British Government Messed up on Omicron

Ring true By Yemi Adebowale

Phone 08054699539

Email: yemi.adebowale@thisdaylive.com

The response of the British High Commissioner, Catriona Laing, to criticisms trailing the red-listing of Nigeria by her country over the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is repulsive. The red list, which came into effect on December 6, means Nigerians without UK citizenship or residence permit can no longer travel to the country until the advisory is revised. Laing said Britain took the decision, “to protect the public health of its people while the government tries to understand the new variant.”

Laing did not think deeply before her response. What the British envoy is telling us is that citizens of 46 countries outside Africa, where the Omicron variant had been discovered, and are not red-listed, are not a threat to Britain’s public health; that Nigerians with UK citizenship or residence permit can safely enter UK, without being a threat to Britain’s public health; that Britons can safely come to “Omicron endemic” Nigeria and return to their country without being a threat to Britain’s public health. My dear Laing, this is absurd. With just six cases as at yesterday, the Omicron variant is not endemic in Nigeria. This country is also among those with the lowest cases of COVID-19 in the world.

Also, there is nothing like generalised or community transmission of the Omicron variant in Nigeria. The cases so far detected in Nigeria were in persons with recent travel history to South Africa. The British government has also detected only seven cases of travellers from Nigeria with the Omicron variant. It is indeed the UK that is experiencing increasing numbers of Omicron cases, and the Nigerian government has been prioritising the sequencing of COVID-19 positive samples in travellers with history of trips to the UK, without banning travels to Nigeria. Britain’s hammer was evidently not driven by science.

It is also pertinent to note that the Omicron strain cannot be treated as deadly because no single death has so far been recorded across the world from it. So, the hammer on Nigerians by the British Government is racist, highhanded, discriminatory and misguided. The decision has thrown a lot of Nigerian families and businesses into disarray.

Likewise, the travel notice issued by the British High Commission to Nigerian travellers on the Omicron policy was unfeeling. It said: “If you apply for a visit visa in a red list country and you meet the UK immigration rules, your application will be paused. You will not receive a decision on your visit visa application whilst red list travel restrictions remain in place. You will not be able to request a refund of your visa fee once you have given your biometrics at a Visa Application Centre. If you already hold a valid visit visa and are intending to travel to England as a visitor from a red list country, you will not be allowed to enter.” This is cruelty by a country that claims to be civil.

By yesterday, there were 57 countries that had reported cases of Omicron, with 11 of them in Africa. Britain has dubiously decided to red-list just Nigeria and 10 other African countries. Evidence shows that Nigeria and the African countries are not the source of Omicron. Africa is not an originator. This killer punch from Britain is unwarranted. Saudi Arabia also joined this inglorious club last Wednesday by banning flights from Nigeria due to Omicron.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Rev. Justin Welby was apt when he described the inclusion of Nigeria and other African countries in UK’s red list as “travel apartheid.” He correctly said it was without justification and urged the UK government to abolish what he labeled as the “morally wrong and self-defeating” red list.

The Archbishop wrote: “With #Omicron set to become the dominant variant in the UK, I appeal to the British government to remove Nigeria and South Africa from the red list – together with all other countries currently on it. We must find fair and effective approaches for those who are vaccinated and tested to enter the UK. I agree with the Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK. We cannot have ‘travel apartheid’. It is also morally wrong and self-defeating, effectively to punish other nations for being transparent when they discover new COVID-19 variants, as @ArchbishopThabo of Cape Town has said.”

One other fact the British government must note is that blanket travel bans will not stop the spread of the Omicron variant or any other COVID-19 variant and could potentially discourage countries from reporting and sharing important data on Coronavirus.

Britain obviously took the drastic action against Africans without being sensitive to the diplomatic relationship between them. I challenge UK to immediately jettison this discriminatory policy against Africans, allow people in all categories to enter the country and be subjected to the same conditions of COVID-19 testing and quarantine. This should be the standard. Besides, all countries should focus on collaboration rather than shutting out foreigners.

For me, the Nigerian Government has so far been very timid in its response to the draconian British policy. Nigeria should have swiftly replied by also banning UK citizens from entering this country. I’m shocked this has not happened several days after the prickly British policy.

The world must end COVID-19 restrictions and allow us get on with our lives. I can still clearly remember the Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Ghebreyesus, telling the world that Coronavirus will remain with us for a long time. “Make no mistake; we have a long way to go,” Ghebreyesus said last year. He admitted that people in countries with stay-at-home orders are understandably frustrated with being confined to their homes for weeks on end and that people, understandably, want to get on with their lives.

Restrictions, lockdowns, curfew and government-induced anxiety must end. These measures have inflicted unprecedented pain on many. Governments have already created a monster with these restraints and we will be creating a bigger one if they persist. There is hunger, unemployment, violence and frustration across the world, all induced by useless restrictions. Many businesses may never return. It is pertinent to balance the risk of this virus against other monsters. We need our lives backs, with a “new normal” that will pragmatically contain the spread of the virus.

