LOCKDOWN 2.0: Same disease, a very different country.

Here we go again. 

Number of COVID-19 cases and fatalities rising, new and more contagious strains showing up uninvited simultaneously with mind-numbingly creative new remixes of the typical nonchalance of the Nigerian people.  

Like the rest of the world, we’re back at ground zero. Virtually all gains on the pandemic lost. The second wave of this persistently naughty viral infection is here and like this season’s most beloved character, Santa Claus, it comes bearing gifts (or not).

An interesting (to a neutral anyway) item out of Santa’s gift sac is how Nigeria plans to tackle the new wave coupled with the fact that it is one of the 2 African nations fingered to be the residence of alien strains of the virus (South African being the other).

As one sworn into the respected and enduring Hippocratic fraternity, the knee-jerk option, giving this sputnik-esque take-off in number of cases and the safe delivery of a potentially devastating new strain, will be another lockdown! 

My concern for public health and safety and therefore a thumbs up for a fresh new lockdown while admirable, will be neatly foolish when faced head-on with Nigeria’s very deliciously Kafkaesque current socio-economic and political situation. 

A nail-biting economic recession (with small and medium business owners being massively hit), an annoying realization that the government’s “Closed land border” policy was nothing but an attempt at socioeconomic suicide as the numbers never quite frankly added up, insecurity at its most embarrassing and disgusting, a “royally-screwed up” handling of the #ENDSARS protests with allegations that the nation’s leaders and Security forces may have scorned the precious lady called Human rights. A situation which has driven a deeper wedge between those who govern and the governed.

All of these have ensured that the mattress upon which the nation rests her back is but an active volcano.

Add to this very volatile cocktail, the average Nigerian’s rather skeptical disposition towards what is now being touted the world’s best chance of putting the pandemic to sword- the vaccine. 

It’d be criminal to deny the deliberate misconceptions and misinformation as regards the virus perpetuated and heartily embraced and encouraged by the Nigerian people.

But the real issue here is, Nigeria in March is simply not Nigeria in December. 

If the government somehow by any figment of their imagination assume people are all geared up to follow their Covid-19 restriction directives then I have a Space Shuttle parked at King’s landing to sell them at a negotiable price of #500.

A vital ingredient in making a lockdown (in whatever form; total or partial) work is co-operation from the people based almost entirely on their trust in the government itself and its ability to take care of them.

This is realistically (even evidence-based) in short supply.

Another option available to the government is enforcement by force (pardon the deliberate pseudo-tautology). It’d however be clear that whoever steers the government’s ship towards those stormy waters is one whose grand analysis of the #ENDSARS protests is devoid of contributions from the cerebrum.

It’s the festive season. This is why even the worst hit Western nations have not put complete shutdown of their countries on the table. Mostly balanced and commonsensical interventions on the background of the principle of flexibility. 

The Nigerian government, notorious for its “copying and pasting” may as well put this bad habit of theirs into some really good use. Copying the principle of flexibility while individualizing its execution on the Nigerian state.

The already laid down directives by the Presidential Task force appear to suggest that they may in fact be taking some good advice. 

Nigerians (most especially South-Easterners) are compulsory travellers to their hometowns this time of the year so the PTF must be credited for resisting the temptation to deny them the chance to pay homage to such rich decades-old tradition. 

In my opinion, the almost outright bans on night clubs and bars have to be reviewed and probably commuted into restrictions in hours and numbers plus more safety measures.

This is a particular brand of business that awaits this time of the year to swell its vaults and in return bring its “tithe” (read that as tax) and lay at the feet of the nation’s economy. In any case, Nigerians are incurable party-animals, this directive will likely not fly. 

So why bother?

At this time of the year, whether it’s partying all through or partying right before few minutes into the New Year then dashing into a church to usher in the year under “God’s blessings”, Nigerians will do everything BUT STAY AT HOME.

Why pretend as if Nigerians will fold their hands at home like good boys and girls on New Year’s eve? 

I’d rather in tackling this, we enthroned pragmatism as King and have flexibility adorn her Majestic Imperial mantle and sit with him as Queen. 

Tough call for an effortlessly unpopular government. I do not envy those folks.