₦airaland Forum

Told you folks the directive will be extended as cases rise, told you Nigeria cannot be locked down because we lack the capacity to. So this catch 22 scenario will mean that Nigeria will not be able to win the war against covid 19 in the forseeable future.

We need a new strategy to enable us survive WITH the virus hanging like the sword of Damacles over our heads. The truth is that viruses are too hardy to be eliminated from society and the world entirely. Even ebola and the twin poxes are still out there, HIV, polio, etc.

They are suppressed by vaccines in some cases, good hygiene regimes and personal protection in others. Covid 19 will go this way. Iy cannot be eliminated. Someone out there will always have it and the world needs to begin the long, ardous journey of learning to live safely with it.

Meaning that the lockdown will most likely be extended into May without alternative containment strategies. Hmmm.....

DJperdurabo:
Can't you make an academic rejoinder without resorting to sarcasm and veiled insults?

So much bitterness, rude and short tempered people in this forum. Sometimes, I wonder how such folks are outside the forum.

Agreed and I am sorry. That is why I said I am not good at regret, 20/20 hindsight and repair work. It just annoys me. And that is why I said a few days ago I will not be speaking much during the winter.

But for folks like you not to be in a season of serious introspection about your country is just unfortunate. If Nigeria was better no one will complain...heck even citizens of developed countries better envisioned, better organised and better managed are complaining. What is your excuse sir.

By the time this pandemic is over just like in 1917 everyone will re evaluate what life is really all about and what is more important.

Nigerians will come to realise that sentiment can only take you so far. They will come to value intellect and capacity. They will come to value books rather than the internet. They will come to value doctors, economists, engineers rather than entertainers, jesters and politicians.

In a few months everyone will regret why he didn't invest in the things that mattered rather than wasted just to impress those who are probably dead. No one will come out of this the same.

After all this Nigerians will have a choice. They will either continue to embrace the status quo and continue to reinforce failure or put those who are visionaires, who are intellectually sound, goal getters in charge of their destiny.

What is my business.

DJperdurabo:
One person that really "read" Moghalu's submission

In what way. He tells you to take the hard decisions in 'peace time'.... in summer so that you can survive the war and the coming winter. That is what irritates you.

Well, winter has come and here we are begging for ventilators we should ordinarily have or be capable of manufacturing. We rather have cheap gas and a strong naira to import. Well, nobody is selling the stuff right now so we are in a mess.

Every problem of Nigeria has been accentuated by this pandemic. It has shown how weak we are as a country in every way.

When the WHO says TEST, TEST, TEST, oga, for us it is not testing for the virus but Nigeria itself as a whole is undertaking a TEST akin to a nursery school kid writing TOEFL or JAMB examination.

No database, no way to trace peoole, no way to even administer palliatives, no medical capacity, no intellectual capacity. Moghalu tells you to invest in these post pandemic and you are sneering....

...honestly these are the reasons why I have practically given up on Nigeria. Citizens like you in numbers just cannot make Nigeria better.

Don't worry, when you sit without income or productivity for six months your cheap fuel and cheap dollar will become your bed, meal and pills.

alsudaes1:
Hmmmm

South Africans are already out on the street breaking into malls if the video I saw this morning is in respect to the lock down in their country

In Abuja a few days ago police had to teargas a gathering at the bequest of a phantom relief material distribution.

Are these the people that will stay at home for 2, 3, 4, 6 months it will take to cap the new infection numbers.

We had better take the route of China and start faking the numbers to avoid social disintegration. We will not have enough police to contain mass upheavals.

Mandeyy:
How is it anti-people? I believe that you lack the ability to comprehend a write-up. His suggestions are pro-people.

Agreed. Truth will always be the anti person of him who lies in a pit. If Nigeria was Switzerland I will have agreed with him.

If you told a drunk to kick the bottle what else do you expect him to say

helinues:
Is he just waking up?

Indeed he is just waking up to the things we have been saying for months now. Those who know but cower in the face of intimidation from this failed goverment owe his country an apology.

They should speak always. Whether in the political season or not. Facts remain the same.

Why I remain relatively silent these days is that by my nature I hate doing regret or repair. It is the natire of humanity to anticipate tragedy and divert his destiny from that course.

