Despite ban on flights operations in the country by President Muhammad Buhari to curb the spread of the coronavirus, several nations have breached the lockdown by arranging for evacuation of their citizens from Nigeria.
The United States of America (USA) is the latest country to evacuate its citizens from Nigeria back to America, this is happening after Germany, Israel, and France evacuated their nationals following the rising cases of coronavirus disease in the country, however, these nations have more cases of the pandemic than Nigeria.
This development, however, has led to the call for Nigerian government to be vigilant to ensure that this operations at the airports don’t lead to further calamity to spread the pandemic.
Despite the shutdown of international airports and lockdown in the two major cities of Abuja and Lagos, several nations continue to breach local rules by moving its citizens from the country.
The America plane that is said to be coming to both Abuja and Lagos to evacuate the Americans as well as other national carriers should be subjected to stringent anti-coronavirus procedures.
The entire airports and communities surrounding the landing and takeoff lines should be seriously disinfected and flashed with chemicals, before, during and after the evacuation process.
Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, recently disinfected the International terminal of the Nnamdi Azikwe Airport as part of efforts to mitigate the spread of the dreaded COVID-19 Virus, however, this shouldn’t be a one-off event but a continuum.
This evacuation process should be questioned and put under serious investigation considering the fact that Nigeria has recorded least cases of COVID-19 compared to nations who are evacuating their citizens from the country.
US who is currently facing a huge number cases and calling on doctors and nurses around the world for help as it beyond their power to fight the deadly virus is also evacuating it citizens from a country like Nigeria who has a slim case of the virus.
Relevant stakeholders should begin to question nations who intend to evacuate their citizens out of the country and before such requests is granted to them, it should be subject to our terms as it becoming obvious that the evacuation process will not be in the interest of Nigerians.
