The Nigerian government has revealed why it has not issued a travel ban despite reports of mutated strain of COVID-19.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed on Tuesday, December 22, said that the government does not want to make a hasty decision.
According to him, it will take the concurrence of neighbouring countries for the ban to be effective..
Emphasising on why it had not issued a ban on flights from the United Kingdom (UK) in particular, Mohammed said:
“Although the government is concerned over the importation of the COVID-19 new strain, it did not want to take a hasty decision.”
Further, he revealed that the presidential Committee on COVID-19 deliberated on the issue at its meeting on Monday, December 21, and decided to watch the development for the time being and also work with West African Health Organisations and other neighbouring countries, particularly, Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana.
“We did not want to take a hasty decision to ban flight from the UK into Nigeria only to find out our people are going through Cotonou, Lome or Accra to come into the country.
“What the airlines will do is to transfer Nigerian passengers to these routes and they will enter the country through the land borders.
“This will lead into hardship to Nigerians because if you transfer your economy to other countries, you lose a lot of money
“However, if we get the concurrence of these other countries, we will not hesitate to do the needful.
“We are consulting and being very careful in order to take a proper decision.”
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