The Oyo state government says it has commenced the process of “naming and shaming” violators of COVID-19 guidelines.
At a town hall meeting on Thursday, Olanike Adeyemo, chairperson of Oyo COVID-19 containment and decontamination project, said the reason for bringing people together was to impress it on them that compliance with COVID-19 safety protocols in the state is below 50 percent.
“All the stakeholders present are leaders in their own right and we want them to know that they need to exert that influence over their network with a view to ensuring compliance of all the preventive measures of COVID-19,” Adeyemo said.
“Gov Seyi Makinde has done what he needs to do for the state. The responsibility now rests on us the citizens to do the needful.
“For a lot of banks with overwhelming crowds, the governor is not the one to fix their automated teller machines (ATMs) that are not functioning.
“If you go to most banks, you will find out that out of seven ATMs one would be working to serve the people.
“There is a need for stakeholders to be responsible and that is why we are here. We actually extracted commitment from them.
“And not only that, we have a compliance reporter, which is a citizen’s app for self-policing. What that will do is that we will know who to hold responsible.
“All the stakeholders must do everything they have to do for us to be safe.”
David Afolayan, the geographical information system (GIS) expert and member of the containment team, said the community reporting app would make it possible for citizens to give their feedback and report contravention of COVID-19 guidelines.
“The link is available on the Facebook page of the Oyo State COVID-19 containment network,” Afolayan said.
“The app is easy to use as it works on phones. Their people can report contravention and compliance, as the case may be, in their spheres.
“On the Facebook page and also on the portal we have created the ‘Hall of Fame’ and ‘Hall of Shame’. So for those doing well, we will celebrate them and for those not doing well they will be celebrated as well.
“We are already getting feedback across the state and we want everyone to key into this.”
Also, Mojeed Mogbonjubola, deputy chief whip of Oyo state house of assembly, said although the government is not looking at sanctions, it had engaged community reporting through the use of technology.
“We are taking people through the second phase whereby people are going to be the one enforcing the strict adherence to COVID-19 safety protocols by being their brothers’ keeper,” he said.
“There is going to be self-assessment; there would be no law enforcement agencies to drive compliance basically.”
Some of the stakeholders present at the meeting were representatives of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Oyo state; representatives of Muslim association, market leaders, park managers, educational organisations, traditional rulers.
TheCable had carried out an investigative project across Oyo schools, reporting how the lack of access to potable water, clinics, among others, is affecting the state’s fight against the disease.