A former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Chukwuma Soludo has revealed the implications of prolonged lockdown across the country aimed at curtailing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Soludo commended the Federal Government and state governors for easing the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.

“I congratulate (the government) for realising that you cannot lock down the people; that is actually suicide. So the steps they have taken so far, so good.

“My expectation is that as we go on, especially places where they have this draconian lockdown have been loosened. And they realised they can’t actually do that. You will be killing much more people than otherwise,” he said.

Reacting to Africa’s capacity to sail through, Soludo noted that African governments have reacted well in addressing the virus using orthodox and innovation.

He noted that when compared to the European, American and Asian countries, Africa has responded well in handling the level of deaths arising from the virus.

“Africa with 1.3billion people has only 35,000 infections, deaths about 1,500. We want to save our lives, every life is important and we don’t want to lose any.

“Having 1,500 relative to about 240,000 deaths around the world, Africa has done comparatively very well. There is only 4 per cent of the total deaths from the infections is in Africa,” he said.