The Senator representing Oyo North Senatorial District, Senator AbdulFatai Buhari has announced that Nigeria does not have the financial strength to pay all its citizens a certain amount of money as a palliative to cushion the economic effect of a probable lockdown.
Buhari, a former member of the house of representatives, disclosed this during a live call-in interview programme on Fresh 105.9 FM, Ibadan.
According to the second-term member of the red chambers, “Look at what America did, they sent in $1.2 trillion to cushion the effect, they have the money in their reserve, we (Nigeria) don’t have.”
He stressed further that it is also easier for America to do that because every American has a social security number which allows them to know the number of people in their country at every point in time, how they will reach them and how they will send the money into their account but Nigeria does not even have the data to know its real population.
OYOINSIGHT.COM’s Adebayo Abdulrahman, who monitored the interview brings excerpts:
How are you experiencing and enjoying the lockdown in the nation’s capital?
Nobody will ever enjoy any lockdown, everybody wants to be free but when the situation comes, there is nothing you can do, you have to obey it, we are not talking about you, we are talking about others, it’s an emergency situation that everybody must obey so if you think you are immune…It’s just like when you are driving, you have to think about the person coming from the other side, this is where we find ourselves. One good thing about the situation is that it is an experience about the more reason why we should take our country very seriously in the sense that we must do the needful for the country. Who will ever think that a situation will come that you will not even be able to run to the next door talkless of traveling abroad, it calls for a sober reflection for us to take care of our infrastructural and health sector development serious.
Distinguished senator, the governor of the state has been confirmed positive. When you got the news, how did you receive it?
I saw it on the breaking news. I called him and he didn’t pick up, then thirty minutes later he called me back, we spoke and I also prayed for him.
The measure taken thus far by the federal government and the gesture by the National Assembly to tackle COVID-19; what is your take on it? I will also like you to factor in the criticism against the approach of the FG that if special attention is given to Lagos and Abuja, why not Oyo? You are a serving senator in Abuja representing Oyo state, are you concerned? Are you bothered?
One of the biggest problems we have in this country is that we trivialize or politicize everything. Personally, what matters to me is not APC or PDP or KKK matter. What matters to me is the country because despite being a member of the APC, I don’t like the way only three states were locked down, I would have preferred a situation whereby the entire country is locked down. It’s not about you, it’s about others, it’s about ourselves, it’s about the country. Taking a firm decision sometimes is very important because of the population of the people.
Let me give you a simple example of what happened in the world when the issue of coronavirus started in Wuhan, China. When it started, what they did is that they locked down the country and at that time proactive leaders were taking measures, they were watching. Instead of someone like U.S president (Donald Trump) to also take actions, he was saying China virus, China virus. Today, the total number of confirmed cases in the U.S is the highest in the world.
Canada and the United States are like brothers; they share the same border yet Canada blocked their country and they have only 7,000 thousand cases. The most important thing in this type of situation is that you prioritize the country and that is the difference between a proactive and a talkative leader. I would have preferred a situation whereby we lock down the entire country like Ghana, Togo, and South Africa did.
What is Senator Fatai Buhari doing to alleviate the challenges that the people of Oyo North are going through at this period?
Immediately it happened, I realized that some people were buying sanitizers, soap, and others so I decided to look at it from another angle and I picked items like rice, semo, sunlight soap and sent them to the Iyalojas and Babalojas in my constituency to help distribute it to the poorest among them.
Do you see the National Assembly doing anything in terms of palliatives for Nigerians?
Look at what America did, they send in $1.2 trillion to cushion the effect, they have the money in their reserve, we (Nigeria) don’t have
It is also easier for America to do that because every American has a social security number which allows them to know the number of people in their country at every point in time, how they will reach them and how they will send the money into their account but Nigeria does not even have the data to know its real population.
