Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, Lawmaker representinh Oyo North Senatorial districts at the upper chamber of the National Assembly is the chairman Senate Committee on Land Transport. The All Progressives Congress APC Chieftains while speaking on a radio interview with Isaac Brown spoke about the effects of corona virus and what he told Governor Seyi Makinde who was tested positive to the virus. Excerpts:
Good morning Distinguished Senator
Buhari: Good morning
How are you experiencing and enjoying the lock down in the nation’s capital?
Buhari: Nobody would ever enjoy any lockdown. Everybody wants to be free but when the situation comes like this, there is nothing anybody can do. We all have to obey it. We are not talking about individual but generality of public. It is an emergency situation where everybody, every right thinking person must obey.
If you think you have immune, the situation now is just like driving. When you are driving, you have to think about the mad person coming from the other side. This is the situation we find ourselves. One good thing about it is that it is an experience and reason for us to take our country much serious. We must do the needful for the country. Who has ever thought of it that a situation is coming when you would not be able to travel outside your immediate community let alone traveling abroad. This has actually called for sober reflection so that we can take our infrastructural development including our healthcare system seriously. I hope and believe we are coming out of the situation.
Distinguished Senator, the Governor of the State has been confirmed positive, when the news got to you, how did you receive it?
Buhari: I saw it on the breaking news and I called him immediately. The Governor did not pick his calls. 30 minutes later, he called me back and we spoke and I prayed for him. In fact, though I am not a medical doctor, I advised him to rub his chest and throat with Robb. I added that he could put some in his nose. I am sure, he would be laughing that when did Senator Buhari became a Medical expert, but one thing is that most of us who are going to Saudi Arabia every time use to experience such hardship anytime we came back and whenever we rub as stated above, we get better. From the experience gathered via Corona Virus, let me state that every citizen has become COVID-19 expert in the country today! They will tell you, use this, take that. So, I advised him on what to do and I wish him well.
On the measure taken by All Progressive Congress led Federal government by President Muhammad Buhari and National Assembly, with the approach in Lagos, Ogun and FCT, as a Senator from Oyo, are you not bothered?
Buhari: One big problem we have in this country is that we politicize everything! Personally, I believe it is not APC, PDP or KKK matter. What is matter to me is the country. I, despite being a member of APC, I did not like a situation whereby only three States were locked down. I would have preferred a situation whereby we have the whole country locked down. I said it earlier on, it is not about you, it is about others, it is about ourselves, it is all about our country. Taking a firm decision at times is very important because of the population, because of the majority of the people. Let me give this simple example that happened in the world today by going through the history of Corona Virus. It started in Wuhan, far away China. When it started, the first thing they did was that they locked down their towns. Their leaders concentrate on the two cities and locked down all other cities in Thailand. At that time proactive leaders were taken measures as they were watching instead of somebody like President of United States of America to take a proactive measure, he was saying, China virus, China virus.
Today, the total number of confirmed Corona Virus cases in US is 216, 357, Italy has 110, 574 confirmed cases while China has 81, 554 confirmed cases. When you add the cases in China to that of Italy is still not upto the total case recorded in US. It has the highest cases of COVID-19 in the world today! Look at Canada and US, they share the same border. They are just like twins brother but Canada blocked their country. As at today, they only have 9, 712 confirmed cases. This has really shown the difference between a proactive leader and a talkative leader. I would have preferred a situation whereby we locked up the whole country. Look at what they did in Ghana, they locked up the country. Even Togo and South Africa, the same thing was done. We do not have the wherewithal, look at countries where they have the medical facilities, they cannot handle Corona Virus, they are overwhelmed.
Something happened last week, I thanked God and said so, this can happen during our lifetime. Cuba is one of the countries that have not experienced outbreak of Corona Virus, so, they then decided to help Italy. On getting there, they saw that all the Doctors in Italy were blacks. We all saw all the white men standing and clapping for them.
Are you saying the Federal Government approach to COVID-19 is inadequate? I meant is the idea of selective lockdown okay by you? Do you agree to it?
Buhari: In my personal opinion, I would have preferred the whole country to be locked down even for one week because we do not have enough facilities to really fight COVID-19.
Isaac: What is your opinion on the measure taken by Governor Seyi Makinde on COVID-19? Is that adequate?
