture. Asking these people to be on a total lockdown for as long as it takes is not sustainable. Most of them would be dead by then. Or revolt in the face of imminent deaths.
No government palliative will be enough for at least three reasons. One, it will not get to those who are truly in need because of our system and our greed. It will instead get to those who can afford to play politics and football with it. Two, our sense of entitlement for anything government is beyond the rational. Nothing government gives will be enough. Three, and this is the most important, these people as at now, do not believe the lockdown is in their interest.
This is one instance where an ‘oyinbo’ model might not work and we might have to think outside the box. Our demography for example, shows a youthful population. Which means over 70% of Nigerians are of the age bracket that is unlikely to die from the virus – many at that age bracket might not even be aware they have it. A COVID 19 model also shows that those countries which have managed to bring the scourge under control, have used face masks massively.
My suggestion is that we should not kill our economy and our youths by going through the lockdown route. A route which is neither practicable nor sustainable any way given our economic and social circumstances. Any lockdown should be limited to infected areas only. Instead, we should insist that nobody goes out without a face mask.
This means we should make face masks available. We should also invest in hygiene by providing water and soap in crowded places and encouraging people to use them as they pass by. These should still be cheaper than investing in ventilators and oxygen tanks. Thirdly, why don’t we try chloroquine for preventive and curative purposes?
We have nothing to lose if the dosage is small to start with and it is cheap. Fourthly, we should encourage face steaming once a day. Many of us know about it and it costs nothing. Finally, inner city education on coronavirus needs to be intensified. COVID 19 is not a rich man’s disease. It doesn’t respect wealth,poverty or position.
We should not, to quote President Trump, make the cure more fatal than the disease.
N.B It’s to believe tomorrow is Easter. It’s harder to believe it will be celebrated behind closed doors. Please celebrate the joys of Easter however and wherever. Happy Easter.
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