The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, has lamented over the state of Nigeria’s health system by saying he did not know the country’s health infrastructure was in a pitiable condition until recently.
Mustapha, who is also the Chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19, made it known to the leadership of the National Assembly during a recent meeting in Abuja that before his appointment as COVID-19 taskforce chairman last month, he never knew that the country’s total health system was in a deplorable state.
According to him, if European and American countries with top-notch health infrastructural facilities could be affected by the impact of coronavirus pandemic, “my prayer is that Nigeria’s situation does not escalate to that extent because the country lacked what is required to handle the situation”.
Mustapha also said that Nigeria is challenging an unseen enemy in the fight against COVID-19 with the condition requiring the cooperation of all.
He appealed to the National Assembly to prepare the country against future occurence and reform the healthcare system through legislative intervention.
He added that the task force would not be involved directly in the collection and payment of cash donations for COVID-19 so as to ensure transparency and accountability.
He said: “The Accountant General of the Federation has already published the account details for collection through some commercial banks and also provided the modalities for its utilisation.
“All the main COVID-19 accounts shall be domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). However, all non-cash donations shall be duly received by the PTF, acknowledged, documented and appropriately deployed.”
