Nigerian medics resent arrival of Chinese team
A group of Chinese medics arrived in Nigeria on Wednesday to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, despite angry criticism from Nigerian health workers.
The 15-strong team was greeted by senior officials at Abuja airport after flying in on a month-long deployment with a planeload of medical supplies.
China — where the first outbreak of the Covid-19 disease occurred — has dispatched medics and supplies across the globe in a soft power push to burnish its image.
But the move to send help to Nigeria sparked an irate backlash from the country’s biggest doctors’ union.
On Sunday, the Nigerian Medical Association condemned the planned deployment as “a thing of embarrassment” to health workers fighting the disease in Africa’s most populous country “under deplorable conditions”.
“It is a great disservice to the morale of the long-suffering front-line health workforce if the government goes ahead to invite these Chinese doctors,” a statement said.
“The invitation demeans their sacrifices so far in this pandemic.”
Nigeria — which has so far recorded 254 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and six deaths — is seen as highly vulnerable to the spread of the virus due to its weak health care system and high population density.
The country has already received medical supplies, including masks, gowns and testing kits from China’s richest man, Jack Ma.
Those deliveries, too, have been met with some suspicion.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control was forced last week to deny widespread rumours that equipment from China was contaminated with the novel coronavirus. —