Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed,Sharing Money To Abuja Residents
The patient zero for the spread of Coronavirus in Nigeria undoubtedly has to be an above average citizen, as this virus did not in itself originate in a Nigerian slum.
The virus started showing its face in China, as the USA President, Donald Trump, would call it, “the Chinese virus”. It then spread through Europe, and America is presently being heavily hit by it before it found its way across borders to Nigeria.
Who are the ones shuttling the countries? The chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari came back from trips to different countries abroad, so did the son of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, among many others. These are are some of the big wigs who were first reported as victims of Coronavirus in Nigeria, though the Federal Government has not confirmed Kyari’s case.
The average Nigerian man does not make such international travels as he is mostly confined to the four walls of his country, which in turn would mean that he is safe from the virus. Or so you would think.
The lock down has been a serious strain on the life of the poor, as they struggle to feed after being constrained from their source of livelihood due to the enforcement of the lock down. The people that go out each day to make what they would use in feeding their family for that day are crying and reeling from hunger, as they fear the hunger might kill them even before coronavirus does. Those are the ones at the grassroots, supposedly very far away from China by miles.
The government on its part decided to be generous and send out delegations to share food and also cash to these rural areas in order for them to cushion the effect of the hunger. The motive is applauded, but the goal is far from being actualized, after the distribution of these food items have been embarrassing to say the least.
With very incredibly small portions being given to communities with so much houses, it is obvious that the planning wasn’t well thought out. A community of over 200 houses be given about a quarter of a bag of rice is not really something for a government to boast of.
The actual problem arises with the distribution of these aids by the government officials. National Commission For Disease Control, (NCDC) and other related bodies have been announcing social distancing and the healthcare workers have been appealing to the population to help them with this same thing to help curb the spread of the Coronavirus.
But you can see in videos where the government officials are sharing food items and cash that they are not in anyway practicing the social distancing. You can imagine how many people will want to be part of free money being shared by government.
They are allowing the people who have come out of the lock down in their homes to get the cash and food items to be exposed to others who are seen struggling to get the aids.
It is obvious that in a scenario like that, if one person has the virus in that group, the spread could be very deadly in that area. This thought has not stopped the government officials from doing this still.
It begs the question if what has been tagged the good intentions of the government towards the poor is actually good, giving that they do not only share inadequate food and cash but they also allow the generously adequate virus spread of the those they call “the poorest of the poor”.
If this must continues, a better way must be devised in doing so, less people at the grassroots exchange their lives for cups of grains and stipend.