By Ikenna Uwadileke
Abuja – An interest group, South East All Progressives Congress (APC) Integrity Group, has urged governments at all levels to strengthen their institutions against future occurrence of any infectious disease.
The Convener of the group, Dr Chinedu Jideofo-Ogbuagu, made the call in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.
According to Jideofo-Ogbuagu, this is the time for Nigeria to ensure rapid development of its infrastructure and discourage medical tourism.
“The solution is to develop and promote our local content by strengthening institutions, especially the health, education and transportation sectors so that people don’t travel out of compulsion.
“If we must promote Nigerian content, we must develop one because this might not be the last global epidemic,’’ he said.
Jideofo-Ogbuagu appealed to Nigerians to adhere strictly to the measures put in place by the government to curb the pandemic.
He reiterated that if Nigerians were craving for a decent society, they must do the right thing so as not to compound the current situation in the country, occasioned by COVID-19.
The convener urged security agencies to demonstrate professionalism in the enforcement of compliance with the lockdown order.
“We don’t want a situation where the bad eggs among the various security agencies will sour others.
“What we need is the deployment of men who will discharge their duties in a very professional manner, because most Nigerians are facing serious hardship.
“People are living from hand-to-mouth, and you don’t expect those whose families are starving to watch them die of hunger.
“There are many people who are not on salaries and who don’t receive any form of support from anywhere. A good percentage of Nigerians are in that category and they also have the right to live.
“So the best the security personnel should do is to beg such people to go home for their own good but under no circumstance must they brutalise anybody,’’ he said.
He urged the Federal Government to ensure that more palliatives got to the people in view of its appeal to Nigerians to continue to stay at home to check the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the world.
(NAN)