At the rate the university has been at the top of the trend for all the wrong reasons in recent years, one would hope that for it to get on top of the trend in these times of panic over the Coronavirus pandemic, it would be for something huge, say a cure discovery. Far from it.
Just a day after the Federal Government announced a ban on travel from countries with more than 1000 domestic cases, and a shutdown of public schools in order to mitigate the spread of the Coronavirus, Covenant University released a circular informing students that their school’s resumption date, set at Sunday, 22 March, remains effective.
In the circular, the school authority made no mention of the vital pandemic that is raging through the world like a wildfire. Other than an instruction to fill out a health survey, there’s no mention of anything health related in the circular.
This development had Nigerians take to Twitter to ponder what Covenant’s game plan is. Social distancing is one of the preventive measures against Coronavirus, as advised by the World Health Organisation (WHO), other techniques include regular hand washing and sanitisation, and albeit difficult, the avoidance of face touching.
Covenant university will preach obedience and force students to obey the most unrealistic laws, but openly disobey Federal & State Governments directive to shut down schools.
The hypocrisy is smelling.
— Jew'd. (@kayziewest) March 20, 2020
Twitter user (@chshair_ng) wondered if the school had not seen an earlier Federal Government circular instructing the closure of and extension of break for all tertiary institutions – “So #Covenantuniversity didn’t see the Government circular…” they tweeted, “Federal Government suspended resumption for higher institutions…what’s their problem”
So #Covenantuniversity didn't see the Government circular…Federal Government suspended resumption for higher institutions…what's their problem https://t.co/inUD99rC1l
— CHS_Hair (@chshair_ng) March 19, 2020
I heard that Covenant University is insisting that their students resume this Sunday amid COVID-19 pandemic!
What is the government stance on this? I’d like to know.
Please retweet— NaijaPR (@Naija_PR) March 20, 2020
An influx of such questions posed by the general public on Twitter might have reached the right quarters since at press time, new information appears to have come from the school board announcing the suspension of the resumption till further notice.
You have to give it up for the Covenant University PR team, they know just the perfect mix of pepper them output, and the moment to step in and salvage a worsening scandal. In the meantime, we can all breathe knowing the risk of opening a new pocket of infection has just been averted. Praise be!
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