Preamble
During his national address on Monday 27th of April, President Muhammadu Buhari directed that the 35-day lockdown order on Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states be relaxed from Monday 4th of May. As part of the modalities for the easing of the lockdown in these three states, the federal government issued new regulations, including an overnight curfew (8pm – 6am), the mandatory use of face masks in public spaces and the strict observance of social distancing protocols. However, on Monday, thousands of people in Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states flooded markets and banks without wearing face masks, and failed to observe social distance protocols; thereby violating the orders by the government.
While, it is without doubt that the Federal lockdown on the three states, and state imposed grades of lockdowns have hurt the Nigerian economy, especially in the non-essential sectors in which most workers depend on daily subsistence income for survival; the decision to ease the lockdown has been greatly criticized by many stakeholders, especially health workers, largely because the number of confirmed cases has steadily been on the increase.
The easing of the lockdowns have also occasioned new forms of human rights abuses. For instance, there have been cases of law enforcement manhandling and flogging people in public places for failing to wear face masks in public places.
As at the time of writing this report, only Kogi and Cross River States were yet to record any case of COVID-19 in Nigeria. A resultant factor in the increase of Covid-19 cases are the human rights issues that continue to spring up; Below are the some updates on these human rights and governance issues around Covid-19 in Nigeria.
Status on Confirmed cases and Testing across Nigeria
As at 12 midnight of Monday 11th of May, 34 states and the FCT had confirmed cases of Covid 19: Lagos-1933, Kano-666, FCT-359, Katsina-205, Borno-186, Bauchi-182, Ogun-126, Gombe-118, Jigawa-118, Kaduna-111, Sokoto-106, Edo-79, Zamfara-73, Oyo-65, Osun-39, Kwara-34, Nassarawa-25, Kebbi-24, Rivers-22, Adamawa-21, Akwa-Ibom-17, Delta-17, Plateau-17, Taraba-17, Ondo-16, Ekiti-15, Yobe-13, Enugu-10, Ebonyi-7, Bayelsa-6, Niger-6, Imo-3, Abia-2, Benue-1, and Anambra-1
A total of twenty-eight thousand, four hundred and eighteen (28,418) persons have been tested, with a total of four thousand six hundred and forty-one (4,641) confirmed cases. A total of nine hundred and five (905) persons have recovered and discharged from the isolation centers and there has been a total of one hundred and fifty-two (152) deaths.
The timeline below tracks the increase in the number of cases between April 29 and May 11, 2020. Further details on the daily changes in the numbers can be found here.
| Date | Total number of cases | Total number discharged | Total number of Deaths | Total number of tested cases |
| April 29, 2020 | 1,728 | 307 | 51 | 13,689 |
| April 30, 2020 | 1,932 (204) | 319 | 58 | 15,759 (2,070) |
| May 1, 2020 | 2.170 (238) | 351 | 68 | 16,588 (829) |
| May 2, 2020 | 2,388 (220) | 381 | 85 | 17,566 (770) |
| May 3, 2020 | 2,558 (170) | 400 | 87 | 18,536 (970) |
| May 4, 2020 | 2,802 (245) | 417 | 93 | 19,512 (976) |
| May 5, 2020 | 2,950 (148) | 481 | 95 | 21,208 (1,696) |
| May 6, 2020 | 3,145 (195) | 534 | 103 | 22,492 (1,284) |
| May 7, 2020 | 3,526 (381) | 607 | 107 | 23,835 (1,343) |
| May 8, 2020 | 3,912 (386) | 679 | 117 | 25,015 (1,180) |
| May 9, 2020 | 4,151 (239) | 745 | 128 | 25,951 (936) |
| May 10, 2020 | 4.399 (248) | 778 | 143 | 27,078 (1,127) |
| May 11, 2020 | 4,641 (242) | 902 | 152 | 28,418 (1,340) |