Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El Rufai recalled how he contracted the dreaded COVID-19 in 2020 from a fellow governor.
The diminutive controversial governor said that about 50,000 people would have died in his state if he had not imposed a lockdown for about 75 days which was partially lifted on June 9, 2020.
The governor made this known while speaking at the seventh Ahmadu Bello Foundation lecture in Kaduna on Saturday, May 29.
The lecture tagged ‘COVID-19: Way forward for Northern Nigeria economy,’ was organised by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation.
El-Rufai said: “A governor infected me with COVID-19 virus and I brought it to Kaduna. I was locked up for 26 days. My wives ran away from me.
Fifty thousand people in Kaduna would have died of COVID-19 last year, but for the fact that Kaduna State was the first to lock down.
“I am happy to say because of COVID-19, we have been able to put in place infectious disease wards in our hospitals. People travel around the world so there may be ‘COVID-25’ or 30. With what is happening in India, the situation is scary. But God has been very kind to us.”
He said that the north has suffered a leadership deficit since Bello’s death in 1966 and that the late Sardauna of Sokoto was the best leader the region ever had. He said that the population of the country was expected to increase to about 500 million by 2050 and that the north must as a matter of urgency provide jobs for its people.
