Ademola Adeshina
Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 gubernatorial election in Lagos State, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, has expressed fears over Nigeria’s preparedness to tame the CONVID-19 scourge, adding that the country has a big hurdle to cross in terms of addressing the coronavirus issue.
Agbaje, a pharmacist, who made his fears known during an interview with a national newspaper, prayed that the country did not experience a full-blown outbreak of the virus.
Speaking on his assessment of the dreaded virus that is fast ravaging the world, Agbaje commended the Federal Ministry of Health and the Lagos State Government who had shown some kind of competence in dealing with the few cases that has been recorded so far.
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His words, “If we take the experience from those that have been badly affected, we must understand that we have a big hurdle to cross in terms of addressing this coronavirus issue.
“Developed countries that have stable health systems are being overwhelmed, so, to that extent I have my fears over our preparedness if we are overwhelmed similarly.
“So, I want to hope and pray that we can remain at the containment stage and not have a full-blown outbreak.
“The few cases that have come in, we have been lucky not to have had deaths, but let us not fool ourselves, we have quite some distance to go in the curve.
“We are still at the bottom of the curve and we do not know how high we are going to go.
“The Federal Ministry of Health and Lagos State have shown some kind of competence in dealing with the few cases that have come, but I am not sure we would be able to handle it if it becomes full-blown,” he averred.
Speaking on necessary steps to be taken, he said, “It is for us to take it seriously. For instance, what is the level of the awareness campaign for preventing a full-blown outbreak?
“A lot of Nigerians are still living in denial because we are still having parties and events.
“You saw that it took the Federal Government some concerted effort to cancel the National Sports Festival slated for Benin in Edo State.
“I would love to see, for example, some leadership from the top like our President, if he shakes his hand normally with someone, I do not think there is a problem, but if I see him shake with the elbow and other gestures, I will begin to think twice about it.
“If I also begin to see that events are being cancelled at the federal and state levels, then I will know that there is seriousness. So, I think we need that awareness by showing leadership by example.
“I commend the move to restrict travel from some countries because if you look at what we have today, they have come from countries that are already in trouble.
“We need to get Nigerians to understand that we have a big problem ahead of us and if we do not contain it quickly, we would not be able to handle a full-blown outbreak.”