President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the importation of the acclaimed coronavirus (COVID-19) remedy developed by Madagascar to Nigeria.

Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, disclosed this during a press briefing in Abuja on Monday, May 11th, 2020.

Mustapha, who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, said,

Madagascar has made allocations to various countries, and sent them to Guinea Bissau. We‘re supposed to make arrangements to freight Nigeria’s allocation from Guinea Bissau; it‘ll be subjected to the standard validation process for pharmaceuticals.

Mr. President has given instructions for the airlifting of Nigeria’s allocation of the Madagascar COVID-19 Syrup; also given clear instructions that it must be subjected to the standard validation process for pharmaceuticals; there will be no exceptions for this.

He assured Nigerians that the task force was intensifying efforts to stop the spread of the virus in Nigeria.

Nigeria has only one national response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Where there are differing strategies is in the implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions. But as far as the response is concerned, there is only one national response,

he added.

African countries, such as Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, and Tanzania have already taken delivery of consignments of the coronavirus “remedy”, which was launched in April.

Madagascar said the drink is derived from artemisia, which is a plant with proven anti-malarial properties, and other indigenous herbs.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.