Ecowas leaders appoint Buhari as champion of Covid-19 response

Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) have appointed Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari as the bloc’s champion of the Covid-19 response. 

The appointment, announced on Thursday, took place at the Extraordinary Ecowas Summit on Covid-19, held online and chaired by Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou. 

During the meeting, President Buhari implored his fellow heads of state to look beyond the immediate threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic and see the opportunities afforded by the outbreak. 

“In every challenging situation such as the current one, there are also opportunities. Our region must therefore seek to find those opportunities provided by this gloomy global outlook for its benefit by embarking on the implementation of such critical policies, which before now, will be difficult to accept,” he is quoted as saying. 

The president also called on his peers to intensify collaboration between West African sates in order to better tackle the virus. 

He then went on to outline some of the relief approaches taken by his government in Nigeria, including the reduction of interest rates, the establishment of a presidential task force to coordinate national response, and the provision of relief materials such as food and medical supplies. 

Mr Buhari ended by conveying Nigeria’s ‘solidarity’ with other ECOWAS member states, and offering his ‘heartfelt condolences’ to the families who have lost loved ones in West Africa. 

“I also wish infected victims speedy and full recovery,” he said. 

Photo: Cia Pak