As the country continues to witness a daily spike in the number of confirmed COVID-19 positive cases, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has warned the Federal Government against handing over the fight to state governments.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Mr. Boss Mustapha, on Sunday said states will take responsibility for managing COVID-19 in their areas under the next phase of the lockdown.
“I can assure you of one thing: the ownership of the next phase will be the responsibility of the states under national supervision and coordination, because we have gone into community transmission. Where are the communities? The communities are in the states,” Mustapha said.
But NMA President, Dr. Innocent Ujah expressed the fear that allowing states to take over the management and control of the pandemic could spell doom for thousands of lives.
Ujah spoke as guest on COVID-19 Watch, a television programme yesterday.
“The president should not devolve those powers to state governments because, apart from Lagos and maybe one or two other states, the commitment is, to say the least, very disappointing. I can say that because I am a clinician myself. I believe that the president should please not devolve those powers. This is an emergency. Coordination is very important and the coordination should be central, should be from a point, because once you do that, Nigerians will be finished. And we pray that he doesn’t do that.
“There is nothing like local government in Nigeria; I’m sorry. It’s there in the constitution but there is nothing. So, please let’s not do that. This is not a political issue; this is a health issue. It cuts across everybody. We know where the commitments are and we will need the president to please prevail on the governors. If we leave it to the governors, our people will suffer; they will die and it doesn’t really matter to many of them,” he said.