Kwankwaso Writes Buhari, Bemoans “Uncoordinated and Unprofessional Manner” COVID-19 War is Waged in Kano

 By Chris Udochukwu

Kano – Former governor of Kano state has written a strong worded letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, bemoaning the uncoordinated and unprofessional manner COVID-19 war is being waged in Kano, urging him to step in and salvage the situation in the state.

Precise Post recalls that there is a report of rising incidence of mysterious deaths in Kano State.

Among other things, he sought empathy from the federal government as well as establishment of more testing centres in the state.

While he confirmed the increase in mysterious deaths in the state, he complained of the “uncoordinated and unprofessional manner” in which the fight against COVID-19 in Kano State is being waged as well as alleged mistrust of the government by the people.

He also decried the near absence of cooperation and coordination between the state and the federal government on the Covid-19 response.

“Looking at the pattern elsewhere in the world where senior citizens with pre-existing conditions were the main fatalities of the novel coronavirus, we are concerned that the inability to conduct tests in the state to determine the status of these senior citizens might be responsible for their death,” he said.

“We are even more concerned that if sincere and efficient machinery is not urgently put in place to understand and mitigate against this, more lives of innocent senior citizens will be lost.

“At present, and to all intent and purposes, the state has practically no Covid-19 response committee. What was hitherto, working as a Covid-19 committee was a contraption of cronies that are both unqualified and incompetent.

“This is very frightening as neither asymptomatic nor active cases are being identified and isolated, as such carriers of this dreaded virus are all about and spreading it and causing untimely death of especially our senior citizens,” he said.

Mr Kwankwaso faulted the state government’s initial denial of the number of deaths in the state.

“This denial has also cultivated mistrust and doubt on the part of the citizens as the state government has failed to provide the desired leadership required at a critical time like this,” he said.

He said right from the first recorded case in Kano, the state government was in a tug of war with the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

More fears

The ex-governor further expressed concern that if the Kano situation is not handled professionally, sincerely, efficiently and competently, there is a tendency of Kano becoming the epicentre of the disease in Africa in a matter of months.

This, he said, every sincere leader should be concerned about.

Another fear, he explained, is that “many residents of the state live below poverty line and there is no gainsaying that sustaining the lockdown in Kano demands that people are not left hungry.

“Any support in this regard should not be made on partisan basis.

“At the moment, the state government palliatives are being distributed based on political patronage (4 persons in each polling unit of 500 persons).

“This is grossly inadequate. A hungry and angry population cannot be kept in lockdown for too long!”

Possible solutions

While he proffered possible solutions to fight the pandemic, he stressed the need for empathy.

The situation in the state should not be left to the state because the lives of tens of millions of Nigerians living in Kano state is at stake, he explained.

“As such the central government should be seen to be actively involved in caring for, and saving their lives. There is need for empathy.”

He said the federal government should take over the responsibility of rapid response on coronavirus in the state and the state government should be made to constitute a proper State Taskforce on COVID-19 with members selected base on their professionalism and competence.

“At least five additional test centres should be established with ten other sample collection centres across the state. And the Taskforce should designate trained medical personnel in all cemeteries across the state that will collect records of all deaths,” he added.

“Furthermore, those that attended to the sick and those that prepared the dead body for burial should also be identified, isolated and contact traced for testing;

“Since it is undeniable that there is a spike in the number of death and it is probable that these deaths are either as a result of COVID-19 or some other illness, the state government and citizens should treat and consider all deaths as if it is caused by the virus; therefore all protocols as advised by medical experts be observed whenever death occurs.

“Also, an independent federal government team of experts should be mandated to investigate the rise in cases of death in the elderly population across the state.”

Mr Kwankwaso also said that palliatives should be generous and general as the virus does not belong to any political party just as hunger and poverty are not partisan.

His letter comes a day after the state governor, Umar Ganduje, said he had asked the state’s ministry of health to investigate the causes of mysterious deaths reported in the state – after initially describing the reports as “fake news.”

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