The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has berated the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government for shutting down Small and Medium Scale businesses due to the resurgence of COVID-19.
HURIWA, a rights group, described the decision of the federal government to shut down small businesses as wicked and heartless.
Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, had ordered the closure of small businesses for fear of another wave of COVID-19 in the country.
However, the rights group criticized the government for failing to address the critical component of ameliorating the consequences of the directive.
The rights group stated this in a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko and National Secretary, Zainab Yusuf.
The statement reads partly: “The decision of the federal government to order the immediate closure of restaurants and other small and medium scale businesses for fear of the spread of Coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria as announced by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha is absolutely wicked, irrational, heartless and mean-hearted since the Nigerian government did not transparently re-distribute financial bailouts and palliatives to the millions of restaurant operators and owners of other businesses ordered to shut down their operations ad infinitum for fear of a second wave of the health emergency.
The rights group also lambasted the Buhari-led government for failing to publicly render accounts of the “multi-billion dollars donations made by corporate Nigerians in aid of distressed citizens, to cushion the effect of the prolonged lockdown.
