The Silent Drift Of COVID-19 To Northern Nigeria

By Chuks Ekpeneru

The increasing tilt of the COVID-19 pandemic towards the North was illustrated by the daily report on new cases for Monday, May 11, 2020.

Of the 14 States and the FCT that reported new cases on that day, 14 including the FCT were from the North with the Southern states being only four.

Even more, removing Lagos which was the initial hotbed for the pandemic in the country, the burden of new cases is by far being reported in the North with Kano, Katsina and Gombe being in the lead in recent days.

Coming against the background of the earlier hesitance of some northern governors to fully address the COVID-19 pandemic the rage of the pandemic in the North is bringing the administrative acumen of the North’s governors to task.

It is also opening up gaps in the capacity of the governors.

A statement by human rights body, Intersociety has alleged that not less than 2,500 people may have died from the pandemic in the last 23 days especially in Kano, Jigawa, Yobe and Bauchi States.

This is really worrisome as the body went further to say that there is a clandestine attempt to cover up the issue.

On the 18^th of April, President Muhammadu Buhari lost his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, to complications arising from COVID-19.

Since April, the Northern part of the country has been hit with mysterious death causes yet to be unraveled.

Some speculate that the number of deaths has not been revealed.

Musa Abubakar, a gravedigger in Kano said they used to dig two or three graves a day at the main cemetery in the northern Nigerian city of Kano. Then overnight it became 40.

Abubakar, even claimed that the unusual deaths had claimed five of his colleagues working at the graveyard.

“I have never witnessed mass deaths like this,” the 75-year-old said, his white kaftan muddied from his work at the Abbatuwa cemetery, where he has dug graves for 60 years.

On a particular Saturday, twelve prominent persons died in Kano. They are Prof Ibrahim Ayagi, Dr Musa Umar Gwarzo, Alhaji Dahiru Rabiu (former Grand Khadi), Musa Tijjani (Editor of Triumph Newspaper) and Adamu Isyaku Dal, who was a former Executive Secretary of the State Universal Basic Education Board.

Others are Alhaji Salisu Lado, Hajiya Shamsiyya Mustapha, Hajiyaj Nene Umma, Alhaji Garba Sarki Fagge, Dr Nasiru Maikano Bichi, Secretary Student Affairs, North West University, Prof Aliyu Umar Dikko of Physiology Department, Bayero University Kano, and Ado Gwanja’s mother, among others.

Just again, Yusuf Bayero (Dan’iyan Kano), an uncle to the Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado-Bayero died in the early hours of Sunday after a protracted illness.

In nearby Jigawa State, Chairman, Hadejia Local Government Council in Jigawa State, Alhaji Abdullahi Maikanti, on Wednesday, said 47 deaths recorded in the area had no link with COVD-19

News Agency of Nigeria reports that the deaths were said to have occurred between April 30 and May 6.

In Bauchi State, Governor Bala Mohammed came out to say that the 150 deaths witnessed in Azare, headquarters of Katagum Local Government, in the last 30 days was not from COVID-19 as speculated in some quarters.

The governor emphasized that the deaths were from hypertension and other related diseases

Similarly in Yobe State, in the state’s commercial city of Potiskum, no fewer than 68 bodies have been buried in three days, with some of them suspected to have died of complications arising from COVID-19 infection.

The spate of deaths in the region has continued to instill fear and confusion apparently making some Almajiri and other northerners to migrate to the southern part of the country.

This has prompted leaders of the South and Middle Belt Forum (SMBLF) to raise the alarm “at the invasion of their areas by teenagers from certain section of Nigeria hidden in containers and trailers in large numbers in spite of the ban.”

Also, a coalition, led by Human Rights Agenda Network (HRAN) in a statement noted that the movement of the Almajiris from one state to another is a major public health risk in the context of COVID-19 pandemic.

For a region plagued by Boko Haram, menace of the Fulani herdsmen which has already found its way to the south and alarming level of illiteracy and poverty, it is time for leaders of the region to sit down, do a soul searching and proffer solution.

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