An officer of Ogun State Road Safety Command tries to block the expressway to prevent motorists from driving into Lagos, at the Ojodu-Berger border between Lagos and Ogun States, on March 31, 2020, following the lockdown by the authorities to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. – Lagos was deserted on March 31, 2020, after Nigeria locked down its economic hub and shuttered its capital Abuja, in the continent’s latest effort to brake the juggernaut of COVID-19 coronavirus. Businesses were closed, markets abandoned and streets empty as the usually chaotic megacity of 20 million, along with the capital Abuja, shuddered to a halt on the first full day of a two-week shutdown. (Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP)
Oladimeji Ramon
The Ajia Balogun Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oloye Adegboyega Adegoke, has said it is unrealistic that Nigerians will obey the government’s stay-at-home order if they have not received any palliative from government.
He said faced with hunger, people who live on daily earnings would find it difficult to comply with the government’s stay-at-home order.
To encourage compliance, Adegoke called for effectiveness in the manner government’s palliatives were being distributed to ensure they reach the targeted vulnerable citizens.
He made the call while giving out cash to widows across six local governments areas in Ibadan, according to a statement on Tuesday.
The statement said each of the 120 widows received N5,000.
Adegoke said, “The only way to ensure that people stay at home is to provide palliatives for them. To ensure that this coronavirus does not spread among our people, we have to ensure that we give them what they will use to stay at home.
“The people who are hungry cannot stay at home. That is why it is difficult to enforce the stay-at-home order. If government fails to give palliatives to the people, they will not stay at home; but if they are given what they will use to stay at home, they will comply.
“We need to stop the spread of coronavirus, that is why it is compulsory to give palliatives to the people before we can stop them from going out.”
