Extending lockdown will be catastrophic for Nigeria, says Governor Ben Ayade

Cross River state governor, Professor Ben Ayade has warned that any further extension of lockdown of the country in response to the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic will spell doom for the country.

He said any further extension of the lockdown will give rise as to uncontrollable youth restiveness, adding that it was better to lockout than lockdown.

The governor spoke Tuesday at the Industrial Park, Calabar.

Professor Ayade said the recruitment of 8000 youths was targeted at avoiding social tension in view of the harsh economic impact created by COVID 19.

Ayade: " With prices of oil falling, locking out is far better than locking down because another two weeks of lockdown will find this country under siege by young people. There is no way you can hold down these young energies for too long.

Ayade: " With prices of oil falling, locking out is far better than locking down because another two weeks of lockdown will find this country under siege by young people. There is no way you can hold down these young energies for too long.

"It is demographic, it is statistics. Sixty Five percent of the population is below the age of 35 and the virus itself does not have penetrative force in such a demography and that is what we have to recognize as a country"

The governor explained that the difference in climate conditions between the west and Africa was the reason the pandemic is ravaging that part of the world.

"Our demography is different from the west. Our climatic conditions are different. If you take the wind speed, the wind direction, sun intensity, radiation and the factors that govern the movement of a virus, ours is a situation that makes it difficult to spread with the speed it is spreading in the western world.