COVID-19 Vaccine: PDP Blames Buhari Over Nigeria’s Disqualification By WHO

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has blamed President Muhammadu Buhari after the World Health Organisation-led COVAX global initiative failed to shortlist Nigeria for the Pfizer vaccines for COVID-19

Nigeria was excluded by the WHO for failing to meet the -70 degrees Celsius standard requirement for the storage of the vaccines.

Reacting to the news, the PDP, in a statement on Saturday, said it is a further indication of its stand that the All Progressives Congress-led government is a “total failure.”

The party described the exclusion “as shameful and unpardonable” despite the billions of naira claimed to have gone into the COVID-19 effort.

The PDP said, “This embarrassing situation confirms our position that the APC administration is completely incapable of carrying out simple governance tasks, which is the reason our nation is in her present social and economic dire straits.

“Only last month, our party alerted the nation and tasked the Buhari administration on its lethargic approach to the issue of COVID-19 vaccine and other therapeutics; a caution which was dismissed by the APC and the Buhari administration.

“Nigerians can now see that the claims of commitment by the APC administration are mere media hypes that add no value beyond the announcement of figures of infected persons, deaths, recoveries, discharges and issues of local protocols without decisive effort towards epidemiology, researches, production of equipment, therapeutics and other technical requirements, such as vaccine storage to stave off the pandemic in our country.

“This development has also confirmed our insistence that the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 is a mere circus group of incompetent politicians, and has no capacity to tackle the spread of the pandemic in our country.

“It also validates the widespread call for the dissolution of the PTF. It is indeed sad that because of the corruption and incompetence of the APC administration, our dear nation, which was once a clear continental leader and global competitor in all fields, has fallen so low that it cannot provide simple vaccine storage in a time of the pandemic.

“Against this ugly backdrop, our party restates our call for immediate dissolution of the PTF on COVID-19 to pave way for a concerted private sector driven effort in the fight against the pandemic, since the Buhari administration has failed the nation.

“Our party urges all well-meaning Nigerians in the public health, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and logistic sub-sectors to immediately rally to rescue our nation from this horrible situation.

“The PDP also calls on President Buhari to accept the ineffectiveness of his administration and seek help from more capable hands as well as adopt the PDP proactive model in fighting the dreaded Ebola Virus disease, as a sure measure to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.”