How to Open Nigerian Economy in the Presence of
Coronavirus
Ahmed Adamu, PhD
We do not have to wait until the end of coronavirus
before we open our economy, if there is one thing
coronavirus is leading us to is a new way of life,
not the end of life. Now, it is time to design a new
lifestyle and open the economy despite the
presence of the virus, here is why and how.
Closing a weak economy can lead to its ultimate
death. The lockdown due to the coronavirus is
tantamount to the absolute death of African
economies that are largely comprised of small and
informal enterprises. The economic repercussion of
the lockdowns could be costlier than the virus
itself. Locking down the economy will mean loss of
income, jobs, and productivity, leading to extreme
poverty, unemployment, and inflation. These
economic issues can cause anarchy that might cost
more lives and resources. The challenge is, how do
we save these lives and resources in the presence
of the deadly coronavirus.
We have started experiencing increasing
desperation, hunger, insecurity, and poverty in just a
few weeks of the lockdown, now ask yourself, what
will happen if you lock down a hungry and idle
person for a longer time? First, as they say, a
hungry man is an angry and desperate man, and an
Idle mind is a devil workshop. So, when these
negativities come together, we should expect the
worst. The good news is that the social and
economic costs of the lockdowns are avoidable.
If we are to wait until the virus is gone before we
open our economy, then we will not even have the
economy to open. In fact, even if we have the
remains of the economy, we will need to spend so
much money to revive it, do we have the money for
that? I guess no. The daily losses of these
lockdowns, both human and financial are far more
than that of the virus. That is why I recommend that
these lockdowns should not last a month.
It is okay at the beginning of a pandemic like this
one to lock down countries and states to buy time
to study, prepare, plan, and adapt to the virus. So,
one month should be enough for that. Any
lockdown beyond one month will harm the economy
beyond our ability to repair. That is why I
recommend opening the Nigerian economy as soon
as possible based on the following conditions and
recommendations.
Similarly, it is not advisable to lock down cities with
some weekly opening days, the threat is that even a
one-hour window can cause widespread of the virus
if the following measures are not taken. If the right
measures are taken, then we can open the economy
not only on those window days but completely. So,
the following codes of living can guarantee the
opening of the economy despite the presence of
the virus.
1. Testing: we should provide adequate testing
booths across the country, just the same way we
have election polling units, we should have testing
units, and people should be scheduled for testing
so that everyone in a ward can rapidly get tested
within 30 days. People must observe the required
distance and wear face masks while in the queue.
Everyone that gets tested, must collect the
certificate of clearance, with which they can report
back to work or open their businesses.
Organizations or companies that are eager to bring
back their workers to work can set up their testing
booths for their staff. The idea is not to risk
allowing careers of the virus to report back to work
and infect others. Housing Estates can also
organize their testing booths. Anyone that tested
positive should not be allowed to go back to work
or business. The clearance certificate must contain
an authentication barcode so that law enforcement
officers can ascertain the validity of the certificate
at any time.
2. Contacts Tracing: As we open the economy,
everyone must minimize the number of people they
meet every day, whoever you are meeting must be
very urgent and important, otherwise, do most of
your conversations and transactions online or over
the phone. Minimize contacts to the lowest
possible level. Everyone must have a book or diary
in which they document names of all the people
they meet daily, including their contacts, meeting
location, date, and time. This will make the contact
tracing easier. In case, a person tested positive, it
is easier to trace his previous contacts, so that they
can also be informed and forced to immediately
isolate.
3. Social Distancing: As I mentioned above, after
opening the economy, we must minimize contacts,
and create the required physical distance when
meeting someone, this does not matter if it is our
friend or a family member. The social distance
must be observed while undergoing normal
activities. What about in a taxi or bus? In this
scenario, everyone going into public transport must
sanitize their hands, minimize talking and contact if
possible, wear face masks, and do not touch their
face until they wash their hands. Recreational
centers must enforce similar measures and social
distancing, and crosscheck clearance certificates as
well. Mosques and churches can also be opened,
but members must have clearance certificates,
observe the distancing, wear masks, wash their
hands and bring their prayer mats in the case of the
mosque. The prayers can be observed in many
batches. Those that may not have space in the first
batch can wait for the second batch or pray at
home. Weddings can take place using similar
measures.
4. Enforcement: There should be a law that will
incriminate any negligence or failure to observe the
safety measures by business owners, employers,
religious leaders, and even individuals. If anyone is
found not observing the codes should be taken to
court for fines or imprisonment. The new job for
Police and Civil Defence will now be to ensure
compliance with these measures. Security agents
must patrol every location to enforce compliance.
There must be checking points everywhere to
ascertain everyone’s clearance certificates and
observance of the guidelines.
5. Distance Business and Learning: Businesses
should be incentivized to take their operations
online. The majority of transactions and education
must be online unless it is economically and
technologically impossible. The government through
NITDA and SMEDAN must budget some money to
help small and medium enterprises go digital.
Restaurants must serve only takeaway or home
delivery. There must be additional guidelines for the
physical decongestion of businesses and education.
Schools that can operate online must continue
online, and their examinations should be online too.
Teachers must learn to ask analytical or practical
questions for fair assessments of true
understanding, which is a rewarding skill for this
century. Radio stations are a good medium for
learning for those that cannot afford the internet.
Primary and Nursery schools may be opened but
with strict measures and observing all other codes
as well.
6. Protections and Cure: there must be
sensitizations on the need for everyone to protect
themselves and all the protection facilities should
be provided for free by the government, this should
include hand sanitizers, temperature tester, and face
masks. Local manufacturers should be asked to
supply these things in order to create a job for
them. Generally, people should avoid contacts,
crowd and touching their faces before washing their
hands. For the cure, we must not give up, we
should not wait for others to give us the cure, we
should set up a special task force responsible for
exploring all possible cure and procedure for the
treatment of the virus. This should include
unconventional medicine like traditional and herbal
medicine. There should be a national conference
where all conventional and unconventional medical
practitioners would be welcomed to present their
procedures or medicines for the cure of this virus.
So, we should do our very best to find the cure
ourselves.
7. Organizational Response: Each organization or
institution or business must establish their own
special unit responsible for responding to the
COVID19 and setting their own preventive and
protective measures for their staff and customers.
8. Investment: The money that is being shared to
keep people at home should then be used to
support businesses implement these measures and
to revive the dead businesses. This can serve as an
opportunity for a big positive shift in our economy.
So, every state should constitute a committee
responsible for designing the roadmap for
reopening their economies and set up guidelines
suitable for their own realities and set a target date
for the reopening. The above guidelines provide the
starting points and ideas on how to go about it.
This is urgent, because, every day we spend under
these lockdowns, we incur irreplaceable costs. Let
us stop these avoidable costs.
Dr. Ahmed Adamu
Petroleum Economist, Nile University, Abuja

Lalasticlala

Who is going to read all this?

Please post in literature section.

Or you summarize.

Novel is even longer than everything I read in the university for 10 years.

The recommendations are not bad at all, but don't forget that the average man I'm the street does not even believe in Covid 19