The humanitarian situation in Nigeria especially in the North since the Buhari administration opted to lockdown the country in a bid to contain the spread of covid-19, is becoming extremely unsettling.
Asking Nigerians to stay home must have been one of the most difficult decisions ever made by the Buhari administration. We are talking about one of the poorest countries in the world. We are also talking about a people who mostly rely on daily incomes to meet their daily needs.
Surely, president Muhammadu Buhari needed no one to tell him how much impact his ‘Stay at Home’ directive would have on the common man. Yet, measures put in place by the Buhari administration to mitigate the adverse effects of keeping people home for over a month, can best be described as failure.
In one of our recent articles about the rising cases of unexplained deaths in Kano State, it was posited that the unfortunate situation might have been caused by hunger as government lockdown left millions of families with nothing to keep their families afloat.
In Kaduna, about N500 million was spent on food items to be shared to the poor across the State. But Mr Abubakar who said he visited one of the sites where these food items were being shared, said he was left in shock and had no choice but to shed tears.
He said, “I’m sorry for those that depends on govt help. My state announced they bought food items of N200m to distribute to masses. I shade tears as I went there to see. After long a queue, a man with 3 wives 13 children was given 1 sachets of indomie and a cup of rice. Where is the help?”
Now, a disturbing photo of a child in the North roasting lizards, has become the subject of discussion in the social media space. While it is unclear whether the lizards were meant to be consumed, the demeanor of the child leaves no room for doubts.
The disturbing image is a true reflection of the current state of things in the country especially in the North where the Almajiri system is being practiced. These children who roam the streets with plates begging for food, are the most vulnerable at a time the country is battling to contain the novel coronavirus.
To no one’s surprise, a good number of these children have reportedly tested positive to covid-19, while State governors have intensified efforts toward deporting these kids back to their respective States.
Meanwhile, Covid-19 cases continue to rise with Kano State now recording the most daily cases. According to latest data by NCDC, 238 new covid-19 cases has been recorded in the past 24 hours with total cases across the country, being 2170.
238 new cases of #COVID19;
92-Kano
36-FCT
30-Lagos
16-Gombe
10-Bauchi
8-Delta
6-Oyo
5-Zamfara
5-Sokoto
4-Ondo
4-Nasarawa
3-Kwara
3-Edo
3-Ekiti
3-Borno
3-Yobe
2-Adamawa
1-Niger
1-Imo
1-Ebonyi
1-Rivers
1-Enugu
2170 confirmed cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria
Discharged: 351
Deaths: 68 pic.twitter.com/0sWoV3sATV
— NCDC (@NCDCgov) May 1, 2020