Former Vice-President of the Federation, Atiku Abubakar, has urged President Buhari to stop all flights from countries experiencing coronavirus outbreak.

Atiku, who was the Peoples Democratic Party’s Presidential candidate in the last general election said the country should fight the disease the same way it was able to swiftly contain the Ebola outbreak in 2014.

He noted in a Facebook post that since the President able to close land borders to shield the economy, it would not be too hard for the Commander-in-Chief to stop flights from countries facing the coronavirus outbreak.

Atiku added,

Nigeria needs firm and decisive actions to prevent an escalation of the scourge. 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.

But above all, Nigeria must not panic, whether at government or individual levels. We have defeated Ebola before, and we can defeat this present predicament.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain said this was not the time to make insinuations on anyone or blame game.

He said that every stakeholder should focus squarely on finding solutions to eradicate the deadly virus in the country.

Atiku added:

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. There was complete unity, solidarity, and oneness of purpose, which created the atmosphere that defeated that deadly infestation.

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.

He said that the Coronavirus crisis is an opportunity to show that we are entirely Nigerians and that we have no other place to call home except our dear fatherland, which we must all join hands together to keep secure and healthy.

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.