"Reopening State Secretariat With Rising COVID-19 Cases Will Endanger Workers' Lives", SPN Tells Makinde

As the Oyo State Government plans to decontaminate and reopen the state secretariat on 20^th April, the Socialist Party of Nigeria, SPN has called on the state Leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress “to rise to the occasion and stop any move by the government to put the lives of workers in the state at risk”.

The party made its stand known in a statement signed by the state secretary, Ayodeji Adigun. Reacting to a press statement issued by Taiwo Adisa, the Governor’s Chief Press Secretary on the reopening, the party welcomed the plan to decontaminate the secretariat.

It however expressed worry that “it could end up being another window to loot public funds. We fault the decision by the state government to reopen the secretariat immediately after its decontamination as we believe that this will unnecessarily endanger the life of workers with the rising numbers of cases of COVID-19 in the state”. The party thereafter called on the leadership of NLC and TUC in the state to come up with a concrete response against the move by the state government in order to ensure that the lives and interests of workers in the state are adequately protected.

“It will be recalled that the decision that workers should proceed on compulsory two weeks holiday was taken at a stage the number of cases of COVID-19 in the state was one. It is our belief that this decision was obviously conceived to limit the scale of physical interactions among mass of workers with a view to contain the spread of the virus in the state”, the statement read in part.

 The party also stated that “it is most likely that if the facilities to conduct mass testing for COVID-19 have been available and accessible to workers and the poor in all the 33 Local Government Areas in the state, the accurate number of cases of people infected with COVID-19 in the state could have been detected and ascertained such that the actual number of cases might have been more than the figure reported by the NCDC.

Unfortunately, as things stand in the state today, just a single diagnosing centre is available to test the cases of COVID-19 for a population of over six million people in the state. It is in the light of this unfortunate shortage of facilities for mass testing that, we welcome the government plan to establish additional two testing centers to increase the number in the state to three.

However, even if these two additional testing centres are eventually established, it will still be inadequate for a population of over 6 million people, this is the reason we believe that except there is adequate provision of facilities for mass testing that will be accessible to all citizens without any form of discrimination across the 33 Local Government Areas in the state, only the rich and the privileged persons in the state will continue to be tested for COVID-19”.

 It was also contained in the statement that, “we of the SPN call for adequate provision of facilities for mass testing across the 33 LGA in order to guarantee a non-discriminatory testing for COVID-19 for all citizens.

SPN also notes the plan by the Engr, Seyi Makinde-led Government to embark on mass testing of up to 10,000 people for COVID-19 within the shortest possible time in the State. If this happens, it will definitely be an improvement over the current situation where less than a thousand people with majority who are privileged persons in the society were given the opportunity to access the test”.

The party averred that “the best way Engr Seyi Makinde-led government can demonstrate its capacity and seriousness for its aspiration to explore local solution for the cure of COVID-19 is to commence the process of making available facilities for mass testing and decent isolation centers, and provide sanitation and clean water in all the 33 Local Government Areas in the state. This also means that all the General Hospitals in the state must be upgraded, equipped and adequately staffed so as to ensure proper treatment of whosoever might have been infected with the virus”.