Dr. Kayode Ajulo, a legal practitioner and human rights lawyer, has called for an alternative measure to the lockdown occasioned by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Ajulo made the appeal in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Abuja.
The statement comes against the backdrop of the expiration of additional two weeks of lockdown as announced by President Muhammadu Buhari on April 11.
Ajulo stated that while the lockdown measure had significantly reduced the spread of the virus, the difficulties had brought to fore the urgent need for more equitable measures in curbing and curtailing the spread of COVID-19.
According to him, government must focus on efficient testing, training and building capacity across board, creating reliable infrastructure and employing principles of transparency and good governance will also be crucial.
He said there was no need to belabour the fact that the lockdown measure taken by the President and some other similar measures such as curfew implemented in some states were not without significant benefits.
He added that the lockdown had reduced the spate of the spread of the virus, adding however that total lockdown risked a complete halt of economic activity across the country.
He said: “It suffices to add that more than a third of the Nigerian population lives below the poverty line, while most of them live in rural areas and without access to basic amenities.
“While we are uncertain as to when business will be restored, if there is a need to completely lockdown the whole country for a long time, the potential death toll is unknown.
“Economic recession and deteriorating livelihoods mean impoverishment, malnutrition, worsened access to routine health services, and that in turn all means lives lost as well.”
Ajulo said what the government failed to understand was the fact that it could not impose a lockdown like more developed nations as there were many citizens who did not have homes.
He said Nigeria had limited resources to replace the incomes of citizens, coupled with the fall in the oil price from which Nigeria derives 95 per cent of its revenue.
Ajulo said that limiting person-to-person transmission would be more difficult in highly populated cities, stressing that many people worked in the informal economy and stayed in areas where clean water for hand washing might be challenging.
The human rights lawyer added that in such areas self-isolation would be practically impossible, cautioning that this can lead to a bigger and more prolonged outbreak of COVID-19.