Lockdown: Chaos, Anarchy May Arise; Some Foreign Nations Reportedly Evacuate Citizens

By Uche Mbah

The stay at home order given by the Federal government without palliatives may drive many people into anger and rebellion as they face the choice of contacting coronavirus and dying of hunger.

Many field reports show that a great majority of Nigerians are on daily earnings, and cannot feed their families unless they go out each day.

Federal government had imposed a sit at home order to Nigerians living in Lagos and Abuja. It included Ogun state in the order because of the proximity to Lagos. Incidentally, these three states have already started a phased sit at home process. But the presidential announcements forced Nigerians to crowd Banks to beat the twenty four hour notice, thereby negating the social distancing order and endangering more Nigerians than was intended. Banking Halls were crowded, ATM Machines were overcrowded and Banks groaned under panic withdrawals.

Markets became over crowded with consequent hike in prices of food items.

After zero day, no few people were coming to buy food items, making sellers cry about raising prices because of fear that suppliers will not be supplying them during the period. And sales plummeted during the lock-down.

Bus conductors and drivers may not survive one week of not plying their trade, according to research conducted by this Magazine using two parks at Alimosho area of Lagos.

Meanwhile, there has been reports of foreign diplomatic missions asking their citizens to leave Nigeria. The Israeli government, for example, was reported to have effected full evacuation of citizens.

Even Countries with high Covid-19 epidermic are also leaving.

Nigerians, however, believe that they are leaving  because of the security reports that the Lock-down will degenerate into chaos because of lack of palliatives and hunger.

Meanwhile, in Kano, a viral video showed many Almajiris forming a mob and chanting “no Coronavirus” demonstrating against  closure of mosques. In Katsina, such a group had marched to a police stations and burnt it down.

No lock-down was declared in these states, giving the impression that Nigeria may have become a coronavirus time bomb.