 Great to have you back here on the breakfast on PlosTV Africa. Our next conversation now is of course health-related and that is with regards to increase in COVID-19 cases here in Nigeria. The NCDC reports about 747 new cases with Legos. Scary, but has the highest numbers, 488 as the last figures that were released. And you know that brings us into a conversation about what must be done because it doesn't seem like we are in a better place. I understand a lot of the COVID-19 rules and regulations may have been relaxed you know amongst Legosians. Nigerians in general in the last couple of months since we started to see figures like 11 or 21 new cases and zero deaths for a couple of months. But it seems we're back in the place where we were in April, May 2020. There is of course the you know conversation that I think some I spoke about sometime last week about you know how a lot of people don't seem to be very interested in the COVID-19 conversation anymore. The rules with regards you know wearing a face mask all the time, getting your hands sanitized, some of all those things have been thrown in the gutter you know and not very many people are taking them as seriously as they should be taken. But the scary part is our vaccination figures are very very low and second the Delta variant doesn't seem to care about what you think or you know what you look like. It seems to be even more infectious as has been described than the other variants of COVID-19. So it I believe it's something that should be you know should cause enough worry amongst Legosians. I know that people are worried about you know another lockdown and how that would affect businesses and what you know that would mean for people here in Legos. But I think it's important that we start now before we get to you know a place where we're here in about 2,000 cases a day or 4,000 cases a day. We've never seen it that high before but I don't think we should wait till we get there before we start to take what necessary precautions are available. What do you agree with that? Indeed Legos has the highest number of cases in Nigeria but cases in other states are rising as well. Take a look at Kano for instance. The reports say that's according to the Guardian newspaper that 20 core members have come down with a COVID-19 in disease and that they've been sent to an isolation center where 1,900 core members also are. But according to the report when Guardian newspaper reached out to the NYC coordinator in Kano state she denied that there were any COVID-19 cases in Kano. So is this the government trying to cover up the situation or where exactly is you know the missing link? Also in Uyo state the Guardian newspaper covered the story as well this morning. It says that NYC flew out bodies of core members who died from COVID-19 to the states for burial, to Uyo for burial. And it's just so sad you know what really is happening here with the COVID-19 pandemic how it's just affecting everybody. Globally now 197 million cases over 4 million deaths, 4.2 million deaths worldwide. The question really that I asked is the COVID-19 pandemic ever going to end? Is this something that we would see end anytime soon? First out of December 31st 2019. We saw the impact here February 24th 2020 when Nigeria recorded our first case and it doesn't seem to be slowing down. If anything there's a report by the WHO that COVID-19 cases have continued to rise globally for about a month you know and that of course U.S is the highest ranked country regarding COVID-19. So it did slow down for us for you know at some point you know until the new variants and that's the thing with viruses they you know have the ability to mutate you know and become even more deadly you know they understand what challenges they had they're so silly. Understand the challenges they had you know being you know variant A and then understand what they need to do to you know mutate and go into a different variant and that's one of the challenges will it be here forever I don't think so you know I'm sure that centuries ago there were you know other viruses you know that the world you know was able to deal with but how long would this take before we are eventually able to deal with it nobody can also tell and that's the importance of vaccination and you know that so with reports there's not been that many cases of people who have been vaccinated that's still eventually I don't think there's you know you know up to a handful that's still eventually passed on from COVID-19 complications after being fully vaccinated how much more do we need to do with regards vaccinating everybody in Nigeria still has a very long way to go we heard about Moderna vaccines we have a 4 million of them which were sent to Nigeria last week so that's that's a plus you know but we're talking 200 million people here and if we need to reach herd immunity that means we need to get at least you know 150 million people vaccinated we've barely done 10 we've not even done 5 million vaccinations and so we have a very very long way to go you know here in Nigeria the fears I understand them business wise the fears also I understand them with regards lack of proper health infrastructure lack of proper isolation centers across the country to actually take care of these numbers but do we need to get to a place and that's the the you know role of governance being able to take decisions early enough do we need to get to a place where Lagos starts to record a thousand cases or 2,000 cases daily before we understand the need for everyone to start to take these precautions again and if you look around businesses in Lagos and public places in Lagos you would see those signs on the on the