Attention is shifting rapidly from COVID-19 itself to the attitude of the residents and the negligence by the state government to be more proactive in the understanding of the rising death toll in the Northwestern state of Kano in Nigeria. The Centre for Information Technology and Development, (CITAD) which is pushing this line in its latest situation report has come down harshly on the residents, severely blaming the citizens for neither complying with the directives given by the state government nor adhering to the advice given by health professionals without realizing it is putting their lives in great danger every day.
Why are the masses not listening to instructions by political leaders?
Would things be like they are if he were still around?
It is also advising the Kano State Government in favour of being more proactive and to stop waiting for support from Federal government, wealthy individuals and development partners. CITAD is also alleging that security personnel attached to the check points in the state have found lucrative business in the check points, making check points a ‘pay and pass gates’ instead of them preventing people from violating the lockdown order.
The attitude in question may not be unconnected with citizens’ attitude to a number of things happening at the same time around the Kano area. Some of them must be the COVID-19 pandemic, the high temperature across the country but particularly in Kano area now; the Muslim fasting in which all Muslims are participating as a primary religious obligation, (there is an unverified claim that the number of deaths during fasting which coincides with hot season is always high and the victims are those with underlying ailments), all of these in a place where the health infrastructural underlay is very minimal.
Not only was the only testing centre at Malam Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital closed down briefly, for example, only resuming after a weeklong suspension of testing, basically all other hospitals in the metropolis are shut or barely operating. This applies to all three private hospitals rated as the biggest in Kano: are, Kings Gate and International Clinic.
Although CITAD is not mentioning anything like this, it has reported many mosques still observing congregational prayers in defiance of the state government’s directives to that effect. CITAD reports the observance of Friday congregational prayers this week at Kuyan Ta Inna Juma’at Mosque in Kumbotso Local Government Area in the presence of security personnel. Residents are also said to be breaking adhering to social distancing as advised by the health professionals.
Similarly, markets activities were still ongoing in many places without observing any precautionary measures. Reports from Yan Lemo Market indicated that there are normal activities in the market while traders were also going about their normal activities in the presence of security personnel at Sagemu Unguwar Kwari in Kumbotso Local Government Area. Shops are also open on In zoo road, a major street in Kano town.
Much of the deaths are not in the media at all
Large crowds have been cited at many burial in the city as well as at condolences places where social distancing were not observed just as there are no precautionary measures in handling of the corpses in these burials.
Also in CITAD’s latest situation report is the movement of people with minor checks here and there, with Keke NAPEP riders operating with alleged connivance of the security personnel “who collect money at every check point”.
Above all, inter-state movement is still in full swing, with so much pointing at the collapse of the stay at home order due to what CITAD calls “the government’s inability and citizens I don’t care attitude”. But CITAD did not indicate which government since the current phase of the lockdown in Kano is a federal directive and the FG is expected to police it. Kano is now in the third week of the total lockdown in the state
Meanwhile, according to the CITAD update on the situation signed by Mallam Ali Sabo, its Campaigns and Communications Officer, confirmed cases in the state have continued rising on daily basis, the highest being 80 confirmed cases on April 30th, 2020, making it the state with highest number of confirmed cases in the country after Lagos. CITAD has thus argued that “Given the rate at which the cases are increasing, and the current combined capacity of the isolation spaces in the state which currently is at less 400 bed space, there is urgent need for the State government to quickly convert some structures into isolation centres to accommodate the number of confirmed cases In the state”.
The debate now is whether it is the attitude of the people who are simply observing their deeply ingrained religious consciousness by daring COVID-19 where the restrictions clash with observance of congregational prayers, for instance or the absence of leaders who can calm the multitude in moments of stress. It bears repeating the scenario of Mallam Aminu Kano being still alive and asking the people to observe these restrictions, would the situation CITAD has graphically captured in its situation report been the same?
There is an argument that having alienated themselves by rigging their way into power, stealing the people blind and incompetently organizing governance, the people instinctively resist whatever the political leaders say, even when it is in the interest of the people. This is not specific to Kano but across Nigeria except that Kano had a dissident within the power elite it could have relied upon in moments of stress such as this but they just chucked him out. Now, the falcon cannot hear the falconer and there is no signifier!
