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Bashir Ahmad and President Buhari
Amid fears of a new strain of coronavirus in the United Kingdom, a tweet by Mr Bashir Ahmad has sparked mixed reactions on Twitter.
Ahmad, the Personal Assistant on New Media to President Muhammadu Buhari, posted the tweet on Monday via his verified Twitter handle.
Although he did not post any text that suggests a second lockdown, his tweet contains a locked yellow padlock, a downward arrow in a blue box, and the figure ‘2.0’.
As some of the Twitter users warn the government against the negative effects of another lockdown, others see it as a welcome development while some give hilarious reactions.
The tweet by Ahmad, which has triggered fears of a second phase of lockdown, comes ahead of the scheduled submission of the final report of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 to President Buhari.
In the last couple of days, Nigeria saw its highest single-day COVID-19 cases, figures that are higher than those reported in the early months of the outbreak in the country.
The increasing numbers of cases of COVID-19 in the country have forced authorities in various states to reactivate the measures put in place to curb the spread of the disease.
These include the closure of schools, compulsory wearing of facemasks in public spaces, and the restriction of crowds in social and religious gatherings.
Some top officials of the Federal Government, governors, and military officers, including the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, have gone into isolation recently.
The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, chaired by Mustapha, was set up by President Buhari on March 9, barely two weeks after Nigeria recorded its first case of the disease.
He directed the task force to coordinate and oversee the nation’s multi-sectoral inter-governmental efforts to contain the spread and mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
The PTF has various mandates such as to provide overall policy direction, guidance, and continuous support to the National Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) and enable the delivery of national and state-level outbreak control priorities, among others.
It has Dr Sani Aliyu as the national coordinator and the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, and some ministers as members. (Channels TV)
