A prominent traditional chief in Ilorin Emirate, the Magaji Nda of Ilorin, Salihu Woru Muhammed has urged the people of Kwara State to observe all the safety measures on COVID-19, reminding them that similar disease claimed the lives of 85,000 persons in Ilorin province in 1918.
Muhammad in a statement on Friday said there are good lessons the people of the state should learn from the 1918 Spanish influenza other wise know as the Spanish flu.
He says: “The Spanish flu hit the whole world suddenly and spread like wide fire. It killed about 50 million people across the globe, again like coronavirus, there was no cure. The only remedy to the virus was isolation, quarantine, good personal hygiene, use of disinfectants and ban on public gatherings.
“Today, over 100 years after, the world is faced with similar threat from a similar virus. Again without any cure, nations and leaders are resorting to the same remedies, isolation, good personal hygiene, use of disinfectants, ban on public gatherings etc. This historical experience invite us to take these preventive and control measures against COVID- 19 most seriously.”
The traditional chief noted that the gains of adherence to the safety measures far outweigh the current hardship such measures have inflicted on the people.
“The truth is that the hard and painful decisions the Kwara State government had taken to prevent and contain the incursion of the virus into our community were forced on the government purely by circumstance beyond its control. Moreover, these measures have been applied with good results, by other countries that have suffered the scourge.
“I appeal to you once again to cooperate with government in its efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 in our state,” Muhammed added.
SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin
