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Although the Federal Government has ruled out the introduction of another national lockdown, the government may be forced to impose one if the new COVID-19 infections continue to fester. This is why it has become imperative for all Nigerians to strictly adhere to the prescribed safety protocols against the pandemic in order to prevent another lockdown. According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), over 7,000 Nigerians were confirmed as infected by the virus in two weeks, some of them high-profile politicians, state governors and top military officials.
The discovery by scientists in Britain of the new variant of COVID-19, which spreads faster than the previous ones, is compounding the situation. In Nigeria, the total number of infections since the outbreak of the pandemic has risen to over 80,000 cases as at Monday, December 21, an average of 780 new cases per day, and over 1,221 deaths, an increase of over 20 per cent in just three weeks.
Between December 7 and 21, more than 7,000 COVID-19 cases were recorded in the country. This is an increase of over 38 per cent from a month ago, with Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory leading the number of new infections. The new cases are reported from about 22 states. However, more than 66,000 persons have recovered since the start of the pandemic. As a result of increasing cases of new COVID-19 infections, health experts, including members of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 have warned against breaching the safety precautions put in place to halt the spread of the virus. Therefore, they have enjoined all Nigerians to observe public health measures to check the festering of the pandemic. These include social distancing, wearing of face masks, frequent washing of hands, the use of sanitizers and the need to avoid crowds. These are some of the safety measures that the citizens should observe fully until the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines. In other words, the COVID-19 protocols should be taken seriously. Already, there are signs that the second wave of the pandemic may compel the government to impose another lockdown and the impact on the economy would have far-reaching consequences. With the economy already in recession following three consecutive contractions, the performance of the economy could get much worse. The toll on the economy is already showing. For instance, a sectoral performance report released recently by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that in the banking sector, 44, 664 contract staff have been laid off, 7,957 in nine months as a result of the pandemic.
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The 7,957 average job shedding across payrolls of the commercial banks was from January to September 2020. The payrolls of all the Money Deposit Banks shrank by 7,722 in job losses. This was against the CBN advice to the banks last year not to sack their employees. The banks are reporting that none of them has operated at full capacity since the lockdown was lifted some months ago. If another lockdown takes place, it is feared that many businesses may collapse. We agree with the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and other industry groups that Nigeria’s fragile economic environment is too heated and may not withstand the shock of another lockdown.
The total lockdown that began in March 2020, and lasted about six weeks caused Nigeria’s GDP to suffer a 34.1 per cent loss. This amounted to $16 billion, with two-thirds of the losses coming from the services sector, according to International Food Policy Research Institute’s study. Clearly, another lockdown will likely crash production, consumption and the economy. Therefore, there is need to enlighten Nigerians on the need to adhere to COVID-19 preventive measures. Subtle enforcement should be put in place. The present false sense of security that the virus is a hoax will harm the economy and lead to more new cases and deaths.
Altogether, we believe that if the COVID-19 protocols are fully enforced, Nigerians would contain the second wave of the pandemic. In this regard, the government is advised to ramp up protective and preventive measures and improve citizens’ compliance in order to limit the spread of the virus and remove any possibility of another lockdown. The report that the delivery of the Pfizer-BIOTech and Moderna vaccines may take more than a year from now to get to Nigeria, and may cost government about N540 billion means that Nigerians should take more responsibility to protect themselves. Therefore, we also urge the federal and state governments to initiate more measures to protect businesses, many of which are only recovering from the effects of the recent lockdown. All hands must be on deck to reform, revitalise and restructure the sputtering economy.
