Trust deficit undermining fight against COVID-19 ― Lukman, DG PGF

Director-General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, Dr Salihu Lukman, has identified the trust deficit between government and the people as one factor militating the fight against the spread of the pandemic, coronavirus (COVID-19).

Lukman, in a statement he issued at the weekend in Abuja, equally expressed concern over perceived distrust by the National Assembly towards federal agencies and committees saddled with the task of mitigating the effect of the lockdown by the Presidency.

The DG of the forum of governors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress noted that rather than take government appeal on social distancing and proactive measures of lockdown seriously along with the scary index cases from the United States and Italy, Nigerians are focused on the palliatives and have since tied their obedience to the precautionary measures to fight the deadly scourge to effective and efficient disbursement of the palliative.

He argued that even the federal lawmakers were guilty of the wrong narrative and perception.

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He said:” The list of conspiracy theories narratives is long and increasing perhaps on daily basis.

“In all, none of the conspiracy theories dispute the fact that COVID-19 threatens human life on a global scale. While most of the conspiracy theories are global in origin and proven not to be true empirically and scientifically, Nigerians still find them attractive simply because somehow, almost all the narratives resonate with Nigerians on account of inability of citizens to trust government. Sadly, not even the alarming reports of COVID-19 cases coming from other parts of the world is making Nigerians to consider teaming up with government to contain the spread.

“These records hardly convinced Nigerians on the need to ensure that the fight against the spread of COVID-19 in the country succeeds. Instead, it is perceived by many as an attempt by government and their supporters to divert attention from the issue of ensuring that it (government) provides palliatives to Nigerians for the lockdown to succeed. This opens the gate for another variant of conspiracy theory aimed at diverting attention from some alleged corrupt practices around the execution of the fight against the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

“Three issues can be used to demonstrate this. The first was the controversy around the issue of Chinese medical team coming to assist Nigeria. Many Nigerians, including Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) opposed the decision of the Presidential Task Team on COVID-19 to accept the offer of assistance from the Chinese medical team. Some alleged that Italy began to experience exponential increases in number of COVID-19 cases after accepting similar assistance from Chinese medical team. The whole issue around the support being offered was reduced to sentimental considerations. The national conversation wasn’t around the question of evaluating preparedness to contain the spread of COVID-19.

“Secondly, around the same period when the issue of the assistance from Chinese medical team dominated our media, on Tuesday, April 6, 2020, there was the report of the session between the leadership of the National Assembly, led by both the Senate President, Sen. Ahmed Lawal and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, on the one hand and Haj Sadiya Umar Farouk, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, on the other hand. The leadership of the National Assembly were reported to have queried the Minister about management of palliatives to cushion the effect of the lockdown. In particular, there was the question of the database being used to disburse the conditional cash transfer of N20,000 to qualified beneficiaries.

“The third event was the unfortunate fire in the office of the Accountant General of the Federation on Wednesday, April 7, 2020. Although completely unrelated to the whole question of containing the spread of COVID-19 in the country, some Nigerians alleged that the fire outbreak in the office of the Accountant General was because of the insistence of the leadership of the National Assembly that all resources being disbursed as palliative under the COVID-19 campaign, must be accounted for. Some even alleged that N2 trillion has already been released by the Federal Government. Across most social media platforms, the allegation was that the fire outbreak in Accountant General Office was aimed at destroying records and therefore sabotaging any potential investigation into the disbursement of palliatives to citizens, including the N20,000 conditional cash transfer.”

Appraising the success of the two weeks lockdown at the Federal Capital Territory, Lagos and Ogun states by President Muhammadu Buhari, Dr Lukman, who expressed disappointment over the attitude of certain state governors, said a national lockdown was necessary for the country not to throw away the gains achieved by its proactive measure of the last two weeks.

” We are told by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and especially the Lagos State Commissioner of Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, that two important determining factors to help flattened the COVID-19 curve are lockdown and community ownership. In the case of lockdown, it will help the process of contact tracing, isolation, treatment and therefore confining cases to specific locations and prevent spread to other locations. Community ownership, on the other hand, will enhance the capacity of government for contact tracing, isolation, treatment and preventing cases from being transmitted within communities.

“What has been the assessment so far? Assessment of how well as a nation, we are containing the spread of COVID-19 nationally and within communities will be critical in determinant of whether the two weeks lockdown of Abuja, Lagos and Ogun is about to come to an end or extended. If it is to be extended, will it also be extended to other parts of the country? Is there any possibility that it will end in any of the three locations (Abuja, Lagos and Ogun) on Tuesday, April 14, 2020?

“If records of cases from states are any reference, with Lagos and FCT recording daily increases and now having 158 and 54 confirmed cases respectively, it simply means that the spread is on the increase. Perhaps, Ogun State could be an exception having stabilised with only 4 cases for more than a week. However, being neighbours to Lagos, and with cases in Lagos on the increase, the possibility of relaxing or ending the lockdown may depend on the status of Lagos.

“With number of cases spreading to more states and also on the increase within states, the possibility of extending the lockdown to other states could be high. Again with number of cases in Osun, Edo, Oyo, Bauchi, Akwa Ibom, Kaduna, Delta, Enugu, Ekiti, Rivers, Benue, Katsina and Ondo states respectively now being 20, 12, 11, 8, 5, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1 and 1, these are readily candidates for the extension of the lockdown to cover these states. Assuming the number of cases is to be the determinant of whether the lockdown will be extended beyond April 14, 2020, will that be sufficient to contain the spread? Given that after the lockdown of Abuja, Lagos and Ogun, more states recorded new cases, wouldn’t this be indicative of the need to have a national lockdown?”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE