COVID-19: Group Urges Govt to Reopen Schools, Economy

Seriki Adinoyi in Jos

The Equity International Initiative has warned that the current lockdown following the spread of corona virus in Nigeria will pose a great danger to the country’s education and economy if urgent and deliberate steps are not taken to find a solution.

Addressing journalists in Jos, the Country Director of the non-governmental organisation, Mr. Chris Iyama, said schools at all levels have been shut down across the country for over one month without plans to reopen them, warning that “to avoid further damage to the current bad education and economy of Nigeria, the federal and various state governments must think out of the box and devise other measures to contain the spread of the virus without necessarily locking down the nation.”

While suggesting that inter-state borders could be closed, while schools and business continue within each state to avoid total collapse of the economy, Iyama also feared that complete closure of religious worship centres, from where citizens draw faith and hope for survival, does not portent well for a religious nation like Nigeria.

He also expressed concern over the way and manner the donations towards tackling the corona virus have so far been spent, saying, “we are concerned that government has not been very transparent about the money; we don’t know the amount that has been donated, we don’t know the amount that has been disbursed, we don’t know the measure used in the disbursement, and we don’t know the modalities used in determining the poorest of the poor.”

Also speaking, the Director of Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO), Mr. Steve Aluko, said he has observed that criminality is on the increase, adding that government must be timely in ensuring that the economy is opened up soon.

“We cannot afford to lock down Nigerian economy in perpetuity, or else we will be exposed to a more serious challenge than the corona virus. The small scale industries and small businesses must not be allowed to collapse.

“Government should channel energy towards what they can do to ensure that we have more recovery than deaths; and part of it is to open up the economy timely and speedily. If people do not have access to food, water, good education and other vital needs, we may just be toying with another serious challenge that may go beyond COVID-19.”

On his part, the Plateau State Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Yakubu Bawa said: “Lockdown should not be the only option left for government. We must consider the dire economic consequence of the action. Most of our people rely on daily income, and when government relaxes lockdown for two or three days for people to quickly re-stock, the question is where do they get the money to re-stock?”

Bawa said there are some urgent legal matters like bails and decongestion of prisons which the courts should urgently attend to, but with the lockdown such cases have been adjourned indefinitely. “Mobile courts have been set up and the accused have the right to lawyers. If they are not given the chance to hire a lawyer to defend them, then their fundamental human right of fair hearing has been denied them.

“During this lockdown, some security agents have trampled upon the rights of many Nigerians; many have been beaten and even killed by some lawless security agents. I even learnt that about 19 persons have been killed in the aftermath of this lockdown. All these have to be addressed urgently, yet the lawyers have been limited by the lockdown.”