By Mideno Bayagbon
The last two weeks have been all about Kano State. News stories from there have riled the national consciousness, upped our fears, and showcased us as still an unserious bunch of buffoons. First was the dramatic upswing in the number of positive cases of the Coronavirus pandemic in the State.
From 16 cases two Wednesdays back, the numbers have jumped so dramatically that, to the fear of all, Kano has become the New York or Wuhan, the epicentre of the Coronavirus pandemic here; the only difference being that New York and Wuhan had capacity to deal with such an existential threat.
Unbelievably, the news that came out on Sunday evening indicate that as many as 80 percent of those tested are returning positive results. The presidential team has also pointed out that contrary to the State Governor’s assertion, the unexplained deaths ravaging the State can be traced to the pandemic.
According to the head of the team, Dr Nasiru Gwarzo, sent to Kano State by President Muhammadu Buhari, Kano currently has a high rate of community transmission of the virus.
In his words, “What we are afraid of in this pandemic is what is happening. The pandemic has left the first stage of entering the country. It has left the second stage and has entered the third stage of community spread. This is not news that will be palatable to the public but like a Hausa proverb says, ‘on the day you are to take a bath, you cannot hide your navel’.”
If this is true, then we are all in serious trouble. Those who predict that as many as one million people could die of the pandemic in Nigeria might be proved right. But then, God forbid.
Like the typical Nigerian, all our hopes now are channelled towards a divine intervention. If not, how does one explain the action of the Governor of the State, who despite the severity of the case has lifted the presidential lockdown on the State. Like a comic would say, Governor Ganduje has told the people of Kano State to go and die! A bastardised, incompetent leader on full display!
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The fear is, the federal authorities left it too late before stepping in to curtail the grandiose incompetence of the Governor and his team. It took the death of a collage of 15 Emirs, Professors and other prominent indigenes of the State, in a hellish 24 hours, to finally push Abuja to step in. The unexplained deaths of over 640 ordinary folks a week earlier didn’t quite raise the alarm bell strong enough. But for cemetery attendants who drew attention to the unusual high number of bodies brought for burial, the government was blissfully unaware.
As in the case of the worrying spike in the number of the COVID-19 victims, the State Government and its Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, unprepared and unable to act, helplessly looked away. By his Government’s own admission, over a hundred people were dropping dead daily, yet their deaths were explained away, by a curiously unconcerned Governor, as having nothing to do with Coronavirus but more to do with cerebral meningitis, and other diseases by audio autopsy.
Pointedly, however, since the pandemic made a landfall in Kano State, reputed as the most populous State in Nigeria, it has been a tale of one costly mistake after another. Practically no preparation was made before the index case, who subsequently died, landed in the State. No isolation centres, no ventilators, no man power, no containment strategy.
This was clearly shown when the test lab in Kano was shut by the Government for decontamination after serial infections of staff. This also came shortly after some members of the State COVID-19 containment committee, including the co-chairman, tested positive for the virus. Nothing highlights the State’s shoddy preparation than the fact that little or nothing seems to be in place to tackle the pandemic in such a densely populated State.
Perhaps the most vivid capture of the looming implosion in the State was raised in a viral audio message early last week. All who listened to the heart stopping cry of an Abuja based, 70 years old Fatima Ahmed, whose son in-law died of COVID-19 infection in Kano, knew the State and indeed Nigeria was heading for serious disaster. Her case truly showcases the calamity awaiting the nation in Kano. If her claim is to be believed, her son-in-law would not have died if the health authorities in Kano and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had responded to failed calls put to their lines.
As we all know, the Kano Government had shut down every activity related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the State after a spate of infections of some of those involved, and the absence of facilities to test and treat patients.
According to her, even efforts to get the NCDC to contact the family of the deceased and test them for the virus and possibly quarantine them for treatment were unfruitful. Somehow, the power of social media eventually moved the authorities, first to move the family of the deceased to Abuja for testing and quarantine, and also to urgently take steps to move in to stem the ugly tide swooping unchallenged on the State.
Thank God the NCDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) have sent an intervention team to Kano, where the COVID-19 virus is sweeping across with a vehemence matched only by the incompetence of the Government in Kano. The Governor, of course is busy playing politics with the pandemic and hiding his annoying incompetence in a call for Abuja to give his State N15 billion bailout to fight the virus. Other than that, Governor Ganduje had maintained a curious silence, until Sunday afternoon, when he reluctantly admitted that Kano was indeed in serious trouble.
His late realization and admission of the deep trouble staring Kano in the face notwithstanding, Governor Ganduje’s incompetence has become the albatross of the North. Most index cases now are either those from deported almajiris or returnees from Kano. Most States bordering Kano have had their territories invaded by Kano returnees, who are busy spreading the virus. Kano State has become the national leprous finger.
As it has now become clear, the incompetence of one man, whose high office and responsibility should have tackled the pandemic more vigorously and systematically, has opened the door to a foretold devastation. It has also enthroned as prophets the deposed Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, and his bosom friend, the gadfly of Kaduna, Nasir El-Rufai. Today, like they warned, the almajiri scourge, left unattended, has become the albatross, the keg of gunfire set to implode and devastate not just Kano, but a large patch of northern Nigeria.
The above notwithstanding, I am still mystified by the absolute lack of capacity and compassion on the part of the 70 years old Governor Ganduje, who despite the tsunami invading his homestead, found solace, it turned out, recently, in abetting the kidnap and forceful conscription of two under-aged Christian girls into Islam, an event he staged with so much fanfare and gusto. One would be forgiven in thinking he was celebrating the defeat of the invading virus, that he has found a solution to the grim harvest of deaths.
The heavy media presence, the celebratory rhetorics were that of a man who has done something untoward, who has stared the enemy down the pit of hell and emerged victorious, not that of a Governor who swore to uphold the constitution of Nigeria, who pledged to do all in his power to safeguard the lives and properties of the people of Kano State. Perhaps he timed it so since the national attention was on the sorrow of deaths of the common and noble which drown this perfidy in an ocean of unshed tears.
One can now understand why he was forever at loggerheads with the cerebral, deposed Emir Sanusi, who did not suffer fools gladly. One can now truly be in the shoes of the Emir, and why he could not accord an iota of respect to this Governor apparently promoted to his level of stupendous incompetence. What a monumental disaster Ganduje has carelessly swam his people in.
