Gboyega Nasir Isiaka, popularly called GNI, has urged Nigerians to endure the pain of lockdown which governments had enforced to curtail the spread of the deadly COVID-19 disease.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the lockdown of Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria’s commercial and political capitals, as part of the efforts to curtail the coronavirus, while several state governors are already doing the same.
The former governorship candidate in Ogun State on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), in a WhatsApp group discourse, stated that both leaders and followers were suddenly saddled with the reality of the pandemic.
“We all have to face the reality in this matter. Neither the governments nor governed invented this pandemic. From what we have been reading, the people that saw it coming and made some predictions of it can be counted in the finger tips of one of our hands. Hence, it has caught everybody napping including the most organized and data driven societies that are ranked tops in health care infrastructure by all known rating agencies,” he said.
Gboyega, a member of Ogun State Watch WhatsApp group, then appealed to Nigerians to reshuffle and realign their plans with the reality of the unexpected situation the country is battling at the moment as no perfection could be achieved by any government in the disbursement of palliatives.
“Our people must also manage their expectations.
“I am a strong advocate of welfarism in governance particularly protecting the weak and vulnerables hence will support getting palliatives to as many of our people as possible in the circumstances that we find ourselves.
“But to expect that this will be done 100% smoothly in an unexpected situation that we find ourselves may be asking for too much. Also, we have to truthfully and sincerely strike an optimal balance between the unpleasant pain of not having enough to eat and the cost of a ballooning pandemic in our land. What we hear is happening to other lands as we speak and what we understood happened in 1918/19 when our newly amalgamated nation lost about 2.5% of her less than 17million+ population to a pandemic sound definitely much more unpleasant than the pain of not having access to enough within a few weeks lockdown,” he appealed.
However, he also urged governments to work more on improving distribution of these palliatives to the needy.
“Finally, I will urge the governments at all levels to do more particularly to improve the logistics of getting palliatives to the needy and plead with individuals and corporate bodies with means to continue to complement government efforts either directly to the people or through the government pool.
“But what is equally important is that I will request that our people should manage the pain in this tough time because the possible alternative cost of not achieving the objective of this lockdown can be more grievous and will not be our portion in this land Insha Allah.
“As the very popular saying goes, tough times dont last, tough people do. In my opinion, it is only in unison and full appreciation of cost and benefit that we can approach and win this unusual war. Irrespective of our socio-political leaning or belief, e je ka le akata Coro jina, ka to p’adie.”
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