Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic has described as a threat to national security and governance the rising positive cases of the virus among people in positions of authority.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the PTF, Boss Mustapha, expressed the concern at Monday’s task force briefing
Mustapha, who charged all Nigerians to be vigilant, noted that recent developments had further confirmed that COVID-19 does not discriminate or respect positions, assuring that the PTF would step up its sensitisation strategy against the virus.
‘Of recent, we have witnessed a high rate of positive cases especially among people in authority. This has a direct impact on the governance and security of our nation.
‘We urge that vigilance and care should be exhibited by all Nigerians irrespective of status. This virus does not discriminate and the PTF shall keep sustaining its sensitization messaging,’ he said.
The SGF added that notwithstanding the fact that Nigeria decided to relax some of the restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the virus, its spread across the world had not slowed down, stressing the need for every Nigerian to remain responsible and prevent a repeat of the mistakes made during the 1918 pandemic.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, let me emphasise that decision for further relaxation was cautiously taken by the government to balance lives and livelihood. Rising global and domestic statistics of cases and fatalities have shown that COVID-19 has not given any relaxation.
‘Therefore, we cannot afford to slow down and we must never compromise. Let us continue to learn from the history of pandemics by avoiding the mistakes of 1918.
‘Having laid that foundation, the PTF calls on all Nigerians to also remain vigilant and this call is underscored by global and national developments in the last one week, especially throughout the weekend. In the last one week, we have witnessed a resurgence in countries that were noted as having successfully contained or containing the spread of the virus.
‘The situation in Beijing and the United States of America should inform our individual and collective actions. Of course, such resurgence has led to the reintroduction of precision/location-specific lockdown in some areas such as parts of Galicia region, Catalonia, Spain,’ Mustapha said.
He added that the PTF met on Monday with the heads of security and defence agencies to review and chart a new course, highlighting the global health, socio-economic and security challenges triggered by the pandemic, saying that Nigeria must continue to evolve new strategies peculiar to her environment while working within global prescriptions.
He said that the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) organised national prayers for both Muslims and Christians to seek divine intervention on COVID-19 and several other problems confronting the country and humanity.
He said that some additional benefits derivable from the intervention of NIREC include awareness on the evils of gender violence, benefits of peaceful co-existence, religious tolerance and deepening the impact of Community Engagement and Risk Communication programmes of the PTF.
Also speaking, the National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr Sani Aliyu, noted the critical role to be played by religious and community leaders, as well as traditional rulers in taking risk communication and sensitisation to the people at the community level.
‘We are appealing to all traditional rulers, community and religious leaders, who remain an integral part of the rural communities as well as the urban communities, to join the fight by driving the sensitisation programmes right down to the grassroots, as it relates to COVID-19 prevention.
‘The PTF will live to see religious and traditional figures incorporate our life-saving health advisories in their messages to their worshippers and community members. This should be considered an opportunity at every prayer session in the country.’