Nigerians want the four-week lockdown of the country’s COVID-19 epicentres, Lagos, Abuja and Ogun, extended further over concerns that the disease will spread if FG allows economic activities resume.
A BusinessDay poll Friday showed 54% of poll participants voted for an extension of the lockdown while 46% voted against the measure.
The poll suggests that Nigerians are almost equally split along both lines amid economic hardship and increase in criminal activities during the lockdown.
“It’s not even a thing of ‘should the lockdown be extended’ anymore. It must be. It will be. It ought to be,” said Felix, a poll participant, lives in Lagos.
On March 30, Nigeria commenced a lockdown of the key states and President Muhammadu Buhari on April 13 announced a two-week extension.
With the rising cases of Coronavirus in Nigeria, should the lockdown imposed by President Muhammadu Buhari be extended again?
Please vote and retweet.#BDpolls #Coronavirus
— BusinessDay (@BusinessDayNg) April 23, 2020
Since the initial lockdown, confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country has surged to over 1,000 and the virus has spread to 27 states and the FCT.
The increase has been blamed partly on poor enforcement of the lockdown and attributed to increased testing capacity.
For instance, Lagos has announced walk-in testing centres in 20 LGAs which would enable the state track the disease.
Despite the progress, Nigeria is lagging peers like Ghana and South Africa in terms of testing, having conducted around 10,000 tests so far compared to over 60,000 for Ghana and 100,000 for South Africa.
Both Ghana and South Africa are also mass-testing and have adopted multi-testing approaches allowing them lift the lockdown. (South Africa will relax lockdown Monday, a week after Ghana).
Nigeria plans to roll out mass-testing in May and September and has outlined strategy to increase testing capacity.
“Another lockdown without increased contact tracing, treatment, food for the poor, low, medium salary earners, non- government salary earners, entrepreneurs, artisans etc., might lead to social unrest due to the negative effects of the lockdown,” said Tersoo, another poll participant, resident in Nigeria.
President Buhari is expected to address Nigerians on the country’s next course of action this weekend or on Monday.
State Governors have advised banning of inter-state movements with a relaxation of lockdown within states whilst social-distancing measures are adopted including use of face mask and restrictions of large gatherings.
