Mr Paul Ejime, a Media Expert and Analyst, has called on African governments to put their words into actions by developing inward solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic to curb the spread in the continent.
Ejime made the call on Wednesday in Abuja during a Workshop on “ COVID-19 Vaccines: Ensuring Fair and Equitable Distribution”, organised by the Diplomats Extra Magazine.
The call from Ejime is coming as the African Continent is yet to develop its own local COVID-19 vaccine as the pandemic continues to spread into the third wave with Africa suffering from shortage of vaccines.
“In spite of repeated pledges by leaders of the developed nations, much of the produced vaccines remain in the advanced countries, while low-income countries, including Africa, continue to suffer inadequate supplies and rising caseloads of the virus.
“The uneven vaccine distribution has given rise to the unhealthy practice of “vaccine nationalism”, or “our citizens-first,” syndrome, similar to former President Donald Trump’s “America-first” policy.
“There is no better illustration of this unfair practice than Canada, which has an estimated population of 40 million people, but ordered about 200 million vaccines, when a maximum of two doses are required per person!
“The World Health Organization (WHO) and other stakeholders in the health community are doing their best to procure more vaccines for Africa, but the hypocrisy of the advanced world is not lost on analysts following the COVID-19 politics.
“But one major lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic politics is that Africa must look inwards for solutions to its problems.
“Two years after the outbreak of the pandemic, South Africa and Egypt are about the two countries in Africa that have demonstrated the capacity to produce the vaccine, which are still under trial.
“But if India can produce COVID-19 vaccine, why can’t many African countries?
“The bitter truth is that Africa and the other low-income countries of the world will continue to struggle, hoping that the pandemic does not get any worse,” Ejime said.
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Prof. Sheriff Ibrahim, Director, Institute for Legislative Studies and Contemporary China-Africa Research, University of Abuja, commended and appreciated countries who have developed the vaccines that have become live savers, adaeventsnews gathered.
Ibrahim said the Chinese initiative in the Belt and Road partnership on COVID-19 Vaccine Cooperation was an instrument to strengthen multilateralism and international cooperation in building a great wall against the virus.
Ibrahim noted that the Belt and Road Initiative has about 140 countries as signatories and Sub-Saharan Africa has about 40 countries whereby more than 100 countries have accepted the Chinese vaccine.
He called on the Federal Government to join the comity of nations to begin the emergency use of the Chinese COVID-19 vaccines.
Mr Raphael Oni, Publisher, Diplomats Extra Magazine, said that world economies have also suffered devastating blows since the outbreak of the Pandemic in 2019.
Oni said that while some individuals speculated the origin of the virus to be Wuhan, China, the workshop sought to also trace the origin of the pandemic using scientific method of tracing.
