The questions that agitate my mind
are these: How effective is the curfew?
Do we really need a curfew in the
specified hours?
How effective is the interstate
restriction of movement?
The answer to the first question is
that the curfew is not effective. And to the second question, my view is that
curfew in the specified hours does not make sense.
If there is going to be restrictions
at all, it should be during the day time.
The areas that government needs to emphasize are social distancing, limiting and restricting
movements, whether at day or at night to essential needs and creating more
awareness on the damage the virus can do to the vulnerable members of the
entire populace who are the elderly people and the sick.
For instance, at family level,
children who have parents that are diabetic, hypertensive etc. should be more cautious about where they go. This is because, if
they contact the virus, while they may have a high degree of immunity to
survive, their parents can easily contact it from them.
So it is not enough to restrict the
elderly ones from going out. Every person that goes out should take precaution
on where he goes and what he does so that he doesn't bring back the virus to
the innocent members of the family.
The other needless restriction is the
interstate movement. How is this
considered needless?
First, is that there are no clear
cut boundaries between states. Take for instance the case of Lagos and Ogun.
Who can tell me how effective the movement restriction across length and
breadth of the two states is? Even in the interior states, people easily trek
across from their village to the next village which is in another state.
That apart, assuming that those
loopholes are not there, the exception granted to a class of the citizens is
enough to render the restriction useless. Worse still is the way those who are
on exemption list abuse the privilege e.g. smuggling of people inside vehicles
carrying foodstuff back and forth states.
Finally and the worst of them all is
the way the law enforcement agency is handling the restrictions. Many innocent
members of the citizens are being punished on a daily basis, the police, the
Army and the FRSC are feeding fat through fines and bribes. Commercial
vehicles go on a daily basis across states buying their ways, all at the
expense of commuters.
My submission is that the
restrictions should be relaxed and instead, there should be more efforts in the
areas of creating awareness on the precautions that the people need to take to
avoid contacting the virus.
Professor Oladiipo Ajiboye writes from University of Lagos...
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