The coming of the so called Chinese doctors or more appropriately Chinese medical team into Nigeria has elicited much interest among many Nigerians not for any inherent reason of value but clearly out of mischief, parody and entertainment.
We recall that on Wednesday April 8, 2020 the CCECC as part of what it described as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) took delivery of a plane load of medical supplies from China to assist the Federal Government combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The supplies were escorted by a 15 member team of Chinese medical experts.
While not much is said about the donation, the Chinese medical team have come under a lot of fire especially from the Nigeria Medical Association, (NMA) who saw the visit of the medical team as an affront on Nigerian doctors who were putting their lives on the line to combat the coronavirus without any support from government.
The NMA in its initial statement believed the team was invited by the Federal Government and paid for in “hard currency” to come care for COVID-19 patients while their Nigerian counterpart were hardly paid hazard allowance or given PPE equipment.
Irrespective of the fact that the CCECC, the company on whose behest the medical team is in Nigeria has on three different occasion issued statements clarifying the presence of the medical team in Nigeria and their mission conspiracy theorists would rather not accept the explanation but believe in myth and spins.
Popular among which is that they came to spread COVID-19, or that they came to care for COVID-19 patients in Nigeria or that they came to care for a popular and high ranking government official who later died of COVID-19 or that they are technicians who came to secretly install 5G network in the country.
The obsession and persistence of the enquiries is probably what angered the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, who out of frustration lashed out at some journalists at the briefing were losing focus and pursuing inanities in the face of a ravaging pandemic. In response to media enquiries he said: “There seems to be a lot of interest in these doctors I’d be happy if you don’t ask me where they are”
The media interpreted this to mean that the visiting medical team was missing since the minister himself seems to be saying he was not aware of where they were.
The Health Minister, obviously displayed an inability for anger management by his response, he gave ammunition to the media who find stories of this nature of high “infotainment” value and have since seized on it for parody and entertainment while the principal fight against the COVID-19 has been relegated to the background.
Caught in the crossfire, the Managing Director of the CCECC, Micheal Jiang granted several press interviews and issued a press statement to clarify that the Chinese medical team are its guest and under its care. The statement also said that the team have achieved its mandate of helping in the installation of medical equipment at the ThisDay Dome isolation centre and consulting with Nigerian doctors through teleconferencing and would be returning to their home country after the restoration of normal air services.
However, this did not abate the debates and controversy, as the media thereafter went into enquiring into the duration of their visas and whether they have exceeded their visas.
Nigeria is not the only country that has received free medical donation and a medical team from China to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic, other countries in Africa either through company CSR or directly from the Chinese government have been and are still receiving similar donations. These nations have shown gratitude for the donation and some have even asked for more help in other areas to help stamp out the disease in their countries.
Nigeria’s attitude so far demonstrates that even in the face of a ravaging pandemic that is claiming human lives and creating uncertainties we can afford to play politics. With the way many have denounced the donations even when the government cannot provide alternatives, which other country or company in its right senses would ever offer to give us help in any form in future?
We believe that the controversy surrounding the visit of the Chinese medical team is needless and the attempt to use it to score cheap political gain was taking politics too far.
