COVID-19 AND LESSONS TO BE LEARNED...(8)

The Covid-19 pandemic has wrecked every form of havoc imaginable in many countries of the world. It has, as at 15th January 2021 (according to figures monitored by Johns Hopkins University) infected over 93 million people, dealt death blows to 1,996,948 people (and counting) across 191 countries/regions, and while at it, has denied most of the affected families the opportunity to properly bid goodbye to and mourn their departed ones. It has dealt economic blows to millions of people who have lost their jobs or businesses and many countries of the world have also been thrown into dire economic straits. The lockdown imposed and being re-imposed (following resurgence of infections and detection of a new and more virulent strain of the virus after easing of lockdown) by many countries to contain the spread of Covid-19 also had/has its unintended consequences of affecting mental or psychological well being of many people who struggled to cope with being cooped up for long period of time in their houses.  And though the approval and subsequent rollout of several vaccines in a few countries is something to cheer about, the long time and logistics that will be involved before enough number of people across the world can be vaccinated to make this Coronavirus less of a threat to physical interactions, will mean that the first 2 quarters of 2021 will be largely like most of 2020 following the breakout of the virus.

While those who have died either directly from Covid-19 or indirectly due to suspension of access to healthcare for other ailments and other unintended consequences of lockdown cannot be brought back to life, many countries, and particularly a country like Nigeria, where the health sector has been neglected and well-nigh deliberately starved of funds, perhaps because the political class find it easy to hop on flights out of the country (at State expense, it might be added) at the merest hint of discomfort, needs to properly fund its health sector. During this pandemic, many people have died due to the hospitals’ focus on the Corona Virus. This is of course a worldwide phenomenon. There was a report for instance by The New York Times on July 18, 2020 that nearly 4 million people in England on the National Health Service were, and probably still are, on waiting lists for routine hospital treatments. In Nigeria, the surge in deaths of some of our elites are most likely connected to the shutdown of the airspace in many countries of the world and the concentration of attention on the management of the pandemic to the detriment of other illnesses. The urgency of the need for governments to put infrastructure in place for telemedicine cannot thus be over-emphasised.

The resort of many countries towards either temporary ban or restriction of export of medical and protective gear supplies in their initial response to the pandemic, though it has forced us to look inwards for the production of nose masks, ventilators and some other other medical supplies, it is hoped that government particularly at the State and Federal levels will move towards a more deliberate support and development of our local production capacities across all sectors of the economy. It is indeed to be noted, that the CBN under the leadership of Godwin Emefiele has been at the forefront of trying to promote and support local manufacturing of goods particularly those on which much needed foreign exchange had hitherto been expended to import. It is in this wise, that the programs of the Governor of CBN to support and strengthen local production and development of certain sectors towards a self-reliant Nigeria as articulated in the article titled Turning Covid tragedy into opportunity for new Nigeria published on 14th April 2020 and proposed to be implemented over 3 timelines divided into 0-3 months (immediate term policies), 0-12 months (short-term policy priorities) and 0-3 years (long-term policy priorities) must be commended and supported. It is hoped that the likes of the very industrious Aba traders, and players in the agricultural and other manufacturing value chains will also be supported going forward.

For a country like Nigeria which was already in dire straits economically before the novel coronavirus hit, there is no doubt some of the months ahead will be quite difficult. Not surprisingly, Nigeria has reportedly entered yet another recession. Government across all levels will need to severely cut governance costs. The President’s directive sometime last year that the 2012 Oronsanye Report (which had recommended abolition of 38 agencies, merger of 52 and reversion of 14 agencies to departments in the relevant ministries) be implemented shows that the government is aware more needs to be done to cut the over-bloated cost of governance in the country.

The April 2012 Stephen Oronsanye report had found there were 541 Statutory, non-statutory federal commissions and agencies which had bloated cost of governance astronomically, and made the recommendations already mentioned above. However, some people have argued that the Oronsanye report is out dated as, since the report came out, agencies of the federal government has doubled to about, if not over, 1,100 as contained in the 2019 budget. The fact however, that no meaningful step can be seen to have been taken towards the implementation of the Oronsanye Report, outdated as it may be, months after the President’s directive, show government’s seeming lack of commitment towards cutting down over-bloated cost of governance.

Among the governance cost that should necessarily go down sharply is the cost of production of oil in Nigeria which reportedly stands at about $30 per barrel, a figure far above the price oil was trading for while the lockdown lasted in most countries in 2020. Cost of production in Nigeria is one of the highest as, according to a June 1st 2020 Guardian report titled Govt Moves for $10 oil production cost, cost of production of oil is $8.98 in Saudi Arabia, Iran; $9, Iraq; $10. Although the same report listed the UK as having the highest production cost at $44.33 (based on geological reasons) followed by Brazil at $34.99. 

If both the people and the government fail to learn lessons derivable from the effects of this pandemic to look inwards and work towards empowering the people, making real investments in the human capital (by far the most important capital any nation can have) and reducing the wide gap of inequality by focusing on things that will positively impact the greatest number of people possible as against creating a small enclave of privileged people on the commonwealth as we currently have, we would have wasted this pandemic, and like Professor Oyewale Tomori, a foremost Virologist said recently on a TV interview, we will remain, a Nation that lives by lessons forgotten and not lessons learnt.