The federal government recently re-introduced restrictions aimed at preventing a surge of the coronavirus in Nigeria. This development followed the upsurge of the disease in many countries and discovery of the strain ravaging India in Nigeria. Also, a new virus strain in South Africa has spread to 23 other countries.
As a result of this development, the government issued travel guidelines on passengers from India, Brazil and Turkey, where the disease is spreading fast and killing hundreds of people on daily basis. This is commendable because the government acted proactively. Nigerians head to India and Turkey on regular basis for trade and medical tourism. They should not be allowed to travel abroad to cure some ailments only return with other diseases. It is our view that the ban should remain in place until when the situation improves significantly in those countries. The government should equally not hesitate to extend the ban to other countries where necessary.
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In addition, it imposed night curfew and restricted gatherings at worship centres and shut down nightclubs and some other recreational centres. Civil servants on grade level one to 12 have also been asked to stop going to work. This is coming barely three months after they were recalled to duty following the lockdown that shut nearly the whole world last year. In the new guidelines, schools are allowed to remain open unlike last year when they were shut down for nearly six months. However, a heavy responsibility now rests with the school authorities to ensure the strict compliance with COVID-19 protocols.
The resurgence of the disease this year came as a result of the relaxation of the public health and social preventive measures all over the world. In Nigeria, many people have stopped wearing face mask, using hand sanitiser and observing social distancing. The safety measures have almost collapsed in market places, parks, government offices and other corporate establishments. It is worthy of note that Nigeria has neither the healthcare facilities nor the manpower to handle a surge in the disease. Also, the vaccines are not available. The job of staying safe, therefore, rests on citizens.
We will like to stress that the COVID-19 protocols must be effectively enforced. It is not enough to announce them; effort must be made to ensure that they are complied with. So far, not much difference has been noticed as people are still going about their daily activities without observing the protocols. The National Orientation Agency (NOA) should sensitise people on the need to stay safe. Lessons learnt in the past must guide the present. Testing for COVID-19 has slowed down or is not being conducted at all at the federal and state levels. This should resume with minimum delay. Government should also expedite action on procuring vaccines.
We will like to suggest that as a long-term plan, Nigeria should work towards local production of COVID-19 vaccines. This is necessary because as at today no one can predict the end of the pandemic. Our current circumstance where we solely depend on imports cannot be allowed to continue. The local production has multiple advantages. It will not only ensure adequate supplies and save the country a lot in foreign exchange, it will also prove useful whenever Nigeria or even the world is faced with any other public health emergency.
It is true that at the moment there is no laboratory to handle that task, but it would not take eternity to build one. The most important aspect in the equation is manpower. This should not present any problem because Nigeria has scientists to handle that task. In order not to delay the drive towards local vaccine production, the federal government should initiate discussions between human virologists and their counterparts at the Veterinary Research Institute, Vom, near Jos, where there is a research laboratory to begin preliminary work. This will no doubt speed up the process. Nigeria cannot afford the situation in India. Therefore, everything possible measure must be taken to avert it.
