Magnus Eze, Enugu
There were serious protests in Ibeju-Lekki axis of Lagos State, yesterday, as irate youths and other residents trooped out to protest the continued lockdown ordered by the Federal Government.
While some of the youths carried placards pleading that the lockdown be stopped, others wailed that it was a harbinger of hunger.
Yusuf Olakunle, one of the youths said the situation was already getting out of hand, as he relied on whatever sales he makes from his shop to feed his family.
He said since the beginning of the lockdown, it has become difficult to feed his family, noting that his wife was now seven months pregnant.
Another protester, who claimed he works with one of the contractors in Dangote refinery, said since the refinery stopped all contractors as a result of the lockdown, eating and feeding his family and siblings has been a challenge.
He said: “I am the breadwinner of my family and I am a welder who works with one of the contractors in Dangote refinery. But, since this lockdown began, I don’t have any work to do, hence there is no money to buy food for my family. I will rather be killed by the virus than die of hunger; the federal government should stop the lockdown.”
The irate youths, who burnt used tyres on the road, also set ablaze trucks and some company vehicles which ran into their procession.
The Onilekki of Lekki, Olumuyiwa Liasimm Ogunbekun, appealed to the youths to be calm and law abiding as that country is going through tough times as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has advised the Federal Government to again extend the lockdown, which ends on Monday.
This, the association said, would help to contain the rapid spread of the coronavirus disease.
However, Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, has said that extending the lockdown beyond two weeks would be tantamount to mass suicide for Nigerians.
Describing lockdown and border closure as ‘temporary palliative measures’ that are not sustainable, Chukwu said the policy was adopted to achieve the least morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 as well as least economic and humanitarian impact.
In a statement in Enugu, yesterday, the former minister, who supervised Nigeria’s successful fight against Ebola virus between 2014–2015, stated that the only rational excuse for the lockdown was to buy time and space to catch up with the viral trajectory by getting better prepared with the provision of adequate isolation capacity, provision of environmental disinfection capacity, attainment of capacity for treatment, and the scale-up of knowledge penetration to at least 90 per cent of adults and children over three years of age.
Other things that were to be actualised with the lockdown include the setting up of an innovative team to search for and encourage local remedies, setting up of a broad-based committee of ‘thinking’ persons drawn from nearly all sectors to serve as a strategic powerhouse to continually appraise, review, adjust and direct the health, humanitarian and economic responses as well as initiate policies and actions to source needed tools, on shore and off shore, for the prescribed responses.