Since Nigeria recorded its index case of COVID-19 on February 27^th, 2020, so many efforts have been made by the government at the National and States level to contain the spread of the infectious diseases.

Most of the efforts include sensitization on how people can prevent the spread of the virus using different communication strategies and channels; closing of businesses, places of worship and public gatherings to ensure strict adherence to social and physical distancing.

The stay at home order in some parts of the country have yielded some level of compliance and to cushion the effects, the Federal Government and State Governments have provided some relief materials to residents, most especially the vulnerable groups.

In Lagos, the state government uses the traditional and social media to communicate updates about COVID-19 to Lagosians and those who do not have access to these channels could depend on information from neighbours and friends.

The state also commenced the distribution of palliatives to the vulnerable; poor, persons with disabilities and the elderly to ensure they are not affected by the lockdown which has affected residents most especially those who earn daily income.

Those who are worst hit with this order and spread of the virus are Persons with Disabilities in general and Women with Disabilities in particular. Women with disabilities depend on people’s aid, guide and support for their daily activities and issues about physical distancing is a thug of war for them to comply.

Going out to access daily essentials have also been challenging as there are restricted access due to the lock down.

Regarding access to information on COVID-19, those with hearing impairment are excluded if the communications are not signed and the visually impaired cannot access the social media graphics which gives daily illustration and updates of cases and prevention tips. Those with intellectual disabilities who require special communication strategies and techniques are also cut off as the messaging do not target them.

Ihuoma Sussan Kelechi, a woman with physical disability lamented that, “Women and Girls with Disabilities, against their wish, are forced to stay at home without being given any consideration. This aggravates the burden of disability on us because most women with disability depend on daily income for survival.”

She explained that despite opportunity to go out to access essential materials, it is more difficult for wheelchair users because, “you are not sure if the person assisting you with your mobility aid has been infected and this makes us more vulnerable.”

Ihuoma explained that the worst of it is the exclusion of Women with Disabilities in decision making and planning by the State Government and thereafter solicited for inclusion to ensure proper and adequate planning for the disability community.

She buttressed that, “all efforts by the government to ameliorate the current challenges occasioned by the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic would be incomplete if the Nigerian Women and Girls with Disabilities are NOT fully included and allowed access into the plans to contain corona virus.

“We are very much affected especially, in this period of shutdown and lockdown, we don’t have mobility to access healthcare facilities and our health is deteriorating.”

Faith Ekienabor, a Blind woman explained that “COVID-19 has affected everyone drastically, now imagine its impact on WWD. There has been a lockdown and as such some women with disabilities who rely on daily income for survival have been affected and the ability to take care of their family has been challenging.

“A Blind person totally depend on a sighted persons for assistance, and with the regulations of social and physical distancing, this has proved a lot of difficulty for Blind persons even when they want to access essential services.

The lockdown has disrupted my MSc. studies, just like most people have been affected, I’m in the house and reading from home so when I return to school, I will be able to cope.

Another woman with physical disability, Abgail Turkson who explained that WWDs should have been engaged and catered for in all the palliatives and relief materials provided by the government because they are mostly affected.

Turkson disclosed that she couldn’t walk a long distance to access the health care facilities.

Deaconess Adedoyin Beyioku-Alase, popularly known as Mama Deaf, said the pandemic gas truly affected everyone but women with disabilities have had to bear the brunt more.

“Truly it affects everyone including me and other women with Disabilities badly because of No movement, staying at home and other difficulties that came with it. It is not easy at all in all spheres of life. May God see us through, Amen

“Women with Disabilities are not carried along, few of us are able to get the stimulus packages through the effort of our JONAPWD Lagos Chairman, Dr. Adebayo which is very small to the Population of PWDs in the state. It is not encouraging at all. Many women with Disabilities are suffering seriously because of this lockdown”, she added.

