Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, says Nigeria is seen as one of the countries that would be crushed by the virus and therefore, called on Nigerians to prove the world wrong on COVID-19.
Mustapha, who is the chairman of the presidential task force on COVID-19, stated this at a briefing on Friday.
The SGF said Nigerians must wake up to their responsibility by cooperating with law enforcement agencies, especially in compliance with the two-week lockdown directed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari had ordered a two-week lockdown in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja.
“We need to arise and work as a people to ensure that we have something going for us as a nation,” he said.
“Let’s prove the world wrong on this, because the expectation is that we would crash under this. Major networks of the world are carrying such news items that Nigeria is definitely going to crash under this. But I know the Nigerian spirit that we will overcome this.
“We have to understand the psychology of what is happening. Somebody will go on the Internet and pick up what happened in 2012 and post as what is just happening in Warri, or it is just happening in Lagos… we have to be very care here, so that we do not tie the hands of our law enforcement agents and incapacitate them from being efficient and effective in their implementation of this lockdown.
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“Yesterday, I was watching CNN; a woman in Chile ran out of isolation centre. The police ran after her and grabbed her and pulled her back into the isolation centre. In a lot of countries, like Russia and the rest, you can’t talk about the punitive processes that have been put in place.
“You decide to disregard the regulations that has been put in place, there’s a place that has been prepared for you in jail for a certain number of years. I have emphasised the fact that what we are trying to do is to have Nigerians on this process. It is for our good to protect ourselves and to protect our loved ones. And we must put this narrative out there so that we take narrative of the process.”
He said COVID-19 is not an ordinary virus as it has overtaken the world with a storm and had overrun even the best of medical facilities, adding that Nigeria’s medical infrastructure is nowhere compared to the nations that are being driven aground as a result of this pandemic.
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