From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said that the reported exclusion of the country by the World Health Organization (WHO) from the list of nations to receive COVID-19 vaccines as a result lack of storage facilities has vindicated its claim that the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration has failed.
The PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said that it’s shameful that a country as important as Nigeria is being excluded from the COVID-19 intervention because of lack of storage facilities.
The opposition party added that it is unpardonable that the APC-led Federal Government “was not able to provide the minimum standard requirement of vaccine storage at the requisite -70 degrees Celsius, despite the billions of naira it claims had gone into the COVID-19 effort.”
According to the PDP, “this embarrassing situation confirms our position that the APC administration is completely incapable of carrying out simple governance tasks, which is the reason our nation is in her present social and economic dire straits.
“Only last month, our party alerted the nation and tasked the Buhari administration on its lethargic approach to the issue of COVID-19 vaccine and other therapeutics; a caution which was dismissed by the APC and the Buhari administration.
“This development has also confirmed our insistence that the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 is a mere circus group of incompetent politicians, and has no capacity to tackle the spread of the pandemic in our country. It also validates the widespread call for the dissolution of the PTF.
“It is indeed sad that because of the corruption and incompetence of the APC administration, our dear nation, which was once a clear continental leader and global competitor in all fields, has fallen so low that it cannot provide simple vaccine storage in a time of pandemic.
“Against this ugly backdrop, our party restates our call for immediate dissolution of the PTF on COVID-19 to pave way for a concerted private sector driven effort in the fight against the pandemic since the Buhari administration has failed the nation.”