Many governors can’t handle the fight against COVID-19, says ex-INEC secretary

Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, a former secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), says most governors do not have the will to undertake measures that can curb the spread of COVID-19.

In an interview with The Sun, Baba-Ahmed said the governors have not been able to develop policies to check the rise in COVID-19 infections because they don’t have resources to keep people at home.

The former chief of staff to Bukola Saraki, a former senate president, said COVID-19 has exposed the poor qualities of the country’s leaders.

“Most of the governors don’t have the courage to actually insist on measures that would reduce the impact of the virus,” he said.

“They don’t have the resources to keep people at home and, therefore, they won’t evolve policies that will keep the people out of the reach of this virus. You need coherent and cohesive policies. These governors will not do that. Every governor will say ‘well I can’t feed the people so I can’t lock them down.’

“So, they will sit behind lack of resources and our people are not disciplined and are not amenable to showing concern for themselves.”

He said citizens may realise that COVID-19 is real when deaths are recorded in thousands.

“Most of these governors are going to yield more and more ground to the people and what is going to happen is that you will continue to see deaths, and when people start dying in thousands and thousands, maybe then people will realise that this coronavirus is real,” Baba-Ahmed said.

“Now, the federal government is ceding the responsibility to states and the states will in turn cede the responsibility to local governments.”

So far, the country has recorded 12,233 cases of COVID-19.

While 3,826 patients have recovered from the disease, 342 people have died, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).