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Coronavirus Has Taught Us Lessons- Governor Fayemi

Published

4 years ago

May 10, 2020

Editor

Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State says his administration is learning from the COVID-19 pandemic while acknowledging the troubling impact of the disease on economic and social activities.

Dr Fayemi, who is the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, spoke on Friday night during Public Eye Live interaction with Funmi Iyanda on Instagram.

According to him, nobody saw the coronavirus and its devastating effect on the health sector coming when they were preparing for 2020.

“We are having to review the budget of states just as the Federal Government is also reviewing its budget.

“This is the number one challenge for government in the world, and at the local level that’s also our number one challenge.

“We are diverting a lot of our resources to the health sector,” he said.

With nine active cases of COVID-19, two discharges and one death in Ekiti as of Friday, May 8, the governor praised his state’s response to the disease.

“Even though we don’t have the resources of Lagos, we set about this work almost immediately as soon as we had the first case (of coronavirus) in Lagos.

“We set up a local training arrangement. By the time we eventually got the first case around the 15th of March, we were read.

“Our infectious disease centre was ready; we had everything we needed to have in place,” he said.

Governor Fayemi declared that Ekiti is learning from the challenges of COVID-19.

“This virus will go. What if another virus will come?

“We should use this as a chance to focus on building our economy to be ready for this kind of thing.

“Our first priority is to ensure that livelihood isn’t threatened.

“Yes, we want to save lives but people should also be able to eke out a living. We also have a commitment to our small and medium scale enterprises were the bulk of our business people are.

“One of the critical things we are using is agriculture.

We feel this is an opportunity for us to break out of our seeming attachment to subsistence farming to commercial agribusiness,” he added.

Speaking earlier on Public Eye, Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank Mba, described policemen as frontline workers in the fight against coronavirus.

He called on Nigerians to cooperate with the police to make the gradual easing of lockdown imposed in most parts of the country easier.

“As police officers, we are also struggling with the challenges of COVID 19. But we suffer quietly and bear our pain silently.

“Police officers just like other Nigerians have also become casualties and victims.

“A lot of police officers that work in Lagos, Port Harcourt, and other big cities in Nigeria particularly in the lower rank live outside of the city centre because of rent.

“With COVID 19 most of these people don’t own private vehicles, but they are expected to turn up to work. Lots of these police officers are spending four or five times the amount of money coming to work than they would usually spend along with the health hazards,” Mr. Mba said.

He confirmed that at least one police officer has died of COVID-19 and an unspecified number has tested positive.

“These deaths and the increasing number of police officers contracting this disease point to the fact that we are indeed in danger just as our brothers and sisters working in core medical fields are also in danger,” Mba said.

Also speaking, Professor Oyewale Tomori warned that Nigeria is headed for a calamity if the right thing is not done to fix the healthcare system.

“Unfortunately, we are a country that lives by lessons forgotten. We did very well with Ebola and soon after that, we forgot all of those things.

“Nobody is talking about Lassa fever. More people have died of Lassa fever this year than COVID.

“It’s unfortunate that we never learn from the past,” the renowned virologist lamented.

Public Eye is produced by Oya Media with support from McArthur Foundation

Headline

Breaking: Wike Plans to Attend Thursday’s PDP NEC Meeting

Published

2 days ago

April 17, 2024

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

The immediate past Governor of Rivers State, and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, may have concluded plans to attend the much advertised National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), billed to hold on Thursday, in Abuja.

Impeccable source, who is in the know, told The Boss that the minister, whose membership of the PDP is yet to be revoked even as he frolicks with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and serving in the President Bola Tinubu government as a minister.

The Source told The Boss that Wike’s impending presence at the NECeeting on Thursday is not unconnected with plans, already hatched with some governors, to weaken the opposition PDP.

“Yes, we have on good authority that FCT minister, Wike is planning to attend the NEC meeting tomorrow all in a bid to weaken the fabrics of the PDP, and pave the way for the continuation of the Tinubu administration come 2027, and by extension, relapse Nigeria to a full blown one party state.

