Yinka Odumakin, National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere in this interview speaks on the on latest developments in the polity amid the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic. Excerpts:

As the world continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of cases of people in Nigeria keeps increasing daily. What lessons can we learn from this as regards the Federal government’s attention to health care system in the country?

If Aso Rock Clinic on which billions have been spent on paper in the last five years cannot handle COVID-19 cases and top rate medical institutions like University College Hospital (UCH) is now begging around to be able to buy ventilators, you don’t need much turenchi to assess the preparation of the non-government hospitals in Nigeria for this type of pandemic. The ordinary Nigerians have mostly relied on herbalists and spiritual hawkers who have not been helpful in this.

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu at the weekend suggested that the Federal Government should print new naira notes as palliatives to COVID-19. What is your take on that?

That a richly endowed country like Nigeria is being asked to print money like Idi Amin of Uganda in these early days of this pandemic shows how irresponsibly this country has been run and the need to start on a fresh slate when this is over. The leadership that took us into this mess can never get us to a better place for ever. Even if we agreed to print money today, they will print more for theft than for the use of the larger society. Even the funds being donated to fight this scourge would mostly be stolen.

There is controversy over the purchase and distribution of exotic cars by the National Assembly in the midst of the pandemic. What is your take on that?

Only a rudderless and unpatriotic delinquents leaders would be talking of exotic cars in the midst of what our people are facing now. It all shows that these dealers we mistakenly call leaders are all about themselves. The truth is that all they would be looking out for in this pandemic is self-serving opportunities. It is a price for a society that allows mostly criminals to run its politics to pay.

The Presidency said President Muhammadu Buhari not addressing Nigerians on the COVID-19 pandemic is a matter of style. Do you agree with that?

It can only be the style of a leader who is so detached and has a better feeling for cows than the citizens of his country. Or have we not heard his voice clearly when the issue is about herdsmen and cows? When he told Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom to go and learn how to live in peace with his killer – neighbours, did he send any of his vuvuzelas? When he directed that they can come in and get visas at the border, did we beg him to speak? But I guess that my people love it so. (Daily Independent)

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