Coronavirus, Lockdown And Prospective Hunger To Vulnerable Nigerians

Murtala Maikano

 

The informal sector, in which more than 80 percent of Nigerians work, includes a wide range of occupations from street traders, taxi drivers, tradesmen, and artisans to food vendors and hairdressers. In Lagos alone, according to research by nongovernmental organization, 65 percent of the estimated 25 million people work in the informal sector. Informal workers have lower incomes, often don’t have savings, health insurance, and or pensions that provide a basic social safety net, and 72 percent are poor.

 

Investigation by this medium, confirmed that millions of Nigerians observing the Covid-19 lockdown especially in urban centres lack the food and incomes that their family need to survive, this necessitated many number of people living in urban communities migrated to their relatives in rural areas in order to save their family from the hunger pandemic.

 

Nigerian authorities need to create new measures and ensure prompt implementation so as to prevent the pandemic from destroying the lives and livelihoods of society’s poorest and most vulnerable people.

 

In the period of lockdown, there’s need for Nigerian government to ensure rights to food, shelter and other basic necessities for people losing jobs or incomes during the Covid-19 pandemic. Because the economic assistance that the government has announced in response to Coronavirus has exposed the incapacity of government to properly handle prevent the masses from the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic

 

This medium learnt that, the lockdown, however, prevents many Nigerians working in informal sector from travelling to work or conducting their business. Many local food vendors and traders have expressed fears over their ability to feed their family during lockdown. An increase in food prices as a result of the lockdown also means that many cannot stock up on necessities.