Nigerian musician Seun Kuti has said the rampaging coronavirus pandemic has exposed the failings of the country, especially its healthcare system.

Seun, the youngest son of famous afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, whose family are known for being an ardent critic of the government, noted that microbiologists and epidemiologists graduates that should be working hard to tackle the disease, which has claimed four lives in Nigeria and 64,754 lives globally, are now “fashion designers, shoemakers and chefs.”

The Grammy Awards nominee said,

“There are microbiologists and epidemiologists that graduated from our universities. Those are the people that should be speaking up now but because Nigeria did not give them the opportunity to fulfil their potentials, many of them are now fashion designers, shoemakers and chefs.

“In a country without the right ratio of doctors to citizens, it goes without saying that the healthcare system is overwhelmed. The elite are going to be exposed for the hypocrites that they are.

“So far, nobody has donated the equivalent of the cost of a private jet to Nigeria (to fight the pandemic). Meanwhile, they have made billions off Nigerians. Every Nigerian billionaire is a product of Nigeria’s commonwealth. There is nothing special they have added to us. (Rather), we are the ones that have made their lives better; yet, at a time like this, you would see them donating what I consider to be stipends.

“So, they cannot invest the cost of one private jet in our lives? Since 1999 that this new democratic dispensation has been creating new billionaires, how many of them have come together to create even one good hospital? And since the coronavirus pandemic started, how many of them have come up with long-term solutions? Meanwhile, these same people donate billions to political parties during elections.

“We all need to wake up and to try to make government find a way out of this because the solution is not just sharing hand sanitisers. There are many African people that do not have access to clean water and without water at all. There is no proper sanitation. Without water, we cannot talk about hygiene.”