The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have engaged each other in a war of words over the presence of Coronavirus in the country.
While the PDP expressed worries over President Muhammadu Buhari’s inability to address the nation three days after the disease was confirmed to be in Nigeria, the APC accused the PDP of seeking political gain with the matter.
Recall that Nigeria recorded its first case of the disease late on Thursday when a visiting Italian businessman tested positive to the virus.
In a statement on Sunday, PDP spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, said that Buhari’s silence showed he had failed as a leader.
“PDP is worried at President Muhammadu Buhari’s delay in standing up to the responsibilities of his office to address heightening national anxieties since the detection of the deadly COVID-19 in our country,” the statement said.
The party said the fact that the President “has not considered it imperative to show concern by directly addressing a panic-stricken nation even in the face of escalated national trepidation and conflicting reports,” showed “an absolute leadership failure.”
The statement read further: “The PDP charges President Buhari to wake up and treat the COVID-19, deservedly, as a looming national disaster, which requires a prompt and full Presidential involvement at the top level.
“The party notes that at a critical time like this, Mr. President ought to be at the forefront in shouldering responsibility. A Presidential address would have reassured the people, reinforced government direction and multi-sectoral intervention for concerted effort to contain the scourge.
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“The PDP holds that the quickest expectation of the average Nigerian is that the Federal Government should immediately step its emergency response system to calm the pervading fear among Nigerians.”
In a swift reaction however, the APC, fired back at the opposition saying the president had declared that the Federal Government has the capacity to deal with cases of Coronavirus epidemic outbreaks within a short time.
The ruling party stated that the timely response of the government should be commended adding that the feat of discovering the country’s first case within 24 hours and result of test within 4 hours was a pointer to the capacity of this government to manage and deal with the outbreak, “a feat recognised and commended by the World Health Organization (WHO) at a news conference for an update on the global outbreak.”
The statement by APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu read: “In managing outbreaks such as the coronavirus, transparent and effective communication is key and this government has demonstrated this in no uncertain way through delivery of up-to-date and timely information on developments, measures being taken and progress made.
“In observation of world standard protocol on prevention and cure of coronavirus, screening and surveillance measures at the airports, seaports and designated entry points are in place. Medical facilities to deal with any eventuality are also in place and in top gear. We call on all citizens to stay alert but confident.
“This is a time when real patriots put in their own positive shifts in conjunction with the government. It is not a time to spread fear and rumour. We call on all Nigerians to ignore people seeking to create panic through fake news. We all should rely only on the official sources of information on the coronavirus
“We have observed with disgust the utterances of some partisans following the report of the country’s first case of coronavirus. It is irresponsible of any political party to seek political gains from an issue that bothers on the health and well-being of all of us.
