President Muhammadu Buhari says only a collective international approach will mitigate the devastating effect of COVID-19, while assuring that the Federal Government will intensify efforts to monitor, test, and isolate more people, especially at the community level.
President Buhari, who participated in a virtual Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement, NAM, on Monday, said national, regional, and global strategies would be required to tackle the pandemic, which he said had ravaged humanity and caused unprecedented devastation to the well-being of people, their livelihoods, and global economy.
He said the theme of the extraordinary Summit ‘United Against COVID-19 Pandemic,’ aptly reflects the importance for a proactive approach and the need for multilateral cooperation in finding quick solutions to the challenges that COVID-19 pandemic poses to our nations.
The President in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, noted that the task before the international community remains daunting, and more needs to be done to reduce the impact of COVID-19.
According to him, “It is now clearly evident that no nation can independently and singlehandedly tackle a pandemic of this nature which is no respecter of borders, regions or status.”
The Nigerial leader explained that countries must all encourage and empower its scientists and medical experts to join the quest for a vaccine and cure to the universal plague.
The President told Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement that the central role of the United Nations and the World Health Organization, WHO, in fighting the pandemic must be acknowledged and leveraged for the benefit of all member nations.
President Buhari urged international financial institutions to assist member states in cushioning the negative impact of the pandemic in the spirit of solidarity, which will include extending concessional loans, technical support, lowering of tariff on medical equipment and consumables, sharing of expertise in case management, adopting open trade policies, as well as outright debt cancellation.
On efforts to control the spread of the virus in Nigeria, and ameliorate the economic effect, the President said Nigeria has closed its land borders and airports and reduced seaport activities in a bid to curb imported cases from entering the country.
He noted that unfortunately, the number of confirmed cases continues to rise as a result of community transmission of the disease.
He said that country has increased efforts to monitor trends of the disease, established more isolation centres and stepped up testing at the community level and of potentially vulnerable groups.
The President said various relief materials were handed out, including medical and food supplies as well as conditional cash transfer to about 3.6 million vulnerable households affected by the stay-at-home order, while responding to the economic needs of citizens by supporting households and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), affected by COVID-19 induced economic downturn.
President Buhari noted that a Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 was set up, and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control strengthened to face challenges of mobilization, sensitization and implementation of all decisions.
He commended Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Chair of the Non-Aligned Movement for organizing the extra-ordinary summit, and condoled with all members that lost citizens to COVID-19.
In his remarks to the Summit, President of the UN General Assembly, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, pledged that his office would continue to work with NAM to promote partnerships and galvanise the needed engagement to defeat COVID-19 and reduce its impact on communities.
While commending WHO, NAM member-states, civil society and the private sector, for providing vital support and services in the fight to defeat the pandemic, the President of the General Assembly called on all those that have the capacity, to financially support the UN’s COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response plan.
Muhammad-Bande, who is also Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, said while no country is spared from the scourge of this pandemic or its socio-economic impact, developing nations are bearing the heaviest brunt of it – even if they do not experience an outbreak of COVID-19.
He warned that the pandemic had deepened pre-existing inequalities between and among nations, putting immense strain on tenuous systems and plunging those in the most precarious contexts into deeper poverty and hunger.
