By Joseph ETTA in Calabar
The speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, Hon. Eteng Jonas-Williams has given kudos to Governor Ben Ayade’s administration over measures it took to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in the state.
He hinted that those measures were largely responsible for the absence of COVID-19 infection in the state. He spoke while fielding questions from journalists in Calabar. According to him, “When the Governor recommended that face masks made of Ankara to be used as part of the fight against the virus, he was criticized, and people especially in his field criticized him. He was widely criticized, even nationwide. But see what has happened. Sometimes it is good to bring a professional into an area.”
The speaker opined that the governor has been vindicated, adding that “even the United Nation is now using Ankara face masks.”
It will be recalled that penultimate week, governor Ben Ayade was quoted as saying during a recent campaign against COVID-19 in Calabar that, “When you sneeze in our country, the virus escapes and falls into hell because it can’t stand an atmosphere temperature of 32 degrees and we sometimes have 42 degrees in Nigeria. So, what are we talking about? We are really being exploited and we must shut our doors.”
The governor further picked holes on how the virus was being tackled in the country; “I can tell you that testing for corona virus has gone eco-political. It is more reagents, more money for some people but as for me, it is about science and reality and when someone has a wrong mentality, definitely he will have a wrong reality. Why can’t we have our own vaccination plants to produce vaccines?”
He faulted the current tests being carried out in Nigeria in pursuit of diagnosis of the virus as lacking in reproducibility and reliability. You can only test people with symptoms of the virus” He added.
