4th May: It’s suicidal and irresponsible to ease the lockdown – Sheik Gumi tells FG

Popular Islamic cleric, Sheik Ahmad Gumi, says it is suicidal and
irresponsible for the Federal government to ease the lockdown even as
the nation continues its fight against the Coronavirus pandemic.

President Buhari on April 27 announced the ease of the lockdown in Lagos, Ogun and the FCT beginning from Monday May 4th.

In a chat with New Telegraph, Sheik Gumi said the Federal government
need not bow to pressure from Nigerians but should be firm in its
approach to tackle the ravaging viral disease.

He opined that the decision to ease the lockdown is because the
Federal government is running away from its responsibility, adding that
people are locked down in hunger and that the government is not ready to
spend on the palliatives.

”The government is just running away from their responsibility. This
is just the truth, people are locked down in hunger and the government
is not ready to spend on the palliatives. So they are saying the best
thing is let’s release you people; but this is suicide, it is suicidal,
it is suicidal and I’m very sorry to say it is irresponsible.

Yes it is because of pressure and hunger, that is it. If not it is
not right to do that. Even in China where they have controlled opening,
like the schools they made every child to come with mask, there was
serious testing and taking of people’s temperature before coming into
the school. Can we afford to do that here? We cannot. And what we are
afraid of is if there is community transmission, meaning that it is not
only the man to man contact, but it comes into the community and it
becomes endemic; then it is going to be seriously fatal and we pray it
does not happen.” he said

Speaking further, he said

”Sincerely, I’m not comfortable and I don’t really know the word to
use in describing what is happening, either in regards to the government
or the people. But let me talk about the government because the
government has seen what it should do although it is trying to derail
now. Government is trying to derail because of pressure, but the
Nigerian populace is something else too.

People are behaving like a child you took to the hospital for
injection and he is struggling and doing everything possible not to
receive the injection. This is how Nigerians are behaving. You are
trying to do what is good for them, but then they’re resisting. But also
you cannot blame them, because they are hungry, left uneducated; they
are not well informed, because even the clergy or the Mallams are not
ready to explain to them the real situation of things. Even some of the
rejections of the issues stemmed from what they heard from the
clergymen, so I don’t really blame them. But the government is not doing
enough”