The Presidential Task Force (PTF) has lamented the failure by states to enforce the COVID-19 regulations and protocols.
Its chairman, Boss Mustapha, stated this on Wednesday while addressing State House Correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
This is coming as he hinted that the COVID-19 10p.m. to 6a.m. nationwide curfew announced June 1, as part of the measures to contain the spread of the pandemic, may be lifted today.
The lifting of the curfew was part of the recommendations submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari by the PTF after the expiration of the second phase of the eased lockdown.
The PTF said Nigeria would have gone “a long way” in its efforts to contain the virus if states and other sub-nationals charged with the responsibility of enforcing the regulations and protocols upped the ante.
Mustapha, who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), was with the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire; the National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr. Sani Aliyu; the Director-General of the Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu and other members of the PTF.
Mustapha said: “It is enforcement that has largely been lacking and my appeal is that the sub-nationals should ensure enforcement, as a matter of fact.
“As a result of signing the Quarantine Regulation… the issue of enforcement has been lacking and it’s not only in this area and like I keep saying, COVID-19 has most times exposed the weaknesses of our systems, even the American system.
“I believe if we can just work on the enforcement aspect of it, which is the responsibility of the sub-nationals, we will go a long way.”
Though Mustapha shed light on the recommendations for the next phase of the eased lockdown, he hinted that they would focus on three themes – movement, labour and community.
“As for the content of the report, it will be premature for me to talk about it because we submitted a report. We have submitted recommendations and so we have to leave for Mr. President to take a decision.
“By the time we receive his approval or non-approval of the recommendations we have made, we will be able to speak to the Nigerians tomorrow (today).
“But I can give you a little bit of an insight as to where we are going. And that is informed by three thematic areas. One has to deal with movement; two has to deal with labour and industries and the third are communities’ activities.”
When asked if Nigeria has already started flattening the curve, he explained that the low number of positive cases recorded was because of fatigue and the Sallah holiday.
He said: “No, if you noticed, as we celebrated those discharges, there’s also been a decrease in testing. In the last couple of days, we tested just barely 2,000 across the nation, but we have a testing capacity of much more thousands than 2,000.
“Another reason is that many people, including essential workers, are still in the Sallah mood. Remember when I talked of fatigue, this is part of it. We’ve been doing this thing for the last three to four months and it gets to a point when you want to lay back and say we are already overcoming this.
“But I know that in the next couple of days, the testing will be rampart because people would have come out of the Sallah celebrations and come back to work, the sub-nationals and local governments will begin to go into the communities to search.”