Lagos need efficient data to manage emergency situations says NGO

The COVID-19 Emergency Intervention Group in Lagos State has called on state government to proactively address the dearth of workable data and statistics, which can help better economic planning and address people’s needs during emergency situations in future.

Alhaja Baleeques Aiyepola state Coordinator for COVID-19 Emergency Intervention Group in Lagos State and also the founder of Hopewell Initiative for National Development,demonstrated how handwashing should be done intimating them with information on precautionary measures available to prevent getting infected.

“It is high time our government keep data base of households in each area, in order to be able to attend to emergency cases like this.

“Aside that we should also learn to do with the little we have in order to cater for this kind of situation, where the unexpected happens and people need to be asked to stay at home,having imposed movement restriction, we will have the wherewithal to take care of our needs and comply with precautionary measures for our safety given by the government.

“However it is also important that people learn to be honest,so as to ensure the targeted vulnerable individuals are captured,where you have more than one person coming out to collect for an household is not justifiable. It is going to affect the spread of whatever palliative we have, so if we have the database of the number of people in an household it would help a great deal.”

On the plan to sustain the drive to give succour to the vulnerables while the pandemic last, Mrs.Aiyepola gave the itinerary of the group and mapped out approach to reach the targets.

“We are going to work through out the COVID-19 lockdown period and the lockdown relax period, for now we are working in all the local governments in Lagos state.

“As at now we have covered seven local governments,namely Ikoyi Obalende,Eti-osa,Amuwo Odofin,Epe,and today we have done Lagos Island,Shomolu,Alimosho,Ifako Ijaiye and we will do Lagos Mainland tomorrow. So every day there would be activities in every local governments.

“This will be done concurrently in order to do sensitisation, because we believe palliative is one sensitisation is another thing.

“If you have food and you are not informed about how you can prevent the spread then the communal recurrence will be a continual thing.

“And our focus is to stop recurrence of communal spread within our communities by giving them palliatives.
So we believe that if we give you palliative and educate you on how to stop the spread, it will also help us to be able to relax this lockdown and stop the spread of COVID-19.

“Government should use the CSO Emergency Intervention Group that has a spread in all local governments because we are working with the CDC and CDA together and with this structure we can reach out to the grassroots,we understand the people, we speak their language because we are based in communities grassroots voluntary, non profit organisation in Lagos state.

“I believe we have the network it should not be politicized,or based on partisanship or religious sentiment because this is a group of people both NGO’S working together with a common goal.

She also counseled the people to maintain good hygiene,keep safe and follow the precautionary measures, while they adhere to government directives and manage whatever palliative they have.

Mrs Matilda Otitoloju,Project Coordinator for Iyaniwura Children Care Foundation and CSO 1 for the group, urge people to be more honest so as to have a seamless distribution networks of palliatives to the have nots.

“Our’s is a network of NGO’S that are volunteering to support the distribution of palliative food packages to the grassroots,the disadvantaged communities.

“Yes a lot of people are saying the palliative is not getting to them but I just feel our people are sometimes greedy,you will see in a household of three people coming out to get palliatives for the same household;mother,father and daughter how would you expect the palliatives to go round?

“That informs why we have the CDA’s,the representative of the local government Chairman to give us a guide and checkmate the activities of people pilfering.

“Where you have five people coming out from an household several other households will not get,because we have a target number for each local government.

“For instance we brought 150 to this community we have another 150 for another community and I am sure that the number of people that really need this food are not up to 150 here, however the pilfering make it not to go round.

“We have also visited the hospitals to help people who cannot pay their bills and the children with disabilities. What we did is we know this children with more of intellectual disabilities, who need 24 hours care and it is so difficult for their parents to leave them at home in search of this palliative support, so we asked that you bring your children for us to be sure you have children with disabilities.

“We will give your child behind whom you stand and your child hands it over to you,we have been able to feed about 150 of this kind of children in Somolu with raw food stuffs,garri, rice and beans.

“We have sponsors,one of which is Union Dynamics owned by Chikezie Dozie,Niger Classique Nigeria limited,Iyaniwura Children Care Foundation we have supported through the board of directors, Grand la’frique a club in Ikoyi VI have also supported,they catered for the homeless in eleven local governments, cooked food food them and we dispatched about 5,000 food packages to the streets,the homeless people in Mushin, Eti Osa, Lagos Island. So far we say glory be to God that we have been able to touch you could see it in the prayers and joy of the people receiving this things.

“We have also given out food twice to people with disabilities who were stranded at the National stadium. We sensitize people on the need for prevention of Coronavirus, letting them come to terms with the fact that is real as many people feel it is been politicized.

“We demonstrated to them how they should comport themselves, you could see it here now, how I asked everybody to go and get the face mask or else they will not be able to get the palliatives.
” It is just a way to tell our people that this pandemic is real and we need to protect our families and the nation as a whole.

“Nigeria needs more helping hands as the lockdown subsists because even those who were holding on before are now feeling the pinch,we find out that they don’t really have much so we reached out to the low income earners as well.

Comrade Rotimi Ogunmuyiwa, founder of Truebright Children Need Initiative which assist the less privileged,cater for down syndrome children and out of school children, mirrored the ills in the system while calling for more hands to help reach out to as many who are truly vulnerable.

“This Coronavirus issue make us to know that there is a leveler, now there is no difference between the poor and the rich people and this has brought a lot of problems it affects the poor people,mostly the rich people can still survive because they have much more to depend on.

“Now you can see you have money in the banks but you can’t even go to withdraw if you cannot do transfer, and you don’t have the application with which you make money easily then you are in trouble, if you are burrowing money automatically you would have been tired, because it is a month plus now and putting food on the table is a big,big,problem.

“You can see the palliatives they are using in the advance country and how they are managing the situation there, look at it Lagos state is giving five dericas of rice, beans and other assorted items.

“Well honesty is lacking here people are pilfering it forgetting that the Lagos State food stamp and logo is there,they are muddling it up,sharing it into two,two dericas that shows the kind people and level we find ourselves, but nevertheless I think we are learning and still have a long way to go.

“If we depend on government we are deceiving ourselves let everybody start thinking of what to do, what can you do for your people,for yourself people are coming out to give, with what the government is doing now a lot of people are complaining it means that government has not done anything to them.

“In the north they said they are sharing money,if such money is given to people now they will spend it to offset their debts and back to level zero but the little raw food given can help a lot. ”