Extending lockdown may lead to casualties, starving masses cry out

HIGH hopes of the masses who had waited earnestly to a broadcast to the nation by President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday were dashed as the reliefs they expected particularly total easing of the lockdown met a brick wall.

The masses majorly made up of traders, casual and handicrafts workers who survive by daily incomes have been under lockdown since March the outburst of the coronavirus in the country leaving most of them to lose their means of livelihood.

The Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 had on Sunday briefed the President on their activities and situations which was in the past followed by Presidential broadcast the next day. Unfortunately, those that broke the news miscalculated as the President according to his aides didn’t have any plan of national broadcast like in the previous weeks.

Scores of masses that spoke to our correspondents lamented intensely over the continued lockdown when they have no food in their homes and no money in the bank crying that the government is pushing them to the wall.

Mr. Muyiwa Ige who is a textile trader at Balogun Market spoke angrily from Lagos and said that his family of six have been subjected to acute suffering and starvation without anyone to approach for succor.

Ige said that his two years old child has refused drinking garri that the rest of the family manage to take three times daily, and that it is unbearable to see his little children and the entire family living in hunger on daily basis.

All the other people have similar stories of how their homes are empty without foods and no money in the bank to buy things. Yet, they only hear of palliatives in the news.

As it stands, state governments should put down precautionary measures in place and relax the lockdown immediately to avoid casualties. It must be clearly understood that Nigeria is presently a failed nation vis-à-vis citizens’ welfare, hence cannot copy advanced or even developing countries that lockdown in place with palliatives. A country that doesn’t have data of its population is a failure.

Published By: Admin

Hon. CARL UMEGBORO is a legal practitioner (Barrister & Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and human rights activist. As an advocate of conflict resolution through ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution), he has acquired intensive training and has been inducted into The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (United Kingdom) as an Associate. He is a prolific writer and public affairs analyst. Prior to his call to Bar as a lawyer, he has been a veteran journalist and columnist in all national newspapers, and has over 250 published articles in various newspapers to his credit. Barrister Umegboro is also a regular guest-analyst to many TV and radio programme on crucial national issues. He can be reached through: (+234) 08023184542, (+234) 08173184542 OR Email: umegborocarl@gmail.com

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