Afenifere leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo says the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the comatose nature of the state of infrastructure in Nigeria.
He stated this in an interview published by Saturday Sun while reacting to the impact of the deadly virus on the country.
Recall that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Friday night gave the total recorded cases in the country as 7,261 with 221 fatalities.
But before Nigeria recorded its index case on February 27, the nation’s health, education and other infrastructures were already in a ” shape”, the elder statesman lamented.
Adebanjo added that the advent of the virus has worsened the nation’s situation caused by inept leadership.
In the same vein, the Yoruba leader berated President Muhammadu Buhari for not initiating the process for the restructuring of the country in spite of many calls for him to do so.
Adebanjo said, “We are in a very bad state, and things are getting worse. We were in a bad state before the COVID-19 pandemic – the medical, education, infrastructure, etc, everything was in bad shape. So when coronavirus came, it worsened things; there was no foundation to pick up unlike in other countries. It is now we are trying to put things that ought to have been there. We are even lucky over the level of disaster we have got; it could have been even higher. It’s terrible.
“The coronavirus came to expose our nakedness; we only have to thank God for how He is saving us because where are we going to begin when we have the square pegs in round holes just because the right people are not from your village or tribe. You are doing nepotism with impunity.
“For the past months, years, all responsible people in this country have told him to restructure the country now, and he has not said a word, what type of leader is that or does it mean he is not hearing what people are saying and he is carrying on venially. He doesn’t care what people say.”
Reminded that the decay did not start under Buhari’s government, the 91-year-old Adebanjo retorted, “I agree, but that is a very weak and insulting statement.
“Every government that goes there is supposed to improve on what is on ground; he was voted in to office to improve it. It was the corruption in the Jonathan government that made his election possible, but is corruption not worse now? When he chose Sylva, whose properties were seized because of corruption, he made him minister and returned the properties. What do you call that?
“No doubt he met something bad, and it was because of that he was put in there to correct it, but has he improved the situation, is it getting worse; is the country as divided as he met it? The country is now in tatters. What has he done to bring us together? Every time he is accused of doing things that are dividing the country, he has never come out to say, no, and assuring the citizens that it is a misconception.
“When you tell him that his appointments were not based on federal character, as against the provisions of the constitution, he will say that he wants to work with those people that he knows. Is that what the constitution says? Why are you people not pointing these things out, I’m already at my grave. If Buhari changes or not, it is not my business, I’m already in the grave, your generation will be the one to suffer.”