Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigeria’s Minister of External Affairs has investigated the events leading to the video that made the rounds on social media last week.
The video showed a visibly displeased Nigerian Embassy official demanding from Chinese officials, explanations about purported discrimination against Nigerians.
The official requested reasons Nigerians should be ordered out of their hotels and houses and quarantined twice. He also frowned at the fact that travelling passports were ceased from the owners without the Nigerian Embassy’s consent.
In a briefing on Tuesday, Geoffrey Onyema said that Nigerian and Chinese governments in collaboration with our Embassies in Beijing and Guangzhou are giving the incident the needed attention.
Onyema added that the Chinese officials took the action to stem the spread of the killer disease. This was more so as some Nigerians who tested positive to covid-19 refused to be quarantined. The situation was principally because some of them did not understand the reason why they were selected for quarantine.
The Minister pointed out that a food vendor in the Guangzhou metropolis who specialises in Nigerian food had tested positive to coronavirus. Unfortunately, instead of shutting down and going into isolation, she continued to cook while Nigerians continued to troop in to patronise her.
Geoffrey Onyeama stressed that the action of the Chinese officials was poorly communicated resulting in the resistance by the Nigerians.
In his words, “communication would have been better. The African Consulate in the area would have been informed appropriately.”
In this video, he said the mutual suspicion would not have arisen if there was proper communication:
On his part, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria,, Zhou Pingjian advised that Chinese government abhors discrimination and has informed its citizens accordingly.
He pointed out that Nigeria supported China during the outbreak of the disease and his government will not deliberately malign Nigerians.
According to Pingjian, China is “fighting the virus and not Nigerians.” He also stressed that the action taken by his government became necessary to protect Nigerians and Africans as current statistics shows a prevalence of the disease among Nigerians and Africans.
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