Temidayo Akinsuyi, Lagos
Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to lock down the country for a minimum of two months over the violation by Nigerians of safety directives issued by the federal government as a means of curtailing the spread of the Coronavirus in the country.
Speaking in a chat with Daily Independent, Sagay also said military men should be allowed to patrol the streets and arrest anyone found on the streets except essential workers.
Recounting his experience, Sagay said he observed that 50 percent of those he saw on Wednesday failed to wear their face masks, while about 25 percent people simply hung it on their necks without covering their faces.
He added that most commercial buses were filled up while many banks and major bus stops were crowded as people flagrantly violated the social distancing order.
“Nigerians are the most undisciplined people on earth. I went out after six weeks today and inspite of all that have been said, the pleas by the government, I saw them in their thousands and hundreds of thousands, more than 50 percent of them without wearing masks”.
“Out of the 50 carrying masks, 25 percent had it on their necks instead of their faces. Only about 25 percent were wearing the masks properly”.
“Buses were filled, people were in crowds and they were just behaving as if nothing has happened, as if there is no Coronavirus pandemic in the country, as if everything is normal”.
So, it is an impossible country because these people are so massively indiscipline. Unless we have a government that decides to use power and authority without any constraint, we won’t achieve any result”.
“The way I see it, with the way Nigerians are behaving, we may have to be quarantined for like two months by force. Aside the lockdown, we should have security men patrolling the streets and inflicting the worst type of punishment on anybody who violates the directive”.
“Nigerians know how to talk. No job, no food. Hunger can kill more than Coronavirus and so on’.
“This very population that keeps on talking like this; this so-called poor and ordinary people now the lockdown has been eased so that they can earn their living but they are going about infecting all of us”.
“So, for me, Nigeria is a country that needs a very strong hand, that needs authoritarian leadership for many things to succeed. If I were the President, I will close down this country for two months and put armed men on the streets to stop, arrest and detain anybody who is found outside except essential workers” he said.