Gubernatorial candidate of Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the March 9th 2019 elections in Oyo State, Engineer Oyedele Hakeem Alao, has urged Governor Seyi Makinde of the state to evolve more efficient, effective and practicable policies that will help to prevent the spread of Coronavirus in the state.
Alao made this declaration in a statement made available to DAILY POST on Thursday through his Media Aide, Omotayo Iyanda.
DAILY POST reports that Oyo State currently has seventeen confirmed cases of Coronavirus. Out of the seventeen cases, nine have been discharged while one patient sought for transfer to Lagos.
The state currently has six (6) active cases of Coronavirus as at Wednesday. It recorded its first fatality from Coronavirus Wednesday night, according to the State Governor, Seyi Makinde.
But, Alao while reacting to various steps embarked upon by Makinde to curtail the spread of Coronavirus, noted that some of the steps by Makinde such as compulsory use of face masks by residents and production of one million (1 million) face masks for over five million (5 million) residents cannot yield positive results.
Alao urged Makinde to be honest and more transparent in handling and distribution of money generated.
Alao noted that rather than going the way of the American, European and Asian hook, line and sinker, Makinde should fashion out approaches that will suit the peculiarity of the state.
“As the number of the people affected by Coronavirus (COVID-19) increases by the day in Nigeria, Oyo State inclusive, Governor Seyi Makinde should evolve more efficient, effective and practicable policies that will suit our peculiarities to overpower the pandemic and be honest and more transparent in governance.
“Certain efforts against COVID-19 made so far by Governor Makinde are, to some degree, commendable, but enough has not been done as copy and paste of the western world approaches to fight the pandemic will never be adequately effective to contain the scourge in an African setting as ours,
“Social distancing, stay at home, curfew, etc, are all the advanced and middle-income countries’ strategies to contain COVID-19. These strategies could work well in those climes because of their social and labour system.
“Rather than going the way of the American, European and Asian hook, line and sinker, why not fashion out approaches that will suit our peculiarities as a people and back them up with few of the western strategies that support good hygiene. Pleasant and great is the news that Governor Makinde came negative of COVID-19 less than two weeks after testing positive! The secret of the quick recovery, if it is anything to go by, should be urgently domesticated, popularized and implemented to save our people.
“Strict and compulsory testing, aggressive tracing, isolation of those tested positive, emergency measures, making the people’s immunity strong, adequate provision of basic needs for the people, particularly food, as this time, in our history, considering the deficits in our socio-political and economic system, calls for more empathy and kindness. Emphasis should be placed more on sound hygiene and making food and other essential needs available to the people while looking at the way to strengthen the state and its people for economic survival during and after the COVID-19 era.
“The idea of producing and making available 1,000,000 face masks and compulsory for the people, is a policy that has issues of its own. Although it is a good idea to produce the masks locally, issues with the idea of the compulsory use of masks include violation of human rights, possible hazard of improper use, implication of using only one mask repeatedly, acute shortage of the face guards for the use of medical and health personnel, more so there are over five million people in the state.
“As we struggle with the Covid-19 pandemic, Governor Makinde should be honest and more transparent with the way he runs the government under his leadership as there was an information in the public that the budget for the construction of three motor parks has been corruptly inflated by the executive arm itself or the personnel in the concerned ministry, which has allegedly been reported to have led to the deployment of the staff of the ministry to another ministry. It has also been observed that the money and other relief materials donated to Oyo State Government for the fight against COVID-19 have not been put into good use for all to see. There is so much hunger in the society, and we have seen a surge in armed robbery recently as citizens in the informal sector have found it hard to survive. We can only hope that the food distribution intervention, which the state government has promised to start next week, will be handled in a proper manner and douse the tension in the state.
“We have also not had a good report about the new(ly) opened Oyo State COVID-19 Walk/Drive Through Testing Centre at Lekan Salami Stadium, Adamasingba, Ibadan. The state government will need to put in place effective testing centers across the state to be able to emulate the mechanism as in the Africa Purse’s WB report. Ebola was deadlier, yet we were able to contain it nationwide without locking down our economy and without any significant support from the international communities.
“Governor Makinde should not take the people of Oyo State for granted just because of the “popularity” being enjoyed now and the struggle against COVID-19 which is taking our attention away from real governance matters. He should remember that chickens may also come back to roost. On the above two allegations, Governor Makinde is hereby enjoined to formally come open and clear the air.”
