Virology professor blames Nigerian government's negligence for Omicron debacle

VIROLOGY expert Professor Oyewale Tomori has blamed the Nigerian government for the recent travel bans imposed on its citizens by Canada and the United Kingdom saying it happened due to sheer negligence.

Over the weekend, both the UK and Canada imposed Draconian restrictions on Nigerian visitors and travellers as a result of the emergence of the new Omicron strain of Covid-19. Although the number of affected people is very low, both nations have moved to stop issuing visas to Nigerians, reduced flights and have insisted that any new arrivals must spend 10 days quarantined in a hotel.

Speaking at the national Covid-19 summit organised by the presidential steering committee, Professor Tomori said the ban came because the federal government condoned errors of commission. He added that in contrast to the accusations of racism by the banned countries, Nigeria is only paying for overlooking errors.

Professor Tomori said: “I woke up today to hear that Canada no longer recognises my genuine vaccination card and Britain has clamped a travel ban on us. A few days ago, I got to know there was Omicron in Nigeria from outside and the same Canada was telling me that Nigerians who travelled out with negative Covid-19 lab results were omicronised before my own Centre for Disease Control finally tells me that we had the variant, detected in samples collected from people who recently travelled from South Africa.

“Were they people on the entourage of President Ramaphosa? They did not tell. We painfully call the reactions of the UK and Canada racism, inequity but I say we are paying for condoning our errors of commission and overlooking our errors of omission.

“Mr President, the current generation of Nigerians is much smarter than my generation. Give them one-tenth of the enabling opportunity and environment which good governance gave my generation and Nigeria will be donating vaccines to poor Europe as India is doing and  Nigeria will be providing loans to China and not the other way round.

“The first epidemic we must address is the one affecting our culture and true Nigerianess. We must have a nation where national interest buries self-interest, otherwise, this summit will become a mirage and a vapour.

 It will be burnt to ashes by the fire of evil that plagues us. Unless we build back better on our culture, the outcome of the summit will descend into the valley of the disregarded and disremembered, and become another expensive exercise in futility.”

Boss Mustapha, the secretary to the federal government, added:  “Nigeria joins the World Health Organisation and other countries in calling on countries of the world to implement risk-based international protocols that are in line with international health regulations whilst we are developing a new pandemic treaty that will avert this type of situation. Global health security is our collective responsibility irrespective of our economic status.