The Socialist Party of Nigeria, SPN Oyo State Chapter, has called on the state Leadership of NLC and TUC to rise to the occasion and stop any move by the government to put the lives of workers in the state at risk.
Recall that Seyi Makinde-led government had planned to reopen the state secretariat on the 20th April, 2020 for the return of the daily activities of civil servants in the state.
This was contained in a press statement credited to the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Taiwo Adisa.
Mr. Adisa was quoted to have said that “We have made arrangement to decontaminate the Oyo State secretariat and this will take place next week between Monday April, 13th and Wednesday April 15th. Thereafter the secretariat will be opened on Monday, April 20th”. Other relevant issues raised in the statement include the decision by government to “explore the home-grown solution towards the prevention and cure of COVID-19” and “establish two additional testing center so as to ensure that up to 10,000 people in Oyo state are tested for COVID-19 within the shortest possible time”.
The party said “SPN welcomes the plan to decontaminate the secretariat, even though we are worried that it could end up being another window to loot the public fund. However, we fault the decision by the state government to reopen the secretariat immediately after its decontamination as we believe that this will unnecessarily endanger the life of workers with the rising numbers of cases of COVID-19 in the state. Therefore, we demand from the leadership of NLC and TUC, in the state for a concrete response against this moves by the state government in order to ensure that the life and interest of mass of the workers in the state are adequately protected.
“It will be recalled that the decision that workers should proceed on compulsory two weeks holiday was taken at a stage the number of cases of COVID-19 in the state was one. It is our belief that this decision was obviously conceived to limit the scale of physical interactions among mass of workers with a view to contain the spread of the virus in the state.
“If workers can be asked to proceed on compulsory holiday when one case of COVID-19 was recorded in the state, we strongly believed that it will be unthinkable and act of insensitivity if the same government should proceed with the plan to reopen the secretariat for workers to resumes now that the number of COVID-19 cases officially reported in the state has increased exponentially from one to eleven with likely cases of community transmission of the virus among the workers and poor in the state following the irresponsible conduct of Mr David Adeleke popularly known as Davido and Mr Taye Adebisi known as Currency. These artistes who were supposed to be in a self-isolation but went ahead to perform in different shows attended by hundreds of people in Ibadan against the earlier government order that no gathering above 50 people should be allowed within the period.
“Given this background, it’s most likely that, if the facilities to conduct mass testing for COVID-19 have been available and accessible to workers and poor in all the 33 local government area in the state, the accurate number of cases of people infected with COVID-19 in the state could have been detected and ascertained such that the actual number of cases might have been more than the figure reported by the NCDC.
“Unfortunately, as things stand in the state today, just a single diagnosing centre is available to test the cases of COVID-19 for a population of over 6million people in the state. This is quite ridiculous and raises a huge doubt over the veracity of the huge amount of 1 billion Naira the state government has so far claimed to have spent on its effort to curtail the spread of the virus in the state. It is in the light of this unfortunate shortage of facilities for mass testing that, we welcome the government plan to establish additional two testing centers to increase the number in the state to three.
“However, even if these two additional testing centres are eventually established, it will still be inadequate for a population of over 6million people, this is the reason we believe that except there is adequate provision of facilities for mass testing that will be accessible to all citizens without any form of discrimination across the 33 local government areas in the State, only the rich and the privileged persons in the State will continue to be tested for COVID-19.
“It is in the light of this, we of the SPN call for adequate provision of facilities for mass testing across the 33 LGA in order to guarantee a non-discriminatory testing for COVID-19 for all citizens
“SPN also notes the plan by the Engr, Seyi Makinde-led Government to embark on mass testing of up to 10,000 people for COVID-19 within the shortest possible time in the State. If this happens, it will definitely be an improvement over the current situation where less than a thousand people with majority who are privileged persons in the society were given the opportunity to access the test. However, it is also important to say that this kind of improvement will be extremely insignificant and a negligible proportion when compared to the population of over 6 million people that are eligible to be tested in the State. Again, we hope that this pronouncement is not just a mere propaganda instrument like several others the regime often use to deepen false impression that it is a working people friendly Government and different from previous pro-capitalist governments in the state.
“Engr Seyi Makinde-led government also claimed in the statement credited to the spokesperson that it will explore a home grown and local solution to prevent and cure COVID-19. This is a welcome idea as long as it is not conceived to undermine or downplay the relevance or validity of the measures like social distancing, mass testing, isolation, use of preventive gear like face masks, glove and sanitizers recommended by the WHO and scientists and whose effectiveness have been globally certified for a relative containment of COVID-19. However, we strongly believe that a government that will seriously explore a home grown solution towards the containment of COVID-19 should have by now demonstrated such seriousness through its approach and attitude towards the validated and tested globally accepted measures.
“This is why we hold that the best way Engr Seyi Makinde-led government can demonstrate its capacity and seriousness for its aspiration to explore local solution for the cure of COVID-19 is to commence the process of making available facilities for mass testing and decent isolation centers, and provide sanitation and clean water in all the 33 local government areas in the state. This also means that all the general hospitals in the state must be upgraded, equipped and adequately staffed so as to ensure proper treatment of whosoever might have been infected with the virus.
“Anything short of this approach will mean that the pronouncement by the Engr Seyi Makinde-led government over the plan to explore local solution to prevent and cure COVID-19 is nothing but just a mere propaganda.”
