Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) has told President Muhammadu Buhari to lock down Nigeria for a minimum of two months in order to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Sagay lamented the non-compliance of Nigerians to safety measures as the federal government eased the lockdown.
According to him, he saw many Nigerians without face masks and not practicing social distancing despite increasing rate of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country.
Sagay, describing Nigerians as the most indisciplined in the world, urged Buhari to instruct military men to patrol the streets and arrest anyone found except essential workers.
Speaking with Independent, he said “Nigerians are the most undisciplined people on earth. I went out after six weeks today and inspite of all that have been said,I saw them in their thousands without wearing masks.
“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 everything is normal, as if there is no COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
“Nigeria needs a very strong hand, that needs authoritarian leadership for so 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 arrest and detain anybody who is found outside except essential workers.”
He added that if he were the president, he would use power and authority on Nigerians at this time without restraint.
“Unless we have a government that decides to use power and authority without any constraint, we won’t achieve any result because Nigerians are indisciplined.
“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,” Sagay added.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Center for Disease Control, NCDC, on Tuesday confirmed fresh 148 COVID-19 cases in the country.
This brings the total number of COVID-19 confirmed cases in Nigeria to 2,950, with 98 deaths recorded.