On Monday, the President in a national address announced a two-week extended lockdown of Lagos, Ogun, and Abuja. A few days after this address, Star times which is a Chinese media company with 70% Chinese ownership decided to start work as it opens its headquarters and other branches in Abuja. This stirred concerns as staff worry over COVID-19.
The concerned staff stated that they worked efficiently from home in the past two weeks and they could do the same again. The company’s spokesman disclosed that further closure of the company will take a toll on it. According to him, no government subventions for their work.
Nwankwo Amaechi made known that the company adhering to the initial two-week lockdown was just to curtail the spread of the pandemic disease. However, resuming back is necessary for the media company’s operation. Amaechi stated that Startimes is part of the essential services excluded from the lockdown by the President.
A concerned staff, however, debunked this stating Star times is not a media company but a paid-tv provider. Amaechi the company’s spokesman argued that the company’s equipment requires constant servicing so as to make it function properly. However, staff not in the engineering department were also mailed to resume.
Startimes had sent emails to 45 staff to resume back to work on Tuesday and even after the national address, another mail was sent out to confirm that while the President had announced an extended lockdown, the staff are still expected to resume to work on Tuesday. The company spokesman stated that subscribers problem needs to be solved to avoid the company losing valuable customers.
A concerned staff shared that some Nigerian companies just want ‘to look good in front of the Chinese bosses’ and that is what impacted their decision to reopen and flout the law. The nation has managed to keep the number of COVID-19 cases in the country comparatively low since the nation began its initial lockdown
