PDP Tackles Buhari, PTF Over Handling Of COVID-19 Second-wave

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari over the handling of the COVID-19 second-wave in Nigeria.

The main opposition party called on Buhari to dissolve the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 over alleged incompetence.

The PDP stated this in a statement on Wednesday titled, ‘COVID-19 Second Wave: PDP Laments FG’s Lack of Commitment…Demands Special Department To Tackle Pandemic’, signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.

Naija News recalls that President Buhari had in March 2020 inaugurated the PTF headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Gida Mustapha.

According to the PDP, the president should dissolve the PTF and replace it with a convergence of experts in a special department under the purview of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC).

The statement reads: “More distressing is that the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 has not demonstrated any capacity beyond mere announcement of figures of infected persons, deaths, recoveries, discharges and issues of local protocols rather than engaging in epidemiology, researches and production of equipment, drugs, therapeutics and other medical palliatives that can help stave off the impact of the global pandemic.

“On account of this, the PDP restates our demands for the dissolution of the PTF and in its place allow a convergence of experts in a special department under the purview of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control to professionally tackle the pandemic.”

“The PDP is shocked that the Buhari administration did not make any budgetary provision in the 2021 Appropriation for the acquisition of essential therapeutics, including vaccines, even in the face of the heightened anxieties over the second wave of the pandemic in our nation,” the PDP added.

“It is indeed the height of leadership failure that the Federal Government has not been able to take a decision on the type and quantity of vaccines expected as well as ancillary facilities and associated logistics.

“The PDP is however not surprised at such governance indolence and confusion as the current system under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch is plagued by endemic corruption, mediocrity, incompetence and laissez-faire attitude to issues that have to do with the wellbeing of Nigerians.”