Nigeria: NMA urges PTF to formulate new strategies, says social distancing has failed

Innocent Ujah, the President of the Nigerian Medical Association, has urged the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 to formulate new strategies in the country, seeing a failure of social distancing according to a report by Today Ng.

Reportedly speaking on a television program on Monday, Ujah said that PTF needs to develop measures foreseeing the mandate of Mohammad Buhari, the President, in response to the pandemic.

Ujah said, “The issue of compliance with the NCDC (Nigeria Centre for Disease Control) protocols – the use of face masks, hand sanitisers, and social distancing – is a very big challenge. The issue of social distancing has failed in Nigeria. It is not likely to succeed and therefore we need another strategy, other ways we can improve the compliance to the NCDC protocol. Yes, by and large, many people now use face masks but unfortunately when you go to villages and markets, none of the protocols are practiced at all. Maybe the airlines and a few others like the churches obey these protocols.”

He asked for the need to find out why people are not relenting with the rules, he stated, “I have always talked about the research angle of the PTF. We need to find out, we don’t need to speculate, we should have gone to town and gotten a quick response and analyse the data to know why people are not complying, and then we will navigate to see how they will comply.”

Ujah assigned all stakeholders to work on strategies to curb the spread of the virus. 

“The doctors are ever committed to this cause and we charge them not to relent despite the harsh environment. The reality is that Covid-19 is with us and we need to up our game. The Nigerian stakeholders, the Nigerian people and the National Orientation Agency must also improve its own sensitisation and communication channels because we really are in trouble if we do not at very quickly,” he added.