Not only has the COVID-19 pandemic, which has halted activities in the global economy, revealed the dilapidated state of the Nigeria health care system, it has also unravelled the incompetence of most Nigerian politicians. Part of the purported Infectious Diseases Bill which gives power to convert private properties to isolation centres is a stark example of bad thinking.
The Infectious Diseases Bill sponsored by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, Pascal Obi and Tanko Sununu, sought to empower an agency of the federal government to convert any property in the country, including private properties, to isolation centres was read at plenary on Tuesday 28th April 2020, before it hurriedly passed first and second readings on the same day.
This is coming amid the shortage of isolation centres in the country owing to the rise in the number of coronavirus patients across the country. As of Friday, the number of patients was 2,170,68 have died while 319 have so far recovered.
We believe this Bill is draconian and poorly drafted. It demonstrates again how bad laws and policies are foisted on the country with no second thoughts given to their consequences.
Bad laws and policies don’t fall from the sky. They are made by people and are a reflection of the depth and quality of their thinking.
A Bill to give power to requisition hotels and other private buildings as isolation centres is unacceptable and we urge the President to reject it. Nigeria’s inadequate health facilities and amenities stems from the federal government’s inability to fix the health system over the years; hence, private individuals shouldn’t be subjected to such laws except they willingly offer their properties.
We understand the need for more isolation centres given the surge in COVID-19 cases in Nigeria, however, there are other options to explore. There are several government-owned buildings or seized assets rotting away across the country which can readily be refurbished for isolating coronavirus patients.
For example, the Ikoyi Federal Secretariat in Lagos. Nigerians will not dispute the proposition that the abandoned Federal Secretariat has become a national embarrassment. For this magnificent edifice in the heart of a city like Lagos to be lying fallow speaks volumes of the quality of leadership in the country.
Billions of naira donated by private individuals and organisations during this pandemic could be channelled to making well-equipped, massive isolation centres out of such buildings across the country.
It’s absurd how hotels and privately-owned buildings are being targeted. Owners of such hotels, for example, risk losing their businesses post COVID-19. Potential customers of these hotels may fear lodging there given the thought that such hotels have been used to accommodate COVID-19 patients. This hurts an intangible asset, the goodwill of the hotel.
Also given the history of the Nigerian federal government, such buildings may not return to the state they were before requisition and owners may not be adequately compensated for damages.
Nigeria can learn from China in its response to fighting COVID-19. In Beijing and Wuhan, 1,000 bed capacity hospitals were built respectively in days. Nigeria must look beyond providing temporary measures and respond to current health crisis with more long-lasting solutions. Refurbishing abandoned national buildings into hospitals is one of such.
While we continue the fight against COVID-19, it is important to note that policies and laws made during this period must be critically analysed before being enacted given the fragile state of the Nigerian economy.
Unfortunately, the Infectious Diseases Bill, exposes a chasm in how our lawmakers’, recent owners of brand-new Toyota Camrys, arrive at their decisions. It shows how they (and policymakers too) “lack the philosophical equipment to deal with the material goods they are so eager to consume”, as the unnamed character of Teju Cole’s novel, Every Day is for the Thief, laments. Our lawmakers drive Toyotas but do not develop the thinking necessary to make such products in Nigeria.
Cole’s narrator concludes that, “Part of the philosophical equipment is an attention to details… a commitment to precision, an engagement with the creative and scientific spirit behind what one uses.” Yo shinai, yo kangai: good thinking, good products is the motto of Toyota.
