Nigeria as a country witnessed something close to 'youth uprising' in the past few weeks when the youth decided to defy all the protocols associated with COVID-19 to protest police brutality, triggered by the actions of one of the units of the police in the country - the special anti-robbery squad (SARS). The youth trooped out en-masse and the protest lasted for about two weeks until the government deployed military who decided to use live ammunition on peaceful and unarmed protesters. While the youths were protesting against police brutality, the Nigerian government responded by killing more of her youths. However, that is not the essence of this post.

Ordinarily, one would expect a surge in the number of COVID-19 victims after the protest has been forcefully dispersed due to the lack of observation of protocols relating to wearing of nose-masks and socially distancing of protesters. However, this has not been the case, a situation that further throws doubts about the data being thrown around by the government as far as the spread of the virus is concerned in the country. As of today, the total number of COVID-19 cases officially reported in the country stands at 62,853 cases with 58,675 recoveries, 1,144 deaths, and presently, only 3,034 active cases.

It is also worthy to note that the official total number of COVID-19 tests that have been conducted in the entire country since the outbreak of the virus in February 2020 stands at 627,600. This figure is from a country whose total population has been reported to be over two hundred million people. It is only normal to think that with the low rate of testing compared to the population size, thousands of cases would have gone unreported. Perhaps the low rate of testing is one of the reasons that made Bill and Melinda gate to make a prediction of doom for the country and Africa in general. However, what Nigeria, and indeed, other African countries have witnessed in this outbreak is far from being a doom.

The distrust between the governed and the government of Nigeria has threw up many questions concerning the COVID-19 figures being thrown around by the authority concerned - the National Center for Disease Control. People are of the opinion that the situation of the pandemic in Nigeria is not as big as it is being projected by the authority and they are doing so to justify the looting that will likely occur in the name of the pandemic. It is worthy to note at this junction that Nigeria received billions of naira in donations from Non-governmental organizations and private sectors both nationally and internationally in the name of the pandemic.

One of the many fallouts from the protest against police brutality in the country was the discovery of warehouses containing foods meant to be distributed as palliatives to the Nigerian population. The country was on lockdown for about 5 months and the palliatives were not distributed during this period to ease the suffering of the masses who had been economically impacted by the lockdown. After the discovery and looting of most of the food palliatives by hoodlums, the government came out to say that it had the intention of distributing it in the nearest future. Meanwhile, some politicians have been distributing the food palliatives as souvenirs during their birthday celebration.

It is also worthy to note that the food palliatives were sponsored by the private sectors. All the government needed to do is to put a mechanism in place that will ensure that the foods get to those that need it, but as usual, the politicians hijacked what is meant for the common man. Why then should the masses trust the figures being published as far as the COVID-19 situation in the country is concerned? A government that would rather watch her citizens die of hunger will not inflate figures so as to embezzle donated funds towards the tackling of the pandemic?

The events of the past few weeks definitely raise many unanswered questions about the situation of the pandemic in the country. It has become obvious that the situation is not as bad as being reported by the authority and the figures might have been thrown to the public to justify the disappearance of our common wealth.

What do you think?