Coronavirus: I Thought I Was Going To Die — Bala Mohammed

Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed says fear of death to coronavirus was always on his mind after he tested positive to the disease and isolated because it has no definite cure or vaccine.

Mohammed has since recovered and tested negative.

The isolation experience, according to him, is one he would never wish such for anybody.

“It is a very traumatic experience for one to know that you are infected by a disease for which there is no vaccine, presumably.

I thought I was going to die, but certainly, I had a very strong will to live. I was put on a certain medication by my doctor, that is antibiotics and malaria drugs”, he said during a TV programme.

Muhammed tested to the virus March 24 shortly after he returned from Lagos.

The governor was reported to have contacted the virus from a son of former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, whom he met in an aircraft during a flight from Lagos to Abuja. He was discharged April 9.

However, Mohammed said that even after he was discharged, the fear of the virus was still on his mind even though he never manifested any symptoms of the disease throughout his self-isolation period.

“I never had any manifestation of the symptoms all the period that I was there (in isolation), but I was under severe suspense that it might come any time”,he said.

Meanwhile, as the pandemic continues to affect the socio-economic activities in Bauchi, the governor has inaugurated COVID-19 Economic Recovery Committee, led by Dr Aminu Gamawa, to identify alternative revenue sources for the state during and after the virus.

“This move is critical as coronavirus has seen the suffocation of all sectors of the state that contribute funds to the national and state treasuries”, he said at the occasion.

“ Global oil prices have monumentally slipped below our logical explanations, thus exerting a distractive effect on the daily lives of our people, especially the vulnerable population of women, children, unemployed youth and more sadly the elders of the population.

“Bauchi on the other hand, being a land locked state with high levels of poverty, is worse affected by the economic turmoil caused by the pandemic.

This is because our internal capacity to respond to this type of economic shocks is very weak and thus we are left with no option but to chart a new course for creating the impossibilities for economic survivalist”.