Britain May Scrap Ban on Nigeria, Others

By Uche Mbah

Faced with a retaliatory ban from Nigeria over the ban on visiting Nigerians, the United Kingdom is poised to scrap the travel ban it imposed on Nigeria and other countries in the wake of the omicron variant of Covid 19.

Britain banned Nigeria and other countries from travelling to Britain in a move observers regard as puzzling and discriminatory.

The Omicron variant was first noticed in South Africa. But South African scientists claim it had already permeated Europe before South Africa, insisting South Africa  was just the first to isolate the strain.

Omicron is now reported to exist in 57 countries.

With this development, Nigeria sent a strong warning to the UK authorities to remove the country from the list to avoid taking a similar measure.

However, in a report, Daily Mail said the UK is about to scrap the travel red list and replace it with tests even for the fully vaccinated.

In a leaked audio, the Minister of Aviation, Hadí Sirika, had said the retaliatory ban will be announced early this week by the Presidential Steering Committee on Covid 19.

“Also, there is a case of Saudi Arabia, which put Nigeria on the banned list – no visa, no travel, etc. So also Canada. So, today, there was a meeting, I participated in a zoom meeting, COVID-19 task force, just for your information also”, Sirika had said.

“We have given our input in Aviation. It is not acceptable by us and we recommend that those countries – Canada, the UK, Saudi Arabia, and Argentina be also put on red list, as they did similarly to us.

“If they don’t allow our citizens to go into their countries who are their airlines coming to pick from our country?”.

Reports indicate that British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, has convinced his colleagues that the ban should be replaced with testing.

“The move is expected to be approved this week”, according to the UK based Mail on Sunday.

The travel ban has sparked international opprobrium. While President Akinwunmi Adesina, President of African Development Bank (AFDB), said African countries ought not be punished unjustly.

Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African President, was later to be diagnosed with Covid-19.