BA Flight 083 and Incompetent COVID-19 Labs

Eddie Mbadiwe

This was the last BA flight into Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja on December 6th 2021 before the lock out. This public service notification is to highlight in the overall interest of the Nigerian community the due diligence or lack of it in the way Covid monitoring is conducted.

Flight 083 departed London Heathrow late because of extra Covid checks on the crew. The Pilot in his first announcement assured us he would maintain the tight schedule and he landed right to the minuet as predicted. This is proficiency. The flight was so smooth that when we disembarked, some of the passengers told the flight crew, “We will surely miss you”.

This service alert is also to bring to the attention of the Presidential Task Force and the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) the urgency for proper vetting of the molecular testing laboratories and the urgency to decertify non-performing ones.

I had my Covid passport, having had the third booster Modena jab a week before December 5th 2021. In addition, I had my “fit to travel” Covid test on December 4th 2021 and the result was delivered on the morning of my journey; December 5th 2021. Anyone who has tried to use the NCDC portal from anywhere in Europe knows how frustrating it can be and you have to get someone in Nigeria to pay and book you for the second day post arrival test. My daughter Nnena did that and I was assigned to a Molecular Laboratory in Abuja.

On the appointed day, I went in and had my swabs taken. On the next day, I got my result showing I was Covid positive. Their result with NCDC certification is part of this write up. I found the result doubtful having been triple vaccinated with a fit to travel certificate and my very strict personal Covid-19 protocols. My wife who is a specialist medical doctor found the result suspicious. A family friend of ours who has been treating Covid since its emergence also thought the result doubtful and recommended I take another test at extra cost in a different lab which he has been using. The result came back NEGATIVE. Both results with NCDC certification are part of this write up.

I have decided to put this in the public square so that both the Presidential Task Force and NCDC will investigate and deal appropriately with incompetent laboratories. A lot of Nigerians may have been short changed and prevented from travelling because of false results. You don’t guess with issues as sensitive as this.

My wife who is a specialist medical doctor asked me how many of these public battles I can fight.
As long as there is good health, the little serenity prayer that hangs in my study is my beacon: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change to ones I can and wisdom to know the difference. One just has to keep moving on.

Recently I learnt Professor Tomori cried while addressing a gathering where President Buhari was present. The problem of Nigeria cannot be solved by weeping, for we can easily mobilize rivers of tears. The problem is structural and can be easily solved with each individual commitment to excellence and courage to weed out the dead wood. As Margaret Thatcher said, “To be a good leader, you must be a good butcher”

Recently South Africa got a medical and scientific world boost and acceptability because of the transparency with which their science handled data from their labs. In science it is the reliability of data from your laboratories that determines your world ranking. It is not by politicians posturing.

We all know that the rot in the fish starts from the head. If this decay can be stopped, it is possible that the distillate from the trickle-down effect may eventually be the foundation to build a nation hopefully we can still call home.

• Rt. Hon Dr. Eddie Mbadiwe writes from Abuja