The current Covid-19 pandemic is a reality and Nigeria's affectation is not in doubt.
It is wishful thinking for anyone to believe that that covid-19 cases in Nigeria are just those tested & reported by ncdc. What we know of the pathogen, the disease spread, our population dynamics and cultural behavior in this country makes one convinced that there cannot at this time be less than a million cases of covid-19 in Nigeria, just that our testing capacity is unfortunately poor, even among fellow African nations.
What has been in our favor is the relative low fatality here. To think that the disease will not kill some people is also, painful as it may be, wishful thinking. That the numbers being reported as fatality by ncdc is not the true picture too should be obvious by now--- we all know we don't have ' reliable data' in this country. But let's even assume as being rumored that 150 people died within a week in Kano, a city of greater than 5million, should that be a cause for alarm? TB and Malaria kill more than that in a week. Covid is in Nigeria, that much we know but it is not as fatal here as some other nations of the world, if we persist in just doing what every other nation is doing ie lockdown the people, especially a majorly youthful population who are neither sick nor dying even though probably infected, the aftermath may be more than we can handle. I will for now ignore the sham nature of what we refer to as a lockdown that prevents economic activity but allows unbridled social interactions. We should worry about the aftermath of this covid response.
By aftermath, I refer to Loss of jobs, increased crime rate, reduced ability to care for health exigencies after covid due to low or no income, the recession and possibly depression that may result in the economy.
It is easy for civil servants who expect to be paid at month end to be passionate about 'lockdown'. If you depend on your daily sales and daily earnings to take care of your family and pay your bills, your perception of ' lockdown' as an option will change forever. Most of our populace operate in the informal sector of the economy for goodness sake. We need to look at the big picture.
The socioeconomic problems in the post-covid period is what the govt should be brainstorming about. If things continue the way they are going, even salaries are not guaranteed.
The talk of palliative for the people is just not realistic. How much food or money can the govt give to a family of 6 or 8 individuals? And for how long can the govt do this? The govt itself is broke yet doling out money it cannot sustain in the name of palliatives. Our response to this covid problem has not been tailor-made to our peculiar situation. And in that lie the folly of our approach so far.
We are hiding our heads in the sand but time has a way of 'kicking people's butts' and jerking them to reality.
May God help us to act in wisdom, and in time.

Good write up, we are stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea
What do you suggest is the way forward?