Akwa Ibom state governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel, has appealed to the citizens and residents of the state to keep to government directives on burials, church services and weddings within this period to avoid being arrested.
He made this call yesterday during a live interactive programme on the state owned Radio and Television stations.
“So please don’t push us to that point, just obey the simple instructions. As soon as we are able to drive the curve downwards then we will open everywhere. God promised that he will shake all nations of the world; He has shaken all the nations of the world. Coronavirus
is in every country.
But one thing with God is that He is beautiful in all situations. That is why people like us must have faith in God.
“We would have loved to open the church. In fact reopening of churches is not the problem. The challenge remains the post benediction interactions and body closeness that usually follow all service dismissals which very little can be done to control. That is where we are scared. It is not that we don’t want to allow churches to hold services.
We cannot allow church services because of the level of interaction after a service, that is when you see people hugging, shaking hands, and at that point the pastor will not be able to
control the crowd.
“We are Africans; you cannot take that communal life away from our people. So the problem is not the Church, the problem is, after a church service, after sharing the Grace what happens? So we will let people know when to reopen churches, but for now there will be no church services. You know someone like me love church services but at a critical time like this there is nothing we can do”, he admonished.
“There is adequate technology these days for Pastors to preach to the entire world and not even to members of a particular church alone.
Gather your family at home and join services online. The same God in the church will bless you at home”, he admonished.
On the ongoing construction of a 300-bed Isolation center, he said the project would be ready for final inspection this week by medical
experts, hoping that it would meet the World Health Organization [WHO] standard.
“But the only problem we may have now is that the Oxygen cylinder is not manufactured in Nigeria and we are trying to bring that in because we want to make sure that in every single bed space there, is connected to oxygen so that from the head-rest of your bed you can be attended to.
“Everything we do, we make sure it is of international standard. We have 2019 and 2020 modern beds that can be remotely controlled by the sides. The beds that COVID gave to us is substandard, we no longer use that. So give us up to May 18, 2020 and we should be able to showcase what we have”, he said.
According to the governor, before the end of this year his administration would have put up modern, digitized secondary health facilities in each of the federal constituencies across the state, adding that, the General Hospital Ikot Abasi which is yet to be touched would be awarded in the next few months.
Hear him, “There is no substitute to healthcare. A healthy state must always be a wealthy state. And I keep repeating myself that every life in this state is as important to me, so I must do everything possible to save lives”.
Apparently reacting to insinuations that, the governor should be at different boundaries, to check people violating the interstate orders,
he said, “We have installed 3G cameras at our road borders, especially the busy ones like Itu, Ikot Abasi borders. We monitor every movement at our situation rooms and I see everything from my sitting room. We don’t take pleasure in noise making.
“The fact that you don’t see me jump on heavy duty vehicles does not mean we are not doing our best. Trust us, we have secured our borders.
People have different styles of working, and I’m happy we are getting
the results we want”.
