It's no longer news that President Trump is bent on reopening the American economy and for this he has garnered a lot of support from the American people. It is also public knowledge that he has been heavily criticised for this and accused by many of putting the economy ahead of the lives and safety of his people.

But pause for a moment and just think, is Trump really that stupid and insensitive, or is there more to his strong desire to reopen the economy?

Well, I'm incapable of reading Trump's mind and I wouldn't attempt to interpret his motives. But let us take a critical look at our own situation here in Nigeria in dealing with the pandemic and see if it can help us get into President Trump's mind(just maybe).

We are now in the fourth week of President Buhari's lockdown order, as a matter of fact, for some, it's now been 6 or 7 weeks since they've been locked in at home for fear of contracting the Virus. Since the start of the President Buhari declared lockdown, many Nigerians have complained about thier inability to provide for themselves and thier families, and in the last 2 weeks, that complain has grown louder, resulting in protests, looting, and armed robbery.

While some might dismiss those engaged in this activities as criminals and unpatriotic, the fact remains that for most Nigerians, survival is a day by day affair, with most earning barely enough to meet the needs of one day at a time. The lockdown has without doubt made life and survival near impossible for most.

In the United States and other western countries, their governments have put in place palliative measures to cater for the immediate needs of thier citizens for the time being, but even that is not sustainable in the long run unless they can somehow find a way to reopen the economy at least partially. In Nigeria however, you know the story as much as I do, perhaps better.

My point Is, if the lockdown is further extended as is already looking likely, we might end up dealing with an outcome that might be worse in comparison to the covid19 pandemic. Already, yesterday, the United nations world food program estimates that unless something is done urgently, 300,000 people will die daily from hunger and starvation, 300,000 lives daily. At this rate 9,000,000 lives will be lost monthly, and most of this numbers will be from Africa.

It now seems to me that we are now in the proverbial "between the devil and the deep blue sea". Unless a cure is discovered soonest(I earnestly pray so), I have bad news; we will have to headlong come to terms with this deadly plague. We will have to come to terms with the fact that lives will be lost, people will perish unfortunately . But what is the alternative? The alternative is that we keep extending the lockdown which is clearly in my view, ineffective as we can see from the daily spread of the disease to more and more states of the country. But then this alternative will have consequences, some of which I have touched on earlier. Many more people especially children will starve to death, crime rate will skyrocket, jobs will permanently be lost as many businesses may never recover, anarchy will surely result, and what is more, our economy may take many years to recover, if at all. If for anything, this alternative, this solution will be far worse than the problem it is meant to solve; does that statement sound familiar? President Trump has repeatedly stated that the solution can not be worse than problem(even though he contributed to the problem in his country at least).

At this point, I'll love to think that maybe, just maybe, we have an idea why President Trump is or isn't making sense by calling for the reopening of the economy.

So what do think; should the lockdown be extended?

Let's share our views on this.

any deal ?

The media is weaponizing this pandemic, and give are turning into tyrants with it, Nigeria is not a socialist country, people run the economy and not the govt, so why did we shutdown? Cause western countries did it?

What’s the essence of the lockdown if we haven’t tested up to 10,000 people between a month, what’s the essence of shutting down the economy if people can still move about

The govt really need good advisers

Yt

Just like you made mention there, the government is clueless and lacks good advisers. It’s a pity we have people that just sees the developed countries decision as the standard not considering the variance in culture, economic terrain,resources and so on. It’s also disheartening how majority of our population just clamor for Pallatives because they are aware of donations forgetting that palliatives is the joy of our politicians because it’s the best looting channel. Instead of channeling the billions in testing and treatment that could have given us a headway without a prolonged lockdown, they chose to lockdown aimlessly without enough tests forgetting that the more you test, the more you discover new cases which may practically prolong the lockdown. So I agree with you that lockdown is not a way forward. Let the government channel their billions into testing and treatment and open up the economy, let people fend for themselves as usual. Imagine a state like Kogi with no testing centers but will be talking of lockdown and Pallatives, the governor said their are testing centers in neighboring states which means he’s just locking down because others are doing so and subjecting his people to hardship with no solution in view. It’s better to set up more test and treatment centers and let the citizens adhere strictly to preventive measures and open up the economy to avoid greater disasters.

Already the economy has gone into recession needless to say, and I say so cautiously because some indices are predicting worse case scenario.

