COVID-19: Three Reasons why the Stay at Home is very difficult for Nigerians.
The 21st-century pandemic, coronavirus (COVID-19) that started in December 2019 from China has reached Nigeria not too long. And learning from what happened to other countries because of this virus, the government of Nigeria and other experts have advised and warned that the best thing to do in order to stop the further spread of this virus is for citizens to stay at home. The cure of this virus has not fully been discovered, the drugs used at this moment are just speculation. To this, "Stay at home" is still the best option. Yes, stay at home is the best option for now, but if the home is not or made comfortable for citizens, then citizens will consider the stay at home as the worst option. When staying at home is seen as the worst option by citizens, then the government of Nigeria is going to find it very difficult to realize the goal of making or having citizens stay at home.
Experience, they say, is the best teacher, but not in this case. We don't have to wait for what happened to nations like China and Italy to happen to us before we learn that staying at home is important. However, the home must be comfortable and worth staying if we must stay at home. It is, however, so disappointing that there are factors that are making it hard and uncomfortable for Nigerians to stay at home. These factors include:
1. Poor power supply: This is a heat period, and most times one's body feels as if it is burning because of the hot weather condition. And as such, the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) supposed to supply Nigerians with 24 hours light especially, within this period of stay at home, to enable them to use fine and other cooling systems which will help them survive this period of heat and stay at home.
It is quite unfortunate that citizens are currently facing very poor power supply and most times, for over 24 hours there will be no light. This is a very big factor in making the stay at home very difficult. Most citizens don't have a generator, many cannot afford it. Those who have will want to go out in search of fuel, and thereby exposing themselves to the infection of coronavirus and violating the stay at home law.
2. Very Poor Internet Network: Another thing that can make the stay at home possible is when people can easily and fastly access the Internet and social media to keep up to date with the happenings of the day. But it is appalling that Internet network providers in Nigeria are very poor and annoying. Both MTN and Glo are very poor and sluggish in their service. To access ordinary Facebook with any of these networks is talk of war, one will have to wait for close to 60 seconds before any page opens. Twitter, Instagram, Telegram, and others take much more time to open.
The most annoying part of this is that within a short period of time they will text you that your subscription has been exhausted, that you have to recharge again or buy another data before you can access the Internet. MTN will write you the VAT they added during your calls and poor browsing. This is too bad and is making the stay at home difficult, but citizens would want to go out to get themselves information, either by buying newspapers, magazines or to ask friends.
3. Hunger: The third factor that is the biggest challenge against the stay at home is hunger. Nations that want their citizens to successfully and comfortably stay at home have made and are still making the provisions for them to stay at home. But in Nigeria, no provision is made for citizens on how to survive this period of stay at home. No money or food items are given to citizens especially, the poor and unemployed to enable them to stay at home. Many Nigerians do daily base manual labor, many others are traders who sell on a daily basis, this means that any day they fail to go out, no hope for money or food. These are the majority of Nigerians the government has asked to stay at home without properly making provisions for their stomachs. Can you imagine how difficult this law will be for them to obey, even when police and other law enforcement agencies are involved, with the consequences attached?
On the other hand, those who still have little money to buy commodities or goods and/or services are faced with high price tags. This is a very big and great challenge that will make it difficult for citizens, especially, the poor to stay at home for their safety and the safety of the entire nation.
The government of Nigeria must, therefore, do something and fast about these three factors if it must realize the fight to stay at home. Which is inevitable if Nigeria must come out of coronavirus. God bless Nigeria!
All Rights Reserved Nwoko Solomon Ikechukwu
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