The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) says it is discussing with the World Bank as a development partner to support a post-COVID-19 scheme that aims to put N5,000 to each household in 200,000 households in the country.
“The governors consider that beyond emergency mode, we must think about post-COVID-19 era. We must plan for life after the virus. That is why we are restructuring the budgets of the states. Just few hours ago, I was speaking with our development partners, the World Bank, on social protection for the 36 states for a scheme that would put N5,000 in the hands of a household (poor and vulnerable) for 18 months. This will amount to $50m per state for 18 months,” Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti and chairman of NGF, said.
He spoke on Ibim Semenitari’s facebook YouTube programme Thursday evening (April 2 2020) from isolation which was made available to BusinessDay.
He disclosed that $50m would go to each of the 36 states in a scheme to tackle hunger after the crisis. “We at the NGF have considered that social protection/intervention is important. In Ekiti State, we already have a scheme for widows, the youth, etc. On the Coronavirus issue, we have given relief to 30,000 households in a few days so far. We paid salaries for March on 25th. There is also a part of conditional social payment,” Fayemi said.
Speaking more on hunger, the governor who is now testing negative for Coronavirus, said: “Many people say that the looming crisis as a result of COVID-19 could be called HUNGERVID-20. They are asking how the governors are planning to handle hunger in the face of the fact that most persons are daily-income earners that eat only after each day’s work and we are saying ‘do not go out”.
Femi said this was a legitimate concern to the governors, noting however that every literature he had read on this matter recommended the use of shock therapy so as to suffer once and hope to escape the bigger problem. The shock therapy he said was the closure of borders, restriction of movement or total lockdown.
“Yet, we are only applying half measure such as partial lockdown like people selling in front of their houses and avoid crowding and touching. Do not imperil social distancing objective,” he noted.
Reacting on how to convince the masses on the need to isolate and keep distances including social distancing, the NGF boss said: “I agree that communication is an issue and that is my special area. Many want to know how we can drill the message down so that the ordinary folks can buy into it.
The governor agreed that it was difficult to effect a change in people’s lifestyles such as asking a Nigerian not to backslap, hug, and shake hands. For now, he said, COVID-19 still “sounds Greek to the people. No Okada rider or farmer has died. So, it’s not for them, not their portion. This is affecting the seriousness of the message. Nigerians believe in touching. So, until it touches them, they won’t believe the messages”.
Source: Businessdayng
