Unease, Confusion As NCDC Fails To Release COVID-19 Situation Report — First Time In 8 Months

The Nigerian Centre for disease control did not release daily COVID-19 situation report and update  for Thursday, October 15th 2020.

The agency is saddled with the responsibility of monitoring the spread and containment of infectious and communicable disease in the country.

Little was know about the agency prior to the outbreak of the virulent COVID-19 infection in Nigeria as it was wedged in the realm of relative obscurity that many government agency in Nigeria are steeped in.

But no sooner had Nigeria recorded it first COVID-19 case in late February than the torch of fame was beamed on the agency. It Twitter account witnessed massive surge in following — from a little less than 3000 to over a million.

Gripped by trepidation and the unbridled desire to stay abreast of happenings in the country regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, Nigerians camped in the comment section of the agency as they outdid one another in the race to be the first to get the daily situation report on the pandemic. Many shared the updates and situation reports on other social media and instant messaging platforms, especially on WhatsApp.

The higher the cases reported by the agency, the more the citizenry sank into the pit of apprehension, the situation became worse in between March and April after the government decided to lock down major states where the disease was spreading like wildfire.

The agency intimate the people on cases recorded daily, death toll and recovery rate.

However, people’s behaviour towards the daily situation report began to change after relaxation of the lock down at the end of April. The mood of preponderance of the citizenry regarding the updates on COVID-19 moved from brazen enthusiasm to palpable disinterest.

There was a depressing decline in engagement of tweet on the updates by twitter user, and those who engaged the tweet did it for jejune reason such as follow train. The agency had to lock its reply section to stop people from commenting. The change of mood was not unconnected to the usual long standing history of mistrust between the government and the people as the citizens began to question the government transparency and sincerity regarding the pandemic.

Conjectures started making the rounds that the pandemic in Nigeria is another of government’s grand plot to embezzle and misappropriate tax payers money m, and that the situation was not as bleak and grave as the government would have the people believed.

Many even averred that the disease is not in Nigeria at all and even if it is, the toll is being inflated by the government to hoodwink the citizens and corruptly enrich some people.

Despite the furore, the agency had been steadfast with its mandate and responsibility — provide the people with daily situation report of infection. Even though majority of people are indifferent about it, there are handful of people who still look forward to it, especially those in the media industry.

It will be a thing  of surprise for the coterie of people that still relish the prospect of the daily report when the agency did not release update and situation reports for Thursday, 15th of October.

The agency has not given any reason or issued any press release regarding the development.

Though there was a momentary downtime on Twitter last night but the incident was rectified by the tech giant before midnight.