It’s always a given that in every situation in life be it business, politics, tradition, health, or religious, whether negative or positive there would always be those who stand to gain in whatever decisions made or actions taken. Moreso, there will always be others who would be at the receiving end of these decisions and actions as well.
Most Nigerians are easily termed ‘dubious’ and ‘manipulative’ and that is because they have a penchant for taking advantage of whatever situation they find themselves even to the detriment of their fellow citizens. All that most Nigerians care about is what they stand to gain and this to a large extent is responsible for the increase in crime rate within the country.
With the emergence of the second phase of the corona virus and with numerous scare and death records everywhere, many persons and even organisations are trying to see how they could make profits from it both dubiously and genuinely.
While many countries all over the globe are making genuine efforts to curb the spread of the corona virus pandemic by providing vaccines for prevention, as well as medication for those who are already suffering from infections, others, especially those who see this tragic situation as business opportunity are however busy seeing how best they could deceive and exploit people into taking false drugs that would further endanger the lives of fellow citizens. Some governmental ministries and parastatals as well as some dubious personalities are even hoarding palliatives and medications that have been donated by philanthropist and health organisations such as the UN, UNICEF, W.H.O (world health organisation) etc.
Obviously, Nigerians as usual are not exempted from these insensitive acts especially as was witnessed in the discovery and looting of warehouses for Corona virus palliatives all over the country during the first phase of the pandemic.
Just recently the Lagos state commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, has raised another negative alarm with regards to the Corona virus revealing that international travellers in the state are gaining access to fake COVID-19 certificate.
Prof Abayomi, made this statement at a press briefing on Monday 28 December 2020 and also confirmed that the state government was putting machinery in place to apprehend those doing such unscrupulous businesses.
The commissioner further disclosed that there has been an alarming increase in the number of positive cases from inbound travellers.
In his words; “Positivity for inbound travellers is on the rise as Nigerians in the Diaspora return to spend Christmas in Lagos. It has come to our attention that a number of people are patronising individuals that sell fake COVID-19 results.
“We are currently putting in processes to identify both buyers and sellers and we will not hesitate to prosecute them,” he said
All these tragic discoveries are bound to be the case indeed, in the opinion of well-meaning Nigerians who reacted to the news reports from the health commissioner. According to many, the number of increased cases is as a result of mass immigration of persons into the country without proper testing and also because of the fact that most citizens are carefree and not cautious of the pandemic regulations due to the mood of the holiday festivities.
Health experts are already very weary of the aftermath of these lackadaisical attitude which according to them, would come back to haunt us all when the holidays are over and the number of increased cases of infections stares us at the face.
Gift Joseph Okpakorese
Staff Writer
