COVID-19. PDP urges Nigerians to protect themselves, says Buhari no longer knows what to do

As easing of the COVID-19 lockdown begins Monday (today), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked Nigerians to intensify personal strategies to protect themselves.

The party said Nigerians have no option left now but to find ways to save themselves because President Muhammadu Buhari and his government had reached their wits end, and had no plans to rescue Nigerians from the throes of the pandemic.

This was contained in a statement by Kola Ologbondiyan on Sunday.

It said Nigerians should not “resign to fate and jeopardize their lives following President Buhari’s failure to find direction in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 in our country despite the huge resources at his disposal.”

The party charged Nigerians as well as states not to drop their guards but must intensify their personal and community protection strategies and never rely on Buhari’s government protecting them.

It lamented that the Buhari Presidency and its “incompetent Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 had compounded the situation by crippling the economy after which they are now leaving Nigerians to their fate without providing any therapeutic or operable containment strategy to stem the rising spread and fatalities of COVID-19 in our country.”

The PDP says it was disheartening that officials of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government were more interested in TV shows, self-praise, photo-ops, alleged corrupt diversion of palliatives as well as needless political parochialism at the expense of the lives of Nigerians.

“Our party notes that the inept leadership of Buhari Presidency failed to engage our indigenous medical experts and manufacturers for home grown solutions in therapeutics, test kits and ventilators; leading to an avoidable spike of the pandemic in our country.

“Nigerians would recall that our party had continued to warn against the over-reliance on foreign solutions at this time when every nation is more interested in its own challenges, a situation that even put our nation at risk of serving as guinea pigs for medical experimentations.

“Moreover, President Buhari’s lockdown order failed because Mr. President failed to address the corruption in his administration that scuttled the distribution of necessary palliatives to most of the poor and vulnerable Nigerians, whose survival depended on daily income from the streets.

“Rather than overhauling the corrupt network in charge of distributing the palliatives, President Buhari accepted the imaginary figures of beneficiaries being reeled out by officials while leaving Nigerians to their horrendous fate.

“It is even unimaginable that the Buhari Presidency is releasing Nigerians into the streets without any comprehensive fumigation of major streets, shopping malls, offices and other public places in cities like Abuja and Lagos despite the huge resources it claimed to be spending on this pandemic.

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“Furthermore, President Buhari has failed to make provisions for post lockdown stimulus for compatriots whose businesses have been crippled and are now in dire need of refinancing.

“The Federal Government’s approach to this pandemic is akin to a father, whose compound have been invaded by hordes of monsters, ordered his children to stay indoors without food and other supplies, only to engage in grandstanding after which he opened the doors for his children to confront the increased army of monsters on empty stomachs, without protection or weaponry,” the said.

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