Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the immediate suspension of the 20th edition of the National Sports Festival (NSF) in Benin City, the Edo State capital.
He said with over 11,000 people expected for the festival, it was better to err on the side of caution than to risk massive public exposure to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic during the games.
The Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Sunday Dare, made the announcement after he and the Minister for State Health, Olorunibe Mamora, briefed the President.
Daily Sun gathered that the ministry will need 20 body scanners to search all 11,000 people expected at the festival of which none are on the ground.
Meanwhile, the government is also considering the suspension of religious gatherings and flights from high-risk countries.
The Ministers of Sports, making an extensive statement on the matter, said:
“Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Ministry of Youths and Sports Development because of the Edo 2020 National Sports Festival, has been in close touch and consultation with the ministry of health – particularly with both the minister of health and the minister of state, health. We’ve also been in consultation with the governor and deputy governor of Edo State, the Local Organising Committee (LOC), and the Ministry Organising Committee (MOC) but we have had the ministry of health take the lead.
“Based on the daily review on development, we got assurances that we could go ahead. But because we are dealing with a dynamic situation, this morning, we had a meeting at the ministry of health in the office of the minister of health with the minister of state, health present, myself, the permanent secretary and the Director-General of National Center for Disease Control (NCDC).
“Shortly after the meeting which lasted for about 45 minutes, we proceeded to the presidency to brief Mr President. After briefing Mr President, Mr Presdent took the initiative and gave the directive that the National Sports Festival, christened Edo 2020 should be postponed as a precautionary measure against the press of COVID-19. A new date will be communicated late based on development around COVID-19.”
Mamora added: “The only thing to add is that yesterday (Monday), I had the privilege to brief the press on the update on COVID-19 in Nigeria, and I did say at that briefing around this time yesterday that because of the dynamic nature of what we are dealing with, in spite of listening to advice or guidelines from the World Health Organisation (WHO), each country still has the liberty to take the decision in the best interest of that country and of course, taking on board the country’s experience and reality on the ground. I did say that as at that time if the situation happening thereafter, dictates that certain action be taken, we would not hesitate to take such and so it was against that background that we also had a meeting this morning with the honourable Minister of Youth and Sports and we felt that in the overall interest of Nigerians and national health security, it is better to err on the side of caution and therefore, we conveyed to Mr President our thought and Mr President thereafter kindly agreed that it was best for us to have this postponement.
“One of the things that we need to give attention to is the postponement is the possibility of people carrying the virus even without knowing – what we called A-Symptomatic – that is they carry it but they don’t even know because they are not manifesting symptoms. And what we need so far is that up to 80 to 81 per cent of people would either be A-Symptomatic – that is not showing any symptoms or where they show symptoms, the symptoms may just be mild and moderate and this is a major source of what we call community transmission.
“So the principle of social distancing has to be respected. That is preventive or advising against the congregation of a large number of people starting from the national sports festival which stands postponed.
“That also extends to religious gathering or any other gathering that would have a large number of people. It is not advisable at this point in time.”
Dare noted that for the benefit of the sporting community, the ministry recognises the fact that a lot of resources have been gone into preparing for the sports festival.
He said: “A lot of efforts on the part of our athletes has gone into preparing for Edo 2020 – 36 states and the FCT, but we think that staying healthy to be able to compete in not just Edo 2020 but other sports and tournaments, is very important. So the interest of the health of our sportsmen and women is paramount at this time. But beyond that, we are looking at 11,500 people in Edo State for two weeks and we think that that is a huge number, we think that we should go by just what the Minister of State Health has said, we have done an extensive review and we just want to say, we have the interest and the welfare of our sportsmen and women at heart and we know that not too far from now, we will be able to re-enact the festival in Edo.”
On if the Federal Government was considering banning all forms of religious gatherings and closing of schools like other countries, Mamora said: “What I can say for now is that the immediate issue before us is the national sports festival and our meeting with Mr President essentially was to convey our thoughts in that regards and Mr President did the right thing by approving the need for the postponement. But social distancing is desirable at this point in time.”
On when the country will ban flights from high-risk countries, he said: “Well, there will be subsequent briefings from the ministry because each situation is reviewed as it comes to us.”
This development comes amid the House of Representatives directing on Tuesday that the Ministry of Sports postpone the National Sports Festival which was scheduled to begin in Edo State next week.
The House said the directive was necessary as a precautionary measure against the spread of the novel Coronavirus, which is currently ravaging several parts of the world and has already recorded the latest case (the third) in the country.