PBA ReporterOver a couple of weeks ago, South Africa broke a negative report of new COVID-19 pandemic named Omicron Variant which has compelled dozens of countries, including the UK, Canada, and others to impose travel bans on many African countries including Nigeria.
Commenting on the aftermath of the travel bans, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, vehemently warned global leaders against taking wrong steps to fight the disease and described the bans as “travel apartheid.”
Guterres’ position came as Nigerian government demanded a reversal of the travel ban and asked the United Kingdom to remove the country from the ‘ Red List’
One of the government officials, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, condemned the UK’s decision to place Nigeria on its red list over the new COVID-19 Omicron.
Mohammed noted that the decision was unjust, unfair, punitive, indefensible, and discriminatory, saying it is also not driven by science.
Indeed, the government’s proactive measures are commendable because a few months after the COVID-19 ravaged Nigeria, the country’s economy fell into recession, contracting by 6.1% year on year in the second quarter of the year 2020.
Data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that the fall followed thirteen quarters of positive but low growth rates. The -6.1% decline is also Nigeria’s steepest in the last 10 years.
The sharp drop in Nigeria’s GDP growth was largely down to the slowdown in economic activity after the country resorted to a lockdown back in April to curb the spread of the virus.
Speaking on the possible effect of the Omicron on Nigerian economy, a development economist, data scientist, and project finance expert, Dr. Bongo Adi, said: “The COVID-19 new Omicron Variant would not have a major effect on the economy only that but it might be an impediment to boosting forex supplies in the country.
“Normally, the forex would have been surplus at this festive period because of Nigerians that might come home and spend foreign currencies in the country.”
Dr. Adi, the Board Chairman of Newstide Publications Limited, noted that the travel bans on African countries seemed to have been a political issue because there have not been records of fatality about the disease.
Also speaking on the travel bans, a business lawyer and investment analyst, Mazi Okechukwu Unegbu, noted that this is the best time for Nigeria to sort things out for herself because without foreign countries it can survive.
His Words, ” The US, UK, and others depend on Africa. It’s just that they are ahead of us in terms of technology.
“So, if they asked us not to come to their countries, we can retaliate by closing our borders and begin to do things by ourselves. At the beginning, it might look difficult but we will come out of it. ”
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