Omicron: Nigeria Stands with South Africa, Warns West against Discrimination

 

Nigeria on Sunday expressed solidarity with South Africa as it struggled with some of the difficulties posed by a new coronavirus variant, Omicron, discovered in the country.

 The Nigerian government warned Western countries against discrimination against South Africa following travel restrictions imposed on Southern  Africa following travel restrictions imposed on Southern African countries in the aftermath of the new virus discovery.

The federal government said President Muhammadu Buhari would go ahead to receive South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had been scheduled to visit Nigeria from Monday with other top officials of his administration, on a three-day visit.

Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, stated Nigeria’s position in chat with THISDAY ahead of a media briefing scheduled for Monday in Abuja on the matter.

Ramaphosa called for reversal of the travels restriction.
In a similar vein, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, on Sunday voiced displeasure at the stigmatisation and penalisation of Africa for new COVID-19 variants discovered on the continent. Adesina urged the acceleration of vaccine production in Africa.  Likewise, some members of the organised private sector (OPS) advised the federal and state governments in Nigeria to take proactive steps to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The OPS members said this during separate interviews with THISDAY.
That was as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, said at the weekend in Lagos that the dire implications of the food export restrictions by some countries during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 should not be lost on Nigeria.  Ehanire insisted that the move by Western countries to ban or try to isolate South Africa was discriminatory. He said this was because the variant detected in South Africa and also in Botswana and other countries had similarly been detected in Belgium, Italy, Germany and other countries.
“So, the federal government condemned the rush to ban or isolate South Africa by European countries, without isolating Belgium, Italy and other European countries that have more direct flights into the United States of America and among themselves,” he said. The minister argued that the position of the Western countries on the virus was not backed by science, saying so far, even if it is a mutation, the new COVID-19 variant has not caused any new deaths or proved to be worse than the Delta variant.
Ehanire stated, “Therefore, the world should wait for that time, than to be enmeshed in heavy discrimination against South Africa.  Why would they isolate South Africa? The federal government would open its doors to Ramaphosa and others who are coming from South Africa until science says otherwise. People should be vigilant.”
The AfDB president, who wrote on his Twitter handle, stressed that Africa was not the source of the COVID-19 virus, which had continued to put the world on edge.  The new COVID-19 variant was first discovered in South Africa and has since been detected in Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Hong Kong.
Owing to its discovery, Israel on Saturday announced that it was banning all foreigners from entering the country. The ban, pending government approval, was expected to last two weeks. Israelis returning from countries on the red list, which included countries in Southern Africa, would be required to isolate for seven days in a designated hotel.   Australia also banned the entry of foreigners who had travelled to nine Southern African countries in the past 14 days, including South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.
South Korea, too, imposed restrictions on travellers from eight southern African countries, its Disease Control and Prevention Agency announced Saturday.
Foreign nationals traveling from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, Malawi and Mozambique were banned from entering South Korea, the agency said.
But Adesina warned, “Africa should not be labelled and penalised for COVID-19 variants and mutations that occur randomly elsewhere in the world. Africa is not the source of COVID-19.