Covid-19: Huriwa Tasks Govt Not To Make Treatment Look Like Secret Cult:

"The federal government's warning to COVID-19 survivors to stop giving details of the drugs used for their treatment, so they don’t encourage self-medication is unconstitutional and has further strengthened the conspiracy theories about the certainty of the rate of spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria. That statement is like telling the entire World that what the Presidential Task force on the CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC IN NIGERIA has been doing is to engage in voodooism contrary to expectations of twenty first century compliant scientific inquiries and research in line with best global practices."

HURIWA has for the umpteenth time condemn the decision of the Federal Government to proceed with the School Feeding PROGRAMME now that schools are in vacation for two months due to the CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC just as HURIWA said HOME FEEDING IS A SCAM DEVELOPED BY OFFICIALS TO PERFECT CORRUPTION IN THE SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMME. SCHOOLS AND HOMES ARE POLES APART, it maintains.

With the above categorical affirmation, the nation's foremost Civil Rights Advocacy group-: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has condemned the Federal Government's lacklustre and unscientific methods of handling the whole issues of containment, treatments and finding pragmatic cures to the dreaded COVID-19 AILMENT in the Country even as the Rights group said gagging citizens from disclosing their TREATMENT REGIME WHILST IN THE COVID-19 ISOLATION CENTRES amounts to curtailing their constitutionally guaranteed fundamental freedoms of Expression and information as enshrined in Chapter 4 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 as amended section 39(1).

HURIWA said there is heightened public cynicism about the handling of the CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC IN NIGERIA by the PRESIDENTIAL TASK FORCE dominated by Politicians and persons not vast in the field of Sciences just as the Rights group said the ill intentioned decision of the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster management to proceed with the unscrupulous agenda of feeding school children now that all the schools have been closed for two months have contributed to stoking the embers of public cynicism on the commitment of the current government to battle the scourge of the increasingly disturbing COVID-19 phenomenon.

" A government that tries to gag the citizens to stop talking about how they become well again after suffering from the unfortunate affliction of COVID-19 and a government that against all rational opposition proceeded with the feeding of ghost pupils in the guise of school feeding programme has only succeeded in making people to have doubts regarding the combating of the CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC IN NIGERIA given that corruption that has manifested in the implementation of the SOCIAL INVESTMENT PROGRAMME including the ill fated SCHOOL FEEDING PROFRAMME have fed into the growing cynicism and doubts on the genuineness of the best efforts of government to contain and defeat the ravaging CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC IN NIGERIA. "

HURIWA recalled that the Chairman, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha asked Nigerians to stop disclosing the treatments they got for their COVID-19 AILMENT just as his statement followed recent revelations by some high-profile survivors, who spoke about the drugs administered on them during their treatment.

HURIWA quoted the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 Mr. Boss Mustapha as stating as follows:“The PTF congratulates and appreciates the testimonies of Nigerians who have recovered from COVID-19, which has given us more insights and further strengthens the need to adhere strictly to guidelines issued.However, an emerging issue from all these testimonies is the issue of prescription for treatments. We should always remember that the symptoms of COVID-19 mimic some illnesses we already know but treating the symptoms is not the same as treating the virus. For this reason, we strongly discourage self-medication."

HURIWA however said the statement by Boss Mustapha runs contrary to section 39(1) of the Nigerian constitution of 1999 as amended which guarantees FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION just as the Rights group said it also offends SECTION 22 WHICH IS ON the functions and powers of the MEDIA as the national conscience just as the Rights group said the FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT of the Federal Republic of Nigeria would be voided should the illegal push by Boss Mustapha to gag the citizens and bar them from giving testimony on their recovery from COVID-19. HURIWA even thinks BOSS MUSTAPHA's illegal order gagging violates the FREEDOM OF Religion because most Religions permit survivors to render public testament of their survival from life threatening illnesses.