The glut and collapsed crude oil market means one thing for the Nigerian economy; Disaster!

Right now, all the major users of Crude have stucked up thier massive storages with cheap product such that even the pandemic is brought under control, for months, perhaps longer, price of Crude might remain low because buyers will continue to leverage on their stuck for a bargain. As a matter of fact, we have seen similar situations play out in the past. That's why I talked about a prolonged economic recovery in my original post.
Unfortunately, the government and their advisers do not seem to be aware of this looming danger, at least no evidence to show they are mindful of it.

For a country like Nigeria now, this is no longer time to lockdown, this is time for increased economic activity to stem the shockwave that will result from the loss of basically our only source of foreign revenue. Remember, we are almost entirely an import dependent nation.
Honestly I worry for the weeks, months, and years ahead for our country.

In the words of President Trump, I repeat, the solution can not be worse than the problem.

End the total ineffective lockdown and save lives.


MODS if what we are discussing here is of any value, wouldn't it nice if we made possible for more people to see it and contribute, perhaps even some close enough to those who hold the destiny of this nation in thier hands.

This thing is getting more complicated.

Life just have to return to normal whether we like it or not.

The Invisible Enemmies Fighting Humans, Not Fighting The War Without Knowlage About The After Effect Of The War.

Cc: Lalasticlala

This is the kind of thread we need on the front page o. No be only Aunty Kemi own.

.

ucham:
Cc: Lalasticlala

This is the kind of thread we need on the front page o. No be only Aunty Kemi own.

Maybe I should add a dead Snake picture to the thread. You don't need to beg for front page for that one at all.

Tells you just how serious we are in this country about the things that should really matter to us

HITMEUP4ANYBIZ:
any deal ? ;DThe media is weaponizing this pandemic, and give are turning into tyrants with it, Nigeria is not a socialist country, people run the economy and not the govt, so why did we shutdown? Cause western countries did it?

What’s the essence of the lockdown if we haven’t tested up to 10,000 people between a month, what’s the essence of shutting down the economy if people can still move about. The govt really need good advisers

Here in the US, people now know that this pandemic does not respect anyone, no matter your race, creed, religion or intelligence. However, you make a good point when you say that the Nigerian government ought to resist the urge to simply copy western countries without sufficient evidence to do so.
I myself has been curious as to what would have happened here in the US if the people has simply ignored the government's call for social distancing, enmasse, up to this point. If Nigerians in Nigeria are willing to help provide answer to that question for me, I say yes, Nigerian government ought to remove the lockdowns or ridiculous attempts made so far at it and let COVID-19 roam free, and wild in the sub-saharan land of Nigeria. The world could very much benefit from the lessons to ensue

Kobojunkie:

Here in the US, people now know that this pandemic does not respect anyone, no matter your race, creed, religion or intelligence. However, you make a good point when you say that the Nigerian government ought to resist the urge to simply copy western countries without sufficient evidence to do so.
I myself has been curious as to what would have happened here in the US if the people has simply ignored the government's call for social distancing, enmasse, up to this point. If Nigerians in Nigeria are willing to help provide answer to that question for me, I say yes, Nigerian government ought to remove the lockdowns or ridiculous attempts made so far at it and let COVID-19 roam free, and wild in the sub-saharan land of Nigeria. The world could very much benefit from the lessons to ensue

You point all be it sarcastic, is valid. But you might shortsighted as far the point here is concerned. The question is, how do you deal with the problem of hunger that is now resulting from the lockdown, a problem that is capable of taking a thousand times the lives corona virus could possibly take?

It's no laughing matter. Just because Trump is handing free cheques in the US should not delete your memory of realities back home in Nigeria. And just because your people here in Nigeria are comfortable with what you send them should not make you too comfortable. When the hunger begins to bite, even the rich will not feel safe.

Hunger worst pass virus ooo
And this one that our government like playing politics with everything and always finding any means to chop money covid is here for long..
Even if we don't have any new record our government will still tell us the virus is on increase so that they can pack money.

BENARI:

You point all be it sarcastic, is valid. But you might shortsighted as far the point here is concerned. The question is, how do you deal with the problem of hunger that is now resulting from the lockdown, a problem that is capable of taking a thousand times the lives corona virus could possibly take?

