COVID-19 Second Wave: PDP seeks dissolution of PTF

…Laments FG’s lack of commitment

By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed alarm at what it called the manifest lack of commitment and proactiveness by the Buhari administration to check the spate of the second wave of COVID-19 and the escalating deaths arising from the spread of the pandemic in our country.
Consequently, the PDP has, on the account of this, restated its demands for the dissolution of the Presidential Taskforce, on COVID-19 and in its place allow a convergence of experts in a special department under the purview of the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) to professionally tackle the pandemic.
The party said it is unpardonable that the lives of the nation’s compatriots are increasingly becoming endangered, as citizens’, including prominent Nigerians’ deaths are daily being announced as a result of COVID-19, while the Buhari administration has remained lethargic with no concrete commitment for solution.
The party said this in a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan in Abuja.
The PDP said it is shocked that the Buhari administration did not make any budgetary provision in the 2021 Appropriation for the acquisition of essential therapeutics, including vaccines, even in the face of the heightened anxieties over the second wave of the pandemic in our nation.
According to the main forum party, “It is indeed the height of leadership failure that the Federal Government has not been able to take a decision on the type and quantity of vaccines expected as well as ancillary facilities and associated logistics.
“The PDP is however not surprised at such governance indolence and confusion as the current system under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch is plagued by endemic corruption, mediocrity, incompetence and laissez-faire attitude to issues that have to do with the wellbeing of Nigerians.
“It is on record that the lethargic attitude, for which the Buhari administration has become known, also encouraged the reported diversion of COVID-19 funds and palliatives meant to cushion the effect of the pandemic, leaving Nigerians to survive the last horrendous situation through self-help.
“More distressing is that the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has not demonstrated any capacity beyond mere announcement of figures of infected persons, deaths, recoveries, discharges and issues of local protocols rather than engaging in epidemiology, researches and production of equipment, drugs, therapeutics and other medical palliatives that can help stave off the impact of the global pandemic.