The warning that people should always wear nose masks, especially outside their homes, is continuously being disregarded by most Nigerians.
Both the Federal Government and states governments, in their efforts to curtail the spread of the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic, have constantly reminded citizens to ensure they observe all coronavirus protocols, including the wearing of nose masks.
Findings by FirstNews in Lagos, the state that has remained the epicenter of the virus in Nigeria, showed that most people no longer wear nose masks.
In markets across the state, on the streets, in motor parks, public transport users including state-owned buses and in many other public places, the use of nose masks no longer matters to many.
When our correspondent visited some Lagos BRT stations, which initially made it compulsory for every passenger to wear nose masks, she discovered the measure no longer exists in some places and where it does, it is very weak.
One of the drivers (pilot) of the BRT buses, who did not want his name mentioned speaking on passengers attitude to wearing of nose masks said;
“Some passengers are not adhering to the nose mask-wearing. We usually ask them to wear it before they enter the bus, but many of them think you are asking them to do heavy tasks.
“Some of them sometimes turn the simple advice of wearing a nose mask into a fight.
Mr Olawale, a ticket agent at Fadeyi BRT said, “Most of these passengers don’t listen when you ask them to wear their nose mask. However, some will use it and immediately they get to their seat they will take it off.
“Some use handkerchiefs or scarfs as nose masks, if you tell them they can’t board, they start to plead while some insult.”
But at Obalende BRT station, Segun Adebisi, the Chief Operation Manager managing the staff of Obalende Lagos Bus Service Limited said:
“In our station here, you can’t board a bus without a nose mask and we have been maintaining that statistics.
Some come not wearing nose masks but we usually insist that they should wear a nose mask before they enter, some will not argue because they know coronavirus exists but you know, we are in a heterogeneous state where some people feel there is no COVID-19. But, as much as we have been instructed and given guidelines that anyone that wants to board must wear a nose mask, we stick to the use of a nose mask.
“Personally, we know it is not convenient to be wearing nose masks, tightening our noses and mouths with nose masks; but it is better we cover them and still have our lives than leave to cover them and expose ourselves to the pandemic.”
Meanwhile, it is discovered that the bus users even after they were forced to wear nose masks before entering the bus, majority of them either remove it entirely or draw it to their jaws the moment the bus leaves the park.
The reason for this is that many still doubt the existence of the virus. Some believe it is real but do not see it as deadly as the government and the international world talk about it.
According to latest update by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, 161,409 have contracted the disease since February 2020, when the disease was first discovered in the country. Of this number, 146,890 have recovered and discharged while 2,027 have died as a result of the disease in Nigeria.
However, amid that record, many Lagosians still do not see reasons to protect themselves from the disease, at least by wearing nose masks.