Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has revealed the reason why he has refused to lock down the state as coronavirus hit the state and is ravaging the country.
His reasons, “It does not make sense for people of Oyo State to stay at home when the government cannot provide what they will eat. So instead of staying at home, government officials launched aggressive public enlightenment to teach people how to practice social distancing, washing your hands with soap and keeping your sanitizers close”.
According to him, the residents are also encouraged to use their face mask and hand glove, stressing that though life and business were not shut down completely as people are going about their normal business but people are conscious that Coronavirus is in the state.
He said, “Today Coronavirus case in Oyo is decreasing instead of increasing. Oyo has 11 confirmed cases and out of this 11, 7 cases have been discharged. So, the state only has four confirmed cases at the moment. Lagos copied the lockdown template and told us to stay at home since last month. Alas! Instead of the numbers going down, just like Oyo, the reverse is the case as it is climbing daily. Lagos is at 174 confirmed cases and will soon reach 200 at this pace. Lagos state case is that bad that it is now exporting the virus to other states”.
My good man Odenigbo has argued consistently that Nigeria/Lagos has no business telling residents to stay at home. He also argued that the lockdown template might work in the west like the UK where he lives but not Nigeria that is not as structured and cosmopolitan as those first world countries. In his words; “Nigeria should have looked inward and then adopt the strategy that fits and works for our citizens instead of copying the west template which is very lazy”. The question is this; seeing that Lagos case is going up daily and not reducing, what has this sitting at home achieved? Should we have copied the Oyo state example instead of this total lockdown?
