By Aiyeku Timothy
The Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has told the Federal Government that the priority of the country should be economic recovery and not the procurement of Covid vaccines.
Yahaya Bello made this claim in reaction to reports that the country may spend about $1.4bn (N540.4bn, at the official exchange rate of $1: N386) to procure and distribute 218,400,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
The Kogi State governor, who spoke on Wednesday morning, described the billions of naira to be spent on Covid vaccines as a misplacement of priority.
“All these brouhaha coming up about Covid-19 and vaccines, I don’t think we deserve it now. We have a struggling economy that Mr President inherited, recession, low income, left, right, and centre and Mr President is doing his best to pull out of the woods,” he said.
He added that “Those of us charged with the responsibility of advising Mr President should do that with utmost fear of God Almighty.”
Bello also said another lockdown would be inimical to Nigeria’s struggling economy.
He further criticised the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 for importing foreign measures to manage the pandemic in the country. “You can’t do cut and paste on issues like this,” the governor stated.
