Second Republic Minister and former Chairman of Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Paul Unongo, says COVID-19-linked mysterious deaths in Kano could have been averted if President Muhammadu Buhari had taken a special interest in Kano like he did Lagos at the outset.
He disclosed this in an interview with Saturday Sun.
Unongo advised the Federal Government against acceding to the Kano State Government’s request for N15 billion to fight COVID-19.
Instead, he said, the Federal Government should directly intervene in the management of the deadly disease in the state.
“If I were the Federal Government, I would not give N15 billion to a person that allowed people to die before.
“I would have sent a team of experts; I would have done what the President of Nigeria has done now. I would have locked down Kano like he did in Lagos, Ogun and the FCT. We saw good result.
“I wouldn’t send money to somebody who is in self-denial. I would find a way of prevention and I will send a team of medical workers and buy all the necessary equipment and all that is necessary and then block the borders so that people would not run to other states that share borders with Kano.
“I would look for our traditional friends – Kano is a metropolis just like Lagos. I would have treated Kano like Lagos, if need be I would have declared Kano as area of special interest like Federal Capital Territory for now.
“I would have taken federal might to Kano, to save the people of Kano, and not to give money to somebody who is in self denial; when the thing is killing your people, you are denying that this is not what is killing them.
“We have the virus right now killing Americans, killing Italians in hundreds of thousands and killing people in Kano then you want us to go and do a research on what is killing people in Kano. By the time you conclude the research all the prominent people in Kano would have been killed and that is not good enough.
“I think the Federal Government should make Kano a special place of interest,” Unongo
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