Different Lockdown Tales For Air Peace, Caverton

By Simeon Nwakaudu

The level of hypocrisy and partisanship in the country is embarrassing and destroys the development process. 

Precisely on 7th April, 2020, Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike and the Rivers State Security Council took steps to protect the state from the illegal disregard of an Executive Order which requires anyone coming into the state on essential duties to subject himself or herself to health checks by Rivers Health Authorities.

This was a protocol established in line with global standards to help the state check the spread of coronavirus. It is applied across the country and the globe.

For the case of Rivers State, this is critical,  because thousands of workers on essential duties enter the state through its land, sea and air routes. Therefore,  there is the need to be diligent in keeping track of those entering the state. On the land and sea routes, the state had no issues.

The entire misadventure of Carveton Helicopters was inspired by the partisanship of the Ministry of Aviation.  They felt that when it comes to Rivers State, they can foist an illegality on the people  outside their sphere of control.  If they had the right to issue flight permits, do they have the responsibility to screen those in Rivers State?

Does the Ministry of Aviation have the capacity to trace workers ferried in by airliners who have mixed with members of the communities?

The Federal Authorities went ahead to sponsor falsehood and misleading information in the mainstream media,  mainly domiciled in Lagos.  Expectedly, those sponsored writers in their haste to justify  their pay failed to ask the right questions.

For them, as long as the issue does not affect Lagos or Abuja, they are at liberty to hail motorpark insults at any other person, especially those in the opposition.  This miscalculation and mischievous propaganda was defeated when the Federal Government and Lagos State Government teamed up to arrest and quarantine 17 Air Peace Flight Personnel.

Since then, no Newspaper,  Civil Society Group or Minister has spoken in favour of the Air Peace Personnel.  I have been checking online and offline to see if the Lagos State Government would be called out for breaching the ALMIGHTY EXCLUSIVE LIST,  but no, everyone is quiet.

Air Peace flew 28-Hours in total to and from China to ferry essential drugs and Chinese Doctors. They were hired by the Federal Government of Nigeria.  They were tested here in Nigeria before embarking on that flight, yet the Federal Government insisted that they must be quarantined as a precaution.

These Air Peace personnel which included 6 pilots were thoroughly harrassed in Abuja by Federal Authorities, according to reports by Punch Newspapers.

Whilst they were airborne,  the Federal Authorities alerted Lagos State Health Authorities to apprehend and quarantine them in Lagos.

I have watched how the majority of the Pro-APC Media,  working with the Federal Authorities,  have pushed Air Peace to be on the back foot. They have been projected as villains who wanted to avoid a precautionary measure.

But in Rivers State where Carveton Helicopters repeatedly ferried ‘untested ‘ workers, the Pro-APC media and the Ministry of Aviation drove the irresponsible narrative that money was more important than Rivers lives.

This was the lead paragraph in one of the newspapers:

“Three out of the 17 pilots and flight attendants who flew 14 Chinese medical doctors and medical supplies from China to Nigeria on Wednesday have boycotted the Lagos quarantine centre provided by the Lagos State Government, investigations by Sunday PUNCH have revealed.”

This following paragraph further emphasises the collaboration between the two tiers of Government,  perhaps because they are from the same party.

“Sunday PUNCH investigation showed that the flight crew members disagreed with Port Health Services officials on duty at Lagos airport over the 14-day compulsory quarantine. Port Health Services is a unit of the Ministry of Health that screens arriving and departing passengers of infectious diseases especially COVID-19.”

In Lagos,  the Federal Government working with the Lagos Health Authorities operates a system for compulsory quarantine for anyone arriving the state. Furthermore,  the Lagos State Government is allowed to screen arriving and departing workers or personnel.

What changed after Hadi Sirika handed over his deadly permit to Carveton Helicopters and asked them to disregard the protocol because they were on essential duties?

Those paid to promote this false narrative forgot that if they infect Rivers communities,  the entire country would be at risk.

When will the mainstream media call for the release of Air Peace Personnel? When will Thisday and The Guardian write editorials blasting the Lagos State Government for placing the Air Peace Personnel on compulsory quarantine after apprehending them at a Federal Airport? When are the unions going to seek their immediate release?

Working together to keep coronavirus at bay entails uniform standards across the country.  This should be the last time anyone,  no matter the designation would attempt to undermine the health security system of Rivers State.

Simeon Nwakaudu is Special Assistant to Governor Nyesom Wike on Broadcast Media

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