KEYNOTE SPEECH BY THE SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT OF THE FEDERATION, BOSS MUSTAPHA AT THE 5TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE GUILD OF CORPORATE ONLINE PUBLISHERS (GOCOP) AT
SHERATON HOTELS, IKEJA, LAGOS STATE
THURSDAY, 7th OCTOBER, 2021. HE WAS REPRESENTED BY DR. FAISAL SHUAIB, ED/CEO, NATIONAL PRIMARY HEALTHCARE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (NPHCDA)
PROTOCOL,
It is a privilege for me to be here once again for the Annual Conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP). This year’s theme, “COVID-19 Pandemic: Recovery and Reconstruction in Nigeria” could not have come at a better time than now, especially as the world is accepting the new normal life that the Coronavirus has bestowed on us.
2. While we commiserate with the families and friends of those who have paid the supreme price in the fight against this virus, we also thank God for the lives of survivors. We plead with us all, not to let our guards down because the pandemic is yet to be halted. We must continue to observe the non-pharmaceutical intervention measures and be our brother’s keepers. I also urge every eligible person 18 years and above to come out and get vaccinated as this is the only sure way we can achieve herd immunity and recover fully.
3. Let me use this opportunity to thank the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) for inviting me to speak at this year’s conference. I want to also commend you publicly for choosing the topic: “COVID-19 Pandemic: Recovery and Reconstruction in Nigeria”. This clearly portrays that this association of professional journalists are not only conversant with the trend of times, but are also mindful of what Government has done, is doing, and will do in the coming months and years. This Conference, I believe, will try to provide ideas in which we can help restore Nigeria back to normalcy amidst the pandemic.
4. You would all recall that early last year, the world woke up to a rude shock – the arrival of the Coronavirus, the causative virus of COVID-19 that shook the health systems of the entire world. While I will not want to dwell on the issue of origin of the virus, one thing is certain and sure, that is, the virus is here with us. By January 30, 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. That was a red flag to the world that something untoward was brewing in the air. But the world gave no heed to the warning. We continued to live our lives irrespective of the danger signs. In a matter of weeks, the virus had surreptitiously spread to every corner of the earth, and it is now a pandemic of global proportion.
5. Let me emphasize here that the world being a global village means that whatever happens in one part of this ‘global village’ can easily spill over to other parts. This is exactly what happened with COVID-19. It took only a matter of weeks after it was first reported in one part of the ‘global village’ for it to spread insidiously to the rest of the world. Today, we are talking about it as a global pandemic.
6. As for Nigeria and the rest of Africa, it was only a matter of time. That time came for our dear nation on 27th of February 2020, when the first index case was reported in Nigeria. That was the day the Federal Ministry of Health confirmed the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) case in Lagos State. The case happened to be a 44-year-old Italian citizen, male, who returned to Lagos on the 25th of February 2020 and proceeded to his place of work in Ogun State.
7. Let me use this opportunity to recognise and appreciate Dr. Amarachukwu Allison, who first detected the symptoms in Nigeria. She was the one that examined the Italian patient who walked into her consulting room in Ogun state, Southwest Nigeria, complaining of fever, headache, and fatigue. She suspected instantly what his ailment was and then referred him for COVID-19 test.
8. That particular incident, the first in sub-Sahara Africa, and the very fact that he was discharged after he was treated by Nigerian doctors in a Nigerian health facility attests to the professional competence of our medical personnel, the readiness of both the Federal and Lagos State government, and indeed other State Governments to handle the emergency that had assumed pandemic proportion. Here, I must commend the Honourable Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire and his team in the Ministry, as well as the Governor of Lagos State, His Excellency, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for setting the tone in the management of a totally strange disease.
9. Mr. President in his proactiveness, constituted the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, which was chaired by my humble self on March 9, 2020. The PTF with membership drawn from relevant MDAs was saddled with the onerous task of coordinating a multi-sectoral National response to the pandemic. It also provided technical and material support to States to ease the management of the pandemic.
10. The PTF took to advocacy, public enlightenment, and social mobilisation. Through our daily media briefing, we were able to widen the frontier of awareness, bust conspiracy theories, disabuse the mind of the public on the avalanche of fake news in the public space fueled and orchestrated by a few but very vocal conspiracy theorists. Furthermore, the PTF provided a rallying hub for the provision of policy direction for the fight against the pandemic, offering specific guidelines to various agencies, facilitating interactions with the international community, and serving as a bridge between the Government and the private sector.
