The roar of the crowd is better than any sanitizer to residents living in New Road Waterside, in Badore, Ajah, Lagos. The rush of a touchdown, the spirit of the game and a goal – that’s heaven right there.
In the blink of an eye, the winning team players hug themselves to celebrate the goal. Supporters viewing from outside also did the same with laughter. Alas! This is the life of self-isolation in Lagos suburbs.
Nigeria alongside many countries in the world is battling to contain the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which has infected 200 persons and killed two in the country.
The virus has infected over a million people with more than 50,000 dead across the world.
In many nations, the authorities have ordered people to stay at home to curb the spread of the deadly virus.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the only safeguard against the virus at the moment is that people “stay at home”. Hence, markets, shops, offices, places of worship and entertainment are deserted.
But in many parts of Lagos, some rented apartments even have more than 20 people. While they have not breached the lockdown order, they cannot be said to be self-isolating.
POLITICS NIGERIA visited a community with over 1000 residents in Eti-Osa local government of Lagos.
The residents at New road in Badore are those from Benin Republic who have come to resettle in Nigeria. Houses here are made of wood.
While the male folks were busy playing football, the female individuals were seen playing Ludo. They have little or no experience about self-isolation. They believe in the spread of Coronavirus but did not believe that anybody in the suburb could have. Buying and selling in this area is not also affected by the lockdown.
Speaking with our correspondent, one of the young guys on the field who simply identified himself as Awilo Senayo told said there cannot be self-isolation without food.
He told this newspaper that football played day and nights are to “kill boredom”. The women in this community showed reluctance to speak when approached by this reporter.
At Ado, many of the houses here are rented apartments with a family of six or more sharing a single room apartment and so is the case in many ghettos across the state. Findings show that many Hausas involved in menial jobs standing in their numbers at different bus stops waiting for their next client.
Data
According to Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Nigeria now “as at 10:10 pm 4th April there are 214 confirmed cases of Covid-19 reported in Nigeria.”
Of all the confirmed cases, 25 have been discharged and four have died. Lagos has remained the epicenter of the disease in the country.
It has recorded 109, followed by FCT- 43, Osun- 20, Oyo- 9, Akwa Ibom- 5, Ogun- 4, Edo- 7, Kaduna- 4, Bauchi- 6, Enugu and Ekiti recorded two each while Rivers, Benue and Ondo have one case each.
The government said it has intensified contact tracing to identify people who might have been exposed to disease from positive cases.
