On the front-line, in the fight against the corona virus in Africa, many health-care givers have been infected with the virus and some have paid the ultimate price of death in the defense of the African hinterland against an invincible enemy which we have been made to believe is vicious and lethal. This has been the same story in other parts of the world, and I would like to join humanity to express my immense gratitude to all health workers risking their lives and working around the clock at these crucial and challenging times in the history of mankind.
However we need to give accolades to additional
combatant units also engaging this atrocious virus and the vicious invincible
enemy which has taking mankind by the jugular, without plans of letting go. As
we battle the virus we are also fighting fear, despair and cruel despots; men
who are taking advantage of our collective misery to expand their individual
gains and unreasonable aspirations.
In Africa, the lock-down of major cities persists and
economic activities have been crippled to enormous extents. Majority of the
African population have been pushed into an economic warfare and a race for
survival. The sources of income of most people in urban and rural areas in
Africa are closed and the individual financial responsibilities are creating
concerns as they continue without any reasonable palliative or subsidies from
government.
A great percentage of the African hinterland is a
subsistence economy of farmers, artisans and small scale producers. The
informal economic sectors are way larger than the formal economy. Even though in
the last two decades positive advances
in financial inclusions and growth of the formal economic sectors, the informal
economic sector accounts for over 75% of all employment on the continent.
The priorities of African governments and policy
makers of the global community should be methodologies to cushion the effects
of the extensive economic lock-downs. It is the responsibilities of African governments
to protect the vulnerable from the absolute impact of the crisis and also to
offer basic services to people who are quarantined.
It is obvious that African countries do not have
equal financial capacities compared with more developed countries in Europe,
Asia and America to offer extensive financial and economic palliatives to alleviate
the impact of the pandemic. The wealthier countries have a wider range of
policy options for allocating palliatives and income substitution to residents
of their countries. However since most African countries do not have the
financial muscle to substitute lost incomes, there must be an alternative
option to alleviate living conditions of vulnerable people from government
imposed economic and social restrictions.
The majority of Africans live in pseudo - urban and
unadorned rural settlements that are deprived of basic amenities like access to
portable water, constant electricity, basic healthcare and many facilities and
amenities for a suitable standard of living. It is therefore obvious that in
normal times most of African communities are already in a broken state and
therefore it would be cruel to lock-down this communities without making a
functional plan for some forms of income substitution and social protection
programs.
Sadly the main tool for the enforcement of the
lock-down in most parts of Africa is the use of brutal force. This approach is
the cheapest but with very heavy costs. The risks of this approach are very
high as we have seen in many instances across the continent. For example
Nigeria has lost more people to police brutality while enforcing the lock-down
than it has from the coronavirus.
The South African police are investigating at
least 50 cases of unlawful police action during this lock-down season which
includes at least 10 deaths. Kenya police have killed more than 12 people by
direct actions of brutality while enforcing restrictions. Much more have died
as a result of the curfew and the fear that the police force pedals.
The response to social welfare and stimulus to
coronavirus related restrictions and lock-downs across different places in Africa has
been wide-ranging and diverse. It has been exemplary in some countries and in
other countries it’s been deplorable. In Rwanda a social protection plan is
been implemented which includes food delivery to over 20 thousand households.
Even though this is not enough to adequately compensate people for the
interruption of their regular economic activities and tackle food insecurity
during this coronavirus lock-down.
It is
commendable as a positive action that can grow further. In Tunisia the
government is distributing 450 million dinars, about 155 million US dollars in
financial aid to poor families and Tunisians who have lost their jobs due to
the corona virus pandemic. Ghana who is the first African country to loosen economic
and social restrictions has deployed 1.2 billion Ghanaian Cedis, about 210
million US dollars to cushion the effects of the virus on households and businesses,
out of which 280 million Ghanaian Cedis, about 49 million US dollars is been
used to provide food and water. The Ghanaian government is also subsidizing
electricity bills by as much as 50% in some cases.
There have also been massive
donations by individuals, corporate organizations, and Churches to governments
and sometimes directly to the vulnerable and the mostly affected by the economic
and social restrictions that is common with the corona virus pandemic. These donations
raise another set of concerns especially in cases where it was donated through
governments. There are suspicions that most of these donations have been transferred
to private wallets and cronies of political office holders.
These suspicions
could be assumptions in a lot of cases and it could also have some grounds of
proof as we saw in the case of a Nigerian Senator who alleged that the committee
set-up to distribute palliatives to Nigerians was only distributing the relief
funds amongst themselves. The authorities have denied these allegations and
even called the senator a discontented politician. However the burden of proof
lies with the Nigerian authorities to explain how 100 billion Naira, about 263
million US dollars was distributed through a method where receipts of funds cannot
be verified.
It’s an act of irresponsibility
for any government to impose economic and social restrictions without making
provisions to absorb a fraction of the impact the restrictions would have on
the residents. African governments should have been proactive to initiate palliative
regimes that would have stopped rents, interest, penalties and utility bill
payments to cushion the effects of the lock-down.
The major concerns of our
collective humanity in times of great agony are essentials of life such as
food, water and medicine and in times like this any demands from creditors of
payments of interests or penalties and rents is also a great concern to our
humanity. It’s an issue of great concern that demands from creditors are not
going on holiday when economic activities are stalled
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