This is a piece around and about what I have seen with regard to coronavirus in Nigeria, from a sociological perspective, and not a report of any pathogenic experience. It has been more than a month since the federal government placed Lagos and Ogun States, and the Federal Capital Territory on lockdown, on account of the spread of the coronavirus in those three parts of the country.
In the first week, I saw policemen, soldiers, officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps and the Neighbourhood Watch mounting checkpoints at strategic parts of the city. It looked like the lockdown was working. But by the second week, everything had begun to change. Many Lagosians could not stay at home for long. I noticed a horde of persons trekking towards the Island, converging at bus stops in open violation of the lockdown order.
“Officer, you see, journalists are exempted from the lockdown. We fall into the category of essential workers. The President himself said so. A journalist is just like you at this time of COVID-19.” I told him that I would provide whatever proof he needed, but on the condition that he will not touch my identity card, or the letter from Arise TV. I brought out the letter and my identity card and I asked him to look at both from a distance. The man was literally foaming at the mouth. He looked rough and dirty. He yelled at me: “How am I supposed read the letter and your identity card from inside your car?” I told him there is something called social distancing.
“Oga, I don see the signboard for your windscreen oh. But anybody fit carry placard say dem be media. Wey your Coro-permit?” Coro-permit. That was a new one on me. Could it be that the government had been issuing COVID-19 permits and I was not aware?“Coro-permit. Every journalist wey don pass this place get Coro-permit. When we ask them, they show us. Oga, wey your own?”
But there was no cause for laughter when after the lockdown in Lagos was modified and markets were allowed to open between 10 am and 2 pm, I had an encounter with a female Federal Road Safety Corps official. On this particular occasion, the driver and the housekeeper had gone to the market to buy foodstuff. The standard practice was that the driver will not drive onto the main road. He will park inside the Estate and the housekeeper will walk down to the market, while the driver waited for her.
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