The Vulnerability Of Nigeria In The Face Of COVID-19 Pandemic -By Jeff Okoroafor

One of the biggest, most irresponsible thing for anyone to do is to squander his own money and then resort to begging others for feeding money and money to take care of other basic needs. This is exactly what the Federal Government of Nigeria did when it contacted Elon Musk on Twitter, begging for free ventilators.

In December of last year, FG approved N37 billion for the renovation of the National Assembly complex. The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan said then that the reason Buhari quickly approved the amount was that some lawmakers met with him and explained the poor condition of the legislative building. They didn’t explain to the president the poor conditions of the federal roads across the country. They didn’t explain to him that Ajaokuta Steel is dormant, dilapidated and in need of urgent renovation. They didn’t explain to the president that hospitals in Nigeria are of poor standards and that the entire country barely has up to 100 ventilators. They didn’t explain to him and he didn’t care to find out the immediate needs of ordinary Nigerians and how to better their lives.

Last week, as coronavirus pandemic was busy ravaging the country and her economy, members of the House of Representatives took delivery of Toyota Camry 2020 model cars acquired as official cars. 400 units of exotic cars, N5.5 billion gone.

According to budget documents analysed by budget professionals in Nigeria, the allocation for the ‘presidential air fleet’ as captured under the office of the national security adviser (ONSA) comprises of recurrent and capital expenditure of N35.9 billion and N37.4 billion respectively. Seventy-three billion, three hundred million Naira. That is how much Nigeria has budgeted for the presidential air fleet from 2011 to 2020.

The President, Muhammadu Buhari, rides a customized Mercedes Benz (Maybach S560), worth over N250 million. Put these figures together and you’d have about N123 billion spent on intangible things and now the Federal Government is on social media, shamelessly begging for 500 free ventilators from Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla.

1 ventilator is around $10,000 which when converted to our currency gives about N3.6m. This follows that 500 ventilators that this corrupt government is begging Elon Musk for will just be about N1.8 billion. Now imagine how many ventilators N123 billion can buy for Nigeria.

COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the stability and capacities of countries. Beyond that, it has also exposed the standard of governance provided by leaders of various countries of the world. It has exposed the level of corruption and impunity that exist in Nigeria.

Buhari and his government should be utterly ashamed of themselves for ridiculing like this. They should as a matter of urgency, accept the offer from Innoson Motors to manufacture ventilators and other medical equipment locally. We must leverage our human capital, work together irrespective of our tribal, religious and political differences if we must beat this virus and save our economy.