Monday, August 11, Victoria Island, Lagos. An elegant woman hurried into a gym, met her husband working out and dragged him out of the place, saying: “You need to be alive to lose weight.
You must avoid gyms for now.” Only last night, life appeared to be dimming in a popular night club in Victoria Island. Before now, it was always jammed up with people sweating and dancing.
Panic and unprecedented fear has gripped many Nigerians over the deadly Ebola Virus. Social life is changing.
From commercial banks to local markets; from recreation and leisure places like restaurants, sports clubs, bush meat spots, bars and pepper soup joints, businesses and social activities especially in Lagos are waning. Daily life activities are now being followed with utmost caution in order to prevent the virus that has claimed a number of lives in the country.
In the banking sector, cashiers who pay customers cash across the counters now wear hand gloves to avoid infection, just as bush meat sellers lament low patronage across the country.
Our checks reveal that bars and ‘joints’ including markets and other public places have employed precautionary measures so as not to contract the virus. Apart from avoiding bush meat delicacy and avoiding crowded places, many have resorted to wearing hand gloves and bidding farewell to handshakes.
At the Ikeja Tecno office, visitors and customers are subjected to various processes of checks and sanitisation before admittance into the office. At some bus terminals instant temperature checks are carried out on passengers. Any with high body temperature is asked to drop.
There is also high demand for hand gloves and sanitizers, thereby making them essential commodities.
Commercial banks
A banker in one of the commercial banks at Agbara, a border town between Lagos and Ogun State told Saturday Vanguard that the wearing of gloves was a precautionary measure because cash deposited or withdrawn could have been contaminated.
Attendance to church services has dropped. People are avoiding crowds. Many families did not go to church last Sunday for fear of Ebola virus.
A supermarket manager, Miss. Ada said supply of hand gloves and sanitizers have been badly hit. It is now almost out of stock because people have resorted to using them for preventive measures.
Effect on religious activities
Earlier this month, the Catholic Archbishop of Metropolitan Lagos, His Grace, Most Rev (Dr) Alfred Adewale Martins had issued a health alert to priests, religious and the faithful, informing them of the need to maintain proper hygiene. People were warned to avoid eating bush meat especially monkeys, grass cutters, bats, chimpanzees and so on.
Shortly before Holy Communion in a Roman Catholic Mass, the priest often invites the congregation to offer each other a sign of peace. However, what began as a simple handshake has become in many churches, an exuberant exchange of kisses and hugs and now the Vatican wants to stamp out the boisterous practices as it detracts from the solemnity of the service. In Lagos, giving sign of peace through hand-shaking is now avoided.
Evidently, if attendance at the church service, whether orthodox or pentecostal, drops, it could adversely affect the collections, tithes and other revenues. No thanks to Ebola.
Travelers and bush meat delicacy
Saturday Vanguard visited the inter-state motor parks at Mile 2, Lagos to talk with travelers going to the East and South-South. Those traveling along the Lagos-Benin axis said that they no longer stop at the popular Ore and Ofosu points to patronize bush meat sellers as a precautionary measure against the Ebola disease.
A passenger said: “We told our driver last week not to stop at Ore to buy food because no person, since the outbreak of Ebola virus, would want to think of eating bush meat or even any type of food on the road. One can not be so sure of the kind of meat used to prepare the food. Again, one is not sure of the people that prepared the food if they had Ebola without even knowing,” adding, “abstinence is the best thing for now.”
The loss of revenue for these bush meat sellers and food vendors at major stops along the inter-state highways can better be imagined as it could amount to several thousands of naira on a daily basis.
The same situation can be attributed to restaurants, pepper soup joints that serve bush meat as delicacy across towns. There is a popular beer spot that is known for bush meat pepper soup in Surulere. Fear of Ebola has killed the bush meat business there.
Decline in bush meat business
One of the sellers, Madam Ngozi, a household name in bush meat ‘joint’ in Ikeduru, Imo State said patronage has dropped since the outbreak of the virus. “Bush meat is being treated like a taboo since the Ebola alert. Although people are still coming to eat meat here, but not as much as before. Most customers are avoiding it now.”
Another bush meat seller, Madam Do Good, also complained bitterly about poor patronage.
She said: “People are no longer buying bush meat. We have reduced the quantity of bush meat we used to buy from our suppliers because patronage has dropped. Even people who used to eat bush meat before now have stopped eating it. They would rather eat goat meat or beef, but not bush meat.
The bulk of my daily income comes from bush meat, but now sales have reduced from N20,000 to N5,000. Only a few people who are yet to believe in the spread of the virus still patronesses us”
Also, in Oleh, Delta State, the consumption of various kinds of bush meat such as antelopes, grass-cutter, squirrels and others, has dropped.
At one joint, popular for bush meat pepper soup and palm-wine, the seller said she had to stop losing money by removing bush-meat from her list of delicacies.
She laments: “Most of our customers have stopped coming. My family resorted to eating what I should have sold because customers are avoiding it, thereby making me incur huge losses. Now I’ve stopped selling bush meat entirely, till this whole thing ends. I sell goat meat and beef. The Ebola virus has affected my business so much.”
In the remote area of Abule Egba, popularly known as Ejo (snake) village bars and beer parlour business are still active with people found in groups having their drinks with some plates of bush meat pepper soup.
At a spot located on Alafia street, Meiran road, Abule Egba, it was a beehive of activities with good patronage. The reporters were welcomed by the manager of the bar who said their menu had varieties of bush meat pepper soup and drinks.
Adegoke, who has been involved in the business of buying bush meat from hunters and processing same as pepper soup for about 20 years also stated that some people still do not believe the virus can be contracted from handling and eating bush meat.
