Tinubu Warns: Nigeria’s Public Health System Not Adequate For Coronavirus Pressures
The national leader of the ruling All Progresssives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has warned that Nigeria’s public health system is not adequate to withstand coronavirus pressures.
“We cannot afford to put undue pressure on our system because it cannot bear the great weight of a pandemic. Thus, it is incumbent on us to thoroughly implement and obey social safety and distancing techniques so that we halt the spread of the disease and keep hospitalization to the barest possible minimum.”
Asiwaju Tinubu, who issued a statement today, March 28 to mark his 68th birthday which comes up tomorrow, March 29, noted that the public health care systems of developed nations have already been overwhelmed by coronavirus.
“They are running out of equipment and healthy doctors. Our public health care system is much smaller and less equipped than those in Europe and North America.”
He said that the only way the virus can be prevented from spreading and putting pressure on the nation’s meagre health facilities is for the people to adhere to health advised given by relevant authorities.
“Places like banks offer needed services such as cash withdrawals. But they should limit the number of customers in the bank at any given time. Supermarkets and grocers should do the same.
“We should continue to postpone sporting events, weddings, and other large gatherings. Funerals, if they must take place, should be attended only by small numbers of family members.”
He said that people should use this moment to teach their children about compassion and the traditional values of care and concern that often get diluted in our rush toward modernity and growth.
“Not only is the coronavirus a health and medical problem, it will bring heavy economic costs. “China and the West face severe economic contractions. Cities are shuttered. Multiple industries have closed. Millions have suddenly been rendered jobless. Supply chains have busted. Economic activity is a fraction of what it was just a month ago. Deep recessions are forecasted. Some experts fear depression now tracks the world down. Governments worldwide are responding by embarking on unprecedented stimulus packages to keep their economies afloat.
“The Chinese are pumping untold trillions into their financial markets and productive economy. The most austere large nation, Germany, casts aside its constitutional prohibition on deficit spending to enact a historic, unprecedented fiscal stimulus package. The free-market Tory government of Boris Johnson has abjured his conservative upbringing if but for this harsh moment. His government is launching a fiscal stimulus unseen in the UK for decades. Likewise, the Bank of England vows to pump as much money into the financial market as is needed to unfreeze it and get it working again.
“The conservative Trump government also abandons its laissez faire ideology in the face of this exigency. Trump wants to give 2 trillion in fiscal stimulus and this will likely be just the first tranche. The Federal Reserve has announced an aggressive monetary policy to bolster the financial sector. This is atop the 2 trillion the Fed already promised.
“In the end, do not be surprised if the US government injects over 5 trillion new dollars into the economy in the months to come. This would represent 25 percent of last year’s GDP for that nation. Moreover, the US economy is also enacting various forms of debt moratoria such as forbearance on rental payments for struggling families and small businesses to taxrelief of various types for companies large and small.
“This is truly an eye opening endeavour based on lessons learned from the 1929 Great Depressionwhen government failed to appropriately act and the 2009 Financial Crisis when governmentsacted in time.
“The lesson learned is that a government has the sovereign power and requisite duty to intervene in the economy in order to stave calamity. To aid in this task, a government has the unlimited ability and again public duty to issue as much of itsown currency as needed to quell shortage and bufferthe populace from hardship.
“We, fortunately, are not at the stage where we need to implement such strongeconomic measures; however, we should be preparing a response for that urgent moment mayfall swiftly upon us.In doing so, we must be guided by the same lessons other nations havefollowed. When it comes to expenditures that can only be made in dollars, we must be extra careful. Dollars now come at a steep premium. However, when it comes to expenditures that can be made in naira, government cannot afford to be bashful or reticent when the need arises.”
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Nusa Bello has mobilized religious leaders for the provision of humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable members of the society as the coronavirus threatens to spread further.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised an alarm that the global economy has moved into a recession and that developing countries would be more hit.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has made an intervention of $30 million (N11 billion) to help combat the spread of Coronavirus pandemic and its attendant impact on the Nigerian economy.
Twenty four hours after the United Bank for Africa (UBA) announced a donation of billions of naira to Africa for the battle against the spread of coronavirus pandemic, the bank has also given out the sum of N500 million to the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) for the same purpose in the Federal capital.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed another set of coronavirus cases in Abuja and Oyo State respectively.
Evil Ones And Imagined Breaking News From Aso Rock, By Femi Adesina
Quite a challenging week it has been for Nigeria, and, indeed, the rest of the world. Except perhaps in China only, where the affliction started from, figures of Coronavirus infections continue to mount in other parts of the world. Italy and Spain have been particularly badly hit.
But as the world reels under the impact of a most pernicious pandemic, a suicide bomber wreaking deadly havocs, merchants of fake, hateful news remain fully at work. Aso Villa, the seat of presidential authority, has been their focus for most of the week. They have kept churning out spurious reports after the other about President Muhammadu Buhari, and some other people who work with him. If you choose to believe them, the President by now has even been evacuated, and is receiving medical attention at an undisclosed location somewhere in the wide world.
Breaking news from Aso Villa. That is what you have had day after day. And each time I am contacted to authenticate one story or the other, I tell the enquirers that the Presidential Villa is part of the world, part of humanity, and the people there are not immune from what is happening in the rest of the world.
But the outright fake, hateful news, I have ignored all week. Not a word in response. How do you begin to give wings to concocted stories through responses that will make the falsehood fly faster? No, purveyors of wickedness should not have the satisfaction of drawing us out all the time, and getting some tacit endorsement for their flight of fancy.
A top aide of the President tested positive early in the week. He is receiving adequate care, and he has our best wishes. But for the sinister minds, it was floodgate to all sorts of malediction. All sorts of Breaking News followed:
‘Intensive care machines brought into Aso Rock.’ ‘President Buhari coughing ceaselessly.’ ‘PMB under intensive care.’ ‘Adesina among those who accompanied Abba Kyari to Kogi.’ (I never did). ‘Garba Shehu under self-isolation.’ ‘Buhari may be smuggled out of the country, as condition worsens.’ And by yesterday, a recorded message started circulating on WhatsApp, saying President Buhari had been sneaked out of the country. To where? By who? Their fecund imaginations did not say.
And more Breaking News: ‘Buhari bans journalists from covering Aso Villa.’ (A man supposedly in intensive care was still banning reporters. Lol). ‘Buhari in self-isolation’ (Yet he was in the office on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, even receiving visitors). ‘Aso Villa shut down.’ And the vile beat goes on…
Why do some people conjure nothing but evil? Why do they imagine vain things? In 2017, while President Buhari had his medical challenge, they were on orgy of negative wishes, misinformation, and disinformation. But God pulled a fast one on them. He brought the President back, as right as rain. Haven’t they learned their lessons?
With the good people, however, positive things are happening. Tony Elumelu’s UBA is giving N5 billion to help Nigeria and Africa. Abdusamad Rabiu (BUA) has donated one billion Naira in cash. . Folorunsho Alakija has imported test kits and other materials for Nigerians, worth hundreds of millions of Naira. Aliko Dangote, after an initial donation of N200 million to combat Coronavirus, is leading top bankers and the private sector generally to raise aid. GTBank has donated a 100 beds care center. The Redeemed Christian Church of God has provided ventilators. And many more. These are the people and organizations that should define us as a people, not the conjurers of wickedness and doomsday. God is surely greater than them. And Nigeria too.
.Adesina is Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity