COVID-19: Extending lockdown will be catastrophic for Nigeria, Gov Ayade warns

By IKE UCHECHUKWU, Calabar

Cross River state governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, has warned that any further extension of lockdown on the country in response to the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic will spell doom for the country.

He said further extension of the lockdown will give rise as to uncontrollable youth restiveness, adding that it was better to lockout than lockdown because it would be catastrophic.

The governor spoke on Wednesday in Calabar at the Industrial Park said the recruitment of 8,000 youths was targeted at avoiding social tension in view of the harsh economic impact created by COVID 19.

His words: “With prices of oil falling, locking out is far better than locking down because another two weeks of lockdown will find this country under siege by young people. There is no way you can hold down these young energies for too long.

“It is demographic, it is statistics. Sixty-Five percent of the population is below the age of 35 and the virus itself does not have penetrative force in such demography and that is what we have to recognize as a country.”

Speaking further, the governor explained that the difference in climate conditions between the west and Africa was the reason the pandemic is ravaging that part of the world.

“Our demography is different from the west. Our climatic conditions are different.

“If you take the wind speed, the wind direction, sun intensity, radiation and the factors that govern the movement of a virus, ours is a situation that makes it difficult to spread with the speed it is spreading in the western world.

“So, our response strategy should reflect our environmental sensitivity. May be what COVID 19 will eventually do is to sharpen the consciousness of young people to come together.

“That will be very dangerous and so, to nip that in the bud, we have to find jobs for them because sincerely, that is the provision in the constitution. Section 14 subsection 2 says the welfare and security of the people are the primary essences of government,” he said (Vanguard)