President Muhammadu Buhari today met with the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 at the Aso Rock Villa, where he expressed satisfaction with the team for what it had achieved so far.
After the parley, the head of the task force and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boos Mustapha, said the job was enormous but surmountable.
“We had three objectives and I can say to a large extent we have achieved these objectives. We might not be there totally but I am confident that looking at the strategies that we are putting in place, going forward we will strengthen those objectives that we have substantially achieved which are purpose-driven in terms of dealing with COVID-19.
“It is not a 100 meter race, it is a marathon. So at every point in time you implace the strategy and move forward and that is what we are doing. I can assure that what proposals we have brought today for Mr. President consideration, I think holistically, it will put us in a better frame to deal with the future”, he stated.
Mustapha implored Nigerians to obey health protocols and help the government check the spread of Covid-19 in the country.
“The most important thing for them to do is for them to take personal responsibility in dealing with it. All of them should be overseers of their communities, watch out for people who have symptoms and urged them to report at the nearest health facility and get tested and if they are confirmed positive, their contacts can be traced and they will be taken into care, that is the most important thing to do.
“COVID-19 is not going to go away in the next one or two months, whoever tells you that is not being realistic. No vaccine is in the horizon, we are talking about 18 months to two years before vaccines would be confirmed for human use as far as COVID-19.
“And unless we get there, it means is that it will remain. It might have cycles, after the first cycle of pandemic, they might be a relief, there can be a resurgence and that is evidenced all over the world.
“It has happened before as is the nature of infections. So, I believe that what we are going to do now as a taskforce is to come down to the level of having the communities take ownership of the response.
“We have developed a national response which has been cascaded to the states but the communities must plug into the national response. Where we have primary health care centres all over the country, they can be used as stations of reporting of surveillance within a particular community, of tracing, of tracking so that we can take out those that we suspect have exhibited symptoms or have come in contact with people who have exhibited symptoms for testing and isolation. That way you plug them out of the community and reduce the risk of transmission. That is basically what we are working on”, the SGF stated.
He said the president “expressed his satisfaction that in spite of the difficulties and the fact that as a nation, we lack the capable infrastructure looking at what is happening to the developed world, where countries that have traditionally established health institutions with all the palliatives, with all the privileges, with all the schemes that guide its people have crumble as a result of COVID-19, we are still standing and doing our best under the circumstances to ensure that we provide the necessary direction.
“So he expressed his satisfaction with the PTF, the Minister of Health and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, which are integral part of the taskforce and all the multi-sectoral ministries and are involved in this work – the armed forces, the police, the kind of cooperation we have received from them, without them we wouldn’t have recorded the modest successes that we have achieved. So he expressed his appreciation that have contributed to where we are today.”
Asked of he had received the Madagascan remedy, the SGF replied: “I understand it’s been brought. I will take delivery probably tomorrow, Monday. The president has already said it will be scientifically dealt with, it is only after that that he can allow it to be tested.
“But that has been our position that whatever comes in, whatever cure, whatever solution that is being provided must be subjected to a process of validation.”
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