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Bukola Ajisola
It is almost a moot denouement the fact that sovereign nations command international respect by asserting their political clouts in the arena of pivotal leadership, economic ascendancy and how much their citizens embrace and identify with their domestic and foreign policies.
The jury is out on what Nigerians actually benefit from the country’s foreign policies. For instance, is any gain accruable to Nigerians in the last visit of the South African President and his contingent vis-à-vis the disappointing international optics with regard to the newly detected COVID-19 variant of Omicron?
The visit ought to have been cancelled and made virtual. This could have sent a clear message to the international community on Nigeria’s unalloyed commitment to international measures on COVID-19 prevention.
The mere fact that our borders and airspace are opened to South Africa despite the international apartheid on Omicron is enough diplomatic comradeship, recall that Omicron’s genetic sequenced data was merely shared with the World Health Organisation by South Africa as a benevolent way of alerting the world to further scientific inquests. Hosting a large contingent of visitors from the same nation at the behest of the Federal Government calls into question the perspicacity of our diplomatic, health and domestic policies.
This must have informed the United Kingdom’s fatuous and illogic ban on Nigerian travellers when other nations, more vulnerable to the Omicron variant, are allowed unhindered access in and out of the UK.
The ministers of health, foreign affairs and the handlers of Mr President must tell the nation what informed this diplomatic complacency.
Foreign policies can be self-centred and sometimes calibrated on double standards the way the UK and other western nations go about it. Grouping Nigeria among countries on the red list is however draconian and disrespectful especially when viewed against Nigeria’s record of low infection rate and fatalities.
Bukola Ajisola, Victoria Island, Lagos
[email protected]
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