States Must Be Careful With How They React To Coronavirus Cases – Osinbajo

Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has come out to say that the country’s huge population is a big challenge in the battle against coronavirus in the nation.

Osinbajo, however, revealed that the edge of being able to manage the issues in smaller measures via the states has aided authorities to make positive strides in curbing it.

According to him, offering support to small businesses in the informal sector has to be a priority for all economies that want to lessen the negative effects of the pandemic on its economy.

He added that Nigerian states must be very careful because mistakes from them amid the pandemic can make everything go south for the country.

His words, “Perhaps we have the advantage of being able to manage our problems in smaller measure, or by dividing them, of course we run a federation, which means that Gov. Nasir could do some very excellent work there in Kaduna, Lagos could do some excellent work, Ogun state and others could also do some excellent work.

“But of course, by the very nature of this pandemic, it also means that you run the risk of everything going south if some state isn’t doing as well as it ought to.

“I think, in the end, we have that advantage that we are able to almost isolate responses, and even look at best practices across the various states and try and ramp up wherever we find that there are deficiencies.”

On the economy, “We have done a lot on conditional transfers especially within the context of our social investment policies, but we are now looking at how to possibly enlarge the scope of that and do more.

“We are looking beyond using cash transfers as if it were some incentive for staying at home. We are trying to see whether this can address some of the increasing problems of poverty that we are likely to find now given the disruptions in the economy.

“Aside from the lockdown, just the disruption in the economy have meant that the daily paid worker simply has no means of working and many laid off.”