By Dr Nuraddeen Danjuma.
This article is based on documented as well as anecdotal data generated between the months of March and July 2020 (after partial easing of COVID-19 imposed lockdown) and September 2020 (after release of guidelines for opening schools by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Nigeria).
Indeed COVID-19 is a dreadful contagion. In an article contributed by Jessica Pickett, Ph.D. (a principal consultant with Tomorrow Global, LLC) on https://theconversation.com on June 4, 2020, to some extent COVID-19 could be deadlier influenza pandemic than the Spanish flu (A/H1N1); an extraordinarily deadly which claimed 50 million people globally, with 675,000 in the United States between 1918 and 1920 for various reason.
First, the statistics between December 2019 when it started and September 2000 suggests a worst scenario.
According to the World Health Organization on September, 11th 01:00 GMT+1 (the time I am writing this article), the number of reported cases for the world is 28, 040, 853 including 906,092 deaths in 216 countries, areas or territories. The situation in Africa suggests that the continent has 1,331,098 cases with five countries reporting most cases as follows:
South Africa (644 438), Egypt (100,557), Morocco (79,767), Ethiopia (62,578) and Nigeria (55,829). According to Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (https://covid19.ncdc.gov.ng, on Saturday 7:01am, 12 Sep 2020), the official figure stood at 56, 017and 1076 fatalities.
Nigeria’s economy has plunged since beginning of the pandemic.
Earlier, the hemorrhaging effects of oil price shocks, mismanagement and weak policies caused Nigeria to devalue the official exchange rate of the naira by 15% against the US dollar on 20 March, 2020.
However, a further devaluation is highly likely in the latter half of 2020, breaching the 400 naira to dollar barrier because of pre-existing shortage of foreign exchange reserves and oil.
Indeed our dear Nigeria is in deep economic quagmire as well as became a social butterfly of the World Bank and IMF.
Nigeria currently ranks 14th in the list of fragile states with 97.3 behind Burundi, Haiti and Libya. These apply to its 36 states and Kano is my focus here.
Kano State, like Lagos in the South has been a pacemaker, a state which stimulates the north to move, and every northerner’s destination. Kano is an apple core!; famously referred to tumbin giwa, ko da me kazo an fika (Kano is prosperous than any city in the Hausa land).
However this position is fast fading away as depicted by the latest handling of COVID-19.
According to NCDC the State has a total of 1728 cases and 54 fatalities as of 11th September, 2020.
With a population of ca. 20 million people as well as weak, dilapidated health care institutions and unpreparedness, Kano State is the third most hit state by the pandemic in Nigeria.
Sequel to the emergence of the disease in the state in April, 2020, several measures were taken including lockdown of all activities.
The lockdown was lifted in June in phases and fortunately, markets were opened for both local and international trade, land and air transport were also restored, stores and shopping malls reopened, parks and recreation centres opened, cinema and viewing centres reopened, event centres also. The government continued with its crowd gathering activities, some riskier and deadlier than the COVID-19 itself whilst schools remained closed.
Against the wish of Presidential Task Force (PTF), Lagos State despite highest number of fatalities in Nigeria announced date of resumption of schools.
Albert Einstein said “if you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things”.
Contrarily, Kano remained a mediocre and adamantly refused to open schools and so its younger sisters in the north except Kogi.
The state ruefully arrested and fined Islamic Education teachers and their schools while all social activities are ongoing. Kano, like it had never upheld Islamic principles and never accommodated scholars such as Al-Maghili (during the reign of Muhammadu Rumfa, 1463-1499) and Shehu Danfodio’s disciples to mention but a few continued to lockdown schools.
According to Steve Jobs “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other peoples thinking”. The effects of the lockdown, tough not empirically assessed are obvious and numerous.
As an illustration:
Crime Index: 56.99 for Kano while Lagos is 64.58 (numbero.com)
Rape and sexual assault: During the lockdown, Kano State recorded high rise of sexual assault cases. According to Sexual Assault Referral Center data, 127 cases of Sexual and Gender-based Violence were recorded from April and June, 2020 in Kano (Vanguard 10/09/2020).
One prominent case being the rape of six month old baby in June.
According to BBC on June 10, 2020 a man was arrested after 40 rapes in Dangora, Kano State, victims of his assault included 80 year old and a child below 10 years.
On Tuesday, 15th September, 2020 operatives of NAPTIP arrested a 53 year old businessman over alleged sexual abuse of two under aged girls in Kano.
Drug abuse:
On 25/06/2020 the NDLEA addresses a news conference on the commemoration of 2020 International Day against Abuse and Illicit Trafficking and mentioned that within the lockdown period, the Kano command had intercepted over 7 tonnes of illicit substances. Statistics showed that these include 787,937 kilograms of hard drug, 699,123 kilograms of psychotrophic substances, 87 kilograms of cocaine, 8 kilograms of Heroin and 4.3 kilograms of Cannabis Sativa.
The state command has also arrested 565 suspected drug dealers out of which 16 were females (Vanguard, June 26, 2020)
Those apart from phone snatching, theft, gansterism as other petty but metamorphosing big crimes in Kano.
Just last week a gentleman physiotherapist was killed by hoodlums while attempting to forcefully snatched his phone. Rest in peace brother.
The State’s educational outlook is gloomy too. This little data tough not enough for justification may imply doom.
The educational statistics for 2018 and 2019 is not depicted here for correlation but rather implying some sense.
Literacy rate (6-14 AGES): Kano rate is 46.1% in 2018 below the national rate of 62% (Digest of Education Statistics, FME).
Out of school children: Kano ranks the highest in 2019 with a total of over 1.4 million (UNICEF).
Education disadvantage: Kano ranks 11 out of 23 Educationally Least Disadvantage States in Nigeria.
At this point my questions are:
What differentiate the markets, motor parks, shopping malls, recreational, viewing and event centres and Islamic schools in terms of adhering to COVID-19 protocols (such as social distancing and hand washing and use of face masks?.
What was the rationale of allowing such activities to continue while only schools remained locked?
Is the state government aware of the rising trends of societal and moral decay among youth resulting from COVID-19 related hardships including lockdown of schools?.
Lastly, it seems only Lagos is ready to move on and face the reality in Nigeria just as the Chinese and Americans at global level.
We in the north are still falling behind. According to Pierce Brown (Red Rising Saga, 2014) “men are not created equal; we all know this. There are averages. There are outliers. There are the ugly. There are the beautiful. This would not be if we were all equal. A Red can no more command a starship than a Green can serve as a Doctor!.” Therefore, Kano State has a reputation to maintain against all odds.
I appeal with Kano State Government to accept both compliments and criticism as it takes both sun and rain for a flower to grow and raise the expectation of the common man.
The Federal Government and/or PTF cannot decide for us. According to Stephen King “Get busy living or get busy dying”.
Nuraddeen Danjuma, PhD
Bayero University Kano
12th September, 2020