I reoeat again. No nation 'unlocks' its country when reported cases continue to rise. Only China is unlocking gradually and this maybe due to false figures, who knows. Nigeria will have to extend the so called lockdiwn probably to the end of April, then look at the figures and then decide yet again.

Are Nigerians prepared for an economic quarantine for another month or are we prepared to forgo our paltry wages and productivity for the 12 months it will take for a viable vaccine to be manufactured.

I said this as far back as Febuary. In a pandemic regime such as this it is not about the 'common cold'. But the vicious cycle of the economics which clearly says.

Economic activity is inversely proportional to the strength and durability of the pandemic in nations that lack capacity such as Nigeria.

Once again. Nigeria simply cannot be locked down. You heard this from me on April 5th 2020. We better start looking for other ways to fight this pandemic. We cannot win this way.

It is not and it is just stupid to think so. Ignorance of epic proportions.

Lorazepam:
Omo, be like say this lockdown go teyy, will most likely extend beyond two weeks.

Wuhan was 2 months and is still partially locked down today. That is the BEST success story in the world. Italy is one of the worst stories and it is certain they will be locked down for 3 months minimum.

As long as cases of new infections continue to rise in a country or territory the lockdown will continue. This is the problem. Nigeria or cities like Lagos may continue for another six months from what I anticipate. Already Africa has been considered as a continent where the virus will linger for longer due to our lack of testing capacity.

So brace up. Without alternative goverment strategy to lockdown we are in for a terrible economic run and mass social upheavals.

Of course these are the things we saw in late January and early Febuary and pleaded for a lockdown of our international borders or mandatory goverment supervised quarantines for all international travellers. Prevention is always cheaper and better than the cure.

Already a number of companies I know have sent out messages of redundancies while others have sent out letters of wage reductions. These are firms that engage the middle class, those ineligible for the so called goverment palliatives. Even medical practitioners in private hospitals are getting worrying letters and mails.

Higgies:
Who Brought Corona Virus To Nigeria? Italian Man. What is the name? We Don't Know. What about the picture? We didn't see.
20 people have been cured and Discharge from Corona Virus. What did they used to treat them? We don't know
A Chinese Billionaire donated Kits to Nigeria to curtail Corona Virus. Where are the items? We have not seen. Who has received any of such items? We don't Know
Individual and corporate bodies have been donating billions of naira to FG. Where is the money? We don't know. What has the money be used for? We don't know.
Other countries have released Trillions and Billions to their Citizens to cushion for Stay at Home. Where is our country? We have not seen. What have our Government done for us?

Failure of citizenship. Citizens of nations where these lofty ideals prevail fight for them. Look at the governor of NewYork or California criticise the Federal goverment and boldly demand for things to happen.

See doctors in the US, Italy and the UK openly criticise the healthcare system on PPE while our doctors here wimper to work barechested.

See companies in the US berate the relief package of 1 trillion as inadequate while ours are silent but active in cutting salaries and sacking workers already. Even hospitals here are cutting jobs and wages due to lockdown while in China and Korea the wages of health profesisonals were raised in the heat of the pandemic.

We are just too ignorant and docile in this country as a people to make any meaningful progress.

You can manage your resources, manage your posessions even manage your vision, purpose and objectives but I have never seen a nation come together to manage poor governance....

oyeb15:
They are leaving cos of the massive civil unrest that will happen soon in Nigeria.
It will come like d Arab spring that started with one man that set himself ablaze due to hunger.

96% of Nigerians are angry with the government right now. You couldn't give us jobs, infrastructure, social amenities, security, affordable education,healthcare and you are now locking us indoors.You are taking away our livelihood.
Millions of unemployed Americans right now are applying for unemployment benefits due to Covid-19 and their government is sending them cheques, half of their last wages monthly.
Buffons and ineptitude government here only knows how to enforce lockdown.
How will one account for expensive rented shops and appartments ,goods with expired dates,bank loans,association loans,farmland rents etc reading on nothing.
Only govt workers are happy at home right now and they don't make 1% of d population. Schools will resume soon and how will parents pay their children fees.

