The Nigerian presidency has made a turnaround on the earlier announced President Buhari’s live broadcast to the nation today. The Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 (PTF) had announced last Sunday that Buhari would address the nation in a live broadcast by today 18th May, 2020.
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Today 18th May 2020, the presidency via the Special adviser on media & publicity to president Muhammadu Buhari, Femi Adesina @FemAdesina has made a contradiction to the pre-announced plan asserting that there was no original plan for the president to address the nation.
The Presidential spokesman on Media and Publicity has in a tweet on Monday afternoon said that there is “no presidential broadcast on COVID-19 updates today.” “None was planned. Rather, the Presidential Task Force will during its usual media briefings bring the nation up to speed on the next steps.”
The clarifications came after Sani Aliyu, the national coordinator of the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19, said the president will make his decision on Monday following the end of the first phase of the gradual easing of the COVID-19 lockdown.
The president was given a situation report on COVID-19 by Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation (SGF) and chairman of the PTF, on Sunday.
When asked if the PTF is thinking of taking a different direction seeing that many Nigerians have been flouting guidelines for the ease of lockdown, the task force coordinator noted that the President is the only one who can decide on whether or not the country should go ahead with the second phase of lockdown ease.
He said the task force has been reviewing and monitoring quite closely, stressing that there are some concerns in terms of the implementation.
Aliyu added that recommendations have been made to the President and everyone will have to wait for his decision on Monday.
