The Nigerian Coronavirus Declaration

Ayo Akinfe

(1) Following the public immunisation of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo against the Covid-19 virus, as a nation, we hereby undertake to manufacture all the pharmaceutical drugs, vaccines, medicines, etc we use in Nigeria locally as from January 1 2022. This is to end the embarrassing spectre of Nigeria having to import drugs from abroad

(2) Any pharmaceutical company that wants to supply drugs to Nigeria is from henceforth compelled by law to open a manufacturing facility in the country

(3) As from April 1 2022, it will become a criminal offence for any public official or the members of their families to seek medical attention abroad. The penalty for flouting this law will be statutory removal from office and a five year jail term

(4) Nigeria’s National Assembly can grant special waivers for foreign medical treatment for those who require rare and specialist treatment abroad. However, requests for such waivers must be sent in writing to the senate president and the speaker of the House of Representatives. Approval must be received before such trips are embarked upon

(5) From henceforth, all medical personnel will be placed on the same payroll as the members of their state houses of assembly. Federal medical staff will be on the same payroll as members of the National Assembly. Basically, this means that if lawmakers get paid, so too will health workers. Likewise, health workers will only be owed arrears if legislators are too

(6) Given the number of displaced persons from several states across northern Nigeria, their federal allocation will be reduced in line with the reduction in population. These funds will be given to the health ministries in the 36 states of the federation to invest in healthcare

(7) Each of our 774 local government areas must have a general hospital with outpatient facilities and other basic primary healthcare services like maternity wards, ante-natal care, accident & emergency wards, etc

(8) Our schools of nursing will start offering a City & Guild qualification in Ambulance Driving. Those ambulance drivers who attend this course will be trained as paramedics, equipped to deal with medical emergencies

(9) Six specialists hospitals will be established across the country. There will be one in each geo-political zone covering areas like oncology, renal failure, optometry, throats/nose/ears, HIV/Aids and tropical diseases

(10) Nigeria’s Centre for Disease Control is mandated to carry out a check it every plant that grows in Nigeria to determine which ones are suited to pharmaceutical purposes. The goal of this programme is to make Nigeria the world’s number one drug manufacturer by 2040. By 2030, the country should be the undisputed centre for the treatment of tropical diseases