The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed concern over the silence of President Muhammadu Buhari since the first confirmed case of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country.
The main opposition party said it was uncomfortable at the president’s “delay in standing up to the responsibilities of his office to address heightening national anxieties since the detection of the deadly COVID-19 in our country.”
In a statement issued in Abuja by Kola Ologbondiyan, its National Publicity Secretary, the PDP posited that it was “absolute leadership failure” that Buhari had not considered it imperative to show concern by directly addressing “a panic-stricken nation even in the face of escalated national trepidations and conflicting reports.”
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The PDP, therefore, charged President Buhari to wake up and treat the COVID-19, deservedly, as a looming national disaster, which required a prompt and full Presidential involvement at the top level.
The party noted that at a critical time like this, the president ought to be at the forefront in shouldering responsibility.
“A Presidential address would have reassured the people, reinforced government direction and multi-sectoral intervention for concerted effort to contain the scourge,” it said.
The PDP expressed the belief that the quickest expectation of the average Nigerians was that the Federal Government should immediately step its emergency response system to calm the pervading fear among Nigerians.