The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama has
explained why subsequent Nigerians to be evacuated home from abroad
will have to pay for their isolation accommodation and feeding
within the period.
Onyeama said the government would have loved to pick the bills
but for paucity of funds.
He spoke yesterday during the daily briefing of the Presidential
Taskforce on Covid-19.
There are well over 4,000 stranded Nigerians abroad awaiting
evacuation following the global lockdown occasioned by the
Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Returnees have been asked to pay about N297,000 apart from their
flight tickets for their hotel accommodation for the period of
isolation/quarantine on arriving the country.
In the last one week, the country had evacuated 678 Nigerians
from United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States. These
sets of returnees are under the care of the Federal Government.
He said the government was not happy that subsequent returnees
would have to pay for their 14 days compulsory isolation and
feeding within that period.
He said: “This gives me the opportunity to really communicate to
you the challenges we are having with respect to evacuees.
“There has been quite a lot in social media, especially after
the recent directives that we communicated to our missions
indicating certain amount of money that anybody who wanted to be
evacuated back to the country needed to pay.
“And it was not just for air ticket, but also accommodation for
two weeks and two days and the cost of feeding.
“Now this is not by any stretch of imagination something that
the government is happy to do.
“As I mentioned time and time again, if the resources were
there, we will evacuate everybody, and if our medical
infrastructure was solid and case load was much lower, we could
look at other ways of revisiting our protocol.
“But they way things are at the moment, the fragility of our
health infrastructure, the trajectory of the increasing numbers of
positive test being what they are, we have to take the greatest
care with regards to the protocol we adopt regarding to people
coming home.
“So it has been decided after long discussion and evaluation by
the best medical minds that we have that it is best for us, for the
interest of the country, that there should be a period of
quarantine when any of our evacuees comes home, that has a cost
too.
“And you know one of the things people have been suggesting: why
can we not house them in NYSC facilities, school facilities which
would be cheaper? And the answer to that given again by our medical
people is that the quarantine must be one per room so that you
don’t have infections and so forth.
“So it has to be premises that provides for individual rooms.
And the only one we could lay our hands on that are available are
hotels.
“We went to great length to get these hotels at the best rate
possible. And the amount we could get for Abuja is N15,000 and also
negotiated as best as we could for the feeding.
“Now with regards to flight coming in, one of the real
challenges we had was that we didn’t want to keep people out there
any longer that they needed to be.
“So for us we put a lot of emphasis on trying to get as many
people back as quickly as possible, and that means whatever flights
are available, we will try and arrange with those flights and take
them back.
“Now, there is a lot of uproar about the costing that we
presented for those wishing to come back. But as I said, the
resources are not there. But we are still looking for resources all
over the place.”
“But knowing also that time is of essence and a lot of people
will have to come back and so we are making this flight
possibilities available for those who really feel they have to come
back as quickly as possible while at the same time we are
negotiating, we are trying to find what kind of health resources we
can find them to assist as best as we can, and that is an ongoing
process and negotiation.
“So this is really the situation we have and we hope we will be
able to present a package possibilities that would be easier on our
people who want to come home.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama has
explained why subsequent Nigerians to be evacuated home from abroad
will have to pay for their isolation accommodation and feeding
within the period.
Onyeama said the government would have loved to pick the bills
but for paucity of funds.
He spoke yesterday during the daily briefing of the Presidential
Taskforce on Covid-19.
There are well over 4,000 stranded Nigerians abroad awaiting
evacuation following the global lockdown occasioned by the
Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Returnees have been asked to pay about N297,000 apart from their
flight tickets for their hotel accommodation for the period of
isolation/quarantine on arriving the country.
In the last one week, the country had evacuated 678 Nigerians
from United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States. These
sets of returnees are under the care of the Federal Government.
He said the government was not happy that subsequent returnees
would have to pay for their 14 days compulsory isolation and
feeding within that period.
He said: “This gives me the opportunity to really communicate to
you the challenges we are having with respect to evacuees.
“There has been quite a lot in social media, especially after
the recent directives that we communicated to our missions
indicating certain amount of money that anybody who wanted to be
evacuated back to the country needed to pay.
“And it was not just for air ticket, but also accommodation for
two weeks and two days and the cost of feeding.
“Now this is not by any stretch of imagination something that
the government is happy to do.
“As I mentioned time and time again, if the resources were
there, we will evacuate everybody, and if our medical
infrastructure was solid and case load was much lower, we could
look at other ways of revisiting our protocol.
“But they way things are at the moment, the fragility of our
health infrastructure, the trajectory of the increasing numbers of
positive test being what they are, we have to take the greatest
care with regards to the protocol we adopt regarding to people
coming home.
“So it has been decided after long discussion and evaluation by
the best medical minds that we have that it is best for us, for the
interest of the country, that there should be a period of
quarantine when any of our evacuees comes home, that has a cost
too.
“And you know one of the things people have been suggesting: why
can we not house them in NYSC facilities, school facilities which
would be cheaper? And the answer to that given again by our medical
people is that the quarantine must be one per room so that you
don’t have infections and so forth.
“So it has to be premises that provides for individual rooms.
And the only one we could lay our hands on that are available are
hotels.
“We went to great length to get these hotels at the best rate
possible. And the amount we could get for Abuja is N15,000 and also
negotiated as best as we could for the feeding.
“Now with regards to flight coming in, one of the real
challenges we had was that we didn’t want to keep people out there
any longer that they needed to be.
“So for us we put a lot of emphasis on trying to get as many
people back as quickly as possible, and that means whatever flights
are available, we will try and arrange with those flights and take
them back.
“Now, there is a lot of uproar about the costing that we
presented for those wishing to come back. But as I said, the
resources are not there. But we are still looking for resources all
over the place.”
“But knowing also that time is of essence and a lot of people
will have to come back and so we are making this flight
possibilities available for those who really feel they have to come
back as quickly as possible while at the same time we are
negotiating, we are trying to find what kind of health resources we
can find them to assist as best as we can, and that is an ongoing
process and negotiation.
“So this is really the situation we have and we hope we will be
able to present a package possibilities that would be easier on our
people who want to come home.”