Non Adherent To Lockdown Rules Dangerous To Fight Against COVID-19

The war against the novel Coronavirus pandemic may be hard to win if Nigerians fail to change their attitude to the lockdown directive of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The attitude of most Nigerians to the sit-at-home directive declared by the Federal Government, as a way of containing the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, has become a source of concern as people refused to comply totally with the directive in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and Lagos. There are strong indications that if Nigerians continue to disobey this directive, the fight against the killer disease in Nigeria may not be easily won.

This was the submission of a seasoned security expert, Mr. Shina Phillips, while speaking on Security Watch Africa on African Independent Television (AIT) on Saturday.

Phillips said: “From what I have seen so far from security angle and nationalistic point of view,  I discovered that if we have embraced patriotism as a people, communicating and adhering to directive like lockdown will be easy. Some people have defined this as an Abuja problem, while some believe it is a problem in Lagos.  It shouldn’t be. That is why I continue to emphasise that until we begin to embrace the doctrine of patriotism we are not going to win even the smallest enemy not to talk of a pandemic like COVID-19. This is the opportunity will need to look inward and see ourselves as one. Patriotism is love for the country.

“It is quite so sad that when you get into some communities, people behave as if nothing is happening. Shops are opened, barbing salons, bars and others are opened.

“The problem I noticed was that it is not enough to reach out to people through radio and television; I think the government should come up with different strategy to have people on ground like the town criers going through these communities where we have 90 percent illiterates, going into the interiors to sensitise the people on the danger of what we have on our hands and the precautions we need to take to combat it.

“The irony of this pandemic is that if somebody has it in one compound, it spreads to other people very fast. We should not wait for it to become a big issue on our hands before we find solution to this.”

On the suggestion that the government should ease the lockdown, Shina Phillips, an International Assessor for ‘Security Watch Africa’ and ‘Security Watch Africa Awards’ said that “t will be premature for us to think of lifting the lockdown now. It will not be good for us to open the economy and other businesses for now. Right now I fear the spread of COVID-19 to other states. Interstate borders are still very porous. We don’t have enough men to man even the major borders not to talk of interstate border posts.

“I think it is high time government should find a friendly way of sensitising the people, emphasising good reasons why the lockdown should be so that everybody we see the good reasons to stay at home, while the government should also make provision for palliative measures.”

The CEO of Matchmakers Consult International Limited appealed to Nigerians to reason with the government, while the government should make things easy for the people during this period “this is because we must come together to win this war.”

Shina Phillips, the initiator of the prestigious Nigeria Pitch Awards and an FRSC Celebrity Marshall, emphasised the fact that COVID-19 virus can be combated, concluding that “the more we fight this virus the more we should enlighten the people.”