…wants root cause investigated
Razaq Bamidele
A Pro-Democracy group, The Voters Assembly (VOTAS)’, has commended the Federal and State government in the way and manner they rose up to confront the dreaded Coronavirus pandemic headlong.
The National President of the organisation, Comrade Moshood Erubami in a statement Friday in Ibadan, Oyo State after it’s emergency meeting, however expressed concern that the authorities are just treating the effect and ignoring the root cause of the monster.
“It is clear that the government is trying its best, but only in the context of solving the effects of the tragedies accompanying the pandemics while ignoring the roots and debasing the needed discussion of its source,” Erubami lamented.
In the above contexts, according to him, those given figures, no doubt are dreadful and it is in these respects and the fact of other life threatening impacts being carried along by the pandemic that members of Nigeria Voters Assembly, a human rights and principal pro democracy group are worried.
“That is why we will view the great efforts of the Country against the effects of the global health plague on public health and the lives of Nigerians and give commendation to Nigeria in the world.
“This is because with little treatment options and without any known vaccine yet to prevent COVID-19 which translating it to mean there is no specific treatment for it presently, the Nigerian authorities are moving forward in the treatment,” the group declared.
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The Nigeria Voters Assembly therefore commended the Federal Government on its lofty responses to the COVID-19 pandemic but asked the government to take a holistic look at finding out the root cause and the source of the health plague which has become a global pandemic.
The group described the outbreaks of the COVID-19 dreadful diseases as an unusual global health based war that every Country must fight ingeniously to win.
It added that the war has only been actively intense in Nigeria in the light of the hard lessons it has learnt from the breakout of Ebola in 2014, thereby treating the current breakouts as equally dangerous and life threatening.
Nonetheless, the group called on the government to move beyond mere treatment of effects but to make bold moves to find the source and the root causes of the pandemics towards a holistic treatment, including using its ravaging effects to take urgent and aggressive preemptive action to curtail its spread.
The group reiterated that since the COVID -19 appears like a third world war that must be fought without guns, it should be globally confronted as another unusual plague that must be fought unusually to its knees.
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The President, Erubami declared, “it’s quite pleasing that Nigeria retains the front roll in the enviable listing of Countries that had taken seriously responsible actions against the COVID-19 Pandemic, calling on the Country to advance its steps with adequate measures to curtail the spread of the virus and its dreadful diseases.
The group further stated that not a few Citizens are happy and quite pleased with the Country’s leadership for taking out Nigeria with its ingenious strategies to reduce the wide spread of a dreadful virus that has no respect for gender, religion, ethnicity, social and wealth status.
“It stands the country in a glorious stead for the qualitative education of the masses about the necessary precautionary measures that can help stem the rising tide of the pandemic. It stimulates the populace to stay safe in healthy living and maintenance of home and public hygiene, imposing lockdown with human rights norms. It provides necessary structures and infrastructural facilities including massive training of volunteers, caregivers and medical assistants and putting in place, isolation centres equipped with appropriate infrastructural facilities and resources far more and beyond perceived better developed Countries.
“It demonstrates advanced capacity for curtailing the spread and flattering the curve of the pandemics with minimum recorded deaths despite that expansive case tracings of suspected cases and their possible contacts are still ongoing,” The Voters Assembly submitted.
The group stated further that observance of practices of lockdown and enforcement strategies, the establishment of public report/ complaints posts with dedicated toll free lines to send strong signals, that tough deterrents await any unprofessional conduct of any security forces.
These measures, according to the VOTAS put in place to despite the rising scale and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic which had globally risen to the level of a public health threat that could justify derogation of certain rights is also a political master stroke ! ! !
“So far, Nigeria has performed creditably in carrying lowly statistics against global panic laden reports and rise in the number of confirmed cases and against all global fatality predictions. Also, increasing numbers of discharged patients earlier suspected, very low number of deaths recorded and the few who are in critical conditions are heart-warming.
” Nigeria currently maintains in statistical terms, a high rate of discharges, very low number of recorded deaths as it currently maintains comparably, statistics of 209 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 25 discharged and 4 deaths according to the NCDC,” the group rejoiced.
Noting that the handling of the limitation of the ravaging pandemics poses certain human rights concerns, the group enlists the attention of individuals, organisations, government and International Agencies to rise to minimise the effects of the derogation of rights in responding to the outbreaks of COVID -19 through a 7-point agenda thus:
Calling the attention of the government to immediately commence work with the National Assembly to mobilize all stakeholders to start discussing, designing and finding the sources and root causes of the pandemics in the view to establishing appropriate solutions to the eradication of the current pandemic and other future occurrences.
Calling the attention of the government to the fact that COVID-19 carry’s along with its spread multiple costs on social, economic and healthy existence of its people hence must ensure that in handling the lockdowns, security forces must maintain civility ensuring that human rights are strictly enforced, ensuring that violators of human rights among the security agencies are timely brought to books.
Advising that fundamental and social- economic rights of the people must be upheld and respected in the area of the right to the highest attainable standard of healthy living, preventing all threats to public health and providing medical care to those in need.
Warning that every measure developed to confront the COVID-19 must be respectful of human dignity and must be proportionate to achieve the objective of curtailing the serious public health threats and public emergencies threatening the life of Nigerians.
Apart from guaranteeing the freedom of expression and ensuring access to critical information, measures of quarantining, lockdowns, and travel bans must comply with human rights norms respecting the rights of health support staff, care-givers and health workers and ensuring humanitarian assistance to vulnerable groups while low-wage workers are focused for assistance.
Calling on the media to beam their searchlights into areas of human rights abuses towards exposing those who Infringe on people’s rights to bring them into account making it clearly understood that testing positive to COVID-19 should not be seen as a death certificate.
Calling on the Civil Society Organizations and human rights communities to join hands with governments in Nigeria to help design and implement measures to minimise the spread of the virus and mitigate the effects on those already affected.