By Gabriel Atumeyi
As Nigerians earnestly wait on the federal government to procure the much needed COVID-19 vaccine from China or Europe, top Nigerian politicians and businessmen who can afford it are already rushing abroad for jabs of the vaccine.
Images of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar receiving a shot of the vaccine in faraway Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, flooded the social media on Wednesday, eliciting diverse comments from Nigerians.
To some, the former Vice President’s impatience to get the vaccine jab in a foreign country was an unpatriotic act, especially considering his status as a former Presidential candidate of the main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and even more because he still has his eyes on the presidency.
Atiku’s media aide, Paul Ibe, who confirmed the news and defended his principal’s action said: “The importance of the COVID-19 vaccine in mitigating the effect of the coronavirus cannot be overstated, particularly in Africa and Nigeria.
“Yesterday, as part of the mass vaccination programme, His Excellency Atiku Abubakar received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.”
Last week, the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu was alleged to had flown to London in the United Kingdom for a jab of the vaccine. It was earlier said that the former Lagos State governor had contacted the virus and flew to France for treatment but his son, Seyi, was later quoted as saying that his father did not contract the virus but had only travelled to the UK to get the vaccine.
At the moment, it is unclear how many top Nigerians have flown out of the country to receive a jab of the vaccine, rather than waiting for the federal government to finally make it available to Nigerians.
There are, however, speculations that Nigerian elite and top politicians who have a penchant for medical trips at the cost of neglecting the country’s health sector, would introduce vaccine tourism in the country’s lexicon.
Earlier this week, the government announced that it was in talks with the People’s Republic of China over the procurement of the COVID-19 vaccine, even as the Presidential Taskforce on the COVID-19 had announced that the country will purchase doses for 42 million people.
Given the government’s poor funding of the health sector, especially infrastructural development, many Nigerians are already faulting the government’s plan for the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine when it eventually gets into the country.
For many, this may explain why those who can afford to are not hesitating to leave the shores of the country to seek the vaccine in places where the medical facilities are well equipped.
At the moment, although the prevalence of the coronavirus in the country cannot be compared with what obtains in Europe and America, the infection rate is rising fast and there are fears that the country may face a severe medical emergency if the vaccine fails to come in on time.
The second wave of COVID-19 is coming with a variant that infects easily and deadlier. This leaves the managers of the COVID-19 with a major challenge of planning the administration of the vaccine ahead of its arrival into the country to avoid controversies which have become the order of the day.