The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has charged the president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari to champion the battle against COVID-19 pandemic and also prevent the spread in the region. President Buhari today, Thursday 23rd of April via teleconference participated in extraordinary summit of the Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS in Abuja where he was giving the responsibility.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina in his word stated that the regional leaders discussed the challenges posed by COVID-19 and how best to tackle the deadly virus. “The West African leaders discussed how to tackle the period of COVID-19 and what to do post-COVID-19. Now, at the end of it all, it was decided that there should a champion who would lead the response of the sub-region and that champion is President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria. So, our president is going to lead the response of West Africa to the challenge of COVID-19,’’ - Adesina
At the conference with new and old heads of state and government of ECOWAS which was convened by the regional leaders to deliberate on the COVID-19 pandemic, Chairman of ECOWAS and President of Niger Republic, Alhaji Mahamadou Issoufou, raised alarm over the devastating effects of the COVID-19 on humans and economies of the member-states. He then called for collaborative efforts among member-states to combat the pandemic, and also advocated for total debts cancellation for African countries to enable the African continent to survive the post-COVID-19 era.
President Buhari after being tasked with the responsibility noted that “In every challenging situation such as the current one, there are also opportunities. Our region must, therefore, seek to find those opportunities provided by this gloomy global outlook for its benefit by embarking on the implementation of such critical policies, which, before now, will be difficult to accept.”
Buhari also stated that “Despite declining revenues, the government continues to spend massively on the containment of the virus, medical care for those infected and minimising impact of the crisis on the poor and vulnerable. This situation puts severe pressure on our finances by increasing our expenditures amid dwindling revenues. This invariably has led to a restructuring and reduction of our budget.”
While concluding, the Nigerian president used the medium to urge other leaders to embrace agriculture, technology, and innovation in order to emerge stronger. “It is imperative that, while addressing short-term challenges, we should also explore opportunities to promote strong and dynamic agricultural policies that will guarantee food security for our people, creating jobs and reducing poverty in the region. We must innovate and use technology to boost the digital economy and do things differently, but better.” - Buhari
