There is an emerging divergence in the number of coronavirus deaths recorded in the North and South of Nigeria according to data from the centre for disease control, NCDC.
While states in the north have recorded fewer cases of infection from the virus compared to the states in the south, there has been far more deaths recorded in the north, analysis of the data show.
The trend has gotten both health and economic experts talking.
As of May 20, 2020 when the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Nigeria stood at 6,677, there were 1860 recoveries and 202 deaths according to NCDC data.
Of the confirmed cases nationwide, 16 states in the South which have reported cases had 3,649 while 19 states in the North had a combined total of 3028. That is 621 fewer than the number of cases in the south.
However, a further analysis showed that when it came to the number of deaths, the Northern states accounted for 63.4 percent of total deaths compared to 36.6 percent in the South.
The number of deaths recorded in Kano alone as at May 20 stood at 36, nearly that reported in Lagos, despite Kano having less than a third of the number of cases in the commercial capital of Lagos.
Total number of infected persons in Kano was 847 while that of Lagos was 2954.
Several health and economic experts who spoke to BusinessDay blamed the situation on a number of social factors ranging from low literacy rate, high incidence of poverty, poor awareness and a low testing capacity.
According to Doyin Odubanjo, executive secretary, Nigerian Academy of Science, “the trend is not surprising because in the communities in the North, there is a lot more skepticism, three are still many people who do not believe that the virus exists and it is as deadly as the authorities say,”
There may have also been lower level of compliance with social distancing guidelines issued by the government as well as failure to adhere to the counsel to wash your hands often.
According to him, there was the initial challenge of inadequate capacity to respond to covid-19 outbreaks in the north.
“I feel the death figures could be worse than what the official figures are saying because the poor level of testing,” Odubanjo said
He, however recommends aggressive community engagement programmes through traditional and religious rulers as a better way of creating awareness in the region.
At the peak of the lockdown early this month, a number of isolated patients took to the streets to protest the poor state of the isolation centres.
The patients who had been isolated at the infectious disease hospital in Kwada, Gombe State, went out in their numbers and mingled with members of the community in total disregard of the rules.
Some even claimed that the virus is fake and only an avenue for the government to make money.
The situation in the north has been made worse by the almajiris who were found violating interstate lockdown rules as they made their way back to the north.
Speaking recently on Channelstv, Murtala Umar, chairman, Kano State branch of Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU), an association of health workers in Nigeria, said the unusually high deaths recorded in the state were not unconnected with coronavirus.
He explained that no fewer than 11 health workers have contracted the virus due to low Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) which exposed many of the health staff in the state.
It is not just Kano, there have also been increasing deaths reported in Jigawa and Gome.
“There is a strong positive correlation between illiteracy levels and poverty, hence wherever you see a high illiteracy rate there is always a high level of ignorance to critical information especially when such information conflict with the set belief of some people,” according to Oluwapelumi Joseph, head of investors relations at Lagos- based advisory firm, Africapractice said.
According to the latest data from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the majority of Nigerian children who cannot access safe and quality education are found in the north where net school attendance is at 53 percent.
Bauchi, Niger, Katsina, Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi, Gombe, Adamawa, Taraba and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, are the worst 10 states with about eight million out of school children and, an average enrolment rate of only 57 per cent.
The situation is dire in the north-eastern region as the insurgency has left 2.8 million children in need of education across Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that Nigeria’s poverty incidence is mainly skewed to the northern states of the country, with 19 states in the region recording an average poverty rate of 58 percent.
That’s alarming when compared with an average of 24.3 percent rate recorded in the 17 states in the Southern region of the country.
