Coronavirus Disease, Health Care and Safety
The directives by the governments in Nigeria (both at the Federal and State levels) to the generality of the people to stay indoors in order to prevent further spreading of CORONA VIRUS have attracted comments from both the governmental, academic, and media circles. Some comments in the media take the position that disobedience to such orders borders on LACK OF PATRiOTISM while others believe that the government of modern times has it as a responsibility to save lives. The reactions of the people themselves to the executive order of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria against the closure of the Federal Capital, Lagos and Ogun States (where the reported cases appear to be high) and the tendency to see the situations in the Western countries to be different require an examination. While the classical Marxian explanation will tend to look at the issue of this nature within a particular society, the Neo-Marxian conception allows a comparative analysis. The Centre-Periphery proposition tries to examine the CLOSENESS that exists between the centre and periphery of the CENTRE as opposed to the lack of this between the centre and periphery of the PERiPHERY. In other words, the closer LINKAGE that exists between the RULING CLASS and the MASSES in technologically-advanced countries facilitates GOVERNANCE; while the lack of such linkage explains what looks like CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE in the less-developed nations. To a typical neo-Marxist, the latter situation is EXPLOITATIVE of the masses and when a situation arises that requires cooperation from them, they tend to appear uncooperative! It is in this light that one can understand the present scenario. Why the ready acceptance of the STAY-AT-HOME order in Western countries? Why is the same order requires FORCE to implement in a place like Nigeria? Admittedly, majority of the people in less -developed countries earn their living from the INFORMAL SECTOR of the economy. Their presence there requires a lot of devotion to their trade and TIME necessary to attend to their customers. Their absence when they are needed could mean lack of INCOME to satisfy their domestic needs. More importantly, their perception of the government as being indifferent to their needs and the monumental corruption in government circles made ready cooperation with any governmental directives difficult to achieve except FORCE is used to enforce compliance. What then are the governments to do in order to achieve necessary cooperation from the people? At the present moment, probably the only thing that brings the people closer to the RULING CLASS is their vote. After that, and until the next four years when their votes are needed again, their representatives may not be seen again in their constituencies. The ongoing efforts to control CORONA VIRUS from spreading and the DONATIONS to the FUND specially set up for the purpose by the RULING CLASS are seen by many people as being COSMETIC! What is required is the need to instil necessary CONFIDENCE in the people by using the revenue of the governments to provide necessary BASIC AMENITIES for their welfare. The distance between the RULING CLASS and the people MUST be narrowed. Closer linkage between the governments of the West and the people explains ready acceptance of directives meant to make governance easier without resorting to the use of FORCE.