11. I should not fail to acknowledge the role of the media in the fight against the pandemic. Your constructive criticisms, prompt reports of the activities of PTF and your concerted public enlightenment helped in no small measure to douse the negative impacts of conspiracy theories, fake news and vaccine hesitation. I want to thank members of GOCOP for exhibiting maturity, patriotism, and professionalism in the reporting of matters relating to the pandemic. The Daily briefing at the initial stage and subsequently weekly and now bi-weekly goes a long way to give the people the right information and on time. All these helped to mitigate the effect of fake news and conspiracy theories on the National Response.
12. Therefore, let it be known this day, on this special conference when the media chose this theme, that the Federal Government, having appreciated the media for the good job it has done in the reporting of Covid-19 pandemic related events, is asking the same media to begin the Recovery and Reconstruction process from itself. The media can also use their Code of Ethics to guide their professionalism to remain the voice of the voiceless and the right voice for the people.
13. One key area that the PTF has shown immense capacity is in the aspect of multi-stakeholder mobilization. Our modest effort at the PTF helped the international community and the private sector to quickly key into the Nigeria COVID-19 remediation programme. With the existence of the PTF, they know who to talk to and who to meet. A COVID-19 basket fund with support from the United Nations (UN) country office was set up to mobilize resources from various stakeholders for effective response to the pandemic. The PTF did not handle any of these funds or resources donated by corporate organisations, development partners or individuals directly, but only served as advisory on what could be done.
14. The Federal Government therefore released funds for different purposes in the bid to fight the pandemic. I want to use this opportunity to thank the Leadership of CACOVID as well as other private sector initiatives for their immense support. We all are victors in this fight against COVID-19.
15. The robust response of the Federal Government through the PTF triggered similar responses from the states. Except for one or two Governors who openly showed hesitancy to the national response strategy, mistrust and a veiled alliance with conspiracy theorists who questioned – some, unfortunately, are still questioning – the existence of Coronavirus, other Governors reacted swiftly and responsibly, building, and equipping isolation centres.
16. As of Tuesday, 5th October 2021, Nigeria has recorded 206,279 cases, 2,724 deaths and 194,167 recoveries, compared to a global statistic of 236,196,953 cases in 221 counties, 4,823,501 deaths and 213,258,831 recoveries. If we consider that Nigeria recorded 13 deaths per one million population compared to a global average of 604.7 deaths per one million, we will then begin to appreciate the efforts put in by all of us especially the frontline workers including the media, and of course with the help of Almighty God.
17. Today, thanks to science and technology, we are at the level of vaccination. So, I urge every eligible person to go out and get vaccinated. Here, again, I return to our media partners. I urge you to use the power of the media and the articles of your trade, in this instance the words that you write or speak, the caricatures (cartoons) and memes to intensify public enlightenment on vaccination.
18. On the part of the Federal Government, I want to assure Nigerians that we have enough vaccines, and we are expecting more. The vaccination efforts led by the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency has been hailed as one of the best globally by the World Health Organization. We believe that, just as we combated the virus, the vaccination program will ensure that every Nigerian gets access to life saving commodities. Let me restate this here and now that COVID-19 is not a death sentence. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Let us all put our hands to the pump as we begin the Recovery and Reconstruction.
19. At this juncture, let me outline some of the measures we implemented for COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery and Reconstruction in Nigeria:
• At the peak of the pandemic, we focused our objective to contain the spread of infection, minimize casualties and ensure that our clinical services could cope with the projected fatalities.
• Establishment of Sample Collection Centres in all LGAs: We tried to build a resilient health system that is sensitive to pick up infections early by encouraging the establishment of sample collection centers in all LGAs, ramping up sample collection to at least 500/week and establishing linkages to testing laboratories and clinical care centers.
• Disease Surveillance and Notification Officers (DSNOs) were intensively trained in order to strengthen the COVID-19 surveillance system at the district level.
• We heightened vigilance at our Points of Entry, particularly the airports, to minimize the risk of importation of new cases into the country. Our heightened Point of Entry surveillance includes health screening, testing negative to COVID-19 at least 72hrs before commencing the journey to Nigeria and a second test on the 7th day of arrival.
