Muhammad Ali Pate: This was Inevitable - THISDAYLIVE
They have just announced that Ebola has landed in Abuja, and here we go again. I am very far from surprised as I expected it to have landed since. Let me tell you why.
On my way back from London last month, I was confronted by an Emirates counter clerk. The beautiful lady asked if I had filled the NCDC form. I told her no, and she asked that I fill it; otherwise, I wouldn’t be allowed to board.
Thinking that the form would be “plenty”, I tried to charm my way through, but it didn’t work. The lady maintained her stance, and I went online to fill the form.
The form was shocking, as it came with about 100 questions – have you had a fever in 5 days, have you vomited in 6 days, have you had an erection in three hours? Such mundane questions that got me scared.
Wait, so if I had all those symptoms, I would say yes? So, they will not allow me to board. These people must think we have cotton wool for brains. I kuku fill “no” in everything, and they boarded me, and I assured her that in Lagos, nobody will ask me anything, and she said that is your business.
True true, as we say it in Shomolu, when we landed in Lagos, na “wetin you bring” was what I heard throughout. Nobody checked the form, no on-site testing, no swap test – nothing. All 300 of us “just waka” pass, and that was it. In my car, I was really scared that with that attitude, it would be only a matter of time, and truly, it has landed.
So, this Pate man cannot set up an “on-site” screening for inbound travellers, especially from the affected countries? How much will that cost, mbok? Even if he didn’t have the budget, he cannot ask WHO or Seyi Tinubu to give him from City Boy budget and put his face on posters inside the booth as they test?
Incompetence and red tape will be our folly. Me? I have gone into hiding until this one blows away. I cannot afford to die cockroach death. Rubbish.
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