For me, vaccination is one big scam. Fully vaccinated people are also contracting the virus; some even joining the death list. Suddenly, we are being told to go for booster jabs. Before we digest this, we were further told that we would need a third and fourth jab to contain Omicron. What rubbish! Western pharmaceutical companies are making a kill from this disaster. I believe, just like Malaria, emphasis should be on drugs to treat this virus, not vaccines.

I find nauseating moves by governments to make this languid COVID-19 vaccination compulsory for citizens. It’s already happening in Nigeria. The last time I checked, the vaccine is only capable of reducing risk of contracting the virus. It cannot totally bar the virus. In practical terms, so many fully vaccinated people still contract the virus daily. Also, vaccination can only reduce the risk of hospitalisation and death from the virus. It’s incapable of fully preventing hospitalisation and death. Sadly, every day, fully vaccinated people also die all over the world from COVID-19.

The vaccine is still work in progress; so, why the move to make it mandatory? Has the FG done an impact analysis of making COVID-19 vaccination mandatory? Nothing has been done in this direction. Will the government be responsible for any adverse effect on citizens? No response so far to this.
I say no to vaccine mandates for Nigerians. Those of us unconvinced about the usefulness of the vaccine must also be respected. Concerns about the safety of the vaccine are still very much there. We don’t even know the future implications for those that have taken the jabs. Those against being used as human guinea pigs should be left alone.

We must all rise against coercion in the drive to get more people to take the suspicious COVID-19 vaccine. I expect our human rights lawyers to drag the federal government to court immediately. If we don’t move very fast against them, the option of positive test results might also be removed.

The “new normal” should be one in which testing, isolation and treatment will be free and fully decentralised. Government-induced fear must end. There has been too much COVID-19 hyping by government and its agencies across the world. Let’s not deny the fact that Coronavirus is real. At the same time, let’s not make our lives useless. Emphasis should be curative drugs. Of course, the use of local herbs (they are evidently preventive and curative) should also be encouraged.

Let’s stop restricting this country to only the Western approach to managing Coronavirus. The effect on the black man is evidently different. We have to add local things to our methodology. COVID-19 manifests all the symptoms of what is called Ako Iba (high fever) in South-west Nigeria. They have been tackling it for years in that part of this country with herbs. I concur with the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, who strongly suggested that we look inward and focus on our traditional herbs for the war against COVID 19.
Social distancing is equally questionable, with a former WHO doctor, Professor Karol Sikora, saying the excruciating social distancing rule was needless. He rubbished the rule put in place by most governments, saying it should be scrapped as it has no scientific backing. Sikora, an Oncologist added: “The way we use our drugs and the way we do investigations have bases in science, but this two-metre rule has nothing. The politicians are lost because they get conflicted advice. There is no science about the separation.”

The long and the short of my epistle is that while the war against COVID-19 is on, countries should stop shutting out foreigners. Nigerians should stay cool, avoid unnecessary tension/panic and behave responsibly. We must all learn to resist fear and tension, because they destroy body immunity. Strong body immunity helps to resist Coronavirus. The virus slips into bodies with weak immunity. So, let’s repel fear and tension. Let’s embrace hope and act responsibly.

Malaria is the Real Killer in Nigeria
No fewer than 167,000 Nigerians were killed by Malaria last year and this is according to the World Health Organisation, WHO. While the Nigerian government, like others around the world, was making noise about COVID-19, the scourge of Malaria was ignored. This country ingloriously contributed the largest malaria deaths in 2020 in Africa and globally while COVID-19 that took less than 2000 lives last year is getting all the attention.
The global health body reported last Monday that the world was on the verge of a potential malaria crisis. It noted that COVID-19 had reversed progress against the mosquito-borne disease, which was already reaching its plateau before the pandemic struck.

WHO said, “There were an estimated 241 million cases worldwide in 2020; 14 million more than a year earlier and the once rapidly falling death toll swelled to 627,000 last year, jumping by 69,000. Approximately, two thirds of those additional deaths were linked to disruptions in the provision of malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment during the pandemic.”

According to the report, “About 96 per cent of malaria deaths globally were in 29 countries. Six countries – Nigeria (27 per cent); the Democratic Republic of the Congo (12 per cent); Uganda (5 per cent); Mozambique (4 per cent); Angola (3 per cent) and Burkina Faso (3 per cent) – accounted for over half of all malaria deaths globally in 2020.”

In the data provided, the WHO noted that while Africa had a total of 602,000 deaths out of the estimated 627,000, Nigeria accounted for 31.9 per cent of the malaria deaths on the planet.
Malaria remains the biggest killer in the continent; not COVID-19. The Nigerian government and other African regimes must revive its prevention, diagnosis and treatment.