It's no laughing matter. Just because Trump is handing free cheques in the US should not delete your memory of realities back home in Nigeria. And just because your people here in Nigeria are comfortable with what you send them should not make you too comfortable. When the hunger begins to bite, even the rich will not feel safe.

Reality usually never waits for us to get our act together before it hits.
Get it right, the hunger issue was a crisis - a problem that Nigeria has seen fit to sit back and do little about since at least the last recession. It has little or nothing to do with COVID-19. What this pandemic has done is bring the problem yet again to the forefront where it has always belonged.
A similar issue is the poor state of health care in Nigeria --- the NCDC is already calling attention to the lack of labs for testing purposes alone. Imagine if the situation worsens, even in the slightest. If COVID-19 were to really hit Nigeria, where do you think the sick and dying will go for care, if at all?
Death na death.... if people wan save dem stomach only to be brought down by COVID-19, I say go for it. The world is watching to see how that goes. P.S all the money in the world cannot save Nigerians from the bed they continue to make for themselves in Nigeria.

i personally believe that nigerians are about to see the worst of the country's economy

To me the lockdown does not make any sense especially in Lagos because the aim has been defeated. People are still moving about!!!

Instead of sharing palliatives, it is better we equip more people to ensure that strict safety measures are enforced everywhere. We should still prevent

any form of congregation. Improve our contact tracing in the sense that we equip every business/company to be able to carry out their own tracing if

they suspect anything, else risk a total shutdown of their business. I say this to say, this fight can not be won by NCDC or WHO, in my opinion we all

have to get involved. Finally use the military to enforce strict adherence, people who due to their negligence exposed innocent people to the

virus should be penalized.

KingZaddy:
i personally believe that nigerians are about to see the worst of the country's economy

You forget, not too long ago, Nigerians saw the global recession and they celebrated by having babies and boosting(in an evil way)the population from about 170 million to over 200 million. If this is worse than that one, I can only imagine what that means for the population, and hence the inequalities.

@Op you are on point...we are just so unfortunate to have leaders that care less about the lives of their citizens.

BENARI:
Already the economy has gone into recession needless to say, and I say so cautiously because some indices are predicting worse case scenario.

The glut and collapsed crude oil market means one thing for the Nigerian economy; Disaster!

Right now, all the major users of Crude have stucked up thier massive storages with cheap product such that even the pandemic is brought under control, for months, perhaps longer, price of Crude might remain low because buyers will continue to leverage on their stuck for a bargain. As a matter of fact, we have seen similar situations play out in the past. That's why I talked about a prolonged economic recovery in my original post.
Unfortunately, the government and their advisers do not seem to be aware of this looming danger, at least no evidence to show they are mindful of it.

For a country like Nigeria now, this is no longer time to lockdown, this is time for increased economic activity to stem the shockwave that will result from the loss of basically our only source of foreign revenue. Remember, we are almost entirely an import dependent nation.
Honestly I worry for the weeks, months, and years ahead for our country.

In the words of President Trump, I repeat, the solution can not be worse than the problem.

End the total ineffective lockdown and save lives.


MODS if what we are discussing here is of any value, wouldn't it nice if we made possible for more people to see it and contribute, perhaps even some close enough to those who hold the destiny of this nation in thier hands.

In your first paragraph, did you say "Recession"? I think you should change that to "Depression". And in your second paragraph, you mentioned "Disaster". I think "Apocalypse" is a more suitable word.

No, don't expect the mods to push this to FP. They are part of the mainstream media who's agenda is mass indoctrination of only the narrative they want pushed out.

Your original piece said an estimated 900k people dying from hunger per month. I've actually read an article where the UN world food program estimates that as much as 265 million people could die globally due to famine and mass starvation. Why these sort of data do not dominate the media space is beyond me. Yet they keep listening to the projections from that Marxist Tedros.

The graph below shows the correlation between lockdowns and saving lives. This is just ridiculous!

KingZaddy:
i personally believe that nigerians are about to see the worst of the country's economy

You're not far from the fact. God help us.

Kobojunkie:
You forget, not too long ago, Nigerians saw the global recession and they celebrated by having babies and boosting(in an evil way)the population from about 170 million to over 200 million. If this is worse than that one, I can only imagine what that means for the population, and hence the inequalities.

