The Federal Government has pushed the battle to contain the coronavirus pandemic to states. It gives the community spread as a reason for its decision.
The decision was made public on Sunday by the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha.
He added that the Federal Government will therefore only provide supervision and coordination. Mustapha, who spoke at the State House after he briefed President Muhammadu Buhari alongside other members of the Task Force, discussed their recommendation on the next phase of the battle.
Other members present at the State House were Minister of Health Dr. Osagie Ehanire; National Coordinator of the PTF Dr. Sani Aliyu; Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, and Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola.
According to him, “The ownership of the next stage will be the responsibility of the states because we have gone into community transmission.
“Where are the communities? The communities are in the states. So, the ownership of the next stage will be the responsibility of the states, the local government, the traditional institutions, the religious leaders at the different levels of our communities, because that is where the problem is.
“Like we’ve kept saying, 20 local governments out of 774, account for 60 percent of confirmed cases in Nigeria today. So where are these 20 local governments? They are in communities. It means we have reached the apex of community transmission and we must get the communities involved.
“So, the issues of places of worship, the issues of schools, the issues of some certain businesses that were not opened hitherto are part of the packages that we have looked at and we have made the appropriate recommendations, but you know that Mr. President is the only one that can take decisions in respect of these.
“In the framework, the states are subnational, they have their responsibilities too, so it is in the exercise of those responsibilities that they had meetings with those religious bodies and agreed on the guidelines and protocols on how they can open up, but in the framework of the national response, we are taking that into consideration”.
