Otunba Adejare Adegbenro is an Ogun State High Chief born into two political dynasty. His paternal grandfather, the late Chief Dauda S. Adegbenro was the former Premier of the defunct Western Region. While on the other hand, his maternal grandfather was the late Payment Alfered Rewane, the renown Pro-Democracy activist, who was also a financier of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) that fought the military to a stand still. t
Adejare Adegbenro, who is the first Otunba Laje of Owu Kingdom and the first Asiwaju Ogbenioja, Ewekoro Owu Kingdom in Igun State had a Mediaparley in Lagos where he suggested some solutions on how the deadly Coronavirus could be fastly defeated.
The successful international entrepreneur, Adegbenro said that, there is the need for urgent introduction of a new testing device for early detection and treatment of Coronavirus.
According to him, the call was necessary since Coronavirus is real as a pandemic, frightening and highly contagious disease with high rate of fatality.
He observed that the social distancing measure introduced by the government to fight it now cannot solve the problem properly.
He wondered how long could Nigerians sustain social distancing and staying indoors amidst hunger and poverty ravaging the country!
His words:
“To the best of my knowledge, the smartest way to fight the virus for now is by introducing a testing device that would enable everyone get tested within 10 minutes and thereby give an instant results with issuance of a clearance card to show his/her status which would allow the person go about his/her normal life in no time,” the concerned businessman admonished.
In addition, the widely traveled business man therefore advised the Nigerian government to also provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), massively, starting from the states where NCDC, Government Isolation Centers (GIC), Medical and Local Health Centres, Local Government, Multi-national Companies are located, including a good number of prominent private hospitals in various states of the federation.
He observed that the major concern of the social distancing is that the longer people continue staying at home, the more the hunger and the more the social vices will also be on the increase.
He urged all the tiers of the government to do more as a matter of urgency, to make additional provision of food and cash incentives to the less privileged in the society.
Against this background, Adegbenro therefore appealed to Nigerians in the private sector also to assist the governments by providing food, money and other palliatives for the less privileged, regrettingg that the sit at home order is affecting a lot of people.
While he wants the federal government to do more on the issue, the concerned High Chief however praised the Lagos State Government for being proactive in dealing with the dreaded disease than other states including the federal government.
“Nevertheless, because of the huge population of Lagos, Ogun and Abuja, a lot more still needs to be done. Both the federal and state governments should extend the timeline for social distancing, they should extensively increase the testing of possible victims of COVID-19. And they should also provide more PPEs for Frontline medical workers, as a matter of urgency.
“They should also engage religious leaders, traditional rulers, labour unionists, educational institutions as well as leaders and members of the entertainment industry (including Nollywood), amongst others, in the war against COVID-19.
“The use of the media channels (social media and blogs), to educate and encourage the masses more about what the Government is doing to mitigate the effects of the lockdown is also required,” he concluded.
