Pendulum by Victor Oladejo.

𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠………..

Corona virus became a major headline in the news across the globe after it’s outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. The first comfirmation of corona virus came on December 31, 2019, when the W.H.O(world health organization) was informed about a cluster of pneumonia cases of unknown etiology detected in wuhan. [1]

In the mid of January 2020, cases started to appear in other provinces in china due to the population and movement during the Chinese new year holidays, and in other countries such as Thailand, USA, South korea, and Japan due to International travel.

Africa had her first comfirmed case of corona virus when it was announced in Egypt on the 14 of febuary 2020.

Within the duration of three months from the 14 of febuary , the deadly virus had spread across the countries of the continent. Lesotho was the last country to record a case of the virus on the 13 of may .

By the 26 of may the communities of the effected countries were experiencing transmission of the corona virus.

Though the virus originated from China, due to the international travels , most cases of the virus arrived from Europe and United states with non from China.

Nigeria confirmed her firstcase of Corona Virus on the 27 of febuary 2020, making her the country with the first case of the virus in the sub saharan Africa. The first case came into place when an Italian citizen arrived Nigeria through Murtala Mohammed Airport from milan, Italy. The italian fell ill on 26 of febuary and was transferred to Lagos state Biosecurity facilities for isolation and testing. The test was confirmed positive in Lagos state teaching hospital’s virology laboratory which happen to be a centre for disease control.

Prior to the first case of the pandemic in the country, on the 28 of january, the federal government of Nigeria assured citizens of the country of her readiness to strengthen survelliance of the five international airports : Enugu, Lagos, Rivers , Kano , FCT(Abuja).

However, due to lapse in the watchfulness of the watchmen, the first case occurred.

In place to aid the combat the virus was an NDDC (The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control) lead corona virus E.o.c ( Emergency Operation Centre). At the state level, preparedness and response activities were coordinated through the public Health E.O.C in each state. Announcement of the use of nose masks and hand sanitizers were made to better the awareness of the public on how to prevent the contraction of the virus.

The first wave of the virus started on march when cases of the virus appeared in lagos state and Ekiti state, this was followed by other cases in other parts of the federation. Nigeria announced her first lockdown in Lagos, Abuja, and ogun state with just 97 confirmed infections of the virus. Before the order for lockdown and nationwide curfew , several other states including Lagos had already put in place restrictions and closure of places which involves crowd which includes schools, shut down of non food shops and other non essential services.

With the lockdown in place and the announcement of the ban on airports, closure of the educational sectors, land borders by the federal government the adverse effect of the restriction begun to rise.

As expected , the pandemic didn’t live only on the screens of the television and the screens of the smartphones with Nddc update on confirmed cases and fatalities on the headlines, the pandemic also took abode in the four walls of the economically vulnerable of Nigeria.

The lockdown that was imposed was mearnt to halt the spread of the pandemic in Nigeria but in the process it created a block in the activities of thosd working in the informal sector.

The informal sector which includes the artisans, traders, taxi drivers, tradesmen , hairdressers became vulnerable because they could no longer conduct their business. [2]

The disruption in their daily livelood played huge and significant impact on their ability to meet their most basic needs.

Aside from the incapacitated informal workers, the price of available food products skyrocket due to the restriction the lockdown placed on the transportation of food.

In addition, the citizens of the country were informed of the distribution of palliatives in the country to cushion the effect of the lockdown on citizens. The problem that the scheme encounteree was transparency. For example in Lagos, complains were aired that the stimulus packages were not sincerly deployed. It was made known by the citizen that the distributions were politicized. [3] Similar situations were replicated in other parts of the country. Cases of hoarding and hijack by the political head was witnessed too.

After several months of efforts of containment of the virus, the federal government lifted the ban that was placed on interstate travel and opening of schools on 29 of june with the number of cases at what could be said to be minimal, the citizens returned to their daily life. As the months went by the regard to the safety measures weakened and the cases rose.

The country entered into the second wave of the pandemic as announced by boss Mustafa, secretary of the government of the federation and presidential taskforce.

The cases that was disclosed in january , 2021 is more than 76,000 diagonised to be infected and 1,201 people died from the virus .

With the pendulum of the Nigerian nation on the verge of swinging into another era of dealths and disruption as encountered in the previous year, the Nigerian government should pay attention to her previous mistakes and look internally ahead of the awaited vaccination.

In a aid to hold the pendulum of the country’s health and financial security in the second wave the following should be in place:

A — lockdown should not come into place because of its economical effect and it’s enhancement of lack of compliance to safety measures.

B- The various borders that link the country to other countries should be monitored.

C- The distribution of face masks and sanitizers should be made to impoverished areas where they can’t be afforded.

D- The Nigerian health workers should be paid their salaries on all levels, this would encourage them to put more zeal to the fight against the virus.

E- Nigerians should work with the government by following the safety measures in respective of their religion. They can also offer prayer to God for the beloved country.

With this in place, the pendulum of the security of Health, economy and other areas would be held in the safer side.

Bibliography :

Dubai medical journal, health watch journal.

Oladejo victor.