I've said it times without number; Nigeria's greatest undoing is unchecked population explosion. For God's sake, what is the rational for the high birth rate in a country as hopelessly poor as Nigeria? And to make matters worse, the baby boomers are the poorest of the hopelessly poor among us.
What really is the problem with this country? And to think that this is a no go area subject is most baffling. You dare not talk about it, else a section of the country who are the main culprit in the madness will accuse you of attacking thier religious freedom(the freedom to produce children without caring for them).

Why can't we learn from those we claim to look up to? Why can't we learn from those countries we all are now looking forward to run to? If the Americans and Europeans have littered there countries with babies like we're doing, where will the space be for us to go there and find a living?

The population of Europe, America, Japan, Australia has remain largely unchanged for decades aided only by Immigration, otherwise they've been experiencing negative population growth. Even China at some point realised that they can make any meaningful progress unless they control there population, and today they are better for it, tough as it was for them to accept at first.

We have multiplied in population, yet the resources have continuously dwindled, factories have folded up, and so today, there are less factories in Nigeria than there were when we just 60 million people 50 years ago.

I see a situation where the world would lack sympathy for countries such as Nigeria in dealing with the likes of pandemics such as these, if only to reduce the population.

PureGoldh:
@Op you are on point...we are just so unfortunate to have leaders that care less about the lives of their citizens.

I agree with you, but it is worse than that now; we've always had leaders who didn't care about the people, but now, at least for me, we have leaders who neither care nor even know what to do even if they did care.

This is double jeopardy if you ask me.

Sources have it, that the brain box of this clueless government is the man who just died, and if that's correct, and I fear it is, you tell me!
Or are you under any sought of illusion that the man at the top personally lacks the capacity to ride the country through this storm? I am not! not one bit.

Sometimes I'm forced to reckon with fiction part of Corona virus but the deeper truth is. This illness exists.
I realized most people who haven't seen or know anyone exhibiting the symptoms tends not to believe it exists. A place like ogbomosho where no one had been reported to have it is currently on normal day to day activities except the no church ND school, wedding band.
I won't blame some Nigerians not believing it exists. This country has a PhD in lies and corny reasons behind their actions prior to this Corona. There is always a reason for Nigeria government doing somethings.
I personally don't trust the Ncdc daily victims no.
People keep clamouring for the lockdown to be stopped because of hunger. That's quite sadden but they will really wish for hunger if the average man gets to contact the virus. That shit has lot of complications which can't even be managed by our already scared doctors who wouldn't want to go near a victim. Even the rich ones might v to buy their way around to have all the medical attentions.

Bevista:
In your first paragraph, did you say "Recession"? I think you should change that to "Depression". And in your second paragraph, you mentioned "Disaster". I think "Apocalypse" is a more suitable word.

No, don't expect the mods to push this to FP. They are part of the mainstream media who's agenda is mass indoctrination of only the narrative they want pushed out.

Your original piece said an estimated 900k people dying from hunger per month. I've actually read an article where the UN world food program estimates that as much as 265 million people could die globally due to famine and mass starvation. Why these sort of data do not dominate the media space is beyond me. Yet they keep listening to the projections from that Marxist Tedros.

The graph below shows the correlation between lockdowns and saving lives. This is just ridiculous!

I totally agree with you. The graph is apt and speaks for itself.

The number I stated is 9 million not 900k.

And I agree with you about this medium being part of mainstream media. I've been watching the way they manage news items here. In the past I thought It was a lack of expertise, but I can now see that it's all on purpose. They have a set of narrative similar to those of the mainstream media like you stated.

Kobojunkie:
You forget, not too long ago, Nigerians saw the global recession and they celebrated by having babies and boosting(in an evil way)the population from about 170 million to over 200 million. If this is worse than that one, I can only imagine what that means for the population, and hence the inequalities.

This is what I hate about this country, people breeding like pigs without having any serious plan for the children.
Can you imagine worthless boys from worthless parents, organizing themselves into cults to unleash mayhem and blaming it on hunger?.

BENARI:
We have multiplied in population, yet the resources have continuously dwindled, factories have folded up, and so today, there are less factories in Nigeria than there were when we just 60 million people 50 years ago.

I see a situation where the world would lack sympathy for countries such as Nigeria in dealing with the likes of pandemics such as these, if only to reduce the population.

I believe the world is already there.... I believe Nigerians however have yet to realize this yet or choose, as ever, to live oblivious to this!

Kobojunkie:

I believe the world is already there.... I believe Nigerians however have yet to realize this yet or choose, as ever, to live oblivious to this!