• Unlike many other countries, our deliberate policy ensured that Nigerians were not banned from visiting any country of their choice nor were foreign nationals banned from visiting Nigeria. Only 4 countries were designated as high-risk countries and passenger arriving from these countries would be required to be under supervised isolation for 7 days before proceeding to interact with the community. These measures ensured that critical skills and manpower from these restricted countries continue to fuel our economy while we ensure the safety of our population. Over 10,000 skilled workers from these countries have been processed through this mechanism in order to facilitate our economic recovery.
• Repositioning NCDC to command national operations: The Nigeria Centre for Disease control has enhanced its capability to engage with the states and monitor the state of the pandemic. The Nigeria field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (NFELTP) of the federal ministry of Health has served as the backbone of our national epidemic preparedness and response. It has developed a reservoir of Rapid-Response teams that have been deployed to save the situation in states where additional support was needed
• Harnessing existing capacities in emergency management for public health: The PSC effectively harnessed our capacity in emergency and disaster management to handle public security, logistics movement as well as provide mass-care to millions of vulnerable populations.
• Coordination of epidemic and pandemic response systems: The PSC has recently developed a COVID-19 Pandemic Risk Alert-Levels System for our country, which both States and the Federal governments can use to effectively monitor and respond to COVID-19 and similar bio-security threats.
• Galvanizing private sector support for public health action: Realizing that government alone cannot fund healthcare and socio-economic development, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari relentlessly has been engaging the private sector in efforts at fully recovering from COVID-19 pandemic and the rebuilding of our country from the disruptions unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Pursuant to this, the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency is currently engaging the States to explore opportunities for partnering with the private sector to fast track COVID-19 vaccine coverage for Nigerians- towards attainment of herd immunity, which will lead to full opening of our economy and complete recovery from the pandemic.
• Building back better health systems:
National oxygen plan: As part of our efforts to build back a better healthcare system, the federal government has approved the construction of 42 new oxygen plants and the repair of at least 18 such plants. When completed Nigeria will be approaching near self-sufficiency for oxygen which is critical not only for COVID-19 but for cases of childhood pneumonia and emergency and critical care units.
National ambulance and emergency service plan: Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic the Federal Ministry of Health, leveraging on the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF), is swiftly rolling out national ambulance and emergency services- which will enhance our country’s ability to effectively respond to healthcare emergencies now and in the future.
Investment in research and vaccine development: We as a nation must make critical investments in scientific research and vaccine development. We should aim at manufacturing vaccines here in Nigeria and not depend on foreign countries for the meeting of our vaccines needs to respond to current and future epidemics and pandemics.
• Economic stimulus measures/fiscal policies: Very early in the pandemic, the CBN introduced new measures on loans, moratorium and debt repayment:
1 year extension of a moratorium on principal repayments for CBN intervention facilities;
The reduction of the interest rate on intervention loans from 9% to 5%
Strengthening of the Loan to Deposit ratio policy;
In addition, a N50 billion target credit facility was floated for household and small and medium enterprises to help re-grow the economy
Additional N100 billion intervention fund on healthcare loans to pharmaceutical companies and healthcare practitioners intending to expand/build capacity;
N1 trillion in loans to boost local manufacturing and production across critical sectors;
The crude oil benchmark price was also reduced from a USD 57 to USD 30;
The CBN pledged to pump 1.1 trillion NGN into critical sectors of the economy.
Commencement of a 5-month repayment moratorium for all TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni loans; and
Provision of credit assistance for the health industry to meet the potential increase in demand in health services and products,
These economic measures and fiscal policies that our government adopted facilitated our exit from COVID-19 induced recession earlier than predicted by world-class Economists- which was another big feather on the cap of our managerial sagacity in holistically responding to the pandemic!
20. As I wrap up, I want to reiterate my appreciation for the outstanding work that the online media platforms have done towards shaping and influencing the narrative around COVID-19 pandemic. We have won several battles, but the war is not over. Our next battle is fighting the misinformation and disinformation about vaccines that has led to vaccine hesitancy. We are making progress, but we need to win this argument with facts and figures, in order for us to finally climb out of the restriction and socioeconomic impacts imposed by the pandemic.
21. On this note, I wish to thank you all for this opportunity to speak and wish you all fruitful deliberations. May God bless you and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
