Gbenro Adesina
As part of activities commemorating its 13th anniversary and the 81st birthday of its founder and Chairman, Chief Muritala Adebayo Akande, Splash FM 105.5 organised its 13th Annual Lecture on Wednesday July 8, 2020.
The Annual Lecture titled “COVID-19: Lessons on Responsibility, Partnerships and Navigating the New Normal”, was delivered by Professor Olanike Adeyemo, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research Innovation, and Strategic Partnerships), University of Ibadan, who is also the Chairperson, Oyo State Covid-19 Decontamination And Containment Committee.
Other panelists at the Lecture were the Provost, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Professor Emiola Oluwabunmi Olapade-Olaopa and Oyo State Commissioner for Health, Dr Bashir Bello.
Commencing the lectures with quotations, Adeyemo emphasised that Covid-19 is an equal opportunity virus that can affect anyone irrespective of status, noting that the pandemic has magnified the weakness and rot in Nigeria’s system or non-system.
She stressed, “COVID-19 is not a respecter of face. It does not look at your face. It does not look at how beautiful you are or how rich you are or where you are from. Everyone is affected equally”.
She stated that the pandemic was able to reveal gaps caused by decades of negligence of social infrastructural development including healthcare (hospitals), education (schools and universities), and social services in the country.
According to her, the nation is scrambling to fix things in all aspects of life at this COVID-19 period saying, “While scrambling in our education, in the developed clime, they have migrated easily into online platform. It has been a tough time for us as a people and as a country”.
“Even our social services, I know in the USA, they paid some money directly into people’s accounts to tide them over this period. That is almost impossible in Nigeria. Do we have a structured system? How do you get to me? Of course, when NCDC wants to get to me, they know how to get to me. Apparently, they do not know how to get my account number to send me money. Those are the key things we are talking about”, she added.
Adeyemo noted that industries were ill-prepared and were more focused on donating to the government rather than anticipating and fulfilling their responsibilities to their employees and customers or clients.
“We play to the gallery. Most of our industries were quick to donate to the government. They made large donations. They did not fulfill responsibility to their employees and clients. Today, the bank is a very very very strong transmission avenue for COVID-19 in Nigeria. As I was coming, I saw some banks that is not being responsible and responsive. And so also other industries as well, they were quick to donate to the government, but where it concerns them, they weren’t prepare and they are still not prepared. They are not catching up as well and that is the problem for us. I understand some employers stopped paying their workers”, she illustrated.
She also lamented that the indiscipline of a large number of members of the society, who are not complying with rules and regulations, has continued to contribute to the spread of the virus, arguing that lack of enforcement of these rules and regulations have revealed the entrenchment of corruption in our society.
According to her, it is sad that law enforcement personnel are needed to enforce rules and regulations, condemning the attitude of Nigerians for not complying with the rules of face mask.
In addition, Adeyemo said, “We do not have any social security structure in place and hurried attempts by respective governments to provide palliatives were frustrated by systemic corruption occasioned by selfishness”.
“Government tried to do what they felt it was right to do by giving palliatives, but, of course, we know that we have systemic corruption. They take it to local government, the person there decides he wants half of it for himself and it does not get to people that need it. Those are the things that have nothing to do with the government. It has everything to do with us as individuals. The problem we have in Nigeria is not leadership alone, the followership is not any better. We all need to do what we need to do”, she explained.
The university administrator observed that various sectors of the society are playing politics with the pandemic and some see it as avenue to extort as many people as they can, saying that, unfortunately, Nigeria is now a survival of the meanest or most heartless.
Demonstrating with example of instances of the extortion, she said, “We have sunken to the lowest level of humanity when we extort/inflate prices/and costs of services to profit from Covid-19 and the misery it portends, instead of protecting and saving human life”.
She lamented, “This was heart breaking for me. When we extort, inflate prices and costs of services to profit from COVID-19. It is unfortunate for us when Coronavirus started, they first took off sanitisers and started the ridiculous prices. It is sad for me as a Nigerian. One of my closest friends went in for surgery recently and the kind of things they made her pay for, she ought not to have paid for. She was made to pay N65,000 for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) because she wanted to have a surgery. I tell you there are some many people dying in Nigeria not because of Covid-19, but because of some of the things they do have to go through. She saved for month and month and years to be able to do this surgery. They are charging you something ridiculous just to extort money from you. This is ridiculous and disgraceful. That is the level we have sunken into in Nigeria. We need to look at ourselves in the face and decide how are we and what am I doing”.
Speaking on navigating the new normal, which is indicative of the fact that the pandemic is a game changer and that life as we know it will never be the same again, the guest lecturer mapped out roles for different sectors of the society.
For the government, she hoped that the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic would propel the government towards building infrastructures to contain emerging infectious diseases, which are a constant threat.
She also expects the government to take leadership through deliberate actions, sanctions and incentives and to protect lives, livelihood, and facilitate business continuity.
Also, decisions by government should be guided by adequate risk assessment and transparency, while also keeping the public adequately informed on the risk of exposure, using all avenues of communication.
She called on all stakeholders in every sector, including market associations, mass transit operators and road transport workers, religious organizations, and private businesses, to sincerely deploy their influence and internal policing mechanism to support the government to prevent the further spread of the Covid-19 Virus.
Adeyemo postulated that local and international partnerships to provide funding, material, and training would be required for measures needed to strengthen Nigeria’s long-neglected infrastructures.
She advocated that a ‘One Health approach’ that acknowledges the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health is imperative for response, research, and control of COVID-19; and the prevention of the next pandemic.
On the part of the populace, Adeyemo stated that accountability is the essence of good corporate citizenship, calling on all and sundry to reflect on fundamental notions of responsibility.
She advised that every outing should be preceded by risk analyses with understanding that actions and/or inaction has consequences, noting that abiding by safety guidelines will help to curb the further spread of the virus.
Adeyemo further advocated that people should avoid stigmatising those who have been infected with coronavirus.