Lockdown is not d solution. ENFORCE A LAW THAT EVERYONE MUST WEAR FACE MASK AND HAND GLOVES while GOING OUT. THEN SOCIAL DISTANCING.

FreeNigerians# and keep your rice.

Said this as far back as Febuary after taking one look at Wuhan. I repeat yet again. Nigeria CANNOT be locked down. We simply donot have the capacity as a nation, financial, infrastructural, material, social, moral, etc, to shepherd Nigerians.

Already skirmishes are breaking out in Abuja communities over dud public palliative outreaches. Goverment is toying with social stability.

Absolutely. Akwa Ibom first and the FCT next.

globemoney:
is this not the same corona people are recovering from and being discharged in Nigeria. Something is not right. RIP to the dead

A doctor was suggesting today that it might be due to the BCG vaccine that is mandatory in Nigeria/Africa to tackle tuberculosis.

My response to that is a big maybe as tuberculosis is a bacterial infection not viral but the antibodies generated may have sequences that are capable of preventing or delaying that critical 'latching of the virus'.

DexterousOne:
So we have a governor in that state and people are dying like this in that state?

The people demand nothing of their goverment so nothing happens. The citizens of that town and by extension the rest of Nigeria are too ignorant and weak to experience security, peace and a better way of life.

See the problem. Just look at the posts around. Instead of a discourse on the critical subject matter, folks are distracted, busy on chinese bestiality just as they were early in the year, talking shop while the virus crept in.

A people who cannot summon their mental powers to solve their problems cannot progress. On average Nigerians have the attention span of 3 year olds, and are always wanting when it comea to rational thoughts.

Instead of demanding for an exit strategy from this pandemic, asking goverment for details of its pro active strategies for handling crises and its plans for a post epidemic reconstruction of Nigeria we rather love stories about the tortoise and the hare.

You will get nothing in life and receive nothing for your citizenship if you cannot be in charge of your destiny and direct those you've ceded your liberties to in the form of the goverment you elect to organise your affairs. Sit down and be discussing chinese bestiality you hear.

Nonsense.

Read my past posts...as far back as late January into Febuary on the economics of the pandemic. It was never about the 'common flu.

10 million jobs lost in the US these past two weeks. British Airways to lay off 30,000 staff. Germany pteparing to nationalise its brst and biggest such as Daimler AG should they run out of cash in order to prevent them falling into foreign hands notably the Chinese...

(there is a sub plot to this, China being the future focus of the world's wrath once this pandemic is done, sime nations insinuating this was bio-terrorism aimed at world subjugation by China)

The question which the people, the citizens should ask themselves since they sat idly by and refused to tear this indolent goverment apart on the timely shutting if the borders way back in early Febuary is that....

What will we do if this lockdown goes on for 1 month, 2 months, 4 minths, 6 months... since the present international criteria for easing restrictions just like the ebola regime is the SUSTAINED fall in nrw infections.

Note. Whatever news you hear today about Covid 19 represents the cock crow of this pandemic. The dawn has just started in Nigeria. And when I warned that Africa, indeed Nigeria shouldn't be the last to the party to avoid further post global pandemic economic damage from our coming pariah status, I knew what I meant.

The choices were stark in Febuary, close borders early to avoid this battle altogether since we just donot have the capacity to win it. Slow Nigerians couldn't do it. Now watch the poverty capital become inly God knows what in the coming months.

Now the crime picture is taking hold as criminals refuse the lockdiwn. Reports this morning that a doctor and head of a Covid 19 task force in a frontline state has been kidnapped on his way home from work.

I was saying it yesterday in a meeting. The lockdown has exposed critical and essential services workers to immense dangers in deserted roads and highways for thise who commute interstate.

Already small hospitals which should be preparing to take up the coming load of non corona patients are scaling back services simply because they cannot afford to get their staff who are not mobile to work. Relatives of these nurses and doctors have to drive them to and from work as public transport grounds to a halt or are to dangerous to board.

Now the kidnapping....how does this encourage medical professionals to keep going. Goverment should wake up. Nigeria is a peculiar country with peculiar problems.

Essential services workers. Please be careful and vigilant. If you live or route through dangerous neighbourhoods consider how you cimmute to and from work. I went through the city of Abuja yeaterday. Totally deserted but masking serious danger.

ddippset:
I believe that in Dubai there is more simplicity.

