Solomon Odeniyi in this report chronicles how some persons whose businesses and operations have been dealt a huge blow by the coronavirus pandemic have been living since the outbreak of the virus.
Mrs and Mr Adeniyi Adewale both operate Emmanuel Model Academy, a Nursery and Primary school along Ede Road, Offatedo area of Osogbo, the Osun State capital. The couple is finding life unpleasant due to outbreak of the lethal coronavirus which had their only source of livelihood shut.
The family before this time lived a comfortable life . Besides paying staff salaries they had relatives who depended on them as well as others who they extended hands of generosities to. All this had since stopped as the couple are struggling for survival themselves.
According to them, they now look up to God to cater for their needs after spending all they had including the savings kept for expansion and renovation of the facilities in their school.
The couple never imagined they would find themselves in a tight situation like they are now neither did they ever envisaged schools would be for a day shut. The duo said they had some days earlier wrote letters reminding parents of the need to pay up their children school fees before the prouncement ordering schools to be shut.
All institutions of learning across the nation remain shut. They were shut as part of preventive measures to curtail the spread of the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
Osun State government ordered the closure of schools on March 20.
As at the day the announcement was made the country had a total of 12 reported cases, while state was with none.
Lagos,Ogun , Ekiti and Abuja were states with reported cases then with no fatality but the virus has spread to all states of the federation except for Kogi state.
The country now has 6,401 reported cases as at Wednesday May 20 with 191 deaths in 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
With the spike in index cases in the country, and the community transmission stage of the pandemic, reopening of schools remain a tall order.
Yet private school owners like Mr and Mrs whose livelihood depend cannot wait to get back to business.
He said, ” We were shocked when it was announced that schools should be shut. We never expected such and no one saw it coming. Before the pandemic we were living a comfortable life. We were paying salaries and we had relations who we were assisting.
” But now we are down financially. Everything has been rough for us. It is only God that has been helping us with feeding and other obligations.
” You won’t believe that all the savings we had which we planned to use to expand and improved the facilities in the school had been spent to survive. The whole thing happened too suden and funny enough we had just notified some parents to pay up their ward’s fees before schools was shut.
“As a family, school owner and parents we felt bad when the lockdown was relaxed for gradual opening of the economy and schools were left out. We need to work for us to have income. Even if you have millions of naira in your account and you keep spending without getting more income it will finish, that is the situation we find ourselves.
We are fed up on the whole thing, we pray for things to comeback to normal. ”
For Mrs Damilola and Mr Onadele Segun they are both teachers at Best way comprehensive high school in Osun, things could have been more tough but for their savings.
The husband a graduate of Chemistry and his wife Environmental science like many saw teaching as their last resorts and didn’t spend with their two hands with the little they get as salaries.
Despite that, not earning at this time has it toll on the family of three as the couple have rationed their meals, foodstuffs, diapers for their child and other things so they don’t end up stranded.
The Onadeles said, “We thought it was going to last for a while, but it is getting longer than we had expected. Because we worked at the same place, we get paid the same day and we had the culture of saving. That has been our saving grace. It is with it we have been living on.
” Though, things hasn’t been easy but our case is fair. Why we think our case is fair is that we have ourselves and a six -month-old baby. The stories we have been hearing from some of our colleagues have not been pleasing. Some of our staffs have been calling our propietor for assistance but there was nothing he could do. We also feel for him because his main source of revenue too has been affected.
“For us, we now eat our breakfast around 12 noon so that there will be no need for launch and eat at night. We used to buy our baby’s diaper in packs but we now buy in units. We are even contemplating suitable alternatives to diaper. ”
The husband said he had started taking some students home lessons to enable him get more income to stock up the house with food.
The couple feels the government should come up with incentives for private school teachers to help them cushion the untold hardship occasioned by the pandemic.
“The government is not even considering us in the private sector with no source of income.They should come to our rescue. Many private teachers are now poor than the vulnerable that have been enjoying supports of both the federal and state governments. They have no hope of getting an income anywhere. We believe if they can help with some incentives it will help them a lot. Some of colleagues are now living a pitiable life. We all need help”.
