When you do a quick Google search of the phrase – ’palliative measures’, you will quickly understand it to mean – ‘That which is palliative relieves and soothes, but is not expected to cure’.
The English dictionary defines the word ‘palliative’ as- ‘serving to extenuate or mitigate; minimising the progression of a disease and relieving undesirable symptoms for as long as possible rather than attempting to cure the (unusually incurable) disease’.
It would, therefore, be right to say that ‘palliative’ is largely ‘people’ and ‘condition’ sensitive and temporary in nature, ensuring relief and making mild the pain that would, otherwise have been felt, were it not available.
The question to ask now is – “where did the leaders, nay rulers, in the Federal and State governments get their understanding of the definition of palliatives or palliative measures to mean the provision of food and food items alone? This is what we have seen them operationalise across the country in the last two weeks since this COVID-19 pandemic began to bite.
How did they come to the sudden and myopic conclusion that palliative measures must mean the provision of cups of garri, noodles, beans, oil and, in some cases, other condiments for making jollof rice, only for the ‘poor’ who live in the rural areas?
Palliative measures can be to some –  the provision of ‘food’ (food palliatives), to some others, in the form of provision of regular and uninterrupted power supply, reduction in tariffs of certain commodities and utility services, suspension of levies, taxes, rates and duties or even the disbursement of cash directly to people to take care of other domestic responsibilities (social palliatives).
Yet to others, it can just be the provision of some legal frameworks or legislations that would address monetary and fiscal policy matters of exposed individuals (such as the temporary suspension or reduction of interest rates payable on loans taken, access to cheap loans and salary advances to keep the economy liquid or even legislations that make it possible for businessmen to cut down on or mitigate their losses or financial exposures). That is, legal/legislative palliatives. Palliative measures could also be religious or psychological palliatives.
Depending on who or what is involved before the need for palliatives is contemplated, governments must first attempt to understand that true palliative measures must be sensitive and not discriminatory. The poor, rich, strong, weak, and every gender in every ethnic group across every stratum of the society must be considered when designing palliatives or what would constitute the best palliative measure whenever the need arises.
Palliatives should be only those which are capable of providing temporary relief to soothe the pains and hardship on all affected by the attendant situation.
Having established what true palliative measures should be and seeing the finest of its interpretation displayed by civilisations outside of Nigeria such as the USA, Russia, South Korea, Italy, Spain, Great Britain and even some African countries like South Africa (currently experiencing looting by citizens in spite of their palliatives) and Senegal, it would be safe to say that our leaders either do not understand the meaning of the term ‘Palliative Measures’, or have a very warped understanding of it or are simply just wicked, displaying such wickedness to their people in the way they carry on with these things.
Where did they get their interpretation to mean food items? As if that was not bad enough, why do they think it to also mean it is only the poor in the rural communities that deserve it? Where exactly?
Do they, by their interpretation, imply that the ‘rich’ (who probably have invested millions or billions of naira in the economy that is about to go down the drains because they cannot use it for what they intended such as manufacturing, owing to the lockdown order for days now) would not suffer losses or if they do, it would be miniature compared to what the ‘poor’ who they are focusing on now would suffer in this period and as such do not deserve palliatives?
Do they imagine that the ordinary taxi driver who is managing his personal taxi or the one he got on hire purchase who because of this pandemic and the ‘decree or order’ for him not to carry the usual number of passengers would not make losses now and so would not deserve palliatives also?
Do they mean that the woman who had already paid a one-year rental in the hope of making money for the next year’s rental from her daily sales, who the stay-at-home order has prevented from going to open her shop for two, three or even five months as the case may be, does not require palliatives that can be in the form of asking the landlord to return the monies paid for the rentals and consequently waivering tenement rate for the landlord for a period of time?
Whatever the case may be, our governments must interrogate again their understanding of the words (palliative and palliative measure) in order not to, with time, incur the imminent wrath of the classes of citizens not catered to in their plans and what divinity might serve them as consequences of this wicked and corruption-laden interpretation of an otherwise good word.
Akpotive, a social reformer and public affairs commentator, writes from Port Harcourt.

Andy Akpotive