By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The looting of COVID-19 palliatives didn’t happen in all the states. While some received theirs and distributed immediately, others delayed. This much was revealed by the national coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 in Nigeria, Dr Sani Aliyu.
Aliyu was speaking at the 8th anniversary lecture of Realnews Magazine held in Lagos on November 19th. He represented the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha.
During the question and answer session, Aliyu was asked if the delayed distribution of the COVID-19 palliatives by the state governors were responsible for the looting across the many states where the items were stored. He responded by providing certain details about the items.
According to Aliyu, the Coalition Against COVID-19, which is the private sector led initiative that supports Nigeria in the fight against the pandemic, provided the food items to all the states in the federation.
He said that N27 billion were expended in the purchase of the food items, and those food items were purchased in batches. He explained that if the food items were to be purchased in one fell swoop, it would lead a spiral food inflation, hence, the piece meal supply.
According to Aliyu, some states like Borno and Nasarawa distributed the food items supplied to them earlier, the reason their warehouses were spared of the looting.
Aliyu, while delivering Boss Mustapha’s speech titled ‘Managing COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa, the Nigerian Experience’, said the PTF recorded many successes, among which was the expansion in molecular labs, support to states to increase testing capacities, containment measures and so on.
He said despite the successes recorded in the fight against COVID-19 in Nigeria, some states have been lagging behind.
He said as at date, there are states that have tested less than 100 persons.
“Despite great efforts towards optimizing laboratory capacity, the sample collection/testing rate remain low in many states. Increase in financial hardships, crime and domestic violence during the lockdown, thus prolonged enforcement was unsustainable.
“Poor response from some State Governments, failure to provide adequate and complementary funds and the required leadership. Some denied/downplayed the existence of the disease in their states at the beginning.
“Large populations do not believe that COVID-19 is real. Some who believe that it is real have low risk perception resulting in poor adherence to interventions such as use of face masks and physical distancing,” he said.
He warned against complacency in handling the pandemic, reminding Nigerians that India has at the beginning of the pandemic, thought it was immune until the spread became alarming.
He said the low number of cases Nigeria records should not give anyone a respite that the battle has been won, saying in every one case confirmed, there are at least seven to eight cases that would be missed.
