Peter Obi, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Vice President candidate in the previous election in a statement released by his media office advised both State and Federal government against easing the stay-home order.
Following the outbreak of the pandemic disease in the country, the Buhari administration has imposed an imperative lockdown in Lagos State, Federal Capital Territory, and Ogun state.
Obi stated that easing the lockdown in some states in Nigeria is totally unadvisable especially because just a few percentages of the over 200 million population of the country have been tested for coronavirus.
Going further, he stated that from assessment, it is rather too early for Nigeria to join other countries who plan on easing their stay-at-home order. This could eventually lead to an aggressive and uncontrollable spread of pandemic disease in the country. He urged the government and pertinent agencies to rather intensify their testing capability in order to gauge the level of the spread of the virus in the country.
Obi revealed that Nigeria has tested about 10000 of its 200 million population compared to some other African countries. Earlier, he admonished the Federal government to set up testing centres in all the 36 states in the country in order to speed up testing in the country. According to him, South Africa has tested 161,000 of its citizens, Egypt has tested 90,000 people, Ghana has tested 88,188 people for COVID 19.
Nigeria, on the other hand, has only tested 10,061 and 1182 came back positive. This translates that 12% of the people tested for the virus in the country were confirmed positive. This is an alarming situation that should make the stay-home order even more imperative.
Whereas in South Africa, Egypt and in Ghana 2.7%, 4.8% and 1.45% respectively of the people tested turned back positive. In effect of this, it is rather too early to raise the lockdown in Nigeria. Finally, he admonished citizens to follow proper precautionary measures, practice proper hygiene, and follow the stipulated guidelines of the WHO and other health experts.