Residents of the Federal Capital Territory are without a doubt struggling to comply with the social distancing directives given by the NCDC.
President Muhammadu Buhari gave a directive that relaxed the lockdown in the FCT, Lagos and Ogun due to the economic impact it was having on the already fragile Nigerian economy.
However, he gave strict social distancing directives that must be observed.
One of them was the use of face masks while others include no overloading of taxis and observation of social distancing at banks and other public places.
So far, our reporters have observed nearly zero compliance, especially at bank venues.
Apparently, even some bank workers have zero ideas on how to implement the social distancing order.
One of them started an announcement and surprisingly, people clustered around each other all the more. He was in the middle and took his mask off so as to be able to talk.
As for masks, we observed that nearly everyone at the bank had them on. However, they took them off occasionally to receive calls or have a conversation. Moreover, most people used non-medical masks. Instead, they opted for bandanas, handkerchiefs, and masks made from regular clothing materials.
GTBank was particularly worse in terms of implementing social distancing outside the bank building, according to various people.
As for inside the bank, they prevented too many people from entering inside at once.
Why are people violating?
Speaking with of the customers at the venue, he revealed that he was aware of the risks involved in the lack of observation of social distancing. However, he had no option but to join the crowd due to the urgent need to perform certain transactions at the bank.
One customer, on the other hand, blamed it on the bank for failing to open more branches.
A customer who travelled all the way from Galadima to Wuse just to use the bank ended up leaving without fulfilling his aims because of the immense crowd at the bank.
Who is to blame?
Our reporter questioned a staff at GTBank Wuse, demanding to know why other branches were not open, leaving people with no option but to crowd the few branches open.
He alleged that they were only following CBN instructions not to open all branches.
The logic behind that is as a matter of fact questionable. It is not clear how they plan on implementing social distancing by opening only a few branches, considering the immense population of the capital.
From our observation, Day 1 and day 2 have been nothing to write home about.
As the DG of the NCDC has warned, the virus is expected to spread due to lack of compliance with social distancing.
