The presidency on Saturday gave reasons why President Muhammadu Buhari does not wear face masks when he receives visitors in his office.
According to Lauretta Onochie, one of President Buhari’s social media aide, Buhari is not breaking the rules for not wearing facemasks in his safe environment.
In a tweet she shared on Saturday, she said “expert medical protocol is that if you are in your safe environment, you do not wear a mask.
“Those visiting you must wear masks to ensure they leave no droplets in your environment. Wearing of masks is mostly to protect people around us.”
This is even as the Nigerian public has been inundated with different forms of facemasks and people not wearing facemasks in public faces have been arrested by the police.
Many state governments across the country have made it mandatory for all their people to wear facemasks and that those who flout the directive will face the consequences of their actions.
Following that directive, when anyone enters the streets of cities in Nigeria, one sees various colours and shapes of facemasks painting the cities and town red. Actually, there is high level of compliance with the directive in most states of the country.
In almost every gathering, facemask is worn by the people around. It is gradually becoming difficult to enter some public places without wearing facemasks. Yes, most public institutions now send their customers out of their offices for failing to wear face masks.
Just Friday, I was in a bakery in Asaba, a customer came in without facemask, the attendant asked her to wear her facemask before proceeding into the main hall of the bakery. And for her to purchase bread, she had to comply, though she was attended to outside the premises.