By Senibo Chris Finebone
As Rivers State entered the second day of the total
lockdown announced by Governor Nyesom Wike, many continue to question the
strategic objectives of the painful and costly exercise by the government on
the citizenry. Neither the governor nor his advisers seem to provide any clue
as to what the benefits are derivable from the total lockdown.
Meanwhile, make no mistake, anyone should support
lockdown that has clear strategy. Covid-19 as a virus does not move on its own,
people move it.
.
However, good fortune seems to have smiled at the
people as the governor inadvertently gave away the lack of any imaginable
strategy to benefit from the lockdown. All that is obvious now is that it is
merely the egotistic pursuit by the governor to satisfy his whimsical, capricious
and imperial power cravings.
After the governor made a flyover assessment of the
success of the lockdown by helicopter on the first day, journalists asked him
to rate the success which he gleefully scored 95 percent. Another intelligent
follow-up question came when the journalists wanted to know when the lockdown
would be eased. That was when the bubble burst. That was when the Genie was let
out of the bottle.
Much to the surprise of everyone present or watching
from home on television or listening on radio, the governor announced that all
he wanted was to see that the lockdown was obeyed. He said that as soon as he
was convinced that the lockdown was obeyed he would ease it. This left me and
many others aghast. Just like that? Does it mean that as soon as people obeyed
the lockdown then Covid-19 would have taken flight and disappeared?
Many well-meaning people and residents of Rivers
State believe that this latest all round lockdown of Port Harcourt and
Obio/Akpor LGAs will provide opportunity for the State Government to lay out
its plans to ramp up testing; outline modalities for the provision and wearing
of face masks and other measures moving forward in the next phase of the war
against Coronavirus. It was therefore a huge shock when the governor
re-iterated that he would ease the lockdown as soon as he was satisfied that
people obeyed the order. Not because any real mileage is won against the
marauding virus but just the satisfaction of one man's self-delusional ego.
For now, many have sadly concluded that the
lockdown, for which many residents of PHALGA and Obio/akpor LGAs are made to
scrounge through, is based on no plan, no strategic objective except the
vaingloriously pursuit of one man's egocentric hankering.
Senibo Chris Finebone is the former State Publicity Secretary, Rivers APC.
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