For women and girls with intellectual disabilities, Mrs. Joko Dawodu Omotola, President of the Association for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities of Nigeria (AIDDN) a Parent Advocacy Group, also explained that girls with disabilities have been affected by COVID-19 and the government has not made adequate provision to cater for them.

She said, “it’s always been said that the government cannot determine/ decide our needs in our absence. Women are disproportionately represented and we are most affected.”

Mrs. Joko explained how girls with intellectual disabilities are affected by coronavirus, noting that, “they are susceptible to COVID-19, because most of them have underlying health conditions e.g. breathing problems, which expose them to Covid-19.

“Lockdown affects their independence. Our girls and women face discrimination, stigmatization, isolation (nobody to relate with), economic isolation which is poverty, exploitation, child labor (since they don’t go to school), abuse; malnutrition and depression which occurs due to worries over health and gender-based violence.”

Speaking on the mode of communications about COVID-19, she explained that, “It’s very difficult for people with intellectual disabilities to receive and understand information on prevention of Covid-19 for lack of assistive devices that will enhance comprehension.”

Kemi Odusanya, a Blind woman corroborated the neglect of women with disabilities in the discourse and said, “I’ve not heard from my women leader and we’ve not been carried along in any way.

Odusanya recommended that, “the support they can provide for us is access to finance, if the government and private organizations can provide financial support for WWDs, it will ameliorate a lot of the problem we are currently faced with.”Video Player00:1400:26

On her part, Ekineabor recommended that “the government and private organization can reduce the effect of COVID 19 on women with disabilities by involving them because ‘nothing for us without us’. Allow women with disability to give preferable interventions themselves, what you think they need might not be what they want. Allow “US” make decisions as it affects us, we’re human beings first before our disabilities.”

Ekineabor also said that, “it took a lot of advocacies before we could get some palliatives which is grossly inadequate for wwd in Lagos state.

“There’s still a whole lot that needs to be done, I would want the government to liaise with clusters and get the database of PWDs and WWDs to provide for them adequately, that would be fair enough.”

Turkson believes that WWDs should be engaged and supported, “our ability is stronger than our disability and we should be engaged at all levels of interventions and programming. Also, financial support should be included for WWDs as many of them have not been generating income and they have financial responsibilities to cater for.”

Mrs. Joko recommended that the government and private organizations can pool funds together to credit the accounts of girls and women with disabilities to help reduce the hardship.

She added that, “government should advance low interest loans with about 4 months moratorium, to empower women with disabilities in order to reduce their economic burden.

“There should also be support for affected women /girls with intellectual disabilities, that have suffered abuse or any gender based violence during the Coronavirus period.”

She added that “funds donated towards the Covid-19 can be better managed by women who are hardworking, knowledgeable and intelligent. This will ensure judicial utilization of the funds.”

Mrs. Beyioku hopes that the government will engage Sign Language interpreters every time they are communicating about COVID-19, so they are adequately involved.

Accessible and inclusive messaging is essential to ensure no one is left behind; the blind, the deaf and persons with intellectual disability should be carried along as they are more vulnerable and need to be aware of all precautionary measures to be taken. (BONEWS)

Extended Lockdown Threatens Livelihoods of Millions

(Abuja) – Nigeria’s federal and state governments should ensure the rights to food, shelter, and other basic necessities for people losing jobs or income during the COVID-19 pandemic. The economic assistance that the government has announced in response to the virus has exposed inadequacies in Nigeria’s social protection systems and risks excluding the country’s poorest and most vulnerable people. 

President Muhammadu Buhari announced on April 13, 2020 that a lockdown, in place since March 30 in Lagos state, neighboring Ogun state, and Abuja, the nation’s capital, would continue for another 14 days. As of April 12, Nigeria had 343 confirmed cases. Several other state governments, including Rivers, Kaduna, and Ekiti, have also initiated full or partial lockdowns.