One predominant religion, language and culture.

There is nothing like my brother my brother politics. Or my brother my brother development.

So there are a lot of factors millitating against such fast development.

Even if we get a President that wants to work, I tell you if he goes there to work and refuses to share money and endorse corruption, his fellow leaders will work against him.

I quite agree that change must start from the top,

But I insist that we followers are not better than the leaders we so criticise.
You only need to be at a place like nairaland for a second to sense this.

For instance just within a few hours of closure of markets in Port Harcourt,

A certain quantity of tomatoes went from 500 naira to 2000.
A certain quantity of Garri went from 3000 to 8000.
A certain quantity of beef went from 1500 to 4500.

Fueling stations were still selling at 142 claiming they wanted to sell out their old stock before reducing to 128.
But if the fuel price ahead been raised to 160 they would have sold that old stock for 160 immediately.

There are hundreds of examples around us to show that we could be worse than our so called bad leaders.

Nigeria has a very long way to go, this is more than Buhari or any President we elect.

That is exactly what I am saying.
Qualitative leadership knows the capacity of a nation, understands the psyche of its people and acts accordingly.

Qualitative leadership then either strategizes around these perceived weaknesses to neutralize them or ensures these weaknesses are not tested by acting in this case to prevent this pandemic.

It is all about capacity. The leadership of this country simply does not understand this country and its people. That is failure.

Sorry, but Mr. President on whose seat the buck stops does not understand Nigeria. He does not know this country is largely informal without data structures. He doesn't know half live below the poverty line so cannot save for a rainy day making isolation imaterial....

Please we donot have a cerebral goverment. Too dull, too ignorant, always behind the curve and cannot find the way out of problems. These are the things the citizens vote for. They donot vote for people who will turn back and blame them for problems.

You donot go to a doctor to receive blame but cures for your ailment. When he starts to blame you know he has no cure but excuses.

Just logged in briefly to attend to this.

You truncate the time people have to buy vital provisions is anti-social distancing. Only the absolutely ignorant will not know it will lead to daily pandemonium at the markets.

These and other factors are clear indicators why our international borders should have been closed to this pandemic much, much earlier. We simply cannot manage the crises. We are not resourced to. And by resources I also mean the mental resources of ideas, strategies and programs.

We are simply doing copy and paste from the international scene when we neither have the social structures nor the qualitative governance to do so.

As a result we will be one of the last countries to defeat this scourge and will be a pariah state as other nations recover medically and economically. Let us continue in our ignorance.

ppogba:
The earlier with comply with all instructions, the better for us as a country.

Nigeria will be in soup if it is left behind battling this virus when other countries are out of the problem.

If spain and Italy should get out today, I can bet it they will not be interested in what goes on in Africa till at least December.

You are ahead of nearly all Nigerians in thought.

I am tired of commenting about affairs in a country like this teeming with ignorant people. It is energy sapping.

My posts on this forum will thus decline considerably from now. Just fed up.

SharpJoe:
Look at the bloody lie from Lai Mohammed. Then he will have face to call himself a big man when he is just a hypocritical liar.

By February, he said we were ready
Until now, we still have few testing labs all over the country. Everybody is crying for Chioma has Covid-19. What about those untested who are possibly spreading it as we talk.

Nigeria is such a National tragedy.

I repeat. The Commissioner of health Lagos, Minister of Health and Lai Mohammed would have been sacked if we were in a sane society.

When we talk they will say we should shut up and stop criticising goverment. Switch on the televidion and citizens of all countries except North Korea are critical of the way their goverments are handling this pandemic.

DexterousOne:
Exactly

The fallout may be disastrous

And the world leaders can see it

Told you folks since January. The pandemic was never about the 'common flu'. Check my back posts. We should never have allowed this enter Nigeria in the first place.

Listening to Tony Blair on SkyNews this morning another danger of this pandemic is Africa. The world will not be safe until all countries are free of this virus.

Extrapolating from what the former UK PM wad saying, Africa may be last region to conquer the virus within her borders holding up the world'economy.

The question will then be. Will the world wait for Africa, hekp her or just cut her off as dead weight. If the katter is the case then a recession will degenerate to an implosion of unthinkable proportions.

