Itse Sagay, Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to forcefully quarantine Nigerians for more two months over disobedience to COVID-19 safety guidelines.
Mr Sagay who spoke in an interview with Independent Newspapers, recommended the measure to halt the spread of Coronavirus disease which is astronomically rising in the country.
The PACAC chairman made the recommendation after accessing the level of compliance by Nigerians on the safety directives given by the government while easing the lockdown imposed as a result of COVID-19.
Among the safety measures the government advised citizens to practice in other to prevent the spread of the deadly virus are: social distancing, wearing of face masks and avoiding large gatherings.
He said Nigerians were being stubborn by refusing to comply to the directive and as such need the leadership style of a dictator to have things properly fall into places.
“Nigerians are the most undisciplined people on earth. I went out after six weeks today and in spite 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,” Sagay recounted.
“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,” the professor advised.
