The Federal Government has said that it did not make a formal reqest for the Madagascar COVID19 preventive and cure syrup ,but that the country donated the elixir to Nigeria, which accepted it in the spirit of African brotherhood.
The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force( PTF) on COVID-19, who is also the Secretary to the Federal Government, Boss Mustapha stated this yesterday while briefing Nigerians adding that while Government would continue to look inward to see how it could defeat the pandemic, it would also look outward since COVID-19 remained a global disease.
Mustapha dismissed speculations that Nigeria might have asked Madagascar for a supply of its COVID-19 organic, instead of promoting local researchers for a cure. He said: “The issue of Madagascar. Let me explain that Nigeria did not ask Madagascar for any solution. That has to be very clear because I have seen some narratives out there giving credence to a line of story.
”That, for me, is only distractive. Nigeria did not ask. The Madagascan government decided to airlift quantities meant for African countries and so that of West Africa was airlifted to Guinea-Bissau. So, all the members of ECOWAS have their commodities off-loaded in Guinea-Bissau and that was the one I referred to, that we were making arrangements to evacuate.
”But the impression out there was as if we abandoned homegrown solutions and were looking for Madagascan solution. We did not ask for it, but it was taken in the spirit of brotherly love, or African brotherly love.
”We have asked our ambassador there to establish the location, the quantity etc. He has done that. We have to make an arrangement for its freighting out of Guinea-Bissau. There are no flights, so there are so many things we have to consider.
On he issue of the returneess , he said the PTF is saddened by the conduct of some of the returnees who fail to adhere to the conditions attached to their quarantine, saying that they needed to obey the rules in the facilities and also urge their friends and relations to recognize the contagious nature of the disease by desisting from visiting them.
Director General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control NCDC, Dr Chikwe Iheakwazu, said Nigeria could not isolate itself in the fight against COVID-19, being a global outbreak. Iheakwazu said: “It has become clearer to all of us that we will have to live with this virus for a long time to come and living with it means not only saving lives from the virus but also saving lives from all the other things that afflict us.