“Millions of Nigerians observing the COVID-19 lockdown lack the food and income that their families need to survive,” said Anietie Ewang, Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The government needs to combine public health measures with efforts to prevent the pandemic from destroying the lives and livelihoods of society’s poorest and most vulnerable people.” 

Nigeria has the biggest economy in Africa, with gross domestic product per capita of $2,028 in 2018, more than twice that of its neighbors Benin, Chad, or Niger. It is also a highly unequal country. In 2010, the Gini coefficient of income per capita that is used to measure inequality was 49, notably above the international alert line of 40 that warns about the negative social, economic, and political consequences. Economic data suggest that levels of inequality have not improved since.

The lockdown does not apply to those providing essential services, such as food distributors and retailers, including market stalls selling food and groceries, which the government has said can operate for four hours every 48 hours.

The lockdown, however, prevents many Nigerians working in informal sectors from traveling to work or conducting their business. Local food vendors and traders have expressed fears over their ability to feed their families during the lockdown, with their daily earnings their only source of sustenance. An increase in food prices as a result of the lockdown also means that many cannot stock up on necessities.

“The vast majority of people outside of the formal system are hit devastatingly by the lockdown,” said Felix Morka, executive director of the Social Economic Rights Action Center, a Lagos-based nongovernmental organization. “Any disruption to their daily livelihood has a huge and significant impact on their ability to meet their most basic needs.”

The informal sector, in which more than 80 percent of Nigerians work, includes a wide range of occupations, from street traders, taxi drivers, tradesmen, and artisans to food vendors and hairdressers. In Lagos alone, according to research by nongovernmental organizations, 65 percent of the estimated 25 million people work in the informal sector. Informal workers have lower incomes, often do not have savings, health insurance, or pensions that provide a basic social safety net, and 72 percent are poor.

When announcing the lockdown, President Buhari said the government would put in place measures to “preserve the livelihoods of workers and business owners to ensure their families get through this very difficult time in dignity.” He said that “the most vulnerable in our society” would receive conditional cash transfers for the next two months, while Sadiya Umar Farouq, minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development said that food rations would be distributed to vulnerable households.

On April 1, the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry began paying 20,000 Naira (US$ 52) to families registered in the National Social Register of Poor and Vulnerable Households set up by the Buhari administration in 2016 to combat poverty. The government said that each family on the register will receive monthly cash payments for four months.

These payments are likely to reach only a fraction of the Nigerians who will need economic assistance, Human Rights Watch said. Farouq said on March 31 that the National Social Register included 11,045,537 people from 2,644,493 households, far fewer than the over 90 million Nigerians estimated to live in extreme poverty, on less than $1.90 a day. Buhari said on April 13 that the National Social Register would be expanded from 2.6 million households to 3.6 million in the next two weeks.

The government’s failure to disclose key details of the cash transfer program has also cast doubt on how many people it includes and who will benefit, Human Rights Watch said. On April 4, the Social and Economic Rights Accountability Project (SERAP), a nongovernmental organization, filed a freedom of information request seeking details on the government’s relief funds. “We are seriously concerned that millions of the country’s poorest and most vulnerable people have not benefited from the announced palliatives, donations, reported cash payments, cash transfers and other benefits,” the group said. Under Nigeria’s freedom of information law, the government must provide the information within seven days.

On April 8, the government announced that 77,000 metric tons of food will be distributed to vulnerable households affected by the lockdown in Lagos, Ogun, and Abuja, but the modalities for distribution are not yet clear. Buhari has directed the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry to develop a strategy to maintain the school feeding program that, before schools began closing on March 19, the government said fed 9 million pupils across the country. Lagos state’s government also said on March 27 that it would provide food packages to 200,000 households during the lockdown.

