By CHIMA NWAFO

Governments worldwide are taking tough decisions and decisive actions, subject to local impact, to contend with the accelerating spread of the coronavirus global pandemic. Such measures include mass production and immediate supply of the protective equipment required by frontline workers, including the all-important testing kits. But such cannot be sincerely said of the giant of Africa, Nigeria.

With only two fatalities and about 171 confirmed cases (as at time of writing), it was interesting to read from The Nation of Thursday, a list of about 35 “activities and steps already taken and still being taken by various agencies and government functionaries to push back the spread of the deadly Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic,” authored by President Muhammadu Buhari’s Media Adviser, Femi Adesina. As would be expected, not one item borders on local production of any of the items used or required to combat the virus nor a conclusive palliative for the highly impoverished citizenry now either locked down or held up in a dusk-to-dusk curfew. In the Nigerian context, we can always count on friendly nations for supplies while the populace are charged to make sacrifices. Nigerians are not fooled by so-called donation from salaries that may not have been touched in five years given the magnanimity of the allowances.

Interestingly, same Thursday, in Enugu, came this report: “The National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) at the Enugu State University Teaching Hospital (ESUTH), Parklane, Wednesday, embarked on a peaceful protest, demanding sufficient protective equipment for them. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the nurses were seen singing songs, asking the State Government to provide Personal Protective Equipment, including hand sanitisers, face masks and hand gloves to fight (help them) the coronavirus.”

Recall that some weeks ago, the Nigerian Medical Association embarked on a nation-wide strike for similar reason. All they received was moral suasion without any guarantee of when their need will be met. As stated last week, in Naija, governments at all levels thrive on words devoid of action.

Contrariwise, when the city of New York, under Democrats, became the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States, Mayor Bill de Blassio, cried out and even lambasted President Donald Trump for not reacting early to their plight. According to The Atlantic Daily of March 27, the President responded immediately, despite the media badgering and in Nigeria what is an opposition state.

“President Trump called New York City Mayor, Bill de Blassio, and during the 30-minute encounter he appealed to the president for: Ventilators, hospital beds, face masks, gowns, and other supplies New York City need immediately ‘as it becomes the frightening epicentre of covid-19 in US.’ Within 24 hours, the required materials plus 400 other items arrived the city, with hundreds more on the way.”

This characteristic rapid response was possible because none of the items would be imported. He conferred with his second-in-command same night and both agreed.

In the United Kingdom, the NHS makes the demand on behalf of the whole country’s hospitals and isolation centres, including Scotland and Wales. Early in the week, the NHS asked for more ventilators. From one production company, the government rose to the demand. City AM reported that by March 31, thousands rolled off the assembly line to reach hospitals next week. Cabinet Office Minister Michael Grove told the medium that they’ll add (the expected consignment) to the 8,000 ventilators already in the NHS.

Meanwhile, a UK company, Novacyt, through its subsidiary, Primedesign, in Southampton, England, is reported to have made 17.8 million pounds in sales of its Covid-19 testing kits equipment being exported to more than 80 countries, but only one million pounds’ worth was sold to Britain. Reason: Britain doesn’t have enough labs to use the kits. Sad, despite Boris Johnson’s efforts, on Thursday Daily Mirror reported that UK’s corona virus death toll rose to 2, 921, after 569 patients died in 24 hours – the highest day-on-day increase since the outbreak began.

And in China, where the coronavirus began, the country did not only contain it, she successfully checkmated the spread so effectively that despite China’s huge population the fatality in Italy and Spain had already exceeded China’s. Today, China is exporting testing kits, ventilators, etc., to industrialised Europe as well as dependent consuming nations of Africa. That is a product of vision, creative thinking and hard work – all of which seem to be missing in Adesina’s list of 35 “activities and steps already taken and still being taken….”

As the coronavirus crisis eases in China, it has begun to ramp up its mask production. This has become another example of the world’s reliance on China as a manufacturing hub, reports Finbarr Bermingham and Su-Lin Tan, of the Inkstone Newsletter.

“The Liu family factory has been making diapers and baby products in the Chinese city of Quanzhou for over 10 years. In February, for the first time, it started making face masks, as demand soared spectacularly due to the coronavirus outbreak. The business – which employs 100 people in the southeastern province of Fujian – has added two production lines to make up to 200,000 masks a day.

And while the decision was primarily commercial, ‘encouragement’ from the Chinese government – in the form of subsidies, lower taxes, interest-free loans, fast-track approvals for expansion and help to alleviate labor shortages. The government is advocating an expansion in production, Liu said. “With faster approvals, producers need to prioritise the government’s needs over exports.”

“The factory is one of thousands of refitted pop-ups around China that are making masks and other protective equipment for the first time, part of a massive industrial drive to respond to the spread of the coronavirus,” Inkstone revealed.

In what could be termed the other side of a democracy, Reuters reported that Trump is considering invoking the emergency provisions of the Defence Production Act, which would allow the government to instruct companies to alter production to help address the domestic shortage of medical supplies like masks. “If a company is producing 20 per cent N95 Masks and 80 per cent standard masks, the White House could order them to rejig the ratio”, an unnamed official said.

On its part, before the outbreak, China, a controlled government, “which already made about half of the world’s supply of masks, at a rate of 20 million units a day, has raised production to 116 million as of February 29”, China’s state planning agency disclosed. “This exponential jump is the result of a wartime-like shift in industrial policy, with Beijing directing its powerful state-owned enterprises to lead the nationwide mask-making effort, and the country’s sprawling manufacturing engine following their lead.”

“For me, this is the big advantage of China, THE SPEED, said Thomas Schmitz”, president of the China branch of Austrian engineering giant, Andritz, which has seen a big uptick in demand for its wet wipe-making machines in recent weeks, also due to the virus. “When you need to run, people know how to run, and this is something which has been lost in other countries since their industrial heydays.”

China’s dominance in manufacturing has become all the more evident as the rest of the world scrambles to shore up their own dwindling medical supplies, leading many to wonder why the world is so dependent on it for vital supplies.

And more disturbing is the fact that neither peace nor emergency, economic prosperity nor recession moves our leaders to change their approach to issues, so long as their robust and sinecure jobs are protected. In Nigerian public office, no one is paid to think. And that is why the nation stinks.

•Nwafo, Consulting Editor, News Express/Environmental Analyst, can be reached on: chi_dafo@yahoo.com; +2348029334754

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