Hmmmmmm!

Too bad my Brother. God help us

Cos lockdown has not achieved anything.

7lives:
This is what I hate about this country, people breeding like pigs without having any serious plan for the children.
Can you imagine worthless boys from worthless parents, organizing themselves into cults to unleash mayhem and blaming it on hunger?.

It is mind-boggling!

The President lockdown only Lagos, Ogun and FCT.

Kobojunkie:


Reality usually never waits for us to get our act together before it hits.
Get it right, the hunger issue was a crisis - a problem that Nigeria has seen fit to sit back and do little about since at least the last recession. It has little or nothing to do with COVID-19. What this pandemic has done is bring the problem yet again to the forefront where it has always belonged.
A similar issue is the poor state of health care in Nigeria --- the NCDC is already calling attention to the lack of labs for testing purposes alone. Imagine if the situation worsens, even in the slightest. If COVID-19 were to really hit Nigeria, where do you think the sick and dying will go for care, if at all?
Death na death.... if people wan save dem stomach only to be brought down by COVID-19, I say go for it. The world is watching to see how that goes. P.S all the money in the world cannot save Nigerians from the bed they continue to make for themselves in Nigeria.

can you give me a reason why China left big economic cities open during the outbreak in Wuhan?
All the countries that are on lockdown are now realizing this fact that it is not the solution

BENARI:
It's no longer news that President Trump is bent on reopening the American economy and for this he has garnered a lot of support from the American people. It is also public knowledge that he has been heavily criticised for this and accused by many of putting the economy ahead of the lives and safety of his people.

But pause for a moment and just think, is Trump really that stupid and insensitive, or is there more to his strong desire to reopen the economy?

Well, I'm incapable of reading Trump's mind and I wouldn't attempt to interpret his motives. But let us take a critical look at our own situation here in Nigeria in dealing with the pandemic and see if it can help us get into President Trump's mind(just maybe).

We are now in the fourth week of President Buhari's lockdown order, as a matter of fact, for some, it's now been 6 or 7 weeks since they've been locked in at home for fear of contracting the Virus. Since the start of the President Buhari declared lockdown, many Nigerians have complained about thier inability to provide for themselves and thier families, and in the last 2 weeks, that complain has grown louder, resulting in protests, looting, and armed robbery.

While some might dismiss those engaged in this activities as criminals and unpatriotic, the fact remains that for most Nigerians, survival is a day by day affair, with most earning barely enough to meet the needs of one day at a time. The lockdown has without doubt made life and survival near impossible for most.

In the United States and other western countries, their governments have put in place palliative measures to cater for the immediate needs of thier citizens for the time being, but even that is not sustainable in the long run unless they can somehow find a way to reopen the economy at least partially. In Nigeria however, you know the story as much as I do, perhaps better.

My point Is, if the lockdown is further extended as is already looking likely, we might end up dealing with an outcome that might be worse in comparison to the covid19 pandemic. Already, yesterday, the United nations world food program estimates that unless something is done urgently, 300,000 people will die daily from hunger and starvation, 300,000 lives daily. At this rate 9,000,000 lives will be lost monthly, and most of this numbers will be from Africa.

It now seems to me that we are now in the proverbial "between the devil and the deep blue sea". Unless a cure is discovered soonest(I earnestly pray so), I have bad news; we will have to headlong come to terms with this deadly plague. We will have to come to terms with the fact that lives will be lost, people will perish unfortunately . But what is the alternative? The alternative is that we keep extending the lockdown which is clearly in my view, ineffective as we can see from the daily spread of the disease to more and more states of the country. But then this alternative will have consequences, some of which I have touched on earlier. Many more people especially children will starve to death, crime rate will skyrocket, jobs will permanently be lost as many businesses may never recover, anarchy will surely result, and what is more, our economy may take many years to recover, if at all. If for anything, this alternative, this solution will be far worse than the problem it is meant to solve; does that statement sound familiar? President Trump has repeatedly stated that the solution can not be worse than problem(even though he contributed to the problem in his country at least).

At this point, I'll love to think that maybe, just maybe, we have an idea why President Trump is or isn't making sense by calling for the reopening of the economy.

So what do think; should the lockdown be extended?

Let's share our views on this.

Op , President Buhari didn't lockdown Nigeria, Only two States and FCT. Stop generalising.