Ensuring that the means of livelihood are safe, this period, is a key component for the African continent in winning the fight against the novel coronavirus, Charles Soludo, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and member of President Buhari Economic Advisory Council (EAC).
According to Soludo, promoting the livelihood of people increases their nutrition level which helps in boosting their immune system to fight against the virus.
The former governor who was responding to the lockdown enacted by various African leaders said, with the high poverty levels in the continent accompanied by a widening inequality gap, African countries cannot cope with a total lockdown of the economies.
“Securing the livelihood of people places a huge role in enhancing their ability to feed. This would help in boosting their immune system which is a critical factor needed in the survival of the disease,” Soludo said.
“With hundreds of millions of people already on life support, if you take out their means of livelihood and the government has no resource to be able to feed them appropriately, their immune system gets compromised. If that happens, you will now be having an increasing number of deaths due to the inappropriate response rather than the actual disease itself,” he added.
Struck with the coronavirus pandemic that has infected over 35, 000 people in the continent, African leaders adopted a total lockdown of economic activities as a measure to curtailing the spread of the virus, a move the World Bank has since called “copycat”, and might not work for the African nations.
Soludo while responding to his earlier article titled ‘Can African Nations Cope with a lockdown’, said putting people in a lockdown without putting in place various fiscal measures would lead to a disruption of livelihood.
His argument is based on the fact that 80 percent of the Covid-19 infectious cases recorded in Africa are mild cases and do not need hospitalization; and it is because of their immune system, while only about 5 percent of the infected cases actually get into critical conditions.
He said Africa is different from the rest of the world because it has a host of populations who are within their youthful ages, with only about 3 percent of its population above 65, who are known to be more vulnerable to the virus.
This 3 percent Africans who are 65 and above are far lower than the average 20 percent seen in most advanced countries.
The renowned economist noted that unlike in the western world were African leaders copied the lockdown measures from, the government has through their effective data management, succeeded in pushing various fiscal stimulus as a way of cushioning the impact of pandemic of the living standard of its populace.
He explained that with millions of Africans already dying of other diseases like malaria, cholera and tuberculosis, enacting a lockdown to solve only the spread of the coronavirus could expose the citizens to all other diseases which data has shown has killed more than even the pandemic itself.
He urged that rather than having a very narrow view by focusing on covid-19 alone, African leaders should look comprehensively at the entire health and the livelihood of its citizens.
“For a continent that has been buffeted with fiscal constraints alongside huge fatalities from other basic diseases, a total lockdown when the people are already facing challenges even without the pandemic, would threaten livelihood and further expose them to the dangers of the said disease we are protecting them from,” said Soludo
“Hence I would advise a simultaneous strike of balance between health aspect and economic aspect” he said.
Soludo commended the steps taken so far by African leaders in containing the spread seeing that deaths in the region due to coronavirus, is only about 4 percent of global figures
However, a continued lockdown in the face of an already high unemployment and poverty might not be healthy for African nations. Continued lockdown won’t be healthy and I thank God we are beginning to see the loss of lockdown.
