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Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade has warned against the looming danger of survival after COVID-19.
Ayade, in a statement by his Special Adviser Media and Publicity, Christian Ita, warned that protecting lives without protecting livelihoods of Nigerians would spell doom for the nation after COVID-19 as hunger might be the next deadly virus.
He said: “Globally, hunger and hunger-related diseases like kwashiorkor and tuberculosis kill about 8.4 million people every year and so, there would be more pandemic when it comes to hunger.
“So, we will do all we can to curtail the pandemic from spreading to our state and protect lives too but the protection of lives without the protection of livelihoods is a complete imbalance. There must be holy matrimony between protection of lives and protection of livelihoods.
“Some of our brothers and sisters depend on daily work. If you carry blocks for a living, the day you are stopped from going to work, there will be no money to feed the children.”
He stated that COVID-19 would not stop his administration from focusing on its agro-industrialisation drive, adding that the state-owned ultra-modern rice seeds and seedling factory were unrelenting in producing rice seedlings at this time.
