In his address to the nation on COVID-19 pandemic on 27 April 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari announced some key measures to contain the rapidly spreading cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) infection across the country.
Among other things, the president announced that: (a) There will be an overnight curfew from 8pm to 6am. This means all movements will be prohibited during this period except for essential services; (b). There will be a ban on non-essential inter-state passenger travel until further notice; and (c). Partial and controlled interstate movement of goods and services will be allowed for the movement of goods and services from producers to consumers.
Prior to announcing these measures, the president in his situation analysis part of the address, reported that ‘exactly two weeks ago, there were 323 confirmed cases in 20 States and the Federal Capital Territory’. Continuing further, he said that ‘as at this morning, Nigeria had recorded 1,273 cases across 32 States and the FCT. Unfortunately, this includes 40 deaths’.
Based on these dreadful statistics, the measures announced by the president were well received across the country. Rightly too, inter-state movement particularly was seen to be among the key drivers of the rising number of cases of infection across the country. And with the unfolding debacle in Kano State then, the ban on inter-state travels was also rightly seen as a major containment measure against the rapid spread of the virus.
Barely two weeks after the presidential ban, the total number of infections across the states now, has increased from 1,273 to 4,339 as at Sunday 10 May 2020 with the number of deaths at 143. The virus has now spread to 34 states and the FCT. These statistics show that the key drivers of the rising cases of infection are still very active and that the ban on inter-state movements has not significantly reduced the rising cases of infection due mainly to poor enforcement.
Regrettably, this major containment measure appears not to have been effective as a result of the flagrant violation of the ban. Last week, news report across the country revealed that some categories of Nigerians were culprits in this flagrant violation. The first identifiable group constitutes businessmen whose vehicles transport essential goods and services along with persons not authorised to travel under the inter-state lockdown order. Such unauthorised persons were unfortunately coming from states already highly infected with the virus. A lot of vehicles were actually intercepted last week conveying such people across the states. Quite a number of such vehicles made their way through from far northern states in spite of security check points (or road blocks) into extremely located states as Lagos and Port Harcourt.
The second category constitutes commercial transporters who flout the presidential ban by regularly embarking on their trips and setting money aside to bribe security personnel on their way. In a very reveling opinion piece by Aniebo Nwamu and titled 44 Checkpoints (see https://sundiatapost.com/44-checkpoints-by-aniebo-nwamu/), the modus operandi of these commercial drivers came much to light. They pay their way through at every checkpoint. Mr. Nwamu counted 44 such checkpoints from Abuja to Obollo Afor (in Enugu State), where their driver settled all security agents. Governor Nyesom Wike said as much last week when he revealed that offering bribe to police authorities was a method by which the big lorries and commercial vehicles made their way through. He said a deputy commissioner of police in his state was collecting bribe and issuing permit for those illegal travels in disregard of the travel ban.
The third group constitutes an array of security personnel who mount road blocks in the name of enforcing compliance with the order but who rather turn their attention to collecting bribes from motorists namely big lorries, and commercial buses and cars. But not all security personnel are guilty. Many have intercepted defaulters on the road. For example, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) last weekend (9 May 2020) intercepted and turned back as many as 791 vehicles from Ogun and Lagos States’ boundaries within five days, while enforcing the Federal Government’s restrictions on inter-state movements. This leads us to the last group of violators.
The fourth and more disturbing group conveys a large number of Almajiri children (street beggars) across the states mainly from the northern part of the country to the southern part, as reported last week. For example, the Police in Kwara State intercepted 200 such children last weekend, while a truck load of Almajiris concealed in cattle truck were intercepted also in Abia State. In Cross River and Enugu States, the stories were the same last week but with many buses making such illegal travels. Annoyingly, some of these Almajiris originated from Kano, the alternate epicentre of the COVID-19 in Nigeria.
The violators of lockdown restrictions are not only along the inter-state highways. In the cities, the authorities of the FCT for example, arrested 900 offenders in six weeks of the lockdown. The story of conviction of many offenders was the same in many other states.
The high number of violators of inter-state travels and offenders of lockdown restrictions suggest clearly that ours is a lawless society. Nigerians have learnt (regrettably from long historical experience) that law breakers both in high and low places in our society get away with their acts. Many believed perhaps that the lockdown order would also be observed in the breach with their engrained business-as-usual-mentality. Unfortunately for some defaulters, this time around mobile courts were established to give them prompt trial.
There are some lessons we can learn from the flagrant violations of presidential ban on inter-state movements and lockdown restrictions within the areas affected (FCT, Lagos and Ogun States). One lesson is that if the government at every level enforces the laws without compromise, many Nigerians will also learn to obey. Secondly, prompt dispensation of justice (like the hot-stove theory of discipline) will send the message loud and clear. The example of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State is very instructive. Offenders should be given instant justice and not the usual refrain that they will be brought to justice, a promise or assurance people have come to know hardly gets implemented.
The third lesson is that Nigerians will take obedience to the law seriously when they see leadership-by-example in action. This point resonates very well with Professor Chinua Achebe’s book The Trouble with Nigeria. Prof. Achebe pungently observed that the bane of leadership in Nigeria is the inability to live up to the challenge of personal example that is the hallmark of true leadership. When we overcome this problem, many Nigerians will willingly obey the law without much coercion, and many more will obey by coercion knowing well that they will be brought to justice unfailingly.
Finally, it is now very clear that the effect of what we called the Kano debacle fortnight ago, has started manifesting across the country. Travellers from Kano to other states such as Kaduna, Jigawa and couple of other states have received Almajiri children who were already infected with coronavirus. Again, some of those violators of the ban on inter-state movements originated their trip from Kano State. This is very unfortunate, and more so when it was a very avoidable experience which we pointed out two weeks ago.
Prof. Obasi, a public policy expert (& former columnist in the Daily Trust, Abuja, March 2003 to October 2006, & Daily Champion, Lagos, April 2005 to December 2008), is of the Department of Public Administration, University of Abuja. Email: nnamdizik@gmail.com
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