The Chemical Society of Nigeria CSN, the umbrella body of all professional Nigerian Chemists has pledged its full support for the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 to ensure total defeat of the coronavirus pandemic.
The President of the Society, Professor Sunday Olawale Okeniyi made the pledge recently on behalf of the society while presenting the hygienically produced, high-quality instant hand sanitizers of the society, named CHEMSOTIZER and nose masks to the Presidential Task Force Team on COVID-19 in Abuja.
He said the CSN was making the gesture because it saw it as a duty to contribute its own corporate social responsibility to the current fight against combating the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and also to complement the efforts of PTF on Covid-19 at federal and state levels in the fight against the pandemic. He commended the PTF for its efforts at the federal and state levels in ensuring that the lives of Nigerians were safe.
Professor Okeniyi said, “We are aware that the current outbreak of the novel coronavirus, which is of the betaCov lineage is very contagious and causing many deaths among the vulnerable, influential members of our societies and health care professionals”. He, therefore, said that the society deemed it fit to look inward and pooled resources together to produce the instant drying sanitizer, pointing out that the CSN also commissioned another highly rated Industry to mass-produce nose masks so that it would be hygienically made and of good quality and standard.
The president also extended the hands of the fellowship of the society to the team; when he said inter alia that: “On our part, our doors are open and we are available to give any technical advice and support to the fight towards achieving the desired objectives and with your unalloyed support, we are confident of carrying out more herculean tasks and prove to the world that Nigeria is a great country that can rely on her professionals in combatting future challenges”.
Receiving the CHEMSOTIZERS and NOSE MASKS from the President, Permanent Secretary-General Services in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, OSGF, Mr. Olusegun Adekunle who stood in for the PTF Covid-19 chairman, Mr. Boss Mustapha said Nigeria could not afford to come out of this pandemic without lessons learnt and systems put in place to combat future challenges. He stressed the importance of research activities in situations like this and announced that the PTF and the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN had created a platform for research funding. He, therefore, called on CSN and other Researchers to take advantage of the platform and send in their proposals for consideration.
According to him, the PTF is looking forward to a greater synergy with professional bodies like the CSN in order to achieve greater results. While encouraging Nigerians to undertake essential travels only, he said the new slogan in the protection and prevention of the virus among the citizens, both the vulnerable and the influential during this current community transmission stage should be “COVID-19 must stop with me.”
In his remarks, the National Coordinator, Presidential Task Force on COVID 19, Dr Sani Aliyu described the Pandemic as the most challenging health emergency of our time. According to him, no community in the world is immune from the pandemic adding that we have to build our own system to fight it. Dr Aliyu warned that the pandemic would not ease out soon and said that Nigerians should take responsibility individually and as a people as we expect higher fatality figures in the coming months.
He also advised Nigerians to take proper care of their elderly relations to protect them from contracting the virus. He also reiterated the essence of using high quality and standardized products like the CSN Chemsotizer in the fight against the pandemic and called for closer collaboration between the CSN and PTF on Covid-19 in the area of research, innovation and production of high quality and standard products meant for the fight against the pandemic.
Leave a Reply