Yahaya Bello: Political will, common sense helped us curb COVID in Kogi

Yahaya Bello, governor of Kogi, says with political will and common sense, his administration was able to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the state.

Speaking during a statewide broadcast to commemorate Kogi’s 30th anniversary on Friday, Bello expressed dismay that some federal government institutions did not believe in his administration’s measures to curb the spread of the infection in the state.

The governor said they resisted some “unholy forces” and protected the residents in the state to the “best of our abilities”.

“With regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, we proved to the world that with the help of God, support of the citizenry, leadership sincerity and a ton of political will it is possible for science and common sense as well as good governance and medicine to work together in the service of humanity,” he said.

“Due to our position as a major transit hub in Nigeria we are easily exposed to anything our fellow citizens carry along while travelling through, which in the past frequently included outbreaks of deadly diseases like Lassa and yellow fever.

“Thus we became alarmed at how otherwise respected national public health institutions charged with protecting us tended to proceed on the certainty that no matter what we did here, COVID-19 would decimate us.

“Inspired by a mix of principles which included an obstinate refusal to hand over the lives and livelihoods of my people to unsympathetic forces, we insisted on doing our sworn duty to govern proactively and protect our people to the best of our abilities and resources.

“We resisted unholy pressures and would not capitulate to the whims and caprices of 3rd parties, whoever they were, in response to the pandemic.

“We adopted sincere advisories from the regulatory bodies on COVID-19, some of which we modified to meet our localised circumstances and totally disregarded those that were inapplicable, politicised, commercialised or guaranteed to crumble our economic base without any guarantee of keeping the pandemic at bay.”

Bello added that despite daunting socio-economic odds, his administration has been able to put the state on the path of progress.