By Robert Egbe
The Coalition for A Better Nigeria yesterday urged the country to ramp-up the number of people it is testing for COVID-19.
According to the group, too many people, who were associated with persons that were diagnosed with the virus, are yet to be tested.
By March 22, the country had only tested 152 people, although the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) recently said that testing capacity at its laboratories had increased to 1,500 tests a day.
Nigeria’s economic rival, South Africa, has conducted over 15,500 tests so far despite recording its index case a week later than Nigeria.
The coalition’s National Coordinator, Awa Bamiji, said this was not good enough.
“In a few days to come, if the medical facilities to do the check-ups as well as the treatment are not being put in place in every state in Nigeria, we may be heading the way of Italy,” he said in a statement.
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Bamiji condemned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for holding a Southwest Unification Rally in the wake of the pandemic.
He said this “has already brought unforeseen problems to Oyo State in particular and Southwest in general, with the new case of Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State being recorded lately.
“We, therefore, urge the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to, as a matter of urgency, employ more hands, in order to start tracing his Bayelsa State counterpart, Governor Douye Diri, including members of his entourage, the PDP leaders in the Southwest, media men, security men, musicians and their band members and other people in attendance at that rally.”
Bamiji advocated the judicious utilisation of “the several billions of naira donated by our caring billionaires and millionaires and their foreign counterparts, by making sure we have total lockdown, provision of food, drinks, money and establishment of the medical check points across every state, while we are still looking for permanent cure for this COVID-19 pandemic.”
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