Buhari: The word inadequate is too harsh. I would have done it differently. Take for instance, Niger State has no single case of Corona Virus, yet they locked down their towns. The same thing happened in Kwara. Look at Kaduna also, they have very minimal cases though included their State Governor but they locked down their town not until it started affecting many people. That is exactly what we are saying. It is not a matter of people saying what are they going to eat? What are we talking about? God forbids, by the time the pandemic takes the unpleasant shape, people will see food yet they would not be able to eat. I want to appeal to Nigerians to stay at home, it is no more a rumour, COVID-19 is real. If you are somebody that watches news, you will agree with me that it is disheartening on CNN where it was reported that 13, 155 persons had died in Italy. We all know, everybody will die but nobody prays to die a miserable death.
So, you believe that we need to be more aggressive and lockdown is an option?
Buhari: Exactly, that was why I gave you examples of some countries. We need to be proactive. Another example in this country is Lagos. Everybody is praising Lagos. Despite that they have fund, they still listen to advice. It is not only their government that is doing it, some experts are giving useful advice.
There has been a lot of talk here in Oyo about the fact that we are not harnessing our wealthy individuals in the fight against COVID-19, what is your view on this?
Buhari: Giving out money is a personal thing. There is no law to that. Act of giving is a gift from God! It is only if you were created with it that you can be described as a philanthropist. It is not a matter of galvanizing. You cannot force people. Some can give 10 naira while some can decide to give 50naira.
Are we harnessing the rich people in Oyo State?
BAF: Do we actually need to tell anybody that there is COVID-19. Did anybody charge those who have donated? Did anybody enjoin them before they did what they did? It is a mandatory thing. Everybody is expected to assist our people. As token as 10naira, it goes a long way in assisting our people. We should all assist one another in our best ability and capability.
You senators said you people are given out your salaries. To most Nigerians, why your salaries? Why not your allowances having known that the real deal is in your allowances?
Buhari: That was what I was saying. It is official and that was why I reiterated that you cannot force anybody to do anything. Those of us who believed that no matter how small, we can go extra mile to help our people and our country.
What is Senator Buhari doing to alleviate challenges people of Oyo North are going through during this period?
Buhari: If not that you asked the question, I would not have talked about myself. You can easily put calls across to people in my district. I realized that some people were buying sanitizers, detergents, and several other items. I then thought that after washing hands, my people would have to eat, so I pick some few things such as Semovita, Rice and Detergents. I sent these items in large numbers to 13 local governments that constitute Oyo North Senatorial District. All those things were distributed to the downtrodden. It might not go round, it might not reach more than 50% to 60% to 70% but I have played my role in my best and sincere capacity.
Do you see National Assembly doing anything in moving forward?
Buhari: Yes! The beauty of it is when we resume, it shall come under matter of urgent national importance. Suggestions will come from different quarters. In terms of palliative, look at what America deed, they sent in 1.2trillion Dollars to Americans’ banks accounts. In America, there is social security, even if you are one year old, there is social security. So at any point in time, they know the total number of people they have and they offer the most appropriate method on how they get money into the bank accounts of their citizens but here, do we have the data to know how many are we? We only claim that we are 150million, 200million, 250million. We need to get things done rightly now. We might not finish it but we should start doing something so that our future generation can benefit from it. When we get it right, we still need to agree on the means of executing the palliative, are we using ID cards or BVN, probably, we change that to our own social security so that it can be used as the basis to plan for the citizens.
Sir, we are not talking about planning now, what Nigerians are saying is that we are ready to be locked down but Federal government should send money their our account details, your view on this?
Buhari: When we get the economy right, nobody will ask you to send money to him or her. Let us start planning. If our system is okay, despite the lockdown, people will not complain.
Distinguished Senator, are you not saddened that we are telling people to wash their hands and our government cannot even produce portable water in most homes?
Buhari: You don’t have to be a serving senator but a Nigerian to be unhappy with the situation we find ourselves. That is the truth. We should think outside the box and have plan for our country. What is happening now is a lesson to us all. We know that we are lagging behind. Look at locking down the airport at the last minutes when the British Airway announced to other countries that their Aircraft with so, so and so number that left for Jeda, Abuja and Dubai should be quarantined but when they arrived here, everybody was allowed to go to his or her home.