Nigeria’s other major economic responses to COVID-19 may not adequately protect the rights of the people most likely to lack adequate food, shelter, and other essentials, Human Rights Watch said. Nigeria’s Central Bank has announced a 50 billion Naira (US$ 128.5 million) targeted credit facility “to support households and micro, small and medium enterprises affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The credit facility, through which households can potentially get up to 3 million Naira loans (US$7,700), requires proof of collateral, such as personal property, which many poor families are unlikely to have. The loans also come with five percent interest initially and nine percent after March 2021. Only 40 million Nigerians, 25 percent of the population, have a bank account.

The House of Representatives on March 24 passed the Emergency Economic Stimulus bill, 2020 to provide a 50 percent tax rebate for employers and business owners who agree to not make staff cuts in 2020. While the bill, if it goes into effect, may prevent job losses in the formal sector, it contains no provisions for informal workers.

Under international human rights law, Nigeria’s government has an obligation to protect people’s right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food and nutrition, the highest attainable standard of health, and the right to social security. In times of economic crisis, countries must demonstrate that they have made every effort to mobilize all available resources, including international assistance, and allocate them in the way that maximizes respect for human rights, including by taking into account the precarious situation of disadvantaged and marginalized individuals or groups. Governments are obligated to ensure access to food, water, health care, and other basic needs for everyone at all times, and in particular those subject to lockdown and other severe restrictions on movement.

Nigeria’s federal government should urgently develop a plan to deliver social and economic assistance to the tens of millions of people who will lose income due to COVID-19, particularly informal workers who lack an adequate social safety net, Human Rights Watch said. Their exclusion from social protections violates their right to social security enshrined in international human rights law. This plan should be developed in consultation with community-based organizations with experience serving people living in poverty.

The government should also clearly communicate its economic relief plans to the public and clarify eligibility, timelines, and procedures.

“Nigeria’s federal and state governments have acknowledged the devastating impact that COVID-19 will have on the food and livelihood sources of the most vulnerable Nigerians,” Ewang said. “Now, they need to deploy more resources, creativity, and transparency to ensure the basic necessities of life for everyone.” (Human rights watch)

While some persons without disabilities have managed to get items distributed as palliatives to cushion the hardship occasioned by the lockdown of the economy, visually impaired individuals have mostly been on the receiving end, according to findings by SaharaReporters through interactions with persons in this category.

Like most Nigerians across the country, the effects of the lockdown put in place by government to curtail the spread of Coronavirus have also left persons with visual impairment with various tales to tell.

Taiwo Amao, a visually impaired man, said he did not get any of the items distributed by some government officials to Ikorodu residents to withstand the hardship brought by the lockdown. A visually impaired manGoogle

He said, “They came to Ikorodu last week. I was told to come but that place was a bit too far from me. There was no way I could make it down with my condition. They should have made special plans for people like us instead of making things more difficult for us.”

Amao went ahead to tell SaharaReporters that taking care of his four children has now become tougher without any income coming in and support missing from the authorities. 

In Ekiti State, Timilehin, a visually impaired school teacher, told our correspondent that he has been forced to remain indoors while interests pile up on a N300,000 loan he borrowed to establish a centre for after-school tutorials in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

Despite boasting of a Master’s degree in International Relations, the young man earns N30,000 working as a teacher under the government’s Npower scheme.

According to him, his monthly income has added no benefit to his life and now the situation has been compounded by the lockdown of the country due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

He said, “It has been a struggle getting palliatives from government since the lockdown came into force in the state where I live.

“Nobody cares for those of us who cannot see with our eyes. We have been left by government to survive on our own and this is not fair to us.”

Chairman of the National Association for the Blind in Lagos, Tunde Mohammed, told SaharaReporters that the mode of getting aid across to persons with special needs had been uncoordinated.

Mohammed said government initiated the process of making relief items available by verifying the details of persons on the state’s residence database – LASRA, but the strategy was not working well.

According to him, the whole palliative distribution in Lagos has been “clumsy, not properly done and                                               has been a failure”.

He said not up to half of the 300 registered members of the association in Lagos have received any relief support yet. (Saharareporters)