Former Vice President who was also a Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 general election, Alhaji Atiu Abubakar has called on Nigerians for a national resolve to defeat the Corona Virus.
Atiku made this statement through his media office, saying Nigeria has had her first confirmed case of the dreaded virus through an Italian who works in Nigeria and visited Lagos on the 25th February.
He said Nigeria needs to be united calling President Buhari on how best his government can handle the epidemic.
He recalled the zeal and unity Nigerians had and oneness of purpose, which created the atmosphere that, defeated a similar incident in the case of Ebola virus during the PDP regime.
The former Vice President said Nigeria needs firm and decisive actions to prevent escalation of the coronavirus threat.
In his statement which partly reads; “We must call upon our experience with the Wild Ebola Virus, of which we were the first nation in the world to defeat that scourge in 2014.
How did Nigeria do it?
We achieved it by showing unprecedented unity.
The federal government of the day worked closely with the Lagos and Rivers state governments.
“I strongly counsel that any tendency to blame and point fighters must be temporary, if not permanently, suspended.
If fingers must be pointed, it must be to solutions.
“Recently, we closed our borders as an act against economic sabotage.
Perhaps now is the time to temporarily halt flights to and from any nation with a prevalence of this scourge.
It is more important to secure human lives than to secure an economy.
We also need to invest in early detection facilities at our airports.
“Recently, we closed our borders as an act against economic sabotage.
Perhaps now is the time to temporarily halt flights to and from any nation with a prevalence of this scourge.
It is more important to secure human lives than to secure an economy.
We also need to invest in early detection facilities at our airports.
“This crisis is an opportunity to show that we are first and foremost Nigerians and that we have no other country but our own dear fatherland, which we must work together to keep healthy and secure,” Atiku said.