An okada man in the area who confessed he had an insatiable taste for bush meat argued that eating bush meat had nothing to do with Ebola virus. “You people should first of all find out if the late Patrick Sawyer ate bush meat. For me, nothing will discourage me from eating any kind of bush meat. In the past, it was HIV/AIDS and today, it is Ebola,” he stated.
Also, Mama Onigba in her 60s has been in the business of selling bush meat for the greater part of her life. She said that her customers still patronize her despite the linking of Ebola virus to the consumption of bush meat.
Said she: “My customers will continue to eat bush meat. There are people who cannot do without bush meat on daily basis and that has been my means of livelihood. “I’ve been in the business of selling bush meat before I got married at the age of 22. I go as far as Ondo state and even to Cotonou to get these animals. They are not easy to get. It really costs me a lot to preserve the meat because it easily attracts flies”.
She, however, complained that the Ebola virus has reduced her sales which is making life a bit difficult for her.
In the same vein Iya Titi, a bush meat seller in Ikotun, thought it was a story that would soon fizzle out without any pain. She maintained that until she began to record a downward slide in her daily sales, she never knew it would have a great effect on her business.
“I am really finding things very difficult with my business now because of this Ebola virus. People are scared to come to my shop now because of the fear of Ebola. I hardly make up to N5,000 as against my normal daily sales of N20,000. I don’t know what to do,” She decried.
Caution in market and other public places
It is either the level of awareness is low amongst market women or outright disregard for preventive measures as far as body contact is concerned. Most markets in Lagos and environs are still active with less caution and preventive measures.
A visit to Abule Egba and other areas where second hand cloths are sold showed that body contacts were still common and that people moved freely.
Mrs Okafor, who deals in second hand female shirts at the market urged customers to put the clothes on to test the sizes before payment.
In contrast, a woman who sells pepper at Oke odo food market, Mrs Olagunju maintained that many market women need to be oriented as many do not understand messages in the media.
Chinasa Ikebi who also helps her auntie at a popular saloon in Lagos lamented low patronage.
She said: “some people don’t want to come out to make their hair because they feel that if they come in contact with people they will catch the illness. The ones that come to make their hair want us to wash our combs, towels and all our other implements all over again before using them on them,” Chinasa said.
Local bars
For Mike Okems (Not real name), who operates a beer popular joint, in Ikotun Lagos,
“it is really affecting us here especially, in the area of meat selling. Here in this place, we mostly sell Nkwobi, and many other things but, since this Ebola virus, sales have dropped. Even with reduced prices, things are getting bad. Ebola is bad.
Similarly, a club operator along Ibeju Lekki, Mr. Raymond said, the development has affected his business negatively as the bar records low patronage since the news of Ebola broke.
“For two weeks, the bar has recorded massive low patronage because people are afraid of contracting Ebola”.
Sporting activities on the decline?
Even sports is not left out; on an international scale, Togo has called for next month’s Africa Cup of Nations game in Guinea to be moved because of fears about the Ebola virus. The match, the responsibility of the Confederation of African Football, is scheduled for 5 or 6 September and is in the first group round of qualifiers. More than 300 people have died from Ebola in Guinea, the origin of the outbreak which is also now fast spreading in neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Besides, most sporting arenas have recorded low patronage as sports lovers have restricted their activities to individual games and at least games with limited players where contact with each other is minimal.
Recreational centres, amusement parks and places of fun often visited by young people are now deserted, even swimming pools and gyms often patronized by the elites and middle class are no longer attracting customers. Sporting activities have significantly reduced especially football, basketball and other sports with high physical contact. Ebola is changing life in this part of the world. It is said to spread through contact with blood, sweat, saliva, urine or semen of an infected person or animal.
Holiday coaching affected
Summer lessons are not left out. One parent who did not want his name in print told our reporters that he had withdrawn his children from the holiday sports programmes because of Ebola.
Private Hospitals
Rita Edet lamented that going to the hospital is dangerous now because you don’t know who might be a carrier in the hospital.
“Right now, we have to be careful of going to hospital. We don’t know the hospital Ebola patients use.
“Health workers are the primary target and that is the reason why patients need to be vigilant not to contract Ebola virus”.
For Dr.Olafisoye, medical director, Awoyaya hospital, every consultation with any patient must go with washing of hands regularly with soap under a running tap.
On the alleged fear of contracting the virus in the hospital, he said, “staying at home and not going to the hospital when someone is ill might be dangerous.
“It is difficult to tell where or what a particular person has touched before coming to the hospital and that is why it is compulsory wear gloves and also to wash our hands thoroughly after attending to a patient. Nobody has a label showing that he or she has touched an Ebola patient.
“The people at risk are those who have primary contact with a very sick Ebola patient. In this hospital, we organised workshop to sensitise our staff. The doctors must wear protective apparatus. There are limited protective kits in the country and that is dangerous. We have face mask, gloves and ward coat. The cleaners too must wear gloves. There is a point that is connected to everybody and this is the entrance of the hospital. The cleaners are instructed to always clean the entrance with bleach every hour.”
Commercial transit buses
A bus passenger, Mr. Johnson said, it is not safe to board buses in Lagos because of the fear of contracting Ebola virus. And that is why, government should set up task force to monitor transportation system in order to regulate sitting arrangement of the passengers so as to check transporters who, for example, carry five people on a row meant for three or four people. Body contacts should be avoided.
Some buses including BRT, TM allow people to stand in the bus. This is pathetic. Government needs to enforce discipline and decency. Government should also engage the services of police and LASMA to checkmate transporters
Source: Vanguard
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