“From every indication, Wike and his co-travellers, are bent on unleashing the same crisis ravaging the third force, Labour Party, and Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso’s Nigerian National People’s Party (NNPP) on the PDP for the APC to remain the only political party in the country, and ensure that Tinubu has no challenger, come 2027,” the Source said.

It would be recalled that Wike has boasted over and again that there’s no opposition against Tinubu’s re-emergence in 2027, and that they have made sure of that. He has been compensated with the Ministerial job after he withdrew support for his party, and supported the APC and Tinubu to emerge as national government.

The Source further revealed that in the attempt to actualize the intended one party state, a lot of funding is ongoing to ensure that concerned stakeholders are ‘settled’ handsomely.

Wike, prior, during and after the 2023 general elections, has been floating in between the two major political parties; the APC and the PDP. While he claim to still be a member of the PDP, he is functioning as a minister in an APC government, mocking the inability of his party to discipline him.

Political stakeholders have concluded that the outcome of Thursday’s PDP NEC meeting will determine the path Nigeria’s political trajectory will take, and that it may portend the end of multi-party system and political democracy if Wike succeeds in his plan.

Headline

Bribery, Corruption: APC Suspends National Chairman, Ganduje

Published

5 days ago

April 15, 2024

Eric

The All Progressives Congress ward in Ganduje, Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area, has suspended the party’s National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje.

The party ward legal adviser, Halliru Gwanzo, announced the suspension while addressing newsmen in Kano State on Monday.

Gwanzo cited allegations of bribery against Ganduje levelled by the Kano State Government as the reason for the suspension.

“We decided to suspend Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje from the party due to the seriousness of the allegations against him,” Gwanzo said.

Meanwhile, efforts to contact the Chief Press Secretary to the APC National Chairman, Mr Edwin Olufo, failed as his mobile phone was unreachable.

Headline

Akpabio Commits to Collaboration with Tinubu, Governor Umo Eno

Published

1 week ago

April 12, 2024

Admin

The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has stated his commitment to working closely with Nigeria’s President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and Governor Umo Eno to ensure the delivery of democratic benefits to the people of Akwa Ibom State.

Akpabio stated this in his country home, Ukana, Essien Udim Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom, while briefing his constituents on the journey so far as their representative in the red chamber.

He assured the people of Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District of his commitment to their welfare in appreciation of their total support for him, President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in last year’s election.

The Highpoint of the constituency briefing was the distribution of over 10,000 bags of rice and other essentials for his constituents from the wards, to the local governments.

A statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Jackson Udom, quoted Akpabio as saying, “I am here once again, to thank you for standing by me, our President and the party, before, during and even after last year’s elections. I have come to say thank you and also bring Renewed Hope to you all.

“As the President is doing his own, the Senate President is also doing his bit and being complemented by the state governor, Akwa Ibom would be the better for it. We have finished elections and politics, we are now into governance. The governor of the state must touch you, because he is the governor of all the people in the state irrespective of political affiliation.

” As I am touching you now from the political angle, I will also touch the state without any political party affiliation. Most of the projects we are putting in place would be used by people resident in the state. Relax, things are getting better.”

The former Governor of the state, assured his constituents that his current position as the Senate President would be used for the development of the state in collaboration with the President and the Akwa Ibom State Governor.

Hear him: This Senate President is not the one that would be fighting the state government. I will collaborate with , I will collaborate with , to make the state better for us all. We cannot be out of government for a long time. You have to go to a government that carries you along”

Akpabio promised to work for his constituents and Nigeria with all his strength, noting that, “as the President of the Senate, I am for the Southern region and the entire country. I may not come here regularly to tell you what I have been doing for you, but you will be feeling the impact on way or the other. Our unemployed youths would be gainfully employed. I will construct a mini stadium in all the local governments in the district, for our youths to develop their sporting potentials. ”