Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has outlined important lessons COVID-19 has taught Nigeria and the entire Africa.
The governor who made the revelation during a webinar to mark the 63rd birthday of the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola on Saturday, said there was a need for Nigeria to develop its internal capacity to tackle challenges.
El-Rufai, after lamenting the negative effect of the virus on the African countries, said the world does not care about the continent adding that Africa only receive attention from the developed countries when it is something dangerous.
He said, “In my view, the lessons are that we are on our own. The rest of the world does not care. The rest of the world is becoming increasingly nationalistic.
“As a state government, we are even trying to get test kits for COVID-19 because America and Europe are buying up everything. Nobody cares about Africa.
“They only think of us when they want to test vaccines or when something dangerous is to be tried. So, we must be more nationalistic and try to develop our internal capacity to produce and be self-sufficient.
“Look at our health care system; we are struggling to deal with this pandemic.
“In our individual state, do we have a public hospital that can look after the governors? When I tested positive, I got treated by the public health system and here I am.”