Much has been said already in the midst of the Covid-19 global outbreak. At the peak of the pandemic, nations were forced into lockdown in a bid to fight an invincible enemy. An enemy many were not sure was an airborne infection; yet tongue’s and tribes were compelled to go into hiding nevertheless.
The lockdown came at the tail end of the first quarter of the year 2020 with many economies picking up after2019 Christmas and New year holidays.Families around the world ran up huge holiday expenses leaving many with little in savings. Disposable income was already lean for many then came covid19 related economic ‘belt up’ forcing homes into a tighter corner financially.
Hunger loomed large as everyone became confined; not able to pursue jobs and other money making ventures, part of daily routine and existence before the outbreak of covid19. Governments nonetheless recognized the need to stave of hunger through intervention in the form of direct food delivery, cash transfers and pay-out to assist many families whose breadwinners had either lost their jobs or have been prevented from going out to make a living.
Thus the term ‘covid 19 reliefpackage’ was born. Governments, non profit organizations, churches, religious organizations and individuals pitched in to provide one form of relief or the other to as many aspossible within their immediate environment and far off! Reports have emerged on how families wake up to find food packages delivered to their door step by local county officials in America. Non profits distribute food packages to pre-registered families and the most vulnerable on the streets of Paris in France and several other cities in Europe. Recipients of financial aidthrough cash transfers and cheques in Europe, Canada, USA have often testified of such receipts via social media. Churches,other religious organizations, non profits gave other forms of relief to those confined and struggling.
For Nigeria a nation of over 200million; going by some estimates and already grappling with the effects of extreme poverty, the covid19 hit couldn’t have come at a worst time. Most Nigerians were abandoned in the midst of the outbreak without relief whatsoever despite claims on the media by some government officials seeking relevance and undue publicity.
Officials of the Nigerian government have made claims of feeding school children who are out of school as a result of the lockdown. This could not be verified independentlyowing to the complexity of its implementation if any attempt was made to implement. Recently a federal minister claimed that most if not all Nigerians have received covid19 relief packages. This attracted public outrage from Nigerians; supposed beneficiaries owing to itsfalsehood.
A few state governments made to provide relief but most did not pretend to be doing anything to cushion the harsh effects of covid19 on their citizens.A few legislators made very feeble attempt to provide relief in their constituencies with much publicity!
This state of things at such dire straits shows the lack practical governance in Nigeria at all levels. Nigerians were left to their fate without help by the same government that confined them. Speculations that cash transfer will be done using BVN to every Nigerian has remained so! Not a naira has been delivered even to the most vulnerable urban and rural poor not to talk of every Nigerian on the BVN register. Huge sums and figures have been bandied via the press as monies already spent in providing covid19 relieffor Nigerians.
The #endsars protest in the month of October opened another can of worms in the form of hoarding of food relief and palliatives in various government stalls and warehouse’s around Nigeria. This came to light following the looting of such warehouse’s by protesters who apparently had gotten wind of such places. In some of the video clips widely shared on social media, piles of various food items and tons of essential commodities were broken into at large government stores hidden away from prying eyes of the public.
Frustrated citizens could be seen carting away these food items without let even when security agents were called in to save the situation. Government officials had no credible response on why such huge volumes of food items had been left in storage undistributed across the country while many were practically starving owing to covid19 restrictions and lockdowns.
The score card of the government during the covid19 lockdown reads red! Abysmal failure on the part of the government when the people were in direneed. There it is ones again: fraud has had another day at a time when a coming together was most needed for Nigerians.