By Chioma Iruke
President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has urged the international community not to punish Africa for the recently discovered Omicron COVID-19 variant, stating that variants of COVID-19 and other mutations occur randomly anywhere in the world.
This was even as the 61-year-old campaigner for equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines globally, also said Africa was not the source of COVID-19 which was first discovered in Wuhan, China, some two years ago.
Adesina stated this in a three-part tweet on Sunday, following the travel ban imposed on Southern African countries by the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Union and some Asian countries as part of an emergency response to the recently-discovered B.1.1.529 strain of COVID-19, first detected in South Africa.
The former Nigerian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development wrote, “Africa should not be labelled and penalized for COVID-19 variants and mutations that occur randomly elsewhere in the world. Africa is not the source of COVID-19.
“There must be global justice, equity & fairness in access to vaccines. Global vaccine supply system has underserved Africa. Protecting one’s home alone in the midst of a forest fire does not work. Put out the forest fire.
“Africa must accelerate the manufacturing of its own vaccines & set up its own ‘healthcare security defence system’. Africa must no longer outsource health security of its 1.8 billion people to the benevolence of others.”
