Oyo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has hailed some of President Muhammadu Buhari’s decisions with regard to his initial total lockdown of Lagos, Ogun states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The party, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Akeem Olatunji, said Buhari’s decision to relax some earlier restrictions was laudable because they had adversely affected Nigerians.
Olatunji, an engineer, said the new approach is a testimony to the supremacy of Governor Seyi Makinde in combating the pandemic logically and scientifically, which is a good template worthy of emulation.
The party noted with disdain how opposition parties in the state, particularly the All Progressives Congress (APC), had attempted to discredit Makinde’s giant strides in keeping the state safe from a larger outbreak of the disease within the ambient of very limited resources while allowing commerce to thrive during the partial lockdown in Oyo State.
The PDP described APC in Oyo State as a group of people living in a fantasy, noting that Governor Makinde was an epitome of sound and qualitative leadership, who had been working to restore the human dignity and dignity of labour among the people.
Olatunji stressed that the only option left for APC in Oyo State was to seek the forgiveness of the people it allegedly plunged into untold hardship during its eight years of governance.
According to PDP, “it doesn’t take any rocket science for any leader with a good conscience to know that total lockdown of any state or country, including crippling an already struggling economy like that of Nigeria without the capacity or political will to make proper provisions for alternative means of livelihood, will be counterproductive.” It stressed that Makinde was daily showing APC government at all levels how to achieve good governance.
The APC in Oyo had urged the governor to lock down the state for two weeks to enable it to identify those that might have been infected, thereby restricting the spread of the virus.
But Makinde only imposed a 7 pm to 6 am curfew while encouraging residents to observe measures that help contain the virus.
He also shut schools and some markets.
