Using a pandemic to punish citizens

LAST week, the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, was thrown into pandemonium when travellers returning to the country from the United Kingdom through British Airways, Qatar and Lufthansa flights refused to pay COVID-19 fees into a private account. The travellers objected to the demand by officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to pay the prescribed N51,950 into a private account for the COVID-19 PCR test. They were particularly miffed by the fact that the officials had failed to provide a logical explanation for the arrangement. The COVID-19 protocol put in place by the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 and the NCDC provides that travellers from outside the country must conduct necessary PCR tests on arrival in the country.

Going by the protocol, passengers who are travelling to Nigeria from any country must carry out the COVID-19 PCR test and test negative within 72 hours to the day of travel. They must also register on the Nigeria International Travel Portal (NITP) for a repeat PCR test to be carried out seven days after their arrival in the country. In the case under reference, there was of course a ready alibi: the NCDC website  was down. Passengers who were not in possession of naira notes were asked to pay in foreign currency, and were allegedly debited 95 pounds each. A young lady stationed at a desk gave out the private account number in question and, after confirming payment, wrote down the name, email, telephone number, passport number and nationality of the passenger, as well as their preferred laboratory for the test. But the situation changed when one of the passengers, a Nigerian who claimed to have lived most of his life in the UK, demanded to know why money belonging to the Federal Government should be paid into a private account.

Of course, shabby treatment of Nigerians by their own government is nothing new. In 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic, many Nigerians were disadvantaged by travel formalities and some ended up losing their jobs in Europe on account of shoddy protocol requirements, fake account names and numbers, and impossible procedures. People were being regularly fleeced by public officials desperate to profit from their desperation. It is indeed that amid a pandemic, the emphasis of the Nigerian government lies on money rather than the protection of travellers and the general citizenry. Elsewhere, the kind of services that have provided the opportunity to fleece, embarrass and frustrate long-suffering Nigerians are made convenient, if not completely free, for citizens. It is saddening that a scheme supposedly designed to save lives is being converted into an opportunity for self-enrichment by corrupt officials. During last week’s episode, travellers who did not have naira notes were made to pay the prescribed fee in pounds sterling at exorbitant and unfair rates. This obviously is the kind of practice that informs the country’s consistently low ranking on the Ease of Doing Business indices. A hostile business environment cannot attract sustained investments.

Pray, why should citizens be subjected to horror over the failure of government officials? For months, there have been ceaseless complaints by travellers regarding how they were given wrong addresses of hotels and testing centres. Why set up government to punish citizens? Why should Nigerians working abroad keep losing their jobs following their undue delay in Nigeria? It is distressing that some of these maltreated citizens have vowed never again to visit their country of origin. It is hard to imagine the kind of mental agony to which they have been subjected. Just how can Nigerians face discriminatory treatment abroad, only to come back home and be treated like scum?

Without doubt, this is a function of governance failure. The Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, the NCDC and the Federal Ministry of Health need to sanction the erring officials and reduce the opprobrium that their action has attracted to the country. There is absolutely nothing to celebrate in treating citizens and visitors like captives. Government officials who prefer extortionate and repressive antics to doing their jobs diligently and honestly should be shown the exit door.

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