COVID-19: ADC berates Sanwo-Olu over inadequate palliatives for Lagosians

Lucy Nnaji, Lagos

The Lagos State chairman, African Democratic Congress (ADC), Olayiwola Abisoye, has berated the governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu for not putting in place adequate palliative measures and appropriate stimulus packages before rolling out the stay-at-home order over the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to him, nobody can survive a stay-at-home order in a situation where there are no food, electricity, portable drinking water, or hope of getting the essential things of life.

“How do you ask people to stay at home without first putting in place the right palliative measures and appropriate stimulus packages to ensure social and economic stability? Nobody can be patriotic on empty stomach and survive a stay-at-home order in a situation where there are systemic failures and infrastructural decays. No food, no electricity, no portable drinking water, no hope and certainly no visible leadership to calm and assure the people,” he said.

Abisoye questioned the transparency in how the Lagos State government has been disbursing the funds it received from donors and Federal Government to fight coronavirus. He noted that if ADC had been in power, the party would have done better by touching the lives of Lagosians at this critical time of the pandemic.

“Yes, ADC would have done better because it is not in our DNA to be corrupt or play politics with people’s lives. We would have banned health tourism, developed our health care system and boosted our intensive care service delivery to world-class, so that in the case of coronavirus, we would have used our world-class equipment to do rapid testing of any suspected case, conducted immediate isolation of any confirmed or suspected case, and then quarantine the close contacts for 14 days and have them treated immediately instead of travel ban or lockdown,” Abisoye posited.

He said further: “In ADC, we don’t confuse efforts with results; results are all that count for us because we know too well that activities don’t necessarily mean accomplishments. With all the monies that the state government has received from several donors and the Federal Government, how many people have they reached with their welfare packages? Can we say for sure that coronavirus is being contained effectively when people are not obeying the sit-at-home order because of hunger and adequate palliative measures not being in place? Are there real social safety nets in place to cover or mitigate the impact on the citizens, businesses and governance afterwards? Answers to all of these questions will help people understand why we are scoring the government average.

“This is why we think IPAC was too hasty and generous with their commendation of Governor Sanwo-Olu’s handling of coronavirus situation in Lagos because it is still ongoing. It is not in the habit of ADC to commend an average worker when we can truly celebrate an excellent one.”

While wishing Lagosians a happy Easter, the party chairman also advised them to stay safe indoors while the lockdown lasted.

“My advice to Lagosians is to stay indoors, keep clean, stay safe, hope for the best and pray. And to the government, containment is better than cure. Be proactive, not reactive, don’t try solving a problem in the middle of a crisis; always plan ahead.”