The leadership of the Senate and officials of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Wednesday declared that the N620million claimed to have been released to fight possible outbreak of Coronavirus in Nigeria is a ruse.
Their position came as officials in charge of an isolation centre in Gwagwalada, Abuja, said they had to borrow money to buy mattresses for the centre which also lacked necessary medical equipment among others.
The federal government had last week through the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said the sum of N620 million had been made available to all the four isolation centres across the country for combating possible outbreak of the deadly disease .
But during an inspection of one of the isolation centres situated within the premises of Gwagwalada Specialist Hospital Abuja, the Senate leadership, led by Ahmad Lawan, was shocked at the level of nothingness seen at the centre.
The delegation was miffed that while at the temporary centre, there was no electricity or generator to lit up the isolated area in case of emergency, the permanent site was not even in any shape for such emergencies as there were no bed and required medical equipments in virtually all rooms of the centre which was still under construction.
The pathetic situation, according to the NCDC Head of Admin and Human Resources, Yahaya Abdullahi, was due to non-release of fund to the centre.
“Not a single Kobo has been given to us here for equipping any of the centres, be it the temporary one or the real centre that is still under construction.
“Even the mattresses put in some of the rooms of the permanent site were personally procured by us through contribution or borrowing,” he lamented.
Irked by the development, Senate President Lawan declared that the N620million should be released by the minister of finance without further delay.
He said:”From our inspection here, the temporary isolation centre is really not in good shape, it doesn’t look ready to receive any patient, and I believe that this is something that we need to fix between now and tomorrow.
“We are in an emergency, even if we don’t have people who are affected; we shouldn’t just rest on our oars. We have to do everything and anything possible to fix that temporary isolation centre to be prepared to receive anyone who falls sick in this respect.
“I am sad, we are indeed actually sad, that of the N620 million that was supposed to be released to this place for fixing of everything here to NCDC, not a kobo has been released.
“We are going to get across to the minister of finance and all the other authorities that have anything to do with this to release this money latest between today and tomorrow.”
Senator Lawan further lamented that Nigeria, despite being a country with the largest economy in Africa, was yet to have a completed isolation centre in any of the geo-political zones that would provide emergency response to disease outbreak in the country.
He charged those saddled with leadership responsibilities in the country to live up to expectations through timely discharge of their mandates and duties.
“There’s no way that Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa, with a population of two hundred million, and yet the Federal Capital and six surrounding states of the North Central, you don’t have one room that you can call an isolation centre, where anyone who unfortunately falls into this crisis will be taken to. This is not acceptable.
“So, we are going to ensure that the money is released, we are not going to put pressure. This is what they are supposed to do, and they must do it.
“I also believe that we should have a replication of the permanent site, we should be able to complete this and then have five others across the remaining geo-political zones of the country.
“Let’s spend money for our people; we waste money for some things that are less important. This is about the health and lives of the people of this country, and therefore, no investment is too much.
“So, we should be prepared at all times. We had Ebola, SARS, now we have Coronavirus, we do not know what else will come, but we should be prepared and ready for any eventuality, and no investment is too much.
“The contractor said by the end of this month this should be ready. We pray it should be faster, but by the end of tomorrow, that temporary site must be ready.
“There’s no generator, no electricity, nothing. There were two or three air conditioners brought this morning, maybe because yesterday we said we were coming here. This is not acceptable.
“As leaders given responsibilities, we have to do what is right. This is unfortunate. So, the Ministry of Finance should release the N620 million between today and tomorrow.”
