Going by the Kogi State Governor’s disposition that there is no case of Coronavirus in Kogi State, in spite of his direct contact with Abba Kyari, who tested positive for the disease, I want to reiterate that I take the governor’s denial at its face value and assume he as well as others in his cabinet is immune to the disease and or negative.
By this, I blindly declare Kogi State free of Coronavirus as the Governor does. In an attempt to prevent the spread of the disease in the state, the governor outlined measures to be taken to ensure a total lockdown of the state. I want to remind the governor that the lockdown is good elsewhere where measures are taken to alleviate the suffering of the people. In Kogi State, it is a heartless attempt at asphyxiating the already depraved people.
These people may not be able to observe this lockdown in the face of hunger and wants. The governor said he would never play politics with people’s lives; he turned around to say there was a shortfall in the allocation, through his Commissioner of Finance. Yet, many states who received allocations as Kogi State, in spite of the shortfall paid salaries.
The Kogi State Government’s excuse is therefore self-serving, insincere, unfeeling, a heist and a deprivation of people’s rights to their wages. The lockdown as I said earlier is good and one of the best methods used to ensure the containment of the spread of the disease; this can only be effective where people can feed themselves happily and healthily while they shelter in place.
Since there is no marked case of Coronavirus in Kogi State, the government should convert the donations from banks and other individuals into food items and other consumables for the people, and shared through local government liaison officers and the SSA to the Governor on Security in each of the local government areas. Remember, if there is no Coronavirus in Kogi State, there is hunger, and the hunger is even more lethal than the disease. –
Odih Daniel Nuhu writes from Lokoja.
