₦airaland Forum

Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of foreign affairs, says it is regretful that the federal government cannot bring back all the Nigerians willing to come back to the country over coronavirus.

Speaking at the daily briefing of the presidential task force on COVID-19 in Abuja on Wednesday, Onyeama said the priority of the government now is to bring back some students stuck in Khartoum, Sudan.

The minister said the government had to “bend over backwards” to put in place a plan to get them out of the country.

“The financial aspect of this is one that we are very mindful of. We have some students who are stuck in Khartoum in Sudan, we have to bend over backwards because they are our young children to find the resources to pay for their return and also pay for their two-week isolation but unfortunately for all the others, we just don’t have the financial resources,” he said.
“As you can see, the huge amounts of money we have to pay for the challenge, so unfortunately, it is a source of great regret for the government that we are not in a position to pay – we will be more than happy to pay for everyone free of charge, to pay for their stay in isolation centre for two weeks but the reality is that we don’t just – and that’s the situation for now.”

He added that there are not enough facilities for Nigerians willing to come back home.

“We took medical advice and we asked the medical people what was possible and the figure we were given was 200 in Lagos and 200 in Abuja,” he said.

“This is much less than the numbers waiting to come back. We are just constrained by the facilities that are available.

“Unfortunately, we have internal challenges, as you can see the figures are going up all the time and we have a great responsibility to show that these facilities are also there to deal with the immediate challenges.”

Lai Mohammed, minister of information, has warned Nigerians against patronising hawkers of products described as COVID-19 vaccines.

At the presidential task force briefing on Tuesday, the minister said the vaccines, yellow in colour, being hawked in Kano, have not been certified.

“The federal ministry of information and culture and its agencies have put up a public enlightenment and advocacy campaign to continue to reach Nigerians with information on how they can protect themselves and avoid contracting the disease,” he said.

“This is necessary because in the absence of any vaccine or drug, non-pharmaceutical intervention remains the most effective way to contain the spread of the disease and protect Nigerians.

“By the way, you must ignore the vaccine being hawked in Kano which is called COVID-19 vaccine. It’s yellow in colour. It is not certified by anybody; please don’t patronise the hawkers.

“The campaign has, therefore, continued to focus on the need for the populace to adhere strictly to social distancing and mass gathering restrictions. Wear face masks and ensure good personal hygiene.”

He said the ministry has now rolled out a new set of television, radio jingles to further sensitise Nigerians.

The jingles, the minister said, are in English, Pidgin English, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba are now running on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN).

“They are in the process of rolling them out on state and private radio and television stations across the country and also on social media. We have no choice since information remains the most potent tool that can be deployed against the virus today,” he said.

He also said the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has taken steps to prevent misinformation in broadcast stations by warning them to adhere strictly to the professional ethics of balance and fairness in reporting COVID-19.

He added that the commission, in particular, has warned the stations against bringing on their programmes panelists with an agenda to make reckless statements and insinuations.

Nigeria has so far tested 8,003 persons for COVID-19, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

This is still far below a number of African countries including Kenya, which has a population of 53 million, almost four times less than that of Nigeria.

It is also below that of Ghana, a country of 39 million people, which is at least six times less than Nigeria’s population.

In its latest COVID-19 situation report released on Monday the NCDC stated the number of tests as of the end of Sunday, with 367 persons tested in those previous 24 hour.

The data shows the country’s testing capacity is still far below the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommendation of mass-testing.

When compared to other African countries, it also suggests Nigeria is lagging behind on the continent.

According to the Worldometres, the global statistics platform, Ghana, for instance, has tested a total of 68,591 persons for coronavirus, 60,000 more than that of Nigeria.

At 13,872, Kenya has tested more than 6,000 persons above Nigeria. At 121,510, South Africa has the continent’s highest testing capacity.

With a population of 59 million, this means the country has tested one in 486 citizens, compared to Nigeria’s ratio of 1:25,000.

Last week, the NCDC said it will commence mass testing for COVID-19 between May and September.

tophumble:
Are they expecting our President to get infected with COVID19, why Daura? Well all na eye service