Doctors in the Nigerian capital of Abuja went on strike this week to demand two months back payment, as Chinese coronavirus cases in Africa’s most populous country begin to rise.
The strike action was confirmed on Wednesday by Roland Aigbovo, the President of Abuja Resident of Doctors, who said they were going on strike because they had not been paid their salary for two months, causing significant economic instability in their lives.
As of Friday morning, Nigeria had 12 confirmed coronavirus cases, including four in Lagos state, the country’s financial capital, as well as two from people who had arrived from Europe.
“We are following over 1,300 people right now to find information about the state of their health and the number is increasing,” said Lagos Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi.
Health authorities have imposed an immediate ban on flights from countries with a high number of infections, including China, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and 11 others that have confirmed thousands of cases.
“All travelers returning from these countries prior to the restriction will be supervised in self-isolation, monitored by the National Center for Disease Control and Port Health Services,” the Nigerian National Center for Disease Control said Wednesday on Twitter.
In the southern city of Lagos, local authorities have announced lockdown measures that include a ban on all public gatherings and the closure of schools and other institutions. Yet as noted by Quartz, such measures will be particularly hard to implement given the busy and often lawless nature of life in Lagos.
“As part of the preventive measures against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, the Lagos State Government is closing down all public and private schools from Monday, 23rd March 2020,” Folashade Adefisayo, Lagos state commissioner for education, said late Wednesday. “The closure is not intended to create panic but to prevent the spread of disease which has become a global threat.”
Despite the ongoing strike in the capital and the risks it poses to the country’s already unstable health care system, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari insisted on Thursday that the government was in control of the situation.
In a statement, presidential spokesman Garba Shebu said that Buhari trusts his cabinet ministers and the officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), who are providing him with constant updates on the situation.
“All Nigerians must unite to fight this plague, irrespective of religious or ideological affiliation,” he said in a statement. “There is no cause for panic. So far, measures put in place are working efficiently. What this country is doing has been recommended as a template.”
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.
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