Oyo State government says the contempt of the federal government towards the state came to the fore again during the disbursement of COVID-19 funds to states and the federal capital territory.
The state government said the federal government of neglected the state at the height of the virulent pandemic but provided needed support for Ogun and Lagos.
The state commissioner for information, culture and tourism, Wasiu Olatunbosun, made the claim while receiving an award of excellence on behalf of Seyi Makinde, the state governor, in Ibadan, on Monday.
The award was presented by the Abuja branch of the Music Advertisement Association of Nigeria (MAAN).
Olatunbosun said while the state had to reach out to donor agencies to carry out tests and equip its laboratories and treatment centres, the federal government provided financial assistance to Lagos, Ogun and the federal capital territory (FCT).
He berated the federal government for whipping up political sentiment at a time when human solidarity is required.
Lagos and Ogun are states under the control of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) while Oyo is under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“It is very disturbing when you realise that the federal government has disbursed a lot of money and resources to Lagos, Ogun, Abuja and some other states while Oyo state is being neglected, party solidarity should not have come into an important issue like intervention to states on a pandemic like this, it is wrong,” he said.
“Oyo state has been doing it all alone, the only test kits given to the state was too small that it had no significance in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in the state, thank God for the resourcefulness of the state governor for looking inward and finding other means of executing many funding in respect to battling the pandemic.
“Only community testing has gulped over 20,000 testing kits, but there is every reason to thank God for our governor and donor agencies, individuals, corporate organisations that have come to the aid of Oyo state.”
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He, however, added that the state would reap the gains of equipping its health facilities in the post COVID-19 era.
“The post-COVID-19 health sector era will be blissful as the resources put into equipping all the state-owned health facilities all over the state will now make the sector responsive, the sector will never be the same again,” he said.
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