{"id":25875,"date":"2020-04-11T22:51:27","date_gmt":"2020-04-11T21:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=25875"},"modified":"2020-04-11T22:51:27","modified_gmt":"2020-04-11T21:51:27","slug":"buhari-lockdown-to-last-as-long-as-advisers-declare-necessary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=25875","title":{"rendered":"Buhari: Lockdown to last as long as advisers declare necessary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <strong>Ismaila Chafe<\/strong> (NAN)<br \/>\nPresident Muhammadu Buhari Saturday appealed for the continued understanding of Nigerians in the face of pains of Covid-19 restrictions.<br \/>\nBut the President,\u00a0 who said the prevailing circumstance calls for absolute truth from leaders, explained that: \u201cThe freedoms we ask you to willingly forsake today will only last as long as our scientific advisers declare they are necessary.<br \/>\n\u201cBut they are essential \u2013 world over \u2013 to halt and defeat the spread of this virus.\u201d<br \/>\nBuhari also appealed to Nigerians stay at home, listen and follow public announcements on how best to curb the spread of Coronavirus.<br \/>\nHe said this in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in Abuja on Saturday.<br \/>\nThe president said that the nation could not expect others to come to its rescue.<br \/>\nHe said the appeal had become imperative in view of the fact that the virus has no vaccine, and had affected 210 countries worldwide.<br \/>\nHe said: \u201cAll that Government is asking you to endure is because nowhere in the world today is there any known way of defeating this pandemic.<br \/>\n\u201dThere is no vaccine, and that means there are choices to be made: between continuing as usual and accepting the restrictions even when they come with unintended consequences.<br \/>\n\u201cAt this darkest hour, it remains our duty to offer you the full and unvarnished truth: This is a global pandemic.<br \/>\nTwo hundred and ten countries and territories across the globe are affected. We cannot expect others to come to our assistance. No one is coming to defeat this virus for us.<br \/>\n\u201cInstead, the defeat of the virus in our country will be in our hands, alone. We cannot wait for others. We can only depend on ourselves now.<br \/>\n\u201dSo we must, and we will, end this outbreak ourselves as Nigerians together.\u201d<br \/>\nBuhari, however, thanked Nigerians for their patience, resolve and strong determination to defeat the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.<br \/>\nThe president said: \u201cWe realise that today, there will be sons and daughters unable to visit their parents, and elders that are isolated from young ones.<br \/>\n\u201cThere will be those who live day-to-day, eating as they earn, who face real and present suffering.<br \/>\n\u201cNo elected government could ask more of the citizens of the country that elected them than today we ask of you.<br \/>\n\u201cBut we must ask you \u2013 once more \u2013 to observe restrictions on movement where they are in place, and follow the instructions of our scientists and medical advisers: stay home, wash your hands, save lives.<br \/>\nOn the hardship being experienced by a cross section of Nigerians, the president revealed that the Federal Government had announced multiple measures to assist such vulnerable groups.<br \/>\nAccording to him, 70,000 tonnes of grains is being released from the National Strategic Grain Reserves for distribution to those in most need as small cash payments are also being made to them.<br \/>\nHe gave the assurance that such payments would continue to be made by the federal government in the states and local government areas nationwide.<br \/>\n\u201cWe ask you to listen and follow public announcements via the mass media for instructions as to how to receive this government support, and learn of more public assistance in the coming days,\u201d he added.<br \/>\n(NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ismaila Chafe (NAN) President Muhammadu Buhari Saturday appealed for the continued understanding of Nigerians in the face of pains of Covid-19 restrictions. But the President,\u00a0 who said the prevailing circumstance calls for absolute truth from leaders, explained that: \u201cThe freedoms we ask you to willingly forsake today will only last as long as our [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":25876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5773,7],"tags":[31,1340,1464],"class_list":["post-25875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","category-news","tag-buhari","tag-lockdown","tag-necessary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}