HealthNewsNigeriaNigerian Embassy in China completely disconnected with Coronavirus global horror

Coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan China has exposed the incapability of the Nigerian Embassy in China. The Embassy does not care about Nigerians , West African Pilot can authoritatively report.
A disease outbreak that has ravaged Hubei province where Wuhan is located, but no information about the disease or the people of Nigeria is seen on the Nigerian Embassy website in China.

Already, Coronavirus cases have been reported in more than 20 countries around the world with death toll rising to more than 290 in China and pockets of deaths across the world. About 12, 000 people have been infected in China and still counting.

Foreign nations like Israel, US and Australia have tightened restrictions on travellers from China in response to the rapid spread of the illness, whereas others have embarked on evacuation of their people, but Nigerians were left in the dark about the situation on ground and no word about Coronavirus was seen on the website of Nigerian Embassy in China on what its people should do.

Jonathan’s picture is still bold on the website under “About Us”, whereas Ambassador Aminu Bashir Wali who was Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2015 is still on the website’s homepage as Minister of Foreign Affairs, even when the incumbent Ambassador Geoffrey Onyeama has been in office for over four years.

Our investigation revealed that it is a huge shame that the Nigerian Embassy website did not only mention anything about Coronavirus ravaging the world, bu also, the content was replete with outdated information, like having photo of former President Goodluck Jonathan as president of Nigeria, several years he left office. Nigeria has been under President Muhammadu Buahri for the last 5 years.

The Nigerian Embassy in the People’s Republic of China is under the leadership of Ambassador Baba Ahmad Jidda, OFR. Ambassador Jiddda is a Shuwa Arab man of Borno origin. He is eloquent in Kanuri. He was born on 1st October, 1951 in Marte Local Government of Borno State of Nigeria.
He graduated in 1975 from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. He did a Post-Graduate Advanced Diploma in Administration and Master’s Degree in Development Economics from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. Does he not know about this website?

Jonathan’s picture is still bold on the website under “About Us”, whereas Ambassador Aminu Bashir Wali who was Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2015 is still on the website’s homepage as Minister of Foreign Affairs, even when the incumbent Ambassador Geoffrey Onyeama has been in office for over four years.

The question is should Nigeria’s embassy website in China serve as disinformation source for our people there and others at home concerned for the coronavirus? Why should the consular services be replete with outdated information?

President Muhammadu Buhari has visited China twice since after his inauguration as the president of Nigeria in 2015. That the embassy was without an ambassador for over three years isn’t an excuse for this flop as President Buhari appointed Ambassador Baba Ahmad Jidda, OFR, as the head of the embassy in August 2017.

The implication of the outdated website is that Nigerian Embassy in China has not said a word publicly about the Coronavirus outbreak to Nigerians in China. The embassy knows nothing about Nigerians in China even with the global panic.

Lagos State Government has risen up to the occasion and insisted that travellers from China will be quarantined for about two weeks after arrival in Nigeria.

The federal government has said it will strengthen surveillance at five international airports in the country, even as it advised Nigerians nursing travel plans to China to jettison them now until further notice. It advised all persons arriving from China or any country that has a major disease outbreak to self-isolate by staying indoors in their homes for at least two weeks.

The federal government through Consumer Protection Commission has closed down Chinese-owned supermarket based in Jabi, Abuja.