NEARLY four months into the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria, the curve of infection has neither abated nor flattened. Infection continues to spread, and no one is sure when the tragedy will end, nor whether the country is doing enough or exactly the right thing to tackle the problem.
Without doubt, however, the presidential task force set up to marshal the national response to the disease has done a splendid job.
The task force members, including the leader of the team and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, have crisscrossed the country and coaxed and cajoled the nation to own the fight and comply with regulations designed to curb the disease.
They have also sensibly gauged the reopening of the country after extensive lockdowns, and helped to direct the targeted reopening of economic activities.
Despite their best efforts, the curve is still not flattening, with the disease seeming to defy all panaceas until it has exhausted itself. Nearly 800 people have died in the country out of more than 35,000 infected people.
The figures are still climbing. The time has, therefore, come for a rejiggering of the team and the philosophy and direction of the war against the pandemic.
Mr Mustapha’s job as SGF is weighty enough. Some of the other 11 members may also have rightly diverted attention to their priority assignments as ministers or heads of agencies.
A few of them could be excused. The team’s mandates, while still fairly relevant, need to be streamlined and refocused to two main priority areas, to wit, engineering a revolution in the health sector and retaining but redefining the fight against the pandemic.
Any talk of a another lockdown is preposterous. The problem with the Nigerian fight against the disease is poor enforcement, for even when the lockdown lasted, the law enforcement agents either exhibited high-handedness or profited from the measure.
Without disciplined law enforcement agencies — and it is clear why they quickly become extortionist — lockdowns or additional measures would fail.
Unquestioningly, the government bears the biggest part of the blame, not the people. Law enforcement in these parts has remained rudimentary, and personnel are poorly equipped and poorly remunerated. There can be no miracle, and the government must stop shifting the blame.
But by far the biggest factor in the poor handling of the pandemic is the state of Nigeria’s healthcare sector. It is appalling, mediocre, chaotic and badly managed.
These much the PTF found out in their many trips around the country. Has something been done or conceived to reverse the near total collapse of the sector? Nothing, other than vapid statements and empty slogans.
Last week, in the midst of the pandemic, some 58 doctors attempted to fly out to the United Kingdom to take up employment in that country’s health sector.
It was an indication of the total helplessness and hopelessness enveloping the Nigerian health sector. Some officials, including the immigration services which barred the doctors from flying out, attempted to sentimentalise the issue.
This again is nonsense. Not only will the 58 doctors still find their way out, many more will follow. The government has the figures of how many doctors they have trained and how many have migrated.
So far, the federal and state governments have not shown any serious understanding of what needs to be done to remedy the problem.
The problem is how to convince them that the crisis admits no sentiments, and that their absolutely lacklustre approach to tackling the healthcare crisis overwhelming Nigeria is doing considerable damage to the sick and to frustrated and alienated professionals who have virtually given up on the country.
The situation is so bad that patients with other conditions, particularly in emergency situations, have been unable to have quick access to medical attention, not to talk of adequate care. The pandemic met the country unprepared; it should not leave it paralysed.
It is also time Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was asked to head the task force. He has the competence and time. Whatever misunderstanding led the presidency to consign him to titular roles should be resolved in favour of the country’s pressing needs.
He should be made to chair the task force, redesign the fight against the pandemic as well as conceptualise a revolution in the health sector, and together with the president find the will and the vision to trigger a huge change.
Apart from reaping deaths in Nigeria, COVID-19 should at least leave the country’s health sector rejuvenated and far better than it met it.
By Idowu Akinlotan
