The Northern Governors’ Forum (NGF) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government to give its members their fair share of palliatives to tackle the various challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
NGF Chairman and Plateau state Governor Simon Lalong stated the position after members had a teleconference on issues relating to the pandemic.
In a late night statement Monday by Lalong’s Director of Press and Public Affairs, Dr. Makut Macham, the governors frowned at the non-release of single palliative by the federal government to its members, despite having several cases of the virus in their respective states.
He said: “The fund will assist us in the frantic efforts to prevent any outbreak as well as prepare against any eventuality.
“Another issue discussed by the northern governors was the issue of palliatives from the federal government where they regretted that so far, no state in the region had received a dime as special allocation despite the fact that some of them have recorded cases while others are making frantic efforts to prevent any outbreak, as well as prepare against any eventuality.
“This, they observed, has eaten deep into the pockets of the states as they have spent a lot of money already and may not be able to sustain this for a long time.
“Since prevention is better than cure, we canvassed that the Federal Government grants them some special funds just as it has done to other states.’’
The forum therefore mandated its chairman to liaise with the federal government through the minister of finance, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and the private sector donor basket in order to benefit from available palliatives and donations.
“As for testing centres, the governors lamented that the region has no testing centres, which is very disturbing. They resolved to again liaise with the federal government to ensure that each State at least gets one testing centre while highly populated ones get two,” he said.
On lockdown, it said: “After receiving reports from various states, the Forum resolved to strengthen preventive measures against the pandemic through enhanced border controls and surveillance as well as greater collaboration to ensure that there is synergy among them in movement restriction.”
They said the lockdown in some states in the region had varying levels of success, but also raised concerns that enforcing cross-border movements remains a challenge as some of the cases recorded in some states were imported from outside despite the closure of borders by states.
“Each state would adopt the measure suitable to its setting because total lockdown of the region will come at a very high cost since most of its citizens are farmers who need to go to farms since the rains have started,” he said.
Lalong said the forum had set up a seven-man committee chaired by Governor Atiku Abubakar Bagudu, of Kebbi state to fashion out the way forward.
The committee has governors of Kaduna, Sokoto, Kwara, Nasarawa, Jigawa, Gombe and Nasarawa states as members.
The forum also commended President Buhari for the measures taken so far to deal with the pandemic and promised to do their part in working with the federal government to overcome the challenge.
Kano lockdown
Meanwhile, Kano state Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has announced a total lockdown of the state for seven days, beginning from Thursday.
This, he said, was part of measures to stem the spread of the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic in the state.
The governor announced this Tuesday at the Government House during a meeting with Islamic scholars in the state.
The decision came as the state recorded yet another case Tuesday, thus bringing the number of cases to four.
He said: “Following the outbreak of this disease, COVID-19 in Kano and the subsequent cases we recorded, Kano Government has resolved to lockdown the state for duration of seven days, starting from Thursday 16th April.
“We want to however call on the scholars that Kano residents should start purchasing food stuff, as that would help curtail the spread of the disease in the state. The lockdown would start at 10p.m, no more markets, no more gatherings and mosques.”
Ganduje said the lockdown would affect all markets in the metropolitan city of Kano in addition to banning all forms gatherings adding that the one week lock down is subject to review after the week had expired.
He further said the decision was purposefully effected in the interest of safeguarding public safety health wise in the wake of gradual proliferation of the pandemic, stressing that government was compelled to take such a painful decision in the face of the prevailing situation
While confirming the new case, the governor said the patient had connection with the index patient after 18 samples were tested.
Reacting to the decision, some residents described as ill-timed, saying it would adversely affect those without stable means of living
In his view, Malam Shehu Maiagogo of the Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi Market in Kano said people patronising the markets in search of the most basic essential commodities would find it hard to cope with, much less those who do not even have the means of buying the commodity.
Speaking in the same vein, a resident of Sheka quarters in Kano Mr. Alfred Henze stated that currently, people were passing through harsh economic condition as even banks’ account operators cannot withdraw their money without tears.
He said the state government should have put palliatives in place before taking the decision to lock down the sprawling ancient city.
Sounding a different tone, a trader at the famous Kantin-Kwari market, Alhaji Nura Sagagi said it is high time people began to accept the present bitter reality in the face of the disaster the pandemic could cause if not quickly checked.
He said allowing free movement could further aggravate the already bad situation.
FG traces 9,029
In a related development, the federal government said it had traced a total of 9,029 persons of interest, even as it intensifies contact tracing and testing capacities across the country.
Minister of Health Dr. Osagie Ehanire said this Tuesday while providing an update on activities of the presidential task force on COVID-19 in Abuja.
Ehanire said 99 per cent of those traced had exceeded their 14-day observation period, which has significantly helped the entire strategy to curb the spread of the virus in the country.
He said: “We have made significant progress in contact tracing and have to date, followed up 9,029 persons of interest, 99 percent of whom have exceeded their 14-day observation period.
“The Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) is doing a good job of supporting response activities in States with new outbreaks, with Rapid Response Teams, and working with the Department of Hospital Services to oversee the establishment of more isolation and treatment centres in line with national guidelines and global best practices.
“I must, at this point also commend persons, organizations and groups in Nigeria who have put public and even their private facilities at the disposal of the Federal Ministry of Health to use as Isolation and Treatment centers, and in some cases, gone out of their way to renovate and equip such centres.
“The treatment center accreditation team has set up guidelines for maintenance of operational standards that are to be used in all our isolation and treatment centres in public and eligible private health facilities. I remind practitioners to take utmost precautions as COVID-19 is a highly transmissible disease with national security implications.
“The Accreditation committee shall conduct random spot checks to ascertain the state of readiness of Isolation and critical care centers. However, improving testing capacity will not yield full value if it is not followed up with stricter follow up with Isolation.”
He further added: “The Federal Ministry of Health has mapped out areas of need in ICU capacity and will work with the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), the Associations of Anesthetists and Critical care physicians and nurses, with the aim of deploying specialists to areas of need in Nigeria, for limited periods, to enhance readiness and build capacity, while crash courses for locals are conducted.
“Similarly the ministry is creating a structured Patient Transport Plan within the new FMoH Action Plan, to be shared with all States. This is important in the event of the need to transfer patients from one Center to another.
“The Federal Ministry of Health and its Agencies are developing the new National Action Plan as a strategy to respond to the imminent phase of COVID-19 community transmission.”
Update
Announcing an update Tuesday, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) put the new figure at 362 cases out of which nine had recovered and with 11 deaths.
