COVID-19: How Buhari Was Blackmailed To Stand Logic On Its Head – APC Senator

By Charles Igbo

A third term Senator of the Federal Republic, Teslim Folarin, has rubbished President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent nationwide broadcast on the state of COVID-19 in the country.

Folarin, APC, representing Oyo Central Senatorial Zone, said the decisions and actions taken by the President, stood logic on its head.

The Senator wondered how the President could succumb to pressure and blackmail to relax the lockdown, insisting that the action would do public more harm than good.

Folarin  who spoke in a Radio Programme in Ibadan, revealing what went on behind the scene said the President succumbed to  blackmail by Governors.

According to him, the Governors, who didn’t want to spend their own money, had asked the President to give them money if he wanted them to lock down their States.

The President did not give them, and so, resorted to partially lifting the lockdown in the FCT, Lagos state, and Ogun state. He said between the first and second lockdown, the Virus had spread to more states, and the number of victims increased by about 147 %. For him, the most appropriate thing was for the President to  announce an extension of the lockdown.

Folarin: “As at Tuesday, we have 1,273 cases, 40 deaths in 32 states, amounting to a 294 % rise. Mr President’s action stands against all logic. If I have to be honest with you, I was disappointed by the action the President took. It stands against all logic.

“The Governors didn’t want to spend money. I don’t know why. They said to the President behind the scene, if you want us to lockdown, give us money, and the President was not willing to release any money to them.

“So, they put pressure on the President, and Mr President, seeing high resistance from the citizens that there can’t be total lockdown without palliatives, succumbed.

” For that reason, Mr President allowed the Governors to have their way.”