President Muhammadu Buhari has tactically extended the Coronavirus disease lockdown in the country, insisting that the measure aimed at curtailing the spread of COVID-19 infection will continue as long as necessary.

In a statement signed by a presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu on Saturday, the Nigerian leader wholeheartedly thanked “all Nigerians for their patience, resolve and strong determination to defeat the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.”

According to the President Buhari, “The freedoms we ask you to willingly forsake today will only last as long as our scientific advisers declare they are necessary.

“But they are essential – world over – to halt and defeat the spread of this virus”, he emphasized.

The President regretted that due to the lockdown, it may be impossible for sons and daughters to visit their parents, and elders that are isolated from their young ones, even as “there will be those who live day-to-day, eating as they earn, who face real and present suffering.

“No elected government could ask more of the citizens of the country that elected them than today we ask of you.

“But we must ask you – once more – to observe restrictions on movement where they are in place, and follow the instructions of our scientists and medical advisers: stay home, wash your hands, save lives”, he counselled Nigerians.

“For those who suffer most egregiously, the Government has announced multiple measures to assist: 70,000 tonnes of grain is being released from the National Strategic Grain Reserves for distribution to those in most need; distribution of small cash payments are also being made, and will continue to be made by the federal government in the states and local government areas.

“We ask you to listen and follow public announcements via the mass media for instructions as to how to receive this government support – and learn of more public assistance in the coming days.

“All that the Government is asking you to endure is because nowhere in the world today is there any known way of defeating this pandemic.

“There is no vaccine. And that means there are choices to be made: between continuing as usual, or accepting the restrictions even when they come with unintended consequences.

“But at this darkest hour, it remains our duty to offer you the full and unvarnished truth: This is a global pandemic.

“210 countries and territories across the globe are affected. We cannot expect others to come to our assistance. No one is coming to defeat this virus for us.

“Instead, the defeat of the virus in our country will be in our hands, alone. We cannot wait for others. We can only depend on ourselves now. And so we must – and we will – end this outbreak ourselves as Nigerians, together”, the statement concluded.

The President Buhari’s statement implies that lifting the lockdown will depend on advice from medical and public health institutions like the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

Most Nigerians who spoke with The Street Reporters Newspaper in reaction to the presidential statement were worried that the palliative measures of the federation government may never get to all the citizens who need the succour as total lockdown of some states are causing untold hardship for the people.

Some of them, in their reaction, urged President Buhari to rejig the palliative measures to include the artisans, market men and women whose livelihood depends on their daily incomes.

Most states in Nigeria have ordered total closure of markets across their jurisdictions, worsening the pains and hunger among the ordinary citizens and the urban poor.

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