entrance no face masks no entry but that's really just who passed the door once you pass the door you can take off that face mask and stay there and I get very very upset when I walk into public spaces restaurants and the lights and I see people walking with a face mask but the face mask is on their jaw you know and and they basically you might as well just put it in your pockets and I feel very very upset because the people who run this establishment should be able to tell every single person whether you are ordering something or you're sitting down there as long as you're in that place you should wear a face mask but they ignore these things because Nigerians have that attitude that as long as it's not affecting me directly then you know I really wouldn't be bothered and the one part is you know Nigerians I believe still have I'm sure there's still millions of Nigerians who feel COVID-19 is fake and it's not real you know it's a scam you know there's still a lot of people who believe that there's also those who are too poor to care about these precautions and they say COVID-19 vaccine is for the rich yeah you know well you know or COVID is you know rich man's disease you know there's also those who are too poor to care and so the the peculiarities of Nigeria's problems are many you know and information lack of information is one of yes in in one year now we've dealt with this for more than a year now how much more work have you seen the national orientation agency do on radio on television on social media how much more work have you seen the national orientation agency the ministry of information you know do with regards in forming Nigerians you know on what is important and what must be done with regards COVID-19 there's not very not much work and every single time on this platform I always say that when people are given appointments do they get to ask them you know what do you have you achieved in four years what have you achieved in two years in what way have you transformed this ministry that you've been in charge of in the last four years so what will the minister of information say that he's done with the minister of information in the last four years debunked in yeah that's that's basically what they've done they've debunked you know stories from the media but what would you say you've achieved with this ministry in the last four years in what ways now that the world is dealing with the pandemic not an Algeria's dealing with the pandemic in what ways has the ministry of information become more effective in what ways have they become more effective with the platform that seems to have you know the platform that seemed to be one that was widely used to spread information you get retweets to you know push your ideals out there was banned the ban is still on or the suspension was still on even though the agf went to the night when them any bay took to them to court some weeks ago but yes we we need access to more information the media is doing their job we have lots of information out there some even done by yourself sensitizing Nigerians on what the COVID-19 virus is and how important it is for Nigerians to wash their hands keep a safety stance and all of that but really that information gap I feel that Nigerian the Nigerian government should be able to tap into social media I mean that's where that's where the majority of youth are should be able to tap into social media to communicate these things how many time okay for example when it's time for election do you see lots of sponsored posts on facebook telling you which party to vote for but it's COVID-19 pandemic season how many times do you go on social media and you see a pop-up is sponsored posed by the Nigerian government sensitizing you about COVID-19 it's the WHO who puts caveats there giving you warnings that all these posts might be unverified but he makes you want to ask question just how much has the government done to harness the power of social media to educate Nigerians what if you on the COVID-19 pandemic if you look at Nigeria's population and compare that with you know how many Nigerians are actually active on social media you know social media might not be the most powerful tool it currently is the you know tool that the world is using but you know one that's available for the people who are on social media how much information have they had through social media from the government the national orientation agency has access to every type of media they have print media they have billboards they have social media they have tv they have radio they have everything but they are still not doing what they should be doing the minister of information is still not doing what needs to be done are we going to have to get into another lockdown or not these are very important conversations why do we always wait until it's too late is there better preparation now for for palliatives if we're going to go into another lockdown we there's nothing you know of these conversations that seem to be going on are we trying to reach herd immunity do we know what herd immunity means for Nigerians well hopefully we have a guest we will not hopefully we definitely will have a guest you know in the program this week to speak about these things and what is important that needs to be done for here also here in Lagos and of course the whole country with regards COVID-19 and the latest surge and the Delta variant also stay with us we're getting into into a new conversation now there is a plight of displaced persons that needs to be spoken about and we're going to be having someone joining us as a communications coordinator of the ICRC here in Nigeria he joins us next to talk about this