Former governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has asked the Federal Government to take over the response of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the state from the state government.
Sen. Kwankwaso, made the appeal in a letter addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari, dated 26 April.
The former governor said he was prompted to address President Buhari due to the increasing number of confirmed Coronavirus cases in the state, as well as the mysterious deaths reported recently in the state.
According to him, the state government, under the leadership of Abdullahi Ganduje, his immediate successor, lacks the capacity to successfully curb the spread of the virus in the state, describing the state’s response as “uncoordinated” and “unprofessional”.
He accused the state government of appointing persons without the relevant expertise into the state’s Task Force on COVID-19.
The statement read: “At present, and to all intent and purposes, the state has practically no COVID-19 response committee. What was hitherto, working as a COVID-19 committee was a contraption of cronies that are both unqualified and incompetent. As such, they kowtow to the whims of politicians without any regards to professional healthcare considerations.
“The team technically disbanded itself when majority of the members tested positive for COVID-19. I should inform Mr President that since the announcement of the positive results of the members of the committee, no test was ever conducted in the state again. This is very frightening as neither asymptomatic nor active cases are being identified and isolated, as such carriers of this dreaded virus are all about and spreading it and causing untimely death, especially of our senior citizens.
“Mr President, in times of crisis like this, we require a robust and unifying leadership that will assure the citizens that it understands and shares its concerns; but unfortunately, the state government is even denying that there is an unusual surge in the number of deaths in the state.”
Kwankwaso alleged that the state government has been “in a tug of war” with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) since it recorded its first case of the disease.
The former senator said the state government’s initial denial of the unusual deaths “has cultivated mistrust and doubt” in the citizens, accusing it of failing to “provide the desired leadership required at a critical time like this”.
“At the moment, the state government palliatives are being distributed based on political patronage (4 persons in each polling unit of 500 persons).
“The situation in the state should not be seen by Mr. President as a state government matter that should be left to the state.
“The lives of tens of millions of Nigerians living in Kano state is at stake, as such the central government should be seen to be actively involved in caring for, and saving their lives. There is need for empathy,” the statement read.
Kwankwaso called for the reconstitution of the state’s COVID-19 Task Force committee, adding that five additional test centres and 10 more sample collection centres should be set up across the state.
“The Task force should designate trained medical personnel in all cemeteries across the state that will collect records of all deaths. While another team of medical personnel follow up with inquiry of the cause of death.
“Since it is undeniable that there is a spike in the number of death and it is probable that these deaths are either as a result of COVID-19 or some other illness, the State Government and citizens should treat and consider all deaths as if it is caused by the virus; therefore all protocols as advised by medical experts be observed whenever death occurs;
“An independent Federal Government team of experts should be mandated to investigate the rise in cases of death in the elderly population across the State;
“Palliatives should be generous and general. The virus does not belong to any political party just as hunger and poverty are not partisan,” the statement read.
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