This is the kind of strategic thinking this goverment should be able to call upon to hedge against trouble but when it fills its ranks with agents of its narrow ideologies the country is left wide open to suffer.

Nigerians. This goverment has no visible strategy of how to win this war and then rebuild from its ruins. We are all techinally refugees.

ecolime:
Our lawmakers response to this pandemic is gifting themselves brand new cars.

BTW, Let's take our mental health serious. Panic and suicide is not the solution.

People react to grief in different ways, some resort to violence, others abuse, yet others indulge. It is an African thing to celebrate and engage in wild orgies during funerals. Perhaps this is the way our lawmakers engage with the Covid 19 tragedy.

When sensible leadership guages the situation of a country he would have done the simplest thing, shut the borders.

When we said that Nigeria does not have the resources people think it is money alone and believed the falsehood of the Minister of Health.

What about human resources amongst many.. do we have enough medical professionals...what about the sub-set of equiping, training and motivating that human resource.

That vetting will reveal just fractions of the number of medical professionals available in Nigeria to fight the pandemic. How do you win by this.

slimanyd:
The institution should be sealed up asap for 14 Days . All staffs should stay home

Do you shut down a police station because a policeman was caught breaking the law?

Doctors always work in danger like every other professional and sometimes are required to work through dangerous situation.

Though he is more of an administrator and will see more of the boardroom than the emergency wards now that he has the virus he may as well attend to infected patients if he remains asymptomatic.

Hmmm...And the man has underlying health challenges.

Tumbulum:
Is this not the restructuring that we are talking about. States are flouting the federal laws and no one is raising an eyebrow. It will take a natural disaster like this for Nigeria to be truely repositioned for restructuring.

Can you not see that states are handling this crises a lot better than the Federal Goverment though they are resource disadvantaged in comparison.

Can you not see that state goverments are in competition for positive reactions towards this pandemic.

This pandemic has lifted the curtain a bit on what Nigeria can be if society is organised around the point of the needs of the people concerned rather than around the points of conquest, control and domination by a set of feudal overlords.

This pandemic has laid plain the weakness of the Nigeria state as it is presently structured and this pandemic has warned us to get our acts together fast and reatucture this country in civility while we can in order to survive.

Nigeria just cannot continue to exist like this. It is just unsustainable.

awhybliss:
I think priorities should be on getting a vaccine instead of contact back tracing or creating isolation centers...
If vaccine isn't available over the next two month.. Hunger will be a weapon of war..
Cause people will come out and things will get out of control

Now you guys understand the economics of the pandemic I first talked about in Febuary while warning that we should shut our borders to the entry of Covid 19.

That it was not about the 'flu' but the pandemic. It was evident that only a TOTAL shutdown could drop the stats and save a nation. So it is nations that can AFFORD a total shutdown that will win the battle.

Nigeria cannot afford a total shutdown as we are practically broke and structurally informal to catch most citizens in any economic safety net. Thus the battle not to carch corona cannot be organised effectively by goverment. Time has proven this. By next week watch and see how the isolation regime will be neglected.

Does this country citizens look to anyone like folks who can go without production and subsequent income for the next 2 months it took Wuhan or six months it will take Nigeria? A country that is already numbed by records of violent death due to extremism and crime.

Restructuring by poor leadership I would say. Regional security militias, state border controls....what next.... each state adopting measures to handle the economic fallout of covid 19.... perhaps governors confiscating the central banks within their states and setting monetary regulations to get out of deep depression. All round failure of leadership at the centre. Its all good.

I woukd have preferred restructuring under different circumstances, one of planning, negotiations and agreements not one forced upon us by circumstances.

I told you folks the Nigerian state was weak, weakened by division.... divisions accentuated by this administration that has not done anything to get the engine of the nation running smoothly through wanton nepotism and ethnic discrimination.

maklelemakukula:
They think they have fooled the world..they'll be made to answer for the deaths from their biological warfare

There is a gathering storm against China in the coming months as nations recover. Someone has to be held accountable and certain folks are already labelling this a crime rather than a natural diaaster. I think the appetite for China Plc shares will dip significantly in the coming years if they donot become more open, democratic and accountable.