President Muhammadu Buhari has come out to beg the international community to back collaborations and initiatives aimed at sharing knowledge from research and science to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Buhari had his say at a virtual Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against the COVID-19 co-hosted by the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

According to him, Nigeria is ready to support and join any joint and collective action plan at regional and global levels to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout.

He added that it is important for the Summit to put humanity at the centre of our vision for common prosperity.

His words, “As we face a common pervasive and invisible enemy, it is important that we all remain united to save our shared humanity, because this virus knows no borders.

”The fight against a global pandemic that continues to take so many lives, threaten livelihoods and challenging the very fabric of societies, requires enhanced cooperation and worldwide solidarity.

”I seize this opportunity to reiterate the need for this Summit to put humanity at the centre of our vision for common prosperity.

”We must learn lessons and share knowledge from research, as we develop more creative, responsive and humane health systems, improve crisis management protocols and support each other in the battle against COVID-19.”

”From the outset of the pandemic, we in Nigeria instituted strong surveillance and infection prevention as well as control measures and made provisions to strengthen our testing capacities.

”Several well-equipped treatment and isolation centers were set up across the country to increase bed capacity.

”In the spirit of international collaboration, medical experts in Nigeria participated by video link in learning and experience-sharing exercises organized by experts from various countries, including China”.