About three weeks ago, when the government of Lagos state took a firm position on residents who flouted its lockdown directive, many hailed the move as the first step in the right direction. They felt it was the best thing to do in the precarious Covid-19 situation that Lagos was in. And they were absolutely right on it.

Being the state that hosts Nigeria’s busiest International airport; being also the inadvertent entry point for the index and subsequent Covid-19 cases in the country, Lagos saw itself potentially at the center of a public health emergency of great proportions.

The situation was nothing for any right-thinking person to take with levity, as doubters of the morbidity of Covid-19 and late starters to building a wall of defence against it, found themselves stung by pain, and ultimately, death from the disease.

For the government of Lagos state therefore, the Covid-19 pandemic presented a health challenge that required seriousness and cooperation between the people and government to effectively nip it in the bud. Hence the restriction placed on movement of people, scaling up of facilities at the Yaba Infectious Disease Hospital as well as other approved isolation centers; and messages of social distancing, frequent hand washing with soap and water, including the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, became ubiquitous.

However, within 2 weeks of the lockdown directive, the number of confirmed cases in the state, which had shot up from 22 to more than 150 and counting, made a joke of government’s containment measures, even though it wasn’t all failure on the part of Lagos State Government.

The greatest headache for the LSG and frontline health workers at that time was community transmission of the virus, which was key to winning or losing the war against the novel coronavirus.

Government’s fear in that regard was not unfounded because, according to experts, once an infectious disease breaks loose within communities, its rapid spread among low income earning families, who usually live in clusters, is 99.9 percent guaranteed. The Lagos state government as a result feared for its estimated 17.5 million inhabitants and understandably became strict with enforcement of its lockdown directive.

With the above set as background then, it becomes easier for readers to appreciate the enormity of the burden foisted on Lagos State Government and the impressive way it has so far handled it to prevent a major public health crisis in the state. But to be sincere, numbers are not justifying the efforts of the Lagos state team. For, as of today, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the state has spiked to over 700 from less than 10 when the crisis first began!

So, when Nollywood actress, Funke Akindele’s indiscretion came to its attention, LSG’s response was swift and decisive. There was no dilly-dally, because millions of lives were at stake. Akindele had her day in court, got convicted and sentenced to 14 days community service alongside her husband, who was complicit. Two days before their sentencing, the couple had hosted a party in contravention of Lagos State Infectious Disease (Emergency Prevention) Regulations 2020– a law made to contain the spread of Covid-19 within its territory.

The actress’ conviction, even though seen by many of her fans as unfair, nonetheless came, to several others, as a ray of hope at a time of utter disregard for values, decency and rules of behavior shown by certain Nigerians of means when faced with the law. For them, it represented a new era of getting wealthy Nigerians to answer for their crimes and also understand that they are not better than their poor neighbours, simply because they are bloated by billions of naira stolen from the national treasury. Above all, it exemplified the modern, democratic and civilized way of compelling recalcitrant Nigerians to abide by rules of behaviour and be the better for it.

The most optimistic among the people who hailed the court process which convicted Funke Akindele, wished the same forthrightness were extended to looters of Nigeria’s national wealth and other corrupt politicians. They would rather that corrupt civil servants, including but not limited to police officers, who extort motorists daily on Nigerian roads were not spared but prosecuted quickly as Funke Akindele and her husband. They also longed for the day when nouveaux riches Nigerians, who no longer see themselves as subject to the laws of the federation but over and above them, would be speedily brought to justice just as Funke Akindele and her husband were. They wished and longed for many more cases of indiscipline in high and low places to be forthrightly determined by the various courts in the land.

On another level, Funke Akindele’s speedy conviction gave rise to a belief in some quarters that the LSG and by extension, the Nigerian government, had woken up to its responsibility and would from thence be swift and impartial in its administration of justice. Pessimists however smirked and disagreed with that position.

The optimists propagating the above idea became somewhat puzzled, when they discovered that the same LSG that charged Funke Akindele was the same one that withdrew charges against a former Governorship aspirant, Babatunde Gbadamosi and musician, Naira Marley who both attended Funke Akindele’s party!

What the optimists didn’t know, or perhaps knew but forgot, is that it takes more than just a one-off, spur of the moment’s whim to be a government that dispenses justice regardless of status. They failed to remember that it takes years, decades and possibly centuries of responsible and deliberate building of institutions– one that precludes interference of personal idiosyncrasies of public office holders from destroying the essence of the offices they hold– to be a government that is fair to all.

And to further compound the puzzlement of the optimists, the whole nation watched with horror how high ranking members of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 repeated the gaffe committed by Funke Akindele during the funeral of late Abba Kyari, erstwhile Chief of Staff to President Buhari, and how the Presidency and FCTA kept mum over the glaring breaches of Covid-19 burial protocols at that funeral. They congregated at the graveside, numbering more than 50 persons without observing rules of physical distancing and many of them wearing no face masks! None was arrested. None was prosecuted!

But, of course, Abuja is not Lagos and Lagos is not Abuja. So, what is good for the goose in Lagos might not be so regarded for the gander in Abuja. Therefore, the Funke Akindele example– set to serve as deterrence and prevent massive transmission of the coronavirus–was deemed not to be applicable in the case of the imperious PTF members who deliberately ignored laid down guidelines for preventing the spread of Covid-19.

It is not certain if the federal government of Nigeria will ever invoke the Funke Akindele example on its erring officials, particularly the ones that attended Abba Kyari’s funeral. What is certain is that Nigerians might yet have to wait a little longer to see an iteration of the Funke Akindele example on indiscreet government officials, corrupt politicians and other wealthy but dubious citizens, who have turned the country to a field of loot, sleaze and gross indiscipline.