The Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 says it has submitted it’s recommendations to President Muhammadu Buhari on whether the schools and religious centres should be opened or not.
The PresidentialTask Force on COVID-19 (PTF) met with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa onAon Sunday and after the meeting, the Chairman of the task force and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha told journalists details of the meeting with the President.
Mustapha said the PTF has made some recommendations to the President on whether schools, religious houses and others should be reopened or not. Though the PTF’s recommendations were not disclosed, Mustapha said only the President can make a final decision.
On the issue of compliance, he said: “We also discussed the issue of compliance and he (President) said we should continue to appeal to Nigerians and drive home the point that it’s a personal responsibility for each and every Nigerian to undertake to ensure that he keeps himself and by extension keeping his family, loved ones and community safe”.
When asked why Kogi and Cross River states are failing to cooperate with the NCDC, he said: “We discussed challenges generally and I believe that in the context of those discussions, certain steps will be taken. We are doing everything to ensure that the entire nation is on the same page with one response and it is very important that we realize that no state is an island unto itself, when you deal with health matters. Whatever happens in a particular locality has the consequences of spilling off to other constituencies. That is the message that we will continue to drive in our pursuit of getting everybody to be on board and I can assure you that there is no island that exists as far covid-19 is concerned in this country. We must integrate all the responses from the different segments of the community and the state and have everybody to be on the same page. We will continue to pursue that and we must also ensure that it happens. I can assure you about that”.
About reopening worship centers, he said: “That’s part of what we have considered in its totality. We would await Mr. President’s on that, once I receive his approval, going forward, to certain recommendations we have put in place, we will know how that happens. The issue of easing up, you know we are in the first phase, we had an extension of two weeks for the first phase, and the next phase should be the second phase and along with that will come in with a lot of recommendations, which we expect Mr. President to consider. But I can assure you about one thing that the ownership of the next stage will be the responsibility of the states and the national supervision and coordination because we have gone into community transmission. Where are the communities? The communities are in the states. So the ownership of the next stage will be the responsibility of the states, the local and traditional institutions, the religious leaders at the different levels of our communities because that is where the problem is”.
The PTF Chairman also said the country had started reopening the essential parts economy, especially the agricultural sector and those that produce fertilizers. The oil and gas industry and some aspects of the financial sector were never closed even during the lockdown. “After we receive Mr. President’s approval tonight or tomorrow morning, we will now know which segment of the economy he has allowed to open”, he said.
