FCT Meeting the Challenge of Covid-19

The Federal Capital Territory Authority in fighting Covid-19 have put all machinery in motion in reducing the impact of the virus and keeping the citizens alive through coordinated distribution of palliatives.


The world have not known peace since late last year when the uninvited guest from Wuhan, China hit the globe like a storm. Life, they say, have no duplicate, the entire universe have been putting all known measures to save the lives of their people. The situation in Nigeria is not an exception as the government immediately set up a high powered Presidential Task Force (PTF) headed by no other personality than Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. The various state government followed suit by setting up their own task force.

The Federal Capital Territory Authority, ably led by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Alhaji Mohammed Bello immediately swung into action. The setting up of the FCT Task Force was followed by the inauguration of a Covid-19 Food Palliative Committee. The committee known as Covid-19 Palliative Food items provision Committee was headed by the Hon. Minister of State for the FCT, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu. Other members of the Committee include: Senator Philips Aduda (FCT); Permanent Secretary, FCT; Hon. Hassan S. Usman (FCT); Hon. Micah Y. Jiba (FCT); Christian Association of Nigeria (FCT Chapter); League of Imams (FCT Chapter); FCT ALGON Chair; Civil Society Organisation representative. This Committee took responsibility for overall guidance of the exercise and was supported by a Technical Committee that was eventually constituted into four sub-committees responsible for Secretariat, Distribution, Transport and Monitoring.

The Committee was meant to put all measures in place to ameliorate the negative impact of the Covid-19 on the residents of the FCT, especially the most vulnerable through distribution of palliatives. In preparation to the commencement of the exercise, the Honourable Minister of State, who chairs the Palliative Distribution Committee, held several meetings with stakeholders including the traditional and tribal leaders, civil society organisations, religious leaders, and youth and women groups. These meetings agreed to the modalities to be adopted in identifying the most vulnerable members of society across ethnic, tribal, religious and political lines, who are to benefit from the provision of palliatives (food items). The meetings also agreed that the distribution was going to be done on a house-to-house basis to ensure the exercise was conducted in line with the extant guidelines in preventing the spread of the Novel Corona Virus.

At the Area Council, Ward and Community levels, similar Committees were established to guarantee process transparency in the identification of potential beneficiaries and to ensure the items got to the intended beneficiaries. The FCTA’s provision of 2 separate packs of palliative food items that includes, Rice, Beans, Semovita, Vegetable Oil, Garri, Tomato paste reached about a million vulnerable residents of the FCT, in the course of the first round of the exercise in the Six Area Councils, that lasted between April 18th and May 3rd 2020. The six area Councils of the FCT are Abaji, AMAC, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Kwali.

The second round of the distribution exercise took place between 3rd of May to 20th of May, 2020. In addition to vulnerable households reached, other second phase beneficiaries have included thousands of internally displaced persons, people living with disability, orphanages (56 in number), vulnerable and homeless youth groups, traditional institutions, civil society organisations working as outreach partners, the League of Imams, Christian Association of Nigeria, the Nigerian Union of Journalists, and students in the Territory’s higher education institutions who got trapped in their respective schools following what they thought was going to be a brief shutdown. The 3rd Phase of the Palliative Food Items Distribution exercise in the Area Council was flagged off by the Hon. Minister of State on Thursday 21st May, 2020. As at the time of going to press last week, the distribution of palliative food items is still ongoing in the FCT.

For the smooth distribution of the palliatives, the Ward Committees coordinated multi-stakeholder Community-level structures that participated fully in the identification of beneficiaries and the subsequent distribution of the food items. The FCTA Monitoring Committee, led by the Director, HRM, and supported by several religious leaders, members of civil society organisations, and the Code of Conduct Bureau, provided oversight on the distribution process to ensure strict compliance with agreed modalities.

In a chat with the Director General of FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Alhaji Abbas Idris, who also doubles as the Chairman, Distribution Committee, the DG took time off his tight busy schedule to respond to some of the questions raised by the Editor-in-Chief of The Supremacy Magazine, Abigail Amalaha. Excerpts:

Role of FEMA in the fight against Covid-19 in the FCT.
FEMA as the coordinating Agency on emergencies and other pandemic have been taking lead in that aspect. We are able to bring all health stakeholders together in order to activate our Rapid Response Plans. We also embarked on vigorous sensitization and enlightenment campaigns in order to sensitize the public on the needs to observe all the NCDC and medical requirements in order to flatten the curve and end the pandemic.

Involvement of FEMA in the distribution of the palliatives.
We are not only participating in the distribution of the palliatives but leading as well. Due to our expertise in handling distributions to the vulnerable, the Hon. Minister of State made FEMA to be the Chair of Distribution Committee.

Other areas FEMA is involved apart from distribution of the palliatives.
Apart from Distribution, we are deeply involved in the Enforcement of the lockdown and easing out. We are member of the Task Force.

Any aspect of the handling of Covid-19 you may wish to advice on.
This pandemic requires total diligence and sacrifice. It is expected that every citizen should cooperate with the Federal Government in order to flatten the curve of Covid-19. In that regards, there should have been total lockdown all over the country to restrict movement. But all the state governments must be ready to give adequate palliative. That could keep people at home and will enable NCDC to embark on community testing to do away with the virus.