Omicron variant: Why FG should be more proactive

It is no longer news that another COVID-19 variant, named Omicron or B.1.1.529, has again reared its head while the world is still grappling with the Delta variant.

With the latest discovery, the entire  global community has again been confronted with fears and anxiety with each country swinging into actions trying to find ways to subdue the additional trauma Omicron may unleash on its citizens and economy.

Coming at a time when economies around the world are gradually picking up and when  movements of people and cargo through air transport are bouncing back, the COVID-19 variant has obviously created tensions and worries around the world.

What makes Omicron more dangerous, according to experts, is because of its high mutations and transmissibilities with a total of 126 genomes of the variant so far identified.

Sadly, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Omicron variant has been traced to South Africa, which makes all attention to shift to the country and neighbouring countries.

As usual, in order not to be caught napping, countries around the world have wasted no time in suspending movements not only between them and South Africa but some countries sharing borders with it to prevent the importation of the deadly virus into their territories.

Again, as expected, most of the decisions taken to prevent the spread of Omicron will be targeted at air travel mode of transport, being the fastest means through which the virus can be distributed.

This is what makes the emergence of the new COVID variant very pathetic as it is coming at a critical period air travel is coming up after the disaster COVID-19 earlier dealt to airline business.

While many airlines around the world are still battling for survival, surprisingly, Nigerian airlines have done well in the areas of recovery with even many new others joining the business as attested to at the recent Dubai Air show where some Nigerian carriers had placed orders for a variety of aircraft.

As these positive vibes continue, the presidential committee on COVID-19 team with other relevant authorities have been up and doing in ensuring Nigerians continue to adhere to all the COVID protocols across airports and other borders.

In view of the positive curtailment of the virus in the country, some airlines have announced plans to resume operations into Nigeria.

Unfortunately, one of such foreign airlines, South African Airways, which had earlier announced that it would resume operations between Johannesburg and Lagos on December 12, 2021 has been caught in the web of the latest virus.

The announcement, which was well received by Nigerians as it was coming after over a year of suspending flights into Nigeria, may however have been truncated in view of the Omicron variant discovered in the same country.

As good as the resumption of flights into Nigeria by the South African Airways would have been, the obvious fact here is that the December 12 date for achieving that should urgently be suspended for many reasons.

The need for Nigeria to put on hold the SAA flight resumption becomes imperative to avoid being tagged along with the countries already banned from entering into countries like Europe and America because of their connectivity to South Africa.

In view of the past experience, many countries are already looking for how to drag Nigeria into the list of the countries to be banned as they are always quick to use Nigeria and its citizens as guinea pigs.

Therefore, to make it impossible for the countries to blackmail Nigeria this time around, the government must be more proactive in preventing any loopholes that may be used against its citizens, particularly during the festive period.

Besides the need for more precautionary measures, all relevant authorities including those at the airports, immigrations, port health should be more vigilant at the airports while flights from countries already tagged with South Africa like Lesotho, Namibia, Eswatini (Swaziland), Zimbabwe should not be allowed into the country for now.

No room should be given to bring a repeat of the late Liberia-born-American diplomat who smuggled Ebola into Nigeria through air travel.

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