Opinion

Metamorphosis Of Coronavirus Into Chronic Hungervirus In Nigeria

By Odunayo Oluwatimilehin

“If investments in banks fall, it is a tragedy, and people say, ‘what are we going to do’?. but if people die of hunger, have nothing to eat or suffer from poor health, that’s nothing.”

— Pope Francis

Prior to COVID-19 malady, Sahara Reporters on June 5, 2019 established that 46.5% of Nigeria’s population which was approximated at 197, 686, 877, sometimes rounded up to 200,000,000 live in extreme poverty. According to the World Poverty Clock, created by Vienna based World Data Lab, 91.16 million Nigerians were living below a dollar per day as of February 13, 2019.

Against this backdrop, it is crystal clear that hunger and hardship which is assumed to be worse than death is dangerously looming if situations are not properly handled by the appropriate authorities.

Chronic hunger is described as a state of long term undernourishment. The body absorbs less food that is needed for proper functioning. It usually arises in connection with poverty. Chronically hungry people do not have sufficient money for healthy nutrition, clean water, or health care.

Going by the steady rise in number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria and the lockdown preventive measure that was imposed on all a sundry residing within the country, the Nigerian citizens are faced with either death by suicide due to depression emanating from inability to meet daily basic needs or, death by hunger caused by imposition of compulsory stay at home with inadequate food, or death through barrels of guns by trigger happy security operatives who are deployed to enforce the stay at home order.

Come to think of it, how do you expect a family’s bread winner whose source of income is daily hustling to possibly sit at home in the face of biting hunger? How about numerous people who rely on hawking of goods to sustain their families? What will be the plight of those whose means of sustenance is dependent on occupation such as road side mechanic, vulcanizing, petty traders, water truck pushers, luggage carriers, and host of other menial jobs. Businesses have crumbled, people are finding it really hard to keep body and soul together.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, none of this group of people can survive this period without a strong financial support system. More reason our governments need to scale up and be effective in the way they go about making life easier for the citizens.

Hunger virus in Nigeria has brought back to the stage social vices like group armed robbery, recently reported in South Western Nigeria, especially in states like, Lagos and Ogun State. People can no longer sleep peacefully due to the activities of hoodlums. Citizens are in despair because of the uncertainties surrounding the novel pandemic, yet hoodlums are on robbery rampage to steal the little supplies they have. What a double tragedy! What can be more depressing than this?

The World Health Organization (WHO) has shown concern and advised that governments who impose lockdown restrictions should provide palliatives for their citizens to enable them to comply.

‘How do you survive on lockdown when you depend on your daily labor to eat?” WHO’s director-general, Tedros Ghebreyesus, asked at a press briefing in Geneva.

In tandem with the submission of WHO’s Director General, several opinions have being expressed from different angles by well meaning politicians and societal men of timber and calibre such as, Atiku Abubakar, a politician, businessman and philanthropist, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a fmr Governor of Lagos State, Reno Omokri, a renowned author and lawyer amongst others, and also from some well meaning Nigerians on the best possible ways to go about cushioning the effects of COVID-19 on Nigerian citizens whose incomes have been disrupted and brought to abrupt halt as a result of the novel pandemic.

A just, fair, and equitable system such as the one employed by Nigeria Centre for Disease Control NCDC, that made it possible for all registered mobile phone users in Nigeria to receive COVID-19 awareness and preventive messages should be engaged to ensure that all Nigerian citizens partake of the Federal Government COVID-19 palliative scheme.

On a relaxed note, if NEPA (PHCN) utility bill could reach all user households in Nigeria, then, our Government has NO EXCUSE of not reaching out to the citizens in this crucial time.

I move that all the suggestions from the above-mentioned personalities and host of others should be looked into and properly deliberated on to produce a feasible and practical plan that will ultimately translate into guaranteeing a measure of happiness to a greater number of Nigerian citizenry without compromising the rights of the minorities.

I leave you with this invaluable quote from Nelson Mandela: