In a group photo taken last week, health workers at Lagos Teaching Hospital held placards which read: “We stay here for you. Please stay home for us”.
In the raging battle to contain the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, health workers have become the face of those at the frontline. Several others, though less visible, are working daily too to keep the light on, fuel in cars and generators, and steady supply of food and drugs.
Lagos, Ogun and Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital, are together home to almost a third of the population and account for a significant proportion of the economy. They are at the centre of partial lockdown Nigeria is implementing in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Africa’s most populous country. The almost one month-long lockdown has halted movements, except for those who provide essential services.
Health care workers in Nigeria, the most visible and directly involved in the battle, are putting their lives on the line in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, despite the dearth of personal protective equipment (PPE) and measly hazard allowance.
“Failure to cater properly for our health care personnel shows the extent to which we have neglected and belittled the health sector that even in the midst of a crisis, we do not know what it means to boost morale by providing them with special hazard allowance,” said Doyin Odubanjo, past chairman, Association of Public Health Physicians, Lagos State chapter.
Aside from the poor remuneration, the healthcare sector has been underfunded for years. Yet, Nigerian health care workers are working day and night to cover the loopholes of the country’s failed health care system as the virus spreads across 24 of the 36 states in the country. In Lagos, the hotspot of the contagion, the government increased hazard allowance of state health workers from the current N5,000 to N25,000.
While only one doctor has died from the disease, hundreds of health workers have in one way or the other been infected while in the forefront of treating coronavirus patients, either unknowingly or by negligence of protocols for treating patients.
Yesterday, three wards at FMC Umuahia were closed down and several health care practitioners went into isolation after they were exposed to treating two patients who were later reported to have been infected with the virus.
Sources who spoke to BusinessesDay said the closed ward is currently being fumigated, and members of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) are expected to carry out a risk assessment.
‘A matter of life and death’
When President Muhammadu Buhari extended the lockdown in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja, he said the fight against the virus was a “matter of life and death”.
For workers in the upstream and downstream sectors of the oil industry, the lockdown has seen business stall with vehicular movement, including public transport, virtually grounded. Attendants at several fuel stations in Lagos, with an estimated population of 20 million, told BusinessDay that most of their customers these days are individuals buying in jerry-cans to fuel generators.
Some petrol stations have adjusted their working hours from nearly 24 hours to 9am-5pm due to insecurity and lower patronage; others have put stricter health measures in place ensuring their attendants use hand sanitisers and nose masks.
BusinessDay findings across some fuel stations showed a very low level of patronage at the stations of major and independent marketers.
Some fuel attendants who spoke to BusinessDay lamented the low level of patronage, saying sales recorded as at 4pm Wednesday did not in any way justify their coming to work.
They said, should the situation continue, they may be forced to shut down operations in a bid to minimise running cost.
“In a situation where there is no public power supply, we are forced to run on generators. But how do we continue to run on generators under a low patronage regime? It is simply not sustainable. We will monitor the situation till weekend, but if it does not improve, we may not open from next week,” said Adewole Martins, a manager at one of the major downstream firms in the Alapere area of Lagos.
For Chinwe Eze, getting to NIPCO plc along Ikorodu Road in Lagos, where she works, has been difficult. She and her family live in Ojota, about 10 kilometres away, in a face-me-I-face-you, so called because of the close proximity of the one-room buildings to each other.
“I expose my family and neighbourhood daily by going out but I don’t have a choice,” Eze said.
Her husband works at an oil rig in the southern city of Warri and is due to come home in a month. But several states – including Rivers, Delta, Kano and Bayelsa – have closed their borders, prohibiting inter-state movement. So if the lockdown is extended, it could be a while before she is reunited with her husband.
“It is hunger I am worried about, not the virus,” Eze said.
In the upstream sector, Nigeria’s Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has already ordered oil and gas companies to reduce their offshore workforce and move to 28-day staff rotations as part of measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The restrictions came after the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) said that six workers onboard an offshore rig support vessel tested positive for coronavirus last month.
The country is keen to protect oil production, which provides 90 percent of much-needed foreign exchange. A coronavirus case on an offshore rig could spread quickly among workers and have a potentially devastating impact on production.
Oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria have previously said that workers’ health and safety is their top priority.
Industry sources said that a number of upstream oil companies had already shifted from 14-day rotations to 28 days. Some are also implementing a 14-day quarantine for workers before they leave for rigs.
Sarki Auwalu, director of DPR, said that only staff on essential duties would be allowed to travel to offshore or remote locations.
“Non-essential staff currently at offshore/remote locations should be withdrawn with immediate effect,” he said in a statement.
Lockdown logistics: Limits factories, food sellers and pharmacies
Makers of food, beverage, medicines, sanitary and hygienic products are open, but distributing their products is proving difficult. Closure of interstate borders has made delivery to retail markets and consumers across the country a logistics nightmare.
Mansur Ahmed, president, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), said manufacturers’ trucks are being interrupted in some states by security agencies who have little or no awareness about sectors classified as essential by the Federal Government.
Ahmed told BusinessDay that production among food, beverage, sanitary and drug firms has gone uninterrupted but many manufacturers are unable to distribute.
“In many areas, the problem has to do with the retail market because some states have closed down such markets,” Ahmed said. “Producers cannot get their products to the market when the retail markets are closed.”
He said the decision to lock down the entire country, though necessary, could cripple production, distribution and sales made by the companies.
Pharmaceuticals firms say they are not experiencing distribution gridlocks in Lagos and many states but are hard hit by value chain challenges.
Drug makers source some of their raw and packaging materials locally, but some of the firms they rely on for these materials are not considered essential services.
“Some of our suppliers are not pharmaceutical companies, and a result, they are not allowed to open or distribute openly,” Fidelis Ayabae, chairman of Fidson Healthcare plc, said. “They are not moved until after certain extraordinary processes.”
He regretted that drug supplies have dropped by 50 percent because the markets are not open and only few patients are visiting the hospitals for fear of contracting coronavirus.
“People are self-medicating, including those with pre-existing conditions. Visit to hospitals is low, so drug sales have dropped by 50 percent,” he further said.
Most of the raw materials drug makers use are imported, many fear that their stocks may be fully depleted within two weeks. One senior manager at a drug manufacturing firm said the company no longer produces some of its newly launched products because the raw materials aren’t available or have been depleted.
For sellers of foodstuff and other essential household commodities, moving their goods to the market has been a major challenge; public transportation has been restricted.
The governors of the 36 states have agreed on a 14-day interstate lockdown, a double whammy for food sellers who are grappling with disruption in the supply chain.
Joy Ihechiliru, a garri seller at the popular Mile 2 market, lamented how difficult it was moving her two bags of garri from her regular supplier in eastern Nigeria to the market in Lagos.
“I normally get supplies from my customers in the east but due to lockdown in Lagos and some other states, it has become extremely difficult,” she said.
Ernest Obi, seller of phone and computer accessories at the popular Computer Village, said he has resorted to selling his goods by the roadside as the market is currently shut as result of the lockdown.
“Most of our shops in Otigba are locked, sellers are forced to bring some of their market to the roadside in the evening with the hope of making sales,” he said.
BusinessDay visit to an outlet of the popular Spar supermarket found how the management had adopted various strategies to ensure it continued operating despite the challenge.
Tunde Akinwunmi, an official at Spar, said the supermarket now opens from 10am-4pm noting that customers are following the safety precaution measures.
“The real challenge is that it is difficult for people to go out. We use a staff bus to get to work. We gave some of our staff compulsory leave for about two weeks and also the product promoters or merchandisers to reduce overcrowding,” he said.
Flour Mills, makers of essential commodities Nigerians consume daily, has had to adapt to ensure its products don’t run out at supermarkets. A top management staff of the company, who didn’t want his name mentioned, said the company has an excellent business continuity plan that makes it possible during the crisis.
“The Lagos State task force on shutdown isn’t disturbing producers of essential products. We source most of our raw materials locally and Flour Mills has the capacity to feed Nigerians,” said the staff.
Analysts at Chapel Hill Denham Limited in a recent report said the shutdown has been a boon to Nestle and Flour Mills, as consumers spend more to stockpile food.
“Both companies have a diverse portfolio of brands that are considered as essential items by consumers,” said Abiola Gbemisola, analyst at Chapel Hill Denham Limited.
On the flip side, the restriction in large gatherings at bars and hotels, for example, in most parts of the country will affect the revenue and earnings of brewery companies such as Nigerian Breweries, Guinness Nigerian and International Breweries.
Electricity workers brave COVID-19 to keep lights on
Electricity workers who maintain base stations, operate turbines at gas-fired plants and monitor control rooms in transmission stations, hunkering down at home is a luxury they can’t afford as it will keep the nation in darkness.
“These are not the type of facilities we can afford they go offline,” said one operator in the government-owned Transmission Company of Nigeria.
However, inquiries show that the bulk of electricity workers who are not engaged in highly technical aspects of the job are not reporting for duty but working at home following the guidelines by the regulator.
Officials engaged in high priority technical maintenance are providing support at electricity base stations under social distance guidelines and wearing protective equipment like face masks.
“Our staff who work in the commercial department are still providing services including meter reading and distributing electricity bills,” said Abdulazeez Abdullahi, spokesman for Kaduna DisCo.
Abdullahi said that electricity workers have been mandated to observe social distance protocols and wear protective face masks when dealing with members of the public.
However, Kaduna DisCo, as well as other DisCos, are not deploying teams to disconnect customers who do not pay their bills.
“We are not disconnecting anyone and as you can imagine, our revenues have gone down because many people are not paying,” said Abdullahi.
DisCos like Ikeja Electricity who have stopped cash transactions at their undertakings are closing early and asking customers to make use of various electronic payment platforms to settle their bills. All customer care staff are required to minimise physical contact with members of the public by leveraging on other communication channels.
Some customers say they are going weeks without power during this lockdown. The bulk of these reports have come from customers in franchise areas run by Ibadan, Benin and Enugu DisCos. The worst complaints have come from customers in Enugu where communities in Abia State have been without power for at least three weeks.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the agency which regulates the sector, has directed all operators in the industry to immediately activate their business continuity plan.
While Nigerians count on the frontline workers in myriad essential sectors to survive the onslaught of the virus, there are worries what shape the economy will be in when this is all over.
Analysts fret that the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic could tip the country into a recession unless government embarks on aggressive stimulus package that will help deflate the economy.
ODINAKA ANUDU, ISAAC ANYAOGU, DIPO OLADEHINDE, BALA AUGIE, OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE, BUNMI BAILEY, ANTHONIA OBOKOH & MICHAEL ANI