But teachers and owners of private schools are not the only ones in this. The event managers/planners are also counting their loses. With the ban on large gatherings still in force it has left many of them with no income.
Olaoluwa Bukola Lawrence and his wife are one. They own Opeyemi World Event in Osogbo and they have both been running this business together for over a decade.
To complement their income, the couples invested in rental services but none in the last three months is bringing income while they struggle to fend for themselves and their children.
The couple said they now feed on what they have and not what they wish which is not always regular, a situation they were not used to.
But the husband is displeased, he is contemplating on venturing into another business for the meantime to fulfill his obligations in the family.
” This is a tough period for us. We feed our children with what we see. You know how some of these children are, they are picky but this time around they don’t have a choice. It is either they eat or go hungry.
“We have workers with us but we asked them to go home. Some of them still call us, we that are struggling to live to help them, our relations who also depended on us have been affected too. For instance, we paid allowances to our workers each time we go to event. And when we don’t have events , we started a rental service that brings money to us. Now we don’t have any source of income. Even some of those that booked for rental services and few who paid for our services have been calling for a refund, money which has been spent during the lockdown period . Our children are home and you expect them to eat more . The pandemic has affected us a lot..”
Mr Lawrence who is also the State Public Relations Officer of Event Planners in Osun said other members of the association have been complaining bitterly over the sad turn of event.
He said many are living of a beggerly life and noted that it would be tough for their businesses to get back to life.
” Even if everything is over now and we kick off our businesses many of us will not be able to cope. As an association we need access to soft loans and if the government can help us with this it is not too much to ask. We pay our taxes to the government and in one way or the other we also contribute to the economy of the state.
To Oluwaseun Ekundayo aka Bassman being a public figure worsened issues for him as he was seen as living comfortably while he was not.
In all , DJ Bassman said he has learnt never to rely on a source of income no matter how lucrative.
He said, ” Entertainers are one of the most affected people. For me my only means of survival is being a disk jokey and I had my last job in March 14. One problem associated to being a public figure is that even when you’re dying people would think you have enough . I thank God for my life but it has not been easy for me.
” The government should look at our side, those whose source of revenue has stopped. They are sitting on a keg of gun powder if they don’t. Yesterday DJ have offered to sell me their speakers, that is how worst things her. Most of those affected are youths. My lesson from the whole thing is that we need to diversify no matter how good you think you’re making from a business you must have another source.”
Like Lagos, Baseman is of the view that the Osun state government should list conditions to open recreation centers and other places shut.
He said it was dangerous for government to lock up event, recreation centers among others for longer period.
“Thank God in our state there’s no report of community transmission what the government should do is to ensure our borders are closed that people from other states will not come in and open up the economy , list conditions and put some measures in place to ensure they are effective like Lagos is doing. Those in this sector are mostly youth which portend a lot of danger for the state.”
Nigeria which remains the poverty capital of the world with about 90 million people living in extreme poverty according to a report by World Data Lab’s Poverty Index may have an increase in the coming days due to the effect of the pandemic on many businesses.
Also, states like Lagos, Delta and Osun among others with low poverty rate according to the National Bureau of Statistics’s poverty index in Nigeria may fallout of the list if people with their sources of livelihood halted are not assisted.
In other parts of the world people like the Lawrences , Onadeles and Ekundayo whose livelihoods have been upended are being supported.
In Uganda, the government is supporting businesses by rescheduling social security contributions. Its Namibian counterpart is offering emergency income grants to those who have lost their source of income. Egypt has reduced and postponed collection of taxes, says a report on the United Nations News website.
A report by the International Monetary Fund’s latest Regional Economic Outlook For Sub-Saharan Africa, stated that pandemic is likely to cause an acute economic crisis on the continent and could reverse the hard-won gains in recent times.
The IMF however, urged governments in the continent to provide social transfers to those whose livelihoods have been affected as result of the pandemic while spending on the health sector to mitigate the effect on the economy of countries in the continent.
