Barometer
Kogi State’s defiant governor Yahaya Bello is adamant that his state does not have a single case of coronavirus infection. Officials of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) think he is living in denial, and that together with Cross River State, which also insists it has no single case, the two states could not conceivably be an island in a nation battling with almost 4,000 cases and a little fewer than 200 deaths.
The NCDC is further worried that Kogi State is embarrassingly unprepared for the virus, has no testing centre or kits, and no standard isolation centre beyond a broken tent supposedly devoted to tackling Lassa fever. If an outbreak should occur, reasoned NCDC, it would quickly develop into the despairing strange disease case witnessed in Kano State in the past few days. Mr Bello is unfazed.
Responding to the NCDC team visit to Kogi late last week, and particularly their breach of COVID-19 protocols, Mr Bello reacted to the offer of help from Abuja by asking the team to go into isolation for 14 days or get out of the state. They chose to flee, said some reports.
This is truly numbing. According to the governor: “Our people are adequately sensitised in all languages and locations throughout the state about Covid-19. As much as practicable Kogites now observe social distancing, hand washing and other protocols for prevention of infection…In the circumstances, we cannot manufacture cases in order to be counted among the states which have recorded same. As a governor I hear there are ‘benefits’ for having Covid-19 cases in your state; well, I am not interested.”
Mr Bello had better hope that the infection does not hit his state, assuming it has not already done so, despite the denial of the state government. Should it happen, Mr Bello will not get sympathy from anywhere. He has always been uncouth and unorthodox, not to talk of infantile and inept. It must remain a mystery how a political system throws up his kind and tolerates him to the galling detriment